Recording on the cheap

[tTz]

Well, I've decided to get some semi-decent recording gear so I can make better quality recordings. I've done some asking on another forum, and was recommended some sort of DI unit (a la POD).

I'm just looking for any more recommendations. So far the choices are sitting at:

V-AMP 2 £70-80ish
POD 2.0 £109
POD XT £200 ish



The PODXT is too expensive new, second hand may be an option. The V-AMP is cheap, and (from what I've read on various forums) is actually pretty good, but I've heard some bad things about the sampling rate etc, and I'm not sure about them.

Mic'ing my amp isn't an option, as my amp is crap, and I do most of my playing through headphones anyway. I would prefer to go down the mic'd up amp route, but it would cost too much money and wouldn't really be feasible, so this seems to be my only option.

Does anyone have any other recommendations, around the £100 mark, of what I could get, or opinions on which of the above are best to get.

Any soundclips recorded with anything mentioned so far, or any reasonably priced alternatives would be much appreciated.

Thanks
tTz

[Ferrous Lepidoptera]

I don't think anyone can tell you whether you would like the Pod XT or the V-amp-2 better. Some people seem to like one, other people like the other, it's a matter of taste. Get both, return the one you don't like. As a rule, I think guys who like high-gain metal sounds might be more apt to like the v-amp-2 over the pod-XT, but there are going to be exceptions to that.

I'm one of the ones that likes the v-amp-2. Here's a sound that's easy to get with the v-amp-2, but which I think would be hard to duplicate with the pod-XT (I own both.)

http://www.files.myvirtualband.com/S...-steve-mix.mp3
(Licensed under the Creative Commons Attr 2.0 license. Me (Steve Cameron) on guitar, Marty Keil on everything else.)

[tTz]

Thanks for the sound clip. See, I like that sort of sound - you think it would be difficult to get with a POD?


I'm miles away from any decent guitar shops, and tbh I probably won't be able to try any of these before buying (though I'll definitely hunt around a bit).

[lyconxero]

I don't know what you already have, but a Digitech RPX400 is a pretty cheap alternative. You can find them used on "evilbay" all the time.

Here's a website that has compositions that people have posted using it.

http://www.digitech.com/soundcomm/gu...sp?productid=6

[tTz]

I probably should have listed my gear, tbh I didn't think it mattered.

RG550
Crybaby
DS-1
Zoom 504 (for chorus and delay - sometimes straight into heaedphones, sometimes into the back of the PC for recording, it has an inbuilt preamp iirc)

I tend not to use my amp all that much, it's not great.


All I'm looking for is a way to record decent quality songs etc. I don't want or need hundreds of effects, just a way to record the sound. If whatever device I get has all these effects too, that's a bonus, but it's not something I'm particularly looking for.

The new Line 6 gadget looks interesting though - the Toneport. There are 2 versions, and I like the look of the fancier version.

[Ferrous Lepidoptera]

Originally Posted by tTz

Thanks for the sound clip. See, I like that sort of sound - you think it would be difficult to get with a POD?

I wasn't ever able to do it, though once I got the v-amp-2, I just kind of quit messing with the pod-xt. You could dial in similar amounts of gain with the Insane amp model, but it sounds very different. Maybe with skillful EQing you could get a simiar sound, but I wasn't ever able to get anything I liked much.

That sound in my clip is very close to preset 6E on the v-amp-2, it's 6E with the effect switched to compression+chorus, and effect levels backed off a bit, and the gain backed off a bit.

[JESTER700]

What other sounds do you like? For clean & crunch sounds, my fave is Yamaha's discontinued DG Stomp. It also has the advantage of built in footswitches and it's built like a tank. Cheap on the bay - about "new V-Amp2" price.

Another option with much less flexibility (but maybe not a problem since you already have a reverb unit) is the SansAmp GT2. And for REALLY cheap, the $30 Behringer knockoff of said GT2.

[machinediva]

I personally use tech21 sansamp devices, tipically the GT-2... but I've never used a digital emulator like pod or v-amp, so I can't really make comparisons...
I'm going to post a link to my songs in the multimedia section, so you can have a listen at the GT-2...
looking at the reviews in harmony central, it looks like the GT-2 is simpler, and more "naturally analog" than its cyber rivals, and with loads of gain, but it's without effects, and it has no midi or memories for patches

[fettouhi]

The cheapest solution is probably the V-AMP II + cable into your line in socket and Audacity .

Regards

André

[tTz]

Does the V-AMP 2 really give that good a tone though? Especially compared to using the Zoom 504 as a preamp, and the into the line in socket?

[JESTER700]

I had a Zoom 505 and also the effects built into the Zoom PS-02 and MRS-8 (I have an old 9002 also, but that doesn't count). No contest; the V-Amp2, SansAmp GT2, and DG Stomp (though all have their strengths & weaknesses) all soundly trounce the zoom units. The zooms are good for a real clear, bright, "clinical" clean sound - like a JC120 but more so. And for rough demos where you know you'll never use the tracks. But that's about it.

[tTz]

Thanks for the help guys, but I've come to a decision about this. I'm not entirely convinced that a POD or V-AMP is a worthwhile thing to buy, so I'm going to wait and get a better quality amp, and eventually I'll mic that up and record that way.

I think I would prefer that metchod of recording, and I don't want to waste my time with something I won't use, so I won't bother with a POD or similar unless I can find one for very cheap.

Thanks again guys
tTz


And btw, to the poster above, I was referring to the use of the Zoom as a preamp rather than as an effects unit, but thanks for the opinions anyway.

[fettouhi]

Originally Posted by tTz

Does the V-AMP 2 really give that good a tone though? Especially compared to using the Zoom 504 as a preamp, and the into the line in socket?

The tone is ok nothing spectacular though. I have to get around making a test recording anyway and then I'll post it.

Regards

André

[tTz]

Originally Posted by fettouhi

The tone is ok nothing spectacular though. I have to get around making a test recording anyway and then I'll post it.

How do you post soundclips on the internet anyway? I don't have my own webspace yet, I keep putting it off every time I remember I don't have enough reasons to make a website.



Having said that, I would probably be too embarassed to post soundclips of myself, even I hate listening to them played back at me. Some are just cringeworthy - though at least I can tell what my mistakes are and try to improve, which is, when you come down to it, the only way to learn.

[Ferrous Lepidoptera]

Originally Posted by tTz

How do you post soundclips on the internet anyway? I don't have my own webspace yet, I keep putting it off every time I remember I don't have enough reasons to make a website.

One way, which is how I linked to the music above, is to join a board like myvirtualband.com that's dedicated to online music collaboration, and provides space and bandwidth for purposes of distributing tracks for collaboration purposes, although a) typically they're going to want you to make at least a pretense at recording (some part of) an an original song, which either you start, or is a contribution to some already started song, rather than just say, samples of various v-amp presets or something, and b) and this is important, the licensing requirements for your music which they will alow you to post might not be to your liking, depending on the board. As for b) I'm strictly amateur, and I get a lot more out of others contributions there than anything I could come up with by myself, so for me the choice is simple, license the music MVB's way (creative commons, which I've got no problem with) or else, it probably won't ever exist in listenable form, because I can't make it all by myself. And it's just plain lots of fun.

But if you aim to sell your music, and don't want people freely copying it, it's probably not for you. For me, I'd be happy if people would copy my music, as "deleting" seems the more likely operation to spring to most people's mind.

There's other free web hosting, but typically they limit bandwidth too much for distributing mp3's to be viable.