Suggested Recording Equipment


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Posted by Joseph Felton on October 29, 2000 at 16:14:02:

Just thought I would drop a line and comment on the success I've had with my recording equipment. If you are looking to find a cheap way to create high quality recordings of yourself you might take note. If you have suggestions for upgrades that I might make in the future or to help out others please share them. I'm here to learn. :)

This has been an on going project of mine and by no means was I able to shell out this kind of cash all at once.. but this is what I have arrived upon:
Sony MDS-JB930 $299
Sony ECM-MS907 $90
Behringer Ultragain Pro MIC2200 $179
Assorted Cables and Adapters ~$50
Total: $618

I went with the JB930 because I wanted a home unit with lots of doodads that they don't typically add to a portable. This one has lots of features that supposedly make for a better quality recording. For a comparable amount of money it is possible to get a good portable but I decided that I was more interested in quality recording than portability.
The MS907 is Sony's 'semi-pro' stereo mic. This is most likely the weakest link of my set-up. You can choose between 90 and 120 degree stereo seperation and is fairly idiot proof in terms of use. This is good for me. ;b The output is a mini-plug. The mini-plug would be useful if I were using a portable recorder but my preamp is meant for use with XLR. The end result of which is that I had to use *lots* of adapters to get everything to work together. If I had this to do over again I most likely would have gotten the Sony Pro stereo mic with individual XLR for each side. Noticably more expensive though.
The preamp seems to be great! Lots of little knobs that I don't understand and a glowing tube in the center provide an air of importance that somehow justifies the price. In all actuallity this was the cheapest unit I could find that would fulfill my purposes. I can get 50 decibals of gain before it starts to add noise and even then I suspect that has more to do with the cheap mic. Theoretically capable of a lot more gain than that.. provides phantom power and a modicum of sound manipulation.

Just used this set-up to record my sister's violin recital with great success. Not quite proffessional but *extemely* good. I'm very pleasantly surprised and wanted to share my excitement.

Check out http://www.video-direct.com for the JB930 and MS907. I got the preamp at http://www.techgodaudio.com.

cheers!
joseph


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