E Q U I P M E N T D I L E M A

[trebles]

Hello there in my quest for finding good equipment i feel ive got there in a way but now i found out that what i want to achieve with sound wont come with the equipment ive picked out

disapointing indeed but i guess it would have been worse had i spent the dollars to find that out.

So to achieve it as it was put to me sonic purity i will require alot better gear then ive chosen for the job could anyone who actually knows sugest to me a way this can be done i see a lot of gear out on ebay but i guess this stuff can be expensive to repair i know a little about pro gear but know i still will need it long term to get the sound i require.

what i do know is digital gear aint up to the standards of the old tried and true gear well not yet anyway expensive as it is if one keeps their eye open iam sure there are deals about essp if a studio goes bust

A 24 track set up is what i want ive seen a studer A827,24 track Master recorder and yeah it cost heaps but what im wanting to know is if you buy gear like this what are all the other pieces that go with this gear?

Id say you would need also a ReVox PR99 MkIII by W. Studer 71/2"&15"ipsPRO for mix down to 1/4 inch tape from the the big half inch stuff not sure about what neve panel you would get with 24 channels or how different it is to the semi pro stuff i mean i know the quality is out of this world just the way its spread out is what i am asking LIKE HOW DIFFERENT ARE THEY TO USE.

As i said i know little about this gear accept if you want the big CLEAN TRANSPARENT CRYSTAL CLEAR studio recordings you seem to need this gear or its equiv to get there ive been told even with the right person mixing and a great sound studio to record in your equipment can still be your weakest link in the chain so with all this knowledge in tow what do i do now other then save alot and pray someone goes bust is there any other way close to what i am talking about here or is it just as simple as saying you pick your end of the market stay there and be content with what you get ??

And yes i know your recording enviroment mics and mic pres are most important as well essp if you want good sound.

some one anyone with experience here this would be greatly valued THANKING YOU

Wayne
Melbourne Australia :-)

[c7sus]

Tell Ricky Martin you need all that analog stuff. La Vida Loca was the first all-digital release to hit number 1.

Pro Tools.

The stuff you are talking about is probably 60-75 grand US or more. You could do Protools for half that, Paris for a bit less.

I'm no pro but I know you need good rooms, good mics, blah blah blah and you need good ears too and somebody that knows how to tweak pots and sweeten it all up. Are you trying to get into the recording biz or are you a musician?

Start small and build your skills. When you know how to operate the little boy stuff then you'll be able to better understand which big boy stuff you really need. As far as mediums go, hell, a 20-bit Layla blows away any tape machine the Beatles ever laid tracks to.....

[psmith66]

Actually, the Beatles used equipment that was obsolete for the 1960's. Apparantly EMI were too cheap to spend any $$$ on decent gear for their studios. Wasn't until the Apple period that they started using decent stuff.

[trebles]

Thank you all so far for your replies.

Ok heres my concern, i dont want to buy a whole swag of equipment only to find out i went the wrong way, or my recordings sound thin and not like the big studios put out.

Then to think this could have been avoided if i bought better gear to start with.

Ok i know its a grand wish from my level to want such dizzy heights so soon, and i am not saying i am even up to the level with my skills, but as i am learning i dont want to pay top dollars for stuff and sell it the next 6 to 12 months when i get better only to have to finance the whole thing all over again.

I came to some conclusions about recording gear and asked many questions in past forums, i even went on mad goose chases thinking i found the next big thing only to be dissapointed and have to start the search ALLOVER again.

I decided that it would be smart to build a daw ok that way i have something to play with while i saved for the 24 or 32 track 8 buss console, and all the rest in the chain to have the equipment to put into a real studio.

so i thought ok get the daw then the mixer, then the monitors and so on till i have all intact.

ok this all sounds simple enough till you go find one thing then it lacks somewhere else and off you go again and this is what ive been doing so far.

Im going to list what i was looking at and the reason ive put a hold on this gear was till a few more people confirm what i am getting will give me the results i seek.

console= studiomaster mixdown classic 32x8 or the 24x8

http://www.studiomaster.com/new/mdclasic.htm

Aphex 107 Dual Channel Mic Preamp

Aphex 109 Tube eq

Joe Meek vc1q Studio channel Mic preamp

Focusrite Platinum Penta Compressor

Lexicon mpx 500 24 bit digital signal processor

Mackie Hdr24/96hdisk recorder

Have plenty of patchbay so i dont need that

mixer loom with breakout box for the above mentioned desk

Mackie hr824 monitors

Furman srm 80 signal router monitor

alesis masterlink for mixdown ?? not sure about this though just a guess.

mic stands etc plenty of those on hand

Mics Neumann u 87
akg c414
shure ksm 44
have a swag of beta 58 and 57,s

also some intrest in some audio technica mic and
some octavias but not sure on either of those as yet

With the computer end of it i wanted a delta 10 10
lucid ad9624 24 bit ad convertors
a maxtor diamondmax 7200 h disk and iam pretty right for the rest of the pc stuff just the above items i still need

ok am i going about this the right way here or should i think about this another way getting the gear cheaper is not a problem just knowing the gear ive picked is correct would be a great relief to the system please understand its hard as a newbie as there is so dam much to research and sometimes we all get stars in our eyes and yes iam willing to take on advice as long as it is logical and makes sense anyway i hope this all was not too confusing to see where i am coming from and where the hell i am trying to head lets hope with some sanity still intact.

kindest regards

Wayne
Melbourne Australia thank you all for your assistance cheers :-))

[CyanJaguar]

http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/dec00/a...tion/after.MP3

http://www.hypersonic.se/music/Phili..._OnMyKnees.mp3

http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/1662/1662459.html

http://142.59.127.47:8080/downloads/...eb-perfume.mp3


www.mp3.com/suzanneciani
listen to turning


what you'll find is that these are great mixes. Never mind that I threw one of mine in there. You'll know it cos its the worst.

