I have pretty much settled on a laptop.

This is what I use to connect to my PC:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MultiMix4USB/



using an

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/OM2/



These have done well enough for me as a ghetto rig, but after I acquire my new PC I want to upgrade. As you all probably know by now, I don't know jack shit about this.

So I think I want to pickup

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SaffPro24/



Along with

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/i5/




Running the OM2 +/ i5 into the Saffire, I would also get my keyboard in through midi.




Is that all I need to get me started? Or, do I also need/should probably have a mixer as well? If so, what are some good options to look at? I would only ever have 2 mics/2 lines/1 midi max plugged in at once, so I don't need a board with a ton of channels I imagine.

That was the same interface I had actually bought, then the place I bought had sold them out. I have heard excellent things about them, and a few this board use the Focusrite pres as well and seem to like them a lot. You can do a hell of a lot without having to buy a mixer and put that money toward your new laptop. A Mixer never hurt though. I have again heard excellent things on the small yamaha mixers.

Yeah, I figured it I did end up needing one, I would only need a small one anyways because there is only so much I can record at once.

I don't know, sounds to me like you need to step up your game:

I ship it.

An i5 now lives on the snare drum at Snaxodrome 2. It fulfills its mission admirably.

There's some nice options in the inexpensive LDC (way more than there were 10 years ago!) and ribbon mic fields too, for totally different flavors.

Also, the Saffire pres have enough gain to handle ribbons. We threw a Nady RSM-4 on the bass cab last night whilst recording a fretless on an industrial track and it handled it admirably.

Oh I am sure more microphone purchases will be happening after the core setup is assembled.

In fact, I fear that day.

I am hearing some pretty awesome reviews on the i5. A lot of people like it for micing guitar cabs and snares. I figure between it and the OM2 (I also have the MXL 990 sitting around but it is noisy, and a 991 that appears broken [no/extremely faint signal]) I would have my basic tones covered.

Yo, i am too broke right now, but, if at some later time, if you ever want to get rid of ye olde mxle 991e, i would be interested in buying it from ye and attempting to make it go again.

I am not positive i can fix it, otherwise, i would just say: pay for shipping and i will send it back working.

Speaking of which, have you sent that pedal out as yet?

Funny you should say that.

I was going to say, if you wanted to make a few bucks, I would not mind paying to get that 991 fixed. Worse comes to worse, if it is broken beyond simple repair you can just have it as payment for the pedal?

Actually, I wouldn't mind paying to have that 990 checked out as well. They were both left at my place in barely working condition, but it would be awesome to have them to experiment with.

But wait there is more! I also have a Blue Ball mic that doesn't seem to work either. Same thing.

My standing policy is as follows for all: Feel free to send me all of your broken junk. Whatever can be fixed, i will fix, yo.

There is also this broken Yamaha DJX Keyboard I have sitting around ...

Due to its size, it might be somewhat cost prohibitive for shipping, but i would not be against looking at it.

Basically though, you would be running a risk, that some bit of its proprietary computer innards might be what is hosed, and as such, they might possibly either not available in the aftermarket, or perhaps would be more monies than would be worth replacing.

It most likely got all shook up from years of being moved and stored but never used.

I am really not worried about it, I feel bad but I might just have to chuck it. But yeah, way to big and heavy to bother shipping.

That would hopefully mean some sort of simple fix like a broken solder joint or something. As long as you are sure it has never been hit with the wrong voltage adapter or a power spike, or had a drink spilled on it while it was on, that sort of thing. If you have the space, you may wish to just hang onto it until you can troubleshoot it, or until you NEED to dump it.

Yeah ... that whole space thing.

It's a bitch.

Aye, all the snare micing I have done lately here was the i5. Well, primarily the i5, but the 57 was below. Once you flip the polarity the bottom mic brings some bass thump to it. Awsum.

For guitars lately I have gravitated back to the 57.

Doooood. Lately i have been thinking quite a bit of what it would take for me to remove myself from this cave. I have an awful lot of shit that i am going to have to jettison when that time comes.

Unless i can find a nice loft space to squat in somewhere...

I should take a picture of the silly rigged dual micstand thing i have been using for my snare lately. Pretty ghetto, but it holds a SM57-ish CAD TSM411 on top and the MXL2001 LDC on the bottom. I have been enjoying that combo lately.

I will probably end up picking up a couple of the more popular Shures eventually, but if I get those three mics fixed I will be up to four different flavors. Plus the i5 and probably a ribbon mic or something like that down the road ...

So many things, so little space.

space doesn't always make it better either, I have a house, and I will hang on to shit for too long, just because I may need this piece of wood at some time, or this spool of wire or this router I may be able to sell to someone. Space limitation can be a plus sometimes. I'm not going to be on Hoarders or anything but too much shit.

I am like a hoarder lite. Not as bad as my parents were with this house, but still.

But i am also a hobo scavenger, so pretty much everything i retain, i wind up going back to and using.

I don't know what i will do when i leave though. Just my tools and stuff, would take up as much space as the last apartment i lived in. My music stuff simply wouldn't be possible without either moving into a big space, or putting most of it in storage.