[rockthesmurf]

I did some research about a year or two ago regarding getting together a cheap recording setup (before that I just used a cheapo mic plugged directly in to my sound card). From a series of recommendations I ended up going with:

Behringer UB502 -this is a smaller mixer, it has 4 seperate channels, some of which can be used in mono or stereo meaning you can get more inputs if using mono devices. It has a preamp built in for condensor microphones.

Samson C01 - this is a large diaphragm condensor microphone, recommended to me for recording acoustic guitar, or generally ambient recordings.

Shure SM57 - this is quite a common standard dynamic microphone, often used when gigging, it was however recommended to me as a good choice for a home setup, to be used mainly for vocals, but it can be used for mic'ing up guitar amps etc.

Popper stopper - these come in very cheap, I think I got mine from maplin for about £10, I was told one of these are ESSENTIAL for vocal recordings, and personally I agree, the improvement they make for £10 makes more difference than I would have got spending an extra £300 on a microphone.

Mic stands - I got a couple relatively cheap again, can't remember where, maybe maplin again, about £12 each. A reasonably worthy investment, stops virbations causing background noise, and allows you to position the microphone such that you don't have to strain to play/sing in to it.

Cables - I just went for cheap ones, mainly from ebay shops I believe, a couple of SLR cables for the mic's, a couple of jack to jack leads to run my keyboard in to it, and another lead to get the output from the mixer in to my PC. The output lead to my PC turned out to be the hardest to track down, turns out it is more commonly used as a DJ's cable (two large jacks (mono) to a smaller jack (3.5mm) stereo).

I run everything in to my sblive soundcard (which is, uhh, 10 years old or something?). For software I normally use Adobe Audition, I have used it for about 6 years now (back when it was cool edit pro), it isn't as sophisticated as other expensive packages, but I find it has the features I need, so I figure why over complicate things?

I think the total I paid was around £140 inc delivery, vat, cables, etc. (doesn't include PC, soundcard or software).

I am pleased with what I got, I find now that the recordings aren't as good quality as I'd like, so I'm thinking about further upgrading, but by going with the above cheap stuff I have been able to produce some reasonable recordings (for my own satisfaction). I guess the next thing I'll be changing is the sound card, then probably get another mic, then probably change the mixer, ideally for one without a preamp and buy a seperate preamp, but everything costs money so we'll see.

I hope that gives you some ideas at least, if nothing else you could check out some reviews on the above gear and see if it sounds like it could be suitable for what you are after. Oh, just for the record everything above is in the cheap end, I'd recommend it as a good 'starter' package.

Steve
xo