What is the opinion of Reddit about the
ART USB Dual Pre Two Channel Preamplifier/Computer Interface (USBDUALPREPS)?

The mic needs phantom power, but it’ll also need a preamp. The computer’s mic connector, despite the name, isn’t going to work well.

Get a preamp/interface that supports phantom power. I’ve used an ART interface for some portable recordings, but there are a lot of choices available.

The 58 and 57 are dynamic mics. You want condenser mics that can capture the finest details. Even a cheap condenser mic would be much better than a super expensive dynamic one.

Do you already have the zoom?

Because if you don’t, I’m sure you’d get better quality preamps and DA converters with something like the ART Dual pre connected to a smartphone (or a tablet) which you probably already have. It works with iOS devices using a converter and some Android devices with Lollipop and up using a super cheap OTG cable.

ART USB Dual Pre – http://www.amazon.com/Art-USBDUALPREPS-ART-USB-Dual/dp/B002KEAT78

It has no external power, just the USB connection. I have 10-15 USB ports and have tried the mobo ports, case ports, and an unpowered USB hub with no changes in the buzz. Also have tried both USB 2.0 and 3.0

EDIT: I could try to power it externally, just haven’t done so yet

Maybe a stupid question, but in this context, what would be the difference between an audio card and the USB interface I’m using?

If it’s of any significance, it’s an ART USB Dual Pre:
http://www.amazon.com/Art-USBDUALPREPS-ART-USB-Dual/dp/B002KEAT78

Yes, there are recorders that can record multiple tracks. Like the Tascam DR-40 has XLR inputs. I’m not necessarily endorsing the Tascam. I have the DR-05 and find it acceptable quality. Something like the Zoom H4N has XLR connectors built in, so you could record a mic into those and use the built in condenser mics to record your guitar.

You left out some relevant information: Budget, can your guitar be plugged in or will you mic it? Do you have a pretty sound free workspace?

I think budget is the most important part here. I interpret ‘nothing flashy’ as being a cheap as it can get without being poor quality.

I’m gonna link to listings on Amazon because it’s easiest, but B&H or if you live near a Guitar Center might be a better place to buy.

A possible setup:

• ART Dual USB Preamp – $80 – This will allow you to plug in one mic and your guitar and output the track to your computer via USB. Depending on the software, I believe you can have the tracks separate for editing, but they would separate into left and right channels that you’d then combine into a stereo track after editing.

• Shure SM58 – $100 – A dynamic vocal mic that will play well in a not so perfect recording space. Check out Regina Spektor using one during a concert. This mic is so popular I would make sure to only get it from a reputable dealer i.e. not used on ebay, because there are fakes floating around.

If you need/want to mic your guitar then consider the SM-57. It is nearly identical to the SM58. Here is a guy demonstrating using one to record his guitar.

• If $100 is insanely out of your budget, then consider the Behringer XM8500 – $20 – Not as high quality as the SM58, but still a decent sound. Here is a guy comparing the SM57 to the XM8500 and is using just one mic for voice and guitar, without using a preamp, so keep that in mind when comparing the audio (I hear some noise in the audio, probably noise from the line to the camera, which I presume has some sort of automatic gain happening).

This guy’s video makes me wonder if just an SM57 with a decent preamp (i.e. one with clean gain) might be all you’d need… but that isn’t ideal. You could go with two XM8500s, one for guitar and one for vocals ($40). Or one SM58 for vocals and one XM8500 for guitar($120). That all comes down to budget and preferences.

• You’ll need a mic stand, or two. The On-Stage MS7701B is a best seller on Amazon. I own one of these and it isn’t going to impress anyone. I’ve never had it tip over or seem unsteady. If you extend the boom arm too far it can sometimes slowly droop over time (I may be guilty of not tightening it enough due to not wanting to strip the threads) It does the job of holding a mic in place. If you go with two mics, you could get two of them. You could also get a desk stand for the mic that is recording your guitar and find a suitable place to set it, but I think the boom arm of the MS7701B will be useful for keeping the stand out of your way.

• And you will need cables. I recommend the cables from Monoprice, their Pro Audio series. It is not as user friendly to find the exact cables you’ll need as a site like B&H, but I have had several of their cables and only had one die on me. All their cables have a lifetime warranty and the prices are shockingly low.

• And a windscreen or pop filter for the mics is nice. There is a decent windscreen on Amazon for 3 bucks, sometimes 2 bucks.

