Studio Setup Advise

[built2last18]

I have a MPC 60
Fatar sl880 controller
a Korg TR-Rack
Behringer 802 Mixer
AT 4033 Microphone
2 Sony 7604 Headphones
Cake Walk Pro. 9
Sound Forge 5
Fruity Loops

I make wish to make only R&B and HIP-HOP. Is there anything that someone could suggest that is not on this list or that should be on this list to make my studio complete. Also If anyone has any setup suggestions please feel free to let me know.

[anppilot]

I can give you the advise based on my own equipment:

DAW Workstation #1:
Pentium-3 500/256 Meg RAM/7200RPM 4.3G UIDE/7200RPM 4.5 SCSI, 17" monitor.
~Running: Cubase 3.72r2 & Soundiver

DAW Workstation #2:
Pentium-3 500/256 Meg RAM/7200RPM 4.3G UIDE/7200RPM 20G SCSI/Sony 4x4x20 CD-R/RW, 17" monitor.
~Running: GigaStudio 96, Clean, ReCycle

Delta 66 Omni 24 Bit audio card


STUDIO EQUIPMENT:

Fisher Dual Cassete Deck
Sony Stereo Mic
Tascam TM-D1000 16 Channel Dig Mixer (vocals mostly)
Mackie 1202 (For Modules and Keyboards)
Event 20/20 Nearfield Monitors
Haffler 75W/Channel Amp
Unitor8 MIDI patch bay
DBX 166XL stereo compressor/limitor/gate
Mackie 1202 (For Modules and Keyboards)

Roland JW-50 as a Master Controller
Roland JV-1080 (W/Dance card & Techno EXP, & 2100 Patches)
Roland JD-990 (700 Patches via the Internet)
Korg Triton Rack
Yamaha TG-77 (400 Patches via the Internet)
Yamaha FB-01 (Awesome bass module)

You might want to get a multi port MIDI patchbay such as the Unitor 8. You only have a couple of midi devices, but thats ok. The unitor 8 is an 8 in and 8 out multi port midi patch bay.

That would give you 5-6 more ins and outs for future expansion. I havent used the Fruity loops thing, because me and my wife still make our beats from scratch. But what I've done in the past is cut up loops by filtering the high our and lows out and cutting the kick, hats and snares out and sending them as individual samples to my sampler.

I also suggest getting a CD/R/RW or an external cd burner, and a few decent plugins. I am a Cubase VST user. So the plugin thing would work great for you.

[mikeh]

Your equipment list doesn't include near field monitors (you only list headphones). If you don't have monitor speakers - get some. You will never develop good mixes depending only on headphones. There have been several discussion on this site re: monitors.

You also don't mention processing. At the very least you will need reverb (for vocals, etc). I would suggest a multi effects unit. Lexicon, Alesis and several other companies have affordable units.

I have no hands on with the Beringer mixer, so I don't know how good the mic pre's are, but your AT4033 is a decent mic - make sure you have a clean signal path. Speaking of mic signal path, at some point you will need a compressor for vocals - those hip-hop vocals can be all over the dynamic range.

Also, I don't see a 2-track mixdown deck - I'm assuming you're using Sound Forge to burn CD's - but a DAT (and a cassette deck) are pretty much a given in even modest studios.

But the important thing is, use what you have as creatively as you can. All the gear in the world is worthless without talent, creativity and ears.

[VirtualSamana]

Gear..it's all relative

relative to what you are looking to make
relative to how much you can spend
relative to how much you can't spend
relative to how much your willing to go into debt

anyway if you are talking about what piece of gear to buy next i would definately put monitors in the high priority catagory. When you say Korg TR rack did you mean the triton or the trinity. I am not too farmiliar with the trinity but the triton can do loads of shit. You can even save money by using its internal effects for vocals and other instruments. From what i've heard it does a real good job at that (sounds better than most of the cheap procesors.)

A compressor such as the real nice compressor (cheap but good) and a decent mic pre would be fine additions to your gear inventory. A tube mp (about $100)would be a signigicant improvement over the pres in the 802.

Guess you must already have a computer for mixing down on since I see that you use Sound Forge and Fruity Loops. A software midi sequencer wouldn't be a bad idea (sonar, logic audio, etc.) The triton does sequencing it just depends what you are more comfortable with.

I would put the DAT near the end of my wish list. Most studios now have access to cd-r's. And though DAT is still ubiquitous it is becoming less and less necessary to own one.

[VirtualSamana]

Just realised that the Korg TR-rack is the trinity not the triton. Not sure about its effects routing capabilities though I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar to the triton.

[crosstudio]

how are the percussion sounds on the korg?

the first and foremost rule of r&b and hip-hop is that the beat has to be tight. i had the roland sc-8850 but the percussion sounds just weren't quite what i was looking for. I got the ensoniq asr-x pro with the urban sound card and have been quite happy with it.

i've got the fatar sl-880 keyboard and AT4033 as well.

i demo'd the korg along with the roland xv-3080. i decided on the roland, but the korg is excellent.

you don't need outboard fx if you've got cake. i've got ultrafunk, waves, dsp-fx, and antares auto-tune direct-x plug-ins that are great.

[anppilot]

Okay. Here's the deal...well, at least in my opinion. Im just now starting to get into the "pre-made" loop thing. I normally make all of my own. I have the Triton Rack, not the TR-Rack. TR-Rack is the rack version of the Trinity.

The Triton has over 400 drum samples - from kicks, snares, hats, cymbals, percussive sounds...to you name it. I have the JV-1080 with the Dance and Techno expansion boards. I use all of those drum samples in them. I spend so much time making loops, thats why Im getting into the premade loop thing.

I do RnB, Hip-Hop, House, Techno, Pop, Gospel and Country. I do plan on buying the Hip-Hop expansion board soon. Its got descent drums on it. I use Cubase VST to sequence/create my loops. Once they're made, my record out on my audio card goes to a mixer then to my Triton Rack. I sample the whole loop that way I can trigger the whole loop-at-once from the Triton.

But to answer your question, the Triton is a all inclusive machine. Drum machine, sequencer (if you dont have the rack version), and use it for vocals if you have enough ram.

AND IT SOUNDS AWESOME !!! Most major recording studios have at LEAST ont triton or triton rack.

Hope this helps.