Hi ivan!
Well, continue with talk that we have in the GMC chat
The idea of the home studio comes alive cause my girlfriend went to a studio to record her vocals in some backing tracks, record a song costs u$29... with the money we spend recording 10 songs there we can buy gear, record in home and learn a lot

My great doubt was: is it better a good condenser mic + a cheap sound card or a good/decent sound card + the shure 58 i have?

SOUND CARD

I looking for one sound card you told me, M-Audio Audiophile 2496.
Here it costs U$150/200, its ok the price...i can afford it!
Im very very newbie with recording, so do you think its a good buy or do you recommend me another card?
This sound card also increases the audio quality when you hear music?

MIC

Well, i know that the best for mics for recording are the condenser. As i said, we have a shure 58, you tell me that is ok for now, that we can use it and get decent results, is that right?

MIC PREAMP

This is new for me hehe, but some guys told me about the importance of it. I saw a Behringer Tube Ultragain Mic100 (one channel) around U$80. Now that we are starting, can we record without the preamp?

SPEAKERS

I have a 2.0 speakers 50W RMS (25W + 25W), they sounds good to me.

VOCALS EFFECTS

Like reverb, use the sofwares ones?

GUITAR RECORDING

I got the pod xt and the sansamp psa1 to record my guitar, i guess that with the new sound card it will be sound even better than now!

Well, i guess that these are my big doubts!
I will buy in this order: Sound card, mic preamp and mic condenser (if its necessary)

Thanks a lot for your help!

/edit uh sorry, I wasnt aware that you posted it in ivans forum. I hope its ok when I post my reply

Hey,

I own the "Tube Ultragain Mic200" it's a good preamp. Actually it is one of the few Behringer products I can recommend. I also wanted to buy the "M-Audio Audiophile 2496" but I decided to buy the "Emu 0404" instead. It got better reviews and is about the same price. It is a really good card the routing features are amazing. Also the in and outs did fit much better in my setup. The quality is the best you can get for this price.
I have to mics a shure58 for vocals and a shure 57 for instruments. You can't get wrong with these microphones. When you are not satisfied with your recording sound you can be sure it is not because of the mics.
Software effects for vocals should be perfectly fine. It's is not necessary money on hardware effects when your budget is limited.
For Guitar recording the Pod xt is fine, but I would use it only a audio interface to connect your guitar to your pc and then use software modellers like Revalver mk III (don't use guitar rig if you want to play metal)

I bet there is no problem with post in Ivans forum
Thanks a lot Skalde! Great we have the same mic and you have great results with it! I can save a lot of money there!
Thanks again!

Concercing software effects for vocal recording, here are some effects I use(they are all for free!)
For vocals:
This pack features a compressor, a de-esser and a expander gate device
The compressor is the cooles plugin in this pack. It comes with great presets(even for kick and snare drums) so you can check the vocal presets before making your ownes. It really lets your vocal sound become alive
The de-esser plugin filters out unwanted voices you may make while singing like sharp "sss sounds" Combined with a pop filter(popkiller) in front of your microphone it cleanes up the vocal track.
For reverb I use a plugin called ambience. Let me quote from the offical website:

http://magnus.smartelectronix.com/
Dropping the guy some bucks would be cool, but you don't have to.
Another great reverb effect is glace reverb. there are tons of built in presets. some sound really freaky

Another awesom pack of free plugins can be found here:
http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-series.php
chorus, compressor, reverb, eq, flanger, phaser... everything you need.

If you want to spend money on vst effects I would go for a good eq.
The best I have found is the Voxengo Curve Eq
it is a bit pricey (~89$) but it is really worth it. You can check out the demo version.

If you want I can post some plugin(free) for guitar recording.

OK, as we talked on the chat, 2 cards are the main choice in that price range, M-Audio 2496, or EMU0404PCI. As I said in the chat, I recommend EMU - it's got a better software and the card itself is fast and clear. I would agree with Skalde to make it first choice over 2496 (although this card is not bad as well, my drummer use it and it's good but EMU has better software bundle and better patching software).
As for the preamp, that behringer is a good choice for home recording, it's a one channel preamp, so you can record only one microphone with it, but I think thats enough for you needs atm. If you plan to record more mics later for example stereo mics, or dual mics than you can get another one later. I had Behringer MIC800 one channel preamp and I must say that it was very bad so stay away from it. MIC100 is a good choice, Nemanja (former singing instructor here at GMC) was using it for his lessons and he produces some good results with it. You can check out his lessons for examples. He also used not so good microphone, with Shure58 I'm sure you will get better quality. Also another thing to mention is that you need the mic preamp with BOTH of these cards, so if you wanna record vocals gotta buy it with the card together. You cannot record mics without preamps it will work, but you need to amplify that signal in order to be of good quality, it's not that usable without it really, sounds flat, and you get frequency cutoffs.
The room where you record vocals should be somewhat acoustically treated. This can cost a lot but doesn't have to as well. Putting something on the walls, any objects (blankets, curtains or thick cloth can work great), but even pictures, shelves can reduce the echo and reverberation from the room walls. The worst room to record vocals in is the room with empty walls as there will be reverberation. Improvisation is the key here when you are on a tight budget, and you can use egg cardboards, spunge, anything really that will absorb the sound. The more you improvise the more dryer the vocal will be and easier to work with afterwards.
Condenser mic will definitely much more subtle details than dynamic mic, so if you plan to get serious later with recording vocals, get one. For now it is not really needed. If you do decide to get one later on, one that I've heard nothing but good things as a starting condenser mic is Rode NT1
Regarding guitar recording, sansamp seems like a good way to go. You will need a line-level output to send it to BOTH of these cards. These 2 cards have 2 inputs and 2 outputs (2 I/O). One one input you put MIC100, and on another you put guitar (Sansamp/POD line outs). Don't expect a major improvement in sound quality, but sound will be better, and overall audio production work will be smoother. If you have good quality speakers the sound will definitely be better, so better the speakers, bigger difference.

please ask if anything else is needed, I'll be glad to help. Cheers

Those seems to be great plugins! I will definitely download and try them!
I want to learn some about plugins, i have never used them! Thanks a lot Skalde for the info





Ivan, thanks a lot for the explanation Now i have more clear everything!
Ill start to search the sounds cards you told me and ill keep you update about this!
Thanks again, i really aprecciate your answer

You're welcome my friend, anything you need, just ask. Good luck with the purchase. Cheers