Getting mixer and mics

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gogo_man
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Getting mixer and mics

Post by gogo_man » Sat Mar 11, 2017 11:49 am

Howdy yall,

Recently purchased a Tascam TSR-8, that's in the shop. Should be brought back to life within the next week, so need to start looking for a mixer and mics for recording.

*Goal:* Record drums, bass, guitar, synth, vocals. Aiming for a vintage/warm/punch sound when it comes to drums.

Since I only have 8ch on my TSR-8 I am thinking I will need a mixer to send 4 mics to one channel for drums(bus to one channel? is that how you say it?). Aiming for a quality mixer (guessing 8 - 12 ch should be enough) with nice mic preamps and a few mics for the instruments mentioned above. For synth I'll probably be going straight in and probably same for bass with a DI. Feel free to recommend anything and everything. I have a pretty good budget ($3000, would like to stay below this if possible). Here are some questions I hope yall can help me with.

Can anyone suggest a good mixer and mics for my goals and set up?

Some mics I am considering:

EV635
RE20
akg D190
Cascade Fathead II
MD421
Senn e602
D12
Shure 535


Do people sometimes get mixers without preamps and buy a mic preamps separately? Sounds like mic preamps don't make a huge difference when it comes to sound, so I'm not attached to any one situation, just curious what you guys think.

Do it make sense to use a bass DI when recording to a reel to reel?

These questions are easily google-able, but it's not easy to find these answer within the context of a reel to reel set-up, so would love your guy's advise. I also understand that it's vague to ask "what kind of mics should i get?" I guess a better way to phrase this is "what mics should I start that will help me determine other mics I might like?" I am very much in an exploration phase and will be iterating on mics quite a bit (buying and reselling on eBay).

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Sat Mar 11, 2017 6:32 pm

Are you doing everything on tape or tracking to tape and dumping to a computer? If it's all staying on tape you'll need enough channels to be able to us either some for mics and some for playback monitoring. You'll likely want at least 16 channels.

If you only need a mixer for mics on the way in then something like a Yamaha pm430 would be great. It's 8 channels with 4 outs. Rudimentary eq but the pres are transformer ballenced and so are the outs. I have one I use as the front end to my Yamaha 4 track and submit drums to one channel all the time. Its a great sound.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Sat Mar 11, 2017 6:33 pm

No problem with any of those mics. They'll serve you well for lots of jobs.

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Sun Mar 12, 2017 8:18 am

Hi,

I would recommend you get a small console that has twice the number of channels that your recorder has.

Trust me, you'll eventually figure out ways to use them all.

A brand I love in small format, has always been Allen & Heath. they really have a good circuit in their consoles.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

drumsound
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Post by drumsound » Sun Mar 12, 2017 8:11 pm

I agree with more channels if you're going to mix from tape. You'll also want something quieter as it will be used in tracking and mixing, so the build up could be a problem.

On the mics, I'd replace the Fathead with an sE X1R. I find the Fathead dull by comparison.

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