Making a list for Metal/Rock Studio

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wishtheend

New member
Well, I've been a lurker on this board for a while. And finally decided to register. I'm in a metal band that is in the midst of putting together our own little studio down in the basement. I think we are defently going to go the Firepod route, since it will give me 8-in's for drums and then I can track everything else after (plus the ability to chain another unit).

My question is this.

What kind of soundcard is going to be best suited for our needs? There's alot of cards that have in's/out's on them, and to be honest. I think we are going to use just the firepod as the interface. So i'm thinking something that has basic speaker/moniter outs, firewire port, and maybe MIDI (but not really needed). Is the quality of what comes out of the firepod going to be the same regardless of what card I go into (as long as the resolution is the same) ?

Thanks for any input.
 
Whatever you do make sure the soundcard you buy is for recording. Don't fall into the soundblaster trap they try to say you can record quality stuff with it but you can't.
 
the firepod has the outs you need to i think. as for midi, i wouls use devices that work via usb insted.
 
Thanks for the replies. The reason why I asked was, I know the sound card I have currently doesn't support high resolutions (nothing past 44.1kHz), and I'm unsure if I'll be able to record like that. I hear at the high resolution, you get much better headroom, which is one of the things I'm wanting.

Also, any recomendations on monitors to go with this kind of setup?
 
wishtheend said:
Thanks for the replies. The reason why I asked was, I know the sound card I have currently doesn't support high resolutions (nothing past 44.1kHz), and I'm unsure if I'll be able to record like that. I hear at the high resolution, you get much better headroom, which is one of the things I'm wanting.
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Right, but by using the Firepod, you are bypassing your internal soundcard for both recording and playback. Thus, the resolution of your internal card is irrelevant. Also, 44.1k is a perfectly acceptable sample rate (though some might argue). You can attach monitors, etc. directly to the Firepod (or route them through a mixer).

Also, any recomendations on monitors to go with this kind of setup?
Click to expand...
What's your budget?
 
Also, 44.1k is a perfectly acceptable sample rate (though some might argue).
Click to expand...
Any pro knows that 192kHz is the ONLY acceptable sample rate in the industry!!
sheesh
:p ;)

wishtheend said:
The reason why I asked was, I know the sound card I have currently doesn't support high resolutions (nothing past 44.1kHz), and I'm unsure if I'll be able to record like that. I hear at the high resolution, you get much better headroom, which is one of the things I'm wanting.
Click to expand...

more headroom with higher bit depth...not sample rate
 
Ah, I get it. I don't know why I thought the firepod would be only used as the recording device. As for budget, I can pick up the firepod at a great deal (about $400) so I wouldn't like to spend a whole lot more than that. Anything in about the $200 range? But I understand, more money typically means better quality.

And could you clarify the difference between bit depth and sample rate?
Thanks again for all the replies. You've really been a huge help.
 
$200 monitors probably won't cut it for metal (especially if you're using a 5-string bass), because the smaller woofer won't give you an adequate picture of the low end. The "Search" Function will likely turn up oodles of opinions on monitors. Some brands to consider on the budget end are M-Audio (BX5 & BX8), Alesis(MKIIa), Event(TR5, TR6), and Wharfedale(8.2a). However, you should probably take some of your favorite CDs down to a music store and try them out. What sounds right to you may be different from others.
 
the sample rate you set your recordings at means how many snapshots are taken of the wave from. if you select 44.1kHz...there will be 44,100 snapshots in one second of the wave form. The higher the number the more accurate the representation...but also the more hard drive space you will have taken up.

bit depth (or bit resolution) is used to describe the dynamic range of your audio in the digital world. Each bit equals roughly 6 dB in the dynamic range...so again, the more bits the better the resolution (in this case the greater the dynamic range) you will be allowed to capture.

these are two factors that you need to consider before you start each recording session. a balance between capturing good quality sound and preserving hard drive space and CPU power needs to be decided.
 
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bennychico11: Thanks for explaining that a little further. Makes a hell of alot more sense. We just bought two 80GB drives that we are going to be using, and the computer is used pretty much ONLY for recording. So I'm not sure disk space is going to be of big concern.

scrubs: while we don't use 5-string basses, we do tune down a whole step, and have tons of double-bass. I'll be keeping what you said about the bass response in mind. I'll probley end up just saving a little bit longer to get a higher quality set.

And trust me, I understand the importance of the search feature, but there are so many similar topics and contradiciting opinions, that I didn't want to maybe get something that won't work for me. Thanks again guys, you've really helped clear up some issues.
 
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