Gotta say, in my own personal experience, sheer is 100% right, Taffy has good points but is a bit off on some things.

[quote="itaffy13"]
1. The whole sm57 and basic interface is what I'm talking about...
[but] Even if people did have that, it would still be too difficult to learn, understand, and refine the recording/software process..

2. EDIT: For the record, a 57 WILL NOT do it for vocals, rain or shine.
You'd need a large diaphragm condenser microphone and your interface would have to have 48v phantom power to support that.
Factor in $20 for phantom power and the condensers start at $150[/quote]

Read this carefully Mare.
This is why I disagreed with sheer.

It WILL do for vocals, you just have to take care with your pop-inducing vowels. We've recorded vox with one and it turned out awesome. I don't know if you also have personal experience using that mic for vox, but we didn't really have any troubles, so no, you're wrong. While it isn't optimal vs. having a good condenser mic, it still works just fine.

[quote="itaffy13"]Sheer, do you realize you pretty much agreed with everything i said?

...

EDIT: For the record, a 57 WILL NOT do it for vocals, rain or shine.
You'd need a large diaphragm condenser and your interface would have to have 48v phantom power to support that.
Factor in $20 for phantom power and the condensers start at $150[/quote]

I realize we more or less agreed - however, if you will note, our conclusions are completely different.

It is ridiculous to think that you need a large diaphragm condenser in order to record decent vocals. Yeah, if you have a fancy home studio with the versatility you need for optimum results, you're probably going to use a flashy LDC mic. However, there are several dynamic microphones that are adequate - or even exceptional - for recording vocals (SM7B anyone?).

Anyway, we can make a perfectly good recording without a [i]hardcore amateur[/i] studio setup. I'm talking bare minimum here, and an SM57 ought to be good enough to record good, workable vocals. If you get one inexpensive microphone, you get an SM57 - end of story.

And I expect at least some of you to man up and spend the $170. Anyone who likes making music at all will not regret the purchase, and their use will certainly not be limited to this project. If you find that you enjoy your new toys, you can keep adding to your collection - just like guitars, pedals, and amplifiers.

Oh, and no one has to understand the recording process. All people have to do is record their tracks and send them to taff or whomever for editing and processing.

Oh, now i see where you're coming from. Your reasoning, Now that I understand it, is quite economic!
(Let's just hope people "man up" or else you guys won't be making progress.)

to mare: my reference to large diaphragm condensers has nothing to do with plosives or having pop filter. That's another thing.

Good luck to you guys. I'll be ready to edit whatever comes my way!

Well I don't see what your complaint about the microphone would be for vocals unless you were talking about it not having a clean sound. If that's not your complaint, you have no valid complaint for the sake of a hella good amateur recording.

tsit's not the clean sound, but rather the frequency response which is tailored to vocals.
anyway, you guys are doing it your way, so this whole mic discussion is pointless

Condenser mics are more vulnerable to plosives anyway, although it is also a minor problem with the SM57. Bjork uses the SM58 (which is basically the same thing as an SM57) and the SM57 to record studio vocals. If it's good enough for Bjork, it sure as hell is good enough for IM. The SM57 has been used to record vocals on several well-known professional recordings, from Madonna (Erotica) to INXS (Kick) to the Killers (Hot Fuss) ... to Bruce Springsteen to Steven Tyler to Paul Rodgers to Mick Jagger to John Lennon to ... - and furthermore, the microphone is nearly ubiquitous on stage - so this mic discussion is pointless because itaffy is simply wrong. I was trying to be diplomatic before, but there it is - end of conversation.

Even if I'm wrong (which I'm not), getting people on board with this project is more important than debating the virtues of microphone engineering, so let's move on. I think it's well established by now that this is a feasible project, but like itaffy said, we do require a minimum quality of equipment, so everyone should start saving so we can celebrate the pillows' 21st anniversary [i]in style[/i].

[quote="sheerheartattack"][size=50]itaffy is simply wrong, end of conversation.[/size]
[size=50]Even if[/size] [size=200] I'm wrong [/size][size=50](which I'm not)[/size].[/quote]
Who's to say who's wrong and who's right?

[quote="sheerheartattack"]celebrate the pillows' 21st anniversary [i]in style[/i].[/quote]

That's what I like to hear! Let's stay positive!

[quote="itaffy13"]
Who's to say who's wrong and who's right?
[/quote]

Um...the truth?

Anyway, I expect at least Mare and GR to buy these things. Mare can cut back on his alcohol expenditure and GR can stop financing his headphone fetish. Anyone else who has such plans, let us know in this thread.

When are you looking at me buying these things by? Because yeah, I really ought to get some decent sound equipment eventually.

There's no hurry - I was thinking we were going to do this project next summer for the 21st anniversary.

Also, if you want something a little more useful than the $70 interface I suggested, I would recommend this for $200:

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... sku=184133

Or this for $280:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--EDIFA66

Mine is an M-Audio Firewire 410. It's discontinues, but you'll need a Pro Tools interface if you're going to be working with Pro Tools, but that's completely unnecessary for our purposes. However, if you're planning on a future PT studio, it might help to go that route.

I recommend, at least for Mare and GR, that they get something like the above, but really - it's unnecessary if you don't want to spend more than $70. An SM57 is prerequisite, though. I feel that, no matter if you have many or few microphones, at least one of them should be an SM57.

Btw, I'll take ALL of instant music, [i]one day at a time.[/i]

With the notion of making a song your own, I want to do something with Shiroi by myself, with the
help of Taffy of course, haha
He is like my mentor

But yeah, I'll talk to you about it later Taffy.
I'm going to be working on the lead for a while, and try to keep the
chord progressing the same and work with the lead, I picked this song because
the lead portion isn't too advanced for me, and I absolutely love this song.
And if I want to make any song my own, the mood and sound of this particular
song is what I aim to play.