Making a home studio question

[Manik]

Hi. I have about $4000 to set up my home studio. I want to use my PC (1.4ghz, SCSI 20Gig) I'm a guitarist and a novice bass player. I've been scouring the internet trying to find out the best way to go about this. So far, I have a Digitech RP21D, and a guitar. Heres what I need:
To be able to play and record my guitar on the PC. I think if I got one of those RME Digi96 series soundcards I could use the SPDIF out/in to hook up my RP21d. Right?
I need to be able to record drum beats, bass and all those wierd noises. I have been thinking about getting a midi keyboard controller and gigasampler for all my wierd noises. For bass, I figured a Bass guitar and a bass effects procesor. Drums, a drum machine or a groove box?
Vocals. A mic and some kind of effects processor for vocals?
Speakers for the PC. I am guessing that I'll need some amplified Studio Monitors, or would headphones work just as well?
Cubase or Cakewalk?

I'm really pretty much clueless here. It's taken me a long time to save up this money, and I don't want to spend it on the wrong equipment. And how on earth would I go about hooking all this stuff up to the comp? Would I need a hub of some kind? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

-Nate

[Blue Bear Sound]

Before you spend a dime on gear - go get yourself the following indispensable reference books...

Behind The Glass - Howard Massey
Modern Recording Techniques - Huber & Runstein
The Mixing Engineer's Handlbook - Bobby Owsinski
Total Recording - Dave Moulton

Read them end to end, THEN start thinking about the gear you want - you'll be in a much better position to make buying decisions.

Bruce

[xtremedb]

That's a great list Bruce. I would add Yamaha's Live Sound Reinforcement Manual. I know it's not technically for the studio, but there's so much good information there! I consider it to be the Bible, at least as far as reference purposes go.

Brad Gallagher
http://www.just-for-musicians.com/

[Wide Awake]

I don't know if you can use a computer for recording AND a software sampler (like Gigasampler) at the same time. Maybe someone could elaborate on that.

Having a good set of powered monitors is one of the best investments you can make, and I guarantee that they are less fatiguing to your ears than using headphones. Monitors are VERY essential for proper mixing and you will get more enjoyment out of recording and composing if you have a decent pair. Fortunately, the price of them have come down and there are lots of choices these days.

To decide what drum machine or groove box to buy, I recommend going to a couple of music stores and playing with them. Some are geared toward techno and dance music, and some have realistic drum sounds that will work in rock, pop, or country music. The best thing is to just check them all out.

[frank_1]

Before you spend a dime on gear - go get yourself the following indispensable reference books...

BRUCE, I don't know if you read all of those books but if you did which one would you recommend that has the most useful info in it. I'm talking about the most Bang-For-Buck ratio.

I'm pretty sure I got most of the basics down, but I am no where near to be considered a "good" mixing maniac. I am interested in Rock bands, even some hard/metal bands.

So what book should I look into to find great mixing techniques, and also micing techniques.



F.J.A.

[c7sus]

Forget what Bruce said.......

Go get the cheapest soundcard, cheapest mic pre, and cheapest mic you can find. Fool around with it for about 6 months. Then, come back here with a lotta questions about how to make a $99 signal chain sound "pro". Oh, and do all your mixes on a boombox.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally posted by frank_1


BRUCE, I don't know if you read all of those books but if you did which one would you recommend that has the most useful info in it. I'm talking about the most Bang-For-Buck ratio.

I'm pretty sure I got most of the basics down, but I am no where near to be considered a "good" mixing maniac. I am interested in Rock bands, even some hard/metal bands.

So what book should I look into to find great mixing techniques, and also micing techniques.



F.J.A.

I have read them all... every one is a gem and should be required reading --- BUT if I were to pick the most comprehensive in a single volume, I suppose it would be Moulton's Total Recording...

BUT AGAIN... what makes those 4 such a resource is that they seem to complement each other very well - in areas where one or more volumes has less info on a particular topic, the others fill in easily. Makes a very well-rounded resource as a whole....

Bruce

[Blue Bear Sound]

C7... that was pretty funny!

[darrin_h2000]

Total recording by moulton.

Ive read a few articals in recording magazines by this dude now im anxios to read his book. thanks


by the way dont buy a drum machine at the music store. the pawn shops are full of them , you will find a roland korg or boss for about 50.00 bucks.

