Need some help on my mini-studio. ^^

[LaMusiqueEstAmour]

Hey guys, these are my gears:

Tascam MA-8 Preamp
Audio Technica AT2020 (XLR)
Shure 58M (XLR)
Pearl 5 piece Rhythm Traveller (+ Paiste Universal 101)
Ibanez RG350dx
Ibanez PF60S
Kustom 15-watt
YAMAHA upright-piano.

I have a few questions:
1) I have a preamp, and I'm gonna connect my mics to it. But if I wanna use the mics like a karaoke (means there's like a speaker so when I speak, the sound will travel to the speaker and amplify it), what kind of amplifier should I get to be able to connect to my pre-amp? Any amplifiers or are there any specific ones?

2) So I need a mixer, but what kinds of mixer should I get? I'm thinking of getting a Pioneer mixer, not too expensive, and so I can connect my mic/ > preamp > mixer > computer > cubase
OR guitar > mixer > computer > cubase, keyboard > mixer > computer > cubase
Correct me if I'm wrong!!!

[soft]

1. You want to sing Karaoke?

2. Do you want to record many instruments/drums together or do you want to record them 1-by-1?

You can read up on Ron's thread on recording -> http://www.soft.com.sg/forum/how-sou...rding-faq.html

[LaMusiqueEstAmour]

Hey there! Thanks for replying!

1) Something like that, so that my parents could enjoy karaoke since they bought the gears for me. Of course, not only karaoke, I would like to use them for recording as well.

2) I would prefer both options. For jamming, I would record them altogether. For recordings, I would of course record them 1 by 1.

Thanks. I've read them. But I'm still confused. Haha!

Anyway, 1 more question.

3) Is it possible to use TonePort (or other recording interfaces) to connect to mixer?

e.g: guitar/keyboard > recording interface > mixer > computer > cubase

[soft]

For karaoke, it will be better to get those BMB system. Will have the KTV feeling.

There are many ways to do the recording. It will all depend on your budget.

There are some mixers with built-in USB/Firewire interface that you can connect to computer for direct recording. The cheaper ones can only record 2 tracks (stereo) at one time. Example -> http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MM8USBFX/

The more expensive ones can record many tracks (multi-track) at one time. Example -> http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/StudioLive16/

[blueprintstudios]

LaMusique : will help out with this when budget is mentioned.. for now bottleneck busy with rendering the SBC3 videos... do let us know your PC/mac specs as well

[studio2105]

I think it would better serve your needs to keep the karaoke/home entertainment activities separate from the recording. This means getting different sets of equipment which are designed for the different uses

[kongwee]

Totally agreed.

[blueprintstudios]

LaMusiqueEstAmour : what you're trying to do can be done, it's already been done by KBox / etc where they provide cheap minus one recording

just that you need to tweak to cater to your situation.

so again.. let us know your budget.