Home studio rookie build - Much help needed! Much love in return!

C

cruzall

New member
Hi dudes/dudettes,

I'm building a new home studio, as you might have guessed from the thread title. I have included MAX prices for each piece of equipment, but can rearrange if others are under. UK links only please.

I need to record:
-Male vocals
-Electric + electric-acoustic guitar (only one guitar at a time)
-MIDI input
for high quality demos & will be editing in Ableton Live 9.

The 3 main inputs will be 1)Vocals, 2) Guitar, 3) MIDI controller.




SO, in terms of equipment, I have been thinking :guitar::

-Good quality vocal mic MAX £300 (e.g. Shure sm7B SHURE SM7B MICROPHONE Studio, cardioid, dynamic)

-Possibly another mic for guitars MAX £120 (e.g. CAD Audio e60 CAD Audio e60 300 Ohm Cardioid Condenser Microphone: Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments)

-DI/ straight line in from guitar MAX ~£100 (no clue)

-Pre-amp MAX £180 (had looked at SHURE X2U XLR TO USB ADAPTER MICROPHONE PREAMPLIFIER USB, single channel, headphone output, phantom for Shure sm7b, but if I need more inputs/outputs, better off getting another surely?)

-Midi controller that has synth keys, launch pads, knobs, preferably built for Ableton Live 9 MAX £100 (e.g. Novation launcher Novation Launchkey Mini Keyboard / Synth Controller with 25 Launchpad Buttons Black: Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments OR Akai APC AKAI APC KEY 25 | Ableton Live USB MIDI Controller with Keyboard: Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments)

-(Audio interface)? MAX ~same-as-preamp=£180

-(Mixing desk)? MAX £200

-(Power conditioner)? MAX £100

-(Control surface)? MAX £100

Not overly sure about these last 4, are they dependable on the type of preamp? Don't shoot, rookie at home recording here.


ALSO my external usb soundcard for my laptop is abysmal, would appreciate suggestions for reasonably low priced alternatives. MAX £50

I have: laptop with Ableton Live 9, speakers, mic stand, pop shield, guitar amp with 1 lineout port. (Laughed after typing that sentence :facepalm:). Need. Help.

Laptop specs:
Windows 8.1 64 bit
Intel Core i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs)
8GB RAM

A serious huge thanks to you for helping out :)

Cruzall
 
You list a separate preamp, audio interface and soundcard - right away this tells me you need to do some reading. What you want to get is a USB audio interface with at least 1 mic preamp, one instrument input and MIDI input.
Look at the Steinberg UR22, or the Scarlett 2i4 to start out with. there are other choices. You really don't need a 'control surface' unless you are uncomfortable using onscreen mouse, etc. When you say 'mixing desk', this is the same name as for a control suface, do you mean an actual physical desk? You mention 'speakers' - are these nearfield monitors? Do you have closed-back headphones for tracking? Have you thought about acoustic treatment of your tracking/mixing room?
 
I've gone for
-Shure SM7b through a Cloudlifter CL-1 for vocals
-Shure SM57 for guitar
-Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 preamp
-Akai MPK225 midi controller
-KRK Rokit RP5 G3 studio monitors
-Audio-Technica ATH-M50X headphones

Thanks Mike, done a LOT of reading :listeningmusic:
 
I think you need to invest far more money in a better interface, and get ONE mic instead, like the sm7b just as a starting point, the iD22 by audient is pretty stunning, amazing conversion for the money, it has everything you need and more, and it should be within your budget and also saves space, with extremely low latency, mine has been faultless, not a single problem or crash since the day I got it last summer and it gets used daily.
 
The Audient iD22 is a 10-input $600 interface, bit of an overkill for a beginner. Isn't it also for MAC? OP has a PC.
 
mjbphotos said:
The Audient iD22 is a 10-input $600 interface, bit of an overkill for a beginner. Isn't it also for MAC? OP has a PC.
Click to expand...

It works on a PC USB 2 and Window's ASIO drivers. But I think you're right, from his list, seems like over kill.
 
no it works fine with windows actually, I don't think it's overkill at all, nothing even comes close to it within the price range
 
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