Potential Changes & other thoughts –

A more expensive preamp – ART Tube Dual Mic Preamp With USB – $190- this has some compression and a limiter. It’s debatable whether in this range it would be better to get a decent mixer, a preamp for your vocals, and let the preamp on the mixer handle the guitar, or if something like this would be better. Like a Behringer mixer – Q802USB ($80) + ART single channel Preamp for vocals ($40/$50) would be less money than the Dual USB preamp.

Or maybe just the Q802USB would suffice for your needs. It has preamps already built in. They are not the best preamps in the world. I mean… after all I wrote above, the more I think about it the more I think you should try a Q802USB and see if the sound is what you’re wanting.

Headphones – Add in some headphones to monitor your audio. ATH-M40x ($100) would be my recommendation, but this is where a lot of personal preference comes into the mix, no pun intended.

Different mics – Rode has some mics that compare the the Shure SM57/58 that might be better. And the options for mic are virtually limitless, when you consider not just the mics can vary, but the audio interfaces and processing options. I really think a dynamic mic will be most user friendly for a one off home recording.

I hope I haven’t confused more than I helped. I think the essentials are this: good mics, clean gain, easy to use. Whether you get the dual channel ART preamp or the Q802USB, either will be easy to use. I would bet the gain on the ART preamp is cleaner, meaning less background hiss at higher levels, than the Q802USB, but perhaps that is just an unreasonable bias. In either case, the mic is going to be important and where your budget plays a big role. The SM58 and SM57 are superb for vocals and recording guitar. A condenser might be better if the acoustics of your recording space allow for it, but I hope you saw from the video I linked of the guy recording his guitar with the SM57 that a great sound can be achieved with a $100 mic. If that is out of your budget, keep in mind the XM8500, but the sound is not as clear as the Shure mics it tries to emulate.

Edit again. For the passerby you wanna listen to this talent.

A Duet Song Sampler: Piano, cello? v. v. small bass? Violin, and two vocalists. They good. They real good.

Tell Me a Bedtime Story By Herbie Hancock, as Heidi Savoie do: Listen to this. It sounds great.

When you spinnin’ Vince this Christmas, don’t forget Heidi.

Lotus Blossom – Billy Strayhorn: Oh, she got more than swing in her fingers and voice. Girl got more than one rhythm in her soul.

—– Back to my original post, but you should listen to what she does, because, damn —–

You know for not much money you can seriously upgrade your recording rig.

An ART USB Dual Pre whatever is a good choice to start with. Pair that with a couple MXL 990s and you’d be super good to go with overdubs. Record piano from viewer perspective with two microphones, which means left hand panned to right, and right hand panned to left. Record the piano solo, then listen to that and record vocal mono, and keep that panned dead center.

You got a good voice and you know how to sing and perform, you just gotta capture it right. This, which has better production, is very chefs kiss. You got skills. If you live in the Seattle area hit me up and I can let you borrow some kit. I used to be a full time audio engineer so I got oodles of gear kicking around, haha.

Edit Okay listening to more of your stuff on your YouTube who the hell are you and where can I buy some of your CDs? Do you have CDs? If you don’t, remember me, and PM me when you do. Who the hell are you and why are you deeply talented? What the hell is this? You are some some sort of precipice in your career. You will be noticed. People will want to work with you. What the hell.

You’re gonna do great. You’re gonna do super great. Like, so great. Heidi Savoie, right? You’re not a talent to be held down. I will remember this name, and I will look forward to seeing what you do.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-USB-Dual-Pre-PS/dp/B002KEAT78 this is the one I started on.

Yes I believe so. It has Phantom power as well whatever that is. The link is below.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KEAT78/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Budget: $350-400 (flexible) for headphones + amp + anything else

Source: Desktop running OSX

Everything Else: Open headphones for music production/mixing. As flat and balanced as possible. Flexible as possible with musical genres. Will be dealing most with vocals, guitar, bass, drums, hip hop, synthesizers, other software instruments.

I’m currently leaning towards a pair of AKG K712’s with a Fiio E10K. If this is a suitable combo I will go ahead and buy. My only other piece of equipment is a USB interface (ART USB Dual Pre).

However, I have many doubts (listed below) – mostly with the headphone amp and/or DAC I will need. If the E10K and/or my audio interface won’t cut it, I may get the AKG K701, K702, or Q701 and put the savings towards other parts.

I am confused because:

1) I don’t know if my USB interface is of ANY use (or if it’s good enough to save me from buying the E10K).

2) I don’t even know if the E10K will solve my problems, or if I need something different, or if I need that and something else too (e.g. a Schiit stack).

