Topic: Please recommend a good starter setup for my son

[jnorman34]

I have a studio, and am not so informed on portable setups like you guys use all the time.  My son is a doctoral student in music composition at UT austin,and needs a decent little setup to record his compositions, ranging from string quartets to 8-10 person performances with variety of odd percussion, horns, etc, generally in what he describes as a "dead" sounding rehearsal hall.  as a student, like many of you, he has little budget to fool with, and needs to hit the ground running with this.  he can put the mics right up on the stage wherever he wants.

I have suggested perhaps a pair of SP C4s with both card and omni caps, or maybe the new avantone ck-1s that also have both card and omni caps, so he can experiment with spaced omnis and ORTF setups.  in addition to mics, he needs some little gizmo (audio interface) that has two mic preamps, ad conversion, phantom power, and then some kind of recording device (nomad?).

so, what kind of basic setup do you guys recommend for him?  somewhere close to $500 or so is what he would like to spend.   thanks for your time, and your suggestions.

[willndmb]

for 500 he will be hard pressed to get mics, pre/ad/phantom, recorder
if he can swing a few hundred more he could get c4 (200/250), ua5 (300+), jb3/iriver (125/150ish)

[ilduclo]

Go with the Church Audio cards and CA Preamp, then Minidisc or MT24/96, I think you can get allah that, and a couple of beers for $500

[boojum]

Hi, I am using a SONY MZ-RH1 which records in LPCM and converts the PCM files to WAV files on the PC.  All lossless.  I am using a MM-HLSC-1 cardiod mic which is a Sennheiser capsule.  Very nice.  If Chris at Sound Professionals ever gets my SP-CMC-4U's back to me (AT U853's) I will be using them, also.  Either would be good and you would have ~US$50 left after buying a battery box for the mics, a good idea.  I get some very good recordings.  I do mostly acoustic.

You can do a lot of post processing on the PC, or Mac if you have one of them.  I guess a few are still around. 

[rokpunk]

how bout an edirol r09, using the built in mic and saving the extra $200 for a future purchase of a pair of "real mics" and a preamp.

[OFOTD]

if he can swing a few hundred more he could get c4 (200/250), ua5 (300+), jb3/iriver (125/150ish)

I'd like to second this option.  Gives him some versatility as well as the opportunity to upgrade in small increments.   

[rowjimmytour]

if he can swing a few hundred more he could get c4 (200/250), ua5 (300+), jb3/iriver (125/150ish)

I'd like to second this option.  Gives him some versatility as well as the opportunity to upgrade in small increments.   

I third this option because it worked nice for me until I was able to upgrade my mics and mod my UA5. I am very happy w/ my TL's and busman2+ UA5 and its nice to be able to upgrade after all is said and done w/o having to sale your whole set up.
Peace

[audBall]

I take it you said 'no' when he asked if he could borrow the DPAs? 

[jnorman34]

I take it you said 'no' when he asked if he could borrow the DPAs? 

yes, i said no.  :-)
he has been counting on students from the UT/austin dept of recording engineering to do his recording for him, and has not been having good results.  i told him about you guys, since you all face this problem all the time, under the most challenging of conditions - i knew you would be able to suggest easily portable, easy to setup, quality stuff for him.  i think the C4s>UA-5>jb3 thing sounds just about right for him.
his new opera, "wake" is being premiered in houston in two performances this month.  wesbite is opera vista or something like that.

thanks to all youse guys for the responses.

[BC]

if he already has a laptop he could use something like the USBPre/UA5/M-audio USB boxes as a pre/AD and save some $$ on the recording device.

[Church-Audio]

how bout an edirol r09, using the built in mic and saving the extra $200 for a future purchase of a pair of "real mics" and a preamp.

What are "real" mics lol?

[BWolf]

I take it you said 'no' when he asked if he could borrow the DPAs? 

yes, i said no.  :-)
he has been counting on students from the UT/austin dept of recording engineering to do his recording for him, and has not been having good results.  i told him about you guys, since you all face this problem all the time, under the most challenging of conditions - i knew you would be able to suggest easily portable, easy to setup, quality stuff for him.  i think the C4s>UA-5>jb3 thing sounds just about right for him.
his new opera, "wake" is being premiered in houston in two performances this month.  wesbite is opera vista or something like that.

thanks to all youse guys for the responses.

where in houston and when?  i can go tape it if i'm going to be in town. 

[jnorman34]

BWolf - that would be great.  Houston NPR just interviewed the founders of Opera VIsta two nights ago, and the performers sang one of the arias from my son's opera on the show, which was pretty cool.  the female lead gave me chill bumps.  I am from oregon, and dont know houston, but the link is:
http://www.operavista.org/

and the venue is:
 Opera Vista Festival of contemporary music to take place from June 21-24, 2007 at the Barnevelder Arts Complex

my son's thing will be done twice, once on the 21st and again on the 24th.  the same show will also include a piece by barber.  thanks - i know my son would truly appreciate a good recording of this. 

[MarkE]

Right around 500 you can get:
2 Nakamichi CM300s cp-1 and 2's (250 a pair)
1 Denecke AD20 (150 to 200)
1 Iriver H120 (150 to 200)
Well its a little over, but a GREAT starter set

I think getting it (all used) is the harder part.
H120s went quick once they were rockboxed for optical.
AD-20s are semi easy to find (yard Sale)
The Naks are up on ebay pretty frequently.

Mark E

I used to have some Nak300's and Loved them.

[BWolf]

Opera Vista Festival of contemporary music to take place from June 21-24, 2007

I wish i could help.  I am out of town these days.  Sorry.  Maybe there are other Houstonians that can help.  I'll see what I can come up with...