Topic: Starter Set

[charles]

Can anyone recomend a good starter set. The majoruty of taping I'll be doing will be more along the acoustic line...Yonder Mountain, etc.....need something good for that sort of show and also good in both small theaters and outdoor festivals. Anyone got any ideas?

[leegeddy]

http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=4237.0

a good place to start.

marc

[charles]

Thanks. That post is really informative. Was wandering though...can anyone share there preferences with me on recording that particular knid of music in those types of venues I mentioned previously. Any help would be greatly apreciated!

[Swampy]

First and foremost is budget. We could make suggestions ranging from 200 bucks to 10000 bucks. And from small theatres to outdoor festivals pretty much covers everything...

[charles]

OK...what if I narrow it down to this.....small clubs and theaters....$1,000.00....can I make anything happen with that?

[Tall Adam]

a good rig to start you off at a great price from a fellow ts member: http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=28701.0

thats around your price range too. i know hes looking to unload this as a set and not in pieces.

[admkrk]

instant gratification: 

  go w/ the jb3 $150(?) some one just sold a ua5 for $200. but that's only gonna leave ya about $500 fo mics after cables and all. don't know what's in that range. 


whooo, did i say jb3?   dat all the way

[pfife]

I don't really know prices of DATs, but that price of $1200 seems a little steep to me.  You could score a NJB3 for $139 (mine was $160 shipped), a UA-5 (no oade mods) for $300, leaving about $540 for mics, stand, cables, etc.   

I found a good stand on ebay for less than $30.  For beginning, you don't need the most righteous cables either.  add a T-Bar, battery setup for the UA-5 (mine was about $60 to make...) - and you still have enough money left over to get a set of mics that are nicer than octavas.

And this is for new/refurb stuff...


My $.02

[John R]

check this stand out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=30080&item=3847309012&rd=1

this is where you can save some money for other gear.  i got one of these stands, although not as cheap as $8.37  the auction started out at $0.25!!  i don't know how they do it.  with 5 hours left on this auction you could easily snipe it.  i think there's another one that's due to end sooner for more$  don't worry if you miss either of these auctions, they do this all the time.  you definitely want the 806A.  it will need adapters for mics as discussed elsewhere.

jr

[The Kilted Taper]

a UA-5 (no oade mods) for $300

A digi-mod cost $295. And you will need it if you are not taping w/ a computer.

[pfife]

a UA-5 (no oade mods) for $300

A digi-mod cost $295. And you will need it if you are not taping w/ a computer.

That's what I mean.  I was talking about P-Mod, W-Mod, or T-Mods.

[Ed.]

you can do the digimod yourself for free if you're good with a soldering iron.  and personally, before you octavas i'd go with some superluxes - i think they sound a lot better, but thats just me.  i've made many a superlux > ua-5 > njb3 recording that sounded awesome.  also, i think i got my stand from the jandkgroup store on ebay and they had awesome prices as well and cheap shipping.

ooh, the superluxes come with a pos (but it'll work i guess) t-bar and some pretty decent shock mounts that are only $6 to replace.

[Sanjay]

Here is a rig I found in the Yard Sale of items still for sale that would fit your budget:

Digimod UA-5 $200: http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=28691.0
Matched Oktava MC-012 $185: http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=27547.0 (some good starter mics, get your feet wet before you drop a ton more, you can figure out which mic patterns you like and everything, and when your done with these ebay is a good market for them.
T-Bar $15: http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=27984.0
25' Cables $60: http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=28633.0 (sorry had to fluff my own sale  )
15' Stand $65: http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=28583.0
Shockmounts: $45: http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=28752.0
JB3 $140: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=15058&item=5727864528&tc=photo (have to go to ebay for this one)
JB3 Extra Battery $30: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=40975&item=5727936258&rd=1 (good to have an extra one.

Should be all you need except for the adapters to bring the stand up to a 5/8" thread, and it shouldn't be too much more than a few bucks.

This nice fancy package will run you a grand total of: $740, it will save you some money buying quality used gear, while helping out taperssection members who need to get rid of gear.   its also very similar to that package that is complete for sale, just substitute the DAT for the JB3.

Hope this helps you out, if you really want better mics, the next step up from the oktava's would be the Studio Projects C4's which sell for around $320 new shipped, and there may be one used a few pages back in the classifieds, I ran these mics and cannot recommend them enough.  This would make your package $875.  From there you can move up to AKG 300 series, the Audix Micros, The ADK TL's, the possibilities are endless, but pace yourself first!  Good Luck!

[pfife]

good starter rig info for the archive place, if you ask me.  Good work Sircheck.

I'd upgrade from those Octava's, but that's just me... especially if you have $250 more to toss at a set of mics.

+t

[jbraveman]

The best way to figure out what kind of sound you want from your rig is to listen to samples.  Especially from the bands that you want to tape.  The live music archive has thousands of shows with detailed source information.

 http://www.archive.org/audio/etreelisting-browse.php

Starting on the low end definitely helps you learn what kind of sound you like or wish you could get from your rig.  On the other hand you'll most likely be very happy with the additional money spent on higher end microphones like AKG or ADK.  This is from someone who went from core sound binaurals > dpa 4022s.