3) This article describes the rule of eight with impedance:

“As a simple rule of thumb, if the headphones are less than eight times the output impedance, the amp can alter the sound.”

Before, I thought the rule was to buy the most expensive amp you can afford, but now I’m having trouble guaranteeing I won’t have compatibility issues with certain combos. Btw, the K712’s are at 62 ohms – looks like a gray area based on what I’ve read.

4) Newb question, but would I even be able to use a new headphone amp in tandem with my USB interface?

5) Would it be more efficient to upgrade to a better all-in-one USB interface to serve as an amp and DAC? I will have to upgrade eventually (but don’t want to any time soon if it’s avoidable). However, I do love saving money. A new interface would have to be capable of powering my headphones, my 2 powered studio monitors (TRS or XLR connection), and have TRS/XLR inputs for recording instruments/vocals.

I’ll add any other details/questions as I think of them. Thanks for reading all this!

EDIT: I’d like to find a DAC that can also be used with my KRK monitors. Every DAC I’ve found uses unbalanced RCA outputs. With a good DAC and 24AWG shielded RCA cables, would the monitor sound quality be better or worse than with my balanced XLR/TRS cables without a good DAC?

I’m also reading that the K7XX is picky with amps and that the Schiit Vali serves it best. Thoughts?

Sorry for such a long delay in responding to this! I hope this info is still relevant to you work!

Audacity should be all you need for this. I’m pretty sure you can multi track record with it, though I have been using Logic and Ableton for this, so I don’t have first-hand experince in setting it up. If nothing else, you can record stereo on a single track and split the stereo into 2 monos for processing.

To get those 2 inputs into the computer you might need a USB audio interface. something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Art-USBDUALPREPS-ART-USB-Dual/dp/B002KEAT78

would give you 2 XLR inputs to work with any standard microphone you would see in a music setting. there are some cheaper ones that are for DJ’s to plug record players into, but getting most mics to play nice with RCA inputs will probably give poor sound quality and be an adapter nightmare.

another option would be a dedicated stereo recorder. In my business, I see a lot of camera/video guys using little jobs like this:
http://www.amazon.com/DR-40-4-Track-Portable-Digital-Recorder/dp/B005NACC6M/

to capture field audio. This option will likely only record a stereo track, which you would split in Audacity.

As far as getting the sounds aligned exactly like you need them, this will probably take some experimentation with mic placement. Since sound moves pretty slow so even inches will affect the phase alignment. In a perfect scenario, I would want both mics placed in the exact same location with one getting the wanted signal along with the noise, and the other only capturing the noise. then flipping the noise track’s polarity in the software.

I wish I knew better how to accomplish this effect. I mostly know about this stuff from trying to avoid this problem in music recordings! From my experience base, I do know that even 8mm of misalignment will start to notch out some of the highs in a musical recording. Mixers and software that have a polarity reversal button are there to combat this effect!

Already tried with no success…. And yes, it’s an ART USB Dual Pre:
http://www.amazon.com/Art-USBDUALPREPS-ART-USB-Dual/dp/B002KEAT78

ART USB Dual Pre, right here: http://www.amazon.com/Art-USBDUALPREPS-ART-USB-Dual/dp/B002KEAT78

It works fine on any other PC though. I’ve tried turning the knobs and buttons every which way

> pre dual

http://www.amazon.com/Art-USBDUALPREPS-ART-USB-Dual/dp/B002KEAT78

?

Looking at the responses you’ve gotten so far and your need for good recording equipment over and above the need for the PC itself, I’ve put together another build for you.

This uses a fanless Intel Bay Trail quad-core chip. It’s not a barnstormer in terms of performance, but you can’t get any quieter than fanless. It includes a fanless power supply and a 5400RPM laptop hard drive (I’m still not convinced that recording to an SSD is a good idea — mine introduces an unacceptable amount of jitter into the recording, even with low bitrates) to keep it as quiet as possible.

Size is also reduced. This is about the smallest you can make a build-it-yourself PC. 8.5″ on a side, 2.5″ tall.

I’ve included a USB ADC (analog-to-digital converter) with XLR inputs, phantom power and hardware gain control alongside your previous selection of the Shure SM94 instrument mic. I have an SM94 and it should work well for your application (it tends to be a bit bright for guitar or winds, but strings should work nicely with it).

I also included a mic stand with boom arm, as proper mic position is essential to capturing the correct character of the instrument.

The only thing I didn’t include was an optical drive, but you mentioned looking for an external USB drive. That’ll be your best bet here as well.

Let me know if you have any questions.

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