[gordone]

I recommend that Waves Native Power Pack manual. It cost me ~$250US, but it comes with a free CD-ROM with some kickin' plug-ins on it, so I guess it was worth it. :-)

Seriously, I always thought about picking up a real book in addition to what I read on the net, and the Waves manual has some great information on digital audio (especially re. dithering/noise shaping), reverb (even if the Waves RealVerb has too many different parameters) and EQ. I think you can download each individual manual off the http://www.waves.com site, but I like having the physical book.

Cheers!

-Evan

Originally posted by Blue Bear Sound
I have read them all... every one is a gem and should be required reading --- BUT if I were to pick the most comprehensive in a single volume, I suppose it would be Moulton's Total Recording...

BUT AGAIN... what makes those 4 such a resource is that they seem to complement each other very well - in areas where one or more volumes has less info on a particular topic, the others fill in easily. Makes a very well-rounded resource as a whole....

Bruce

[Jerry Kahn]

"...and gigasampler for all my wierd noises."

As Wide Awake indicated, using your PC for gigasamper AND recording on it might be pushing it. I think it COULD work if you're careful and don't expect full polyphony (160 voices) on GigaSampler. Based on what you want to do, and it sounds like you aren't gonna be orchestrating the next Star Wars, you'll probably be OK.. just watch your hardware compatibility...

Check out:
http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/No...ML/000543.html

-jk

[frank_1]

BUT if I were to pick the most comprehensive in a single volume, I suppose it would be Moulton's Total Recording...

Bruce, I looked far and wide for "Total Recording". I can't find it at Amazon.com or Barnes and Nobles.com. Where do I LooK? I am going out of my mind for this thing.

P.S.---If I end up never finding it can you tell me the 2nd most usefull book out of the bunch. I hate to be a pain in the a*s, but I must fulfill my need to succeed in the wonderful world of Studio Recording.

Thanx a million and 1 times!

[Manik]

Alright! Four books to read!!
I ordered all of them except for "total recording", which I can't find either. Thanks for the advice. I have been looking at books on recording on this site and at other sites and it's nice to know what experienced recording artists recommend.
As for the gigasampler problem, do you think it would be better to run it on another seperate hard drive/OS? I think I'm going to go ahead and get either cakewalk or cubase so I can mess with it and figure it out. Which do you guys recommend?
Thanks for all your help.
-Nate

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally posted by frank_1


Bruce, I looked far and wide for "Total Recording". I can't find it at Amazon.com or Barnes and Nobles.com. Where do I LooK? I am going out of my mind for this thing.

You can definitely get it from http://www.kiqproductions.com - that's where I picked mine up from...

Bruce

[frank_1]

Once more, thanks Bruce

Bruce that book is about $100!! Umm, is there a book a tad cheaper then that but almost as effective? If so I would love to know it!



Doesn't gigasampler only work on cakewalk. I think is comes with the high-end cakewalk but what else can that work with? I know it is a sampler, but how good is this gigasampler ?

[Blue Bear Sound]

I honestly haven't found anything quite as comprehensive - it is really in-depth, it goes way beyond the typical "this is how you connect a mixer" crap... put it this way, it's like talking for a few days continuously with Sjoko or a diplomatic version of Ed!

It's like a readable (and more detailed) version of the rec.audio.pro faq.... everything you need to know and the why's behind the need to know!

Paper gold my friend!!! Well worth it.... it does come with an analysis CD and also samples.

Bruce

[frank_1]

Hey brucie baby, you wouldn't happen to have a book laying around called "Total Recording" by any chance, would you? You wouldn't happen to want to sell that "little" book would you, for umm about $50-$60?

Just triying to get some used stuff, Ya know.

-If you don't want to sell it just say Hell NO Frank_1 I don't ever want to sell that jem of a book!

[Blue Bear Sound]

If you're new to recording, it will be a little intimidating to read (at least some chapters). If you're an intermediate or expert, it makes an excellent reference.

SO............... Hell no Frank - I'm never parting with that gem of a book!!!!

Bruce

[Jerry Kahn]

do you think it would be better to run it on another seperate hard drive/OS?

... it is unquestionably better to run gigasampler / gigastudio on its own machine. Especially if you are expecting full polyphony and the most stable situation. Read that thread I posted. The giga experts agree on this. -jk

[Executivos]

You need to decided what hardware/software you want to run, but with 1.4 ghz you shouldn't have a problem. Like someone else said, watch compatibility.