These mixes are infact commercial ready mixes.

NOt one of them saw tape.

What they had in common was the monitoring. Genelecs, adam, quested. In fact, my favorite was recorded with a behringer pre.

If you don't have the right monitoring, your sound will never be there, cos you will have some guess work involved. But if you have the right monitoring, make it sound great on your speakers and it will sound great to everyone.

They also had in common:

lexicon reverbs. minimum quality pcm 91. some use lexicon 300

awesome microphones: minimum quality. groove tubes md1. max u87

good preamps and good converters

se finit

[SPINSTERWUN]

First of all, trebles, you have to figure out how much money you are intending to spend.

Then, you can figure out what you can afford to purchase.

spin

[trebles]

Thank you Cyan Jaguar will go listen to those mp3,s once i re install sound on this pc hehe lots of dramas here :-) and thank you also for they advice you left me some good points there :-)

spinsterwun the gear ive mentioned is pretty well what ive budgeted for but i guess if there is any weak link in the chain above that anyone could point out like maybe if a something ive chosen is not so great and id be better looking at a different piece of equipment for another reason then thats really what i trying to figure out.

I do realise technique and enviroment in which i record is far greater then what i could own but as ive been told if your equipment aint right it dont matter how good the rest is you weak link is still what your bought.

eg. i was looking at consoles for a while and i realise that neve trident api and the likes are all better consoles then the ones im looking at but i dont feel i can afford those and if i did buy one id blow most of the budget so reality has to prevail here.

I started looking first of all at the Mackie consoles which seemed real nice but soon after i found out that even they were not exactly up to spec the only mackie mixer i still feel is a nice little package is the 1604 vlz pro but it will be too small for what i want to achieve so maybe as a secondary mixer later on it may be ok to get one but for now i want to concentrate on getting either a good 24 8 buss or a 32 8 buss console.

studiomaster consoles have caught my eye but i know little about them what i will say is they look well thought out and build and they seem very well priced compared to other consoles in their price range above i left a link for the studiomaster console i was intrested in looking at maybe someone could take a quick look and let me know if they feek this has all the goods.

the only other console ive thought i might be able to stretch to get would be the soundcraft ghost series i know little about these too except soundcraft have had a good name for quite sometime now so their gear should be a fairly safe bet anyway thank you all again for the assistance looking forward to some more views :-)

kindest regards Wayne
Melbourne Australia :-)

[CyanJaguar]

hey,

cool. Youre in australia. I will be passing through australia next week, but I dont think they will allow me leave the airport in sydney.

I was going to say something about a board. I have read from a few people, some with awesome boards like amek, who use the console for nothing but talkback and some mixing.

Most people prefer to track through preamps than boards except where they can get a vintage neve. And not just any vintage neve. Some specific ones are mentioned.

So it will be a better Idea to spend the money on channels rather than a board. APis, neves, focusrite, joemeek etc.

OK. You said that you were looking at the lucid ad. One of the songs I posted above was using lucid. Can you guess which one?
Two songs were apogee converters. Can you guess which?
one was motu 2408 and digidesign converters. Which?
one was dat converters.

Can you alo guess which two were using
nuemann u87?
groove tubes md1
marshall v67
blue mouse (my favorite)

which one were using which preamps
focusrite platinum
behringer tube
symetrix 528
millenia medium (my favorite)

etc

[trebles]

Hi ya Cyan again a big thank you to you for all your assistance

once ive got this wretched pc sorted to allow me to re install all my sound software and drivers again i should be right dam sound blasters :-)you got to hate em hehehe

i am very much looking forward to listening to all you have posted some time this week when ive done the above.

I think what you are trying to tell me here if i assume correct is that you can use many different pieces of equipment to get a great result its just how and where its used to get those results
to tell the differences between all you are using would be hard its a bit like knowing the sounds of different vintage guitar pickups and knowing what combinations sound like with different woods
the wood being what flavours the overall sound of the pickup anyway.

I guess if this were to be achieved you would have to be using the identical piece of music listened to under the same controlled condition with the same monitors the same room etc etc the list goes on forever and then only a trained ear who has used these mic and mic pre combinations would be able to tell you so me listening though lil yamaha speakers and a soundblaster live 128 will do no justice to your efforts there cyan

I will say that i do take your point and agree but for me to get basic here should i just go and buy more great mic pres and mics which will do the job and then buy a less expensive panel this is where iam a lil lost.

if you take a look at my equipment list as above in one of my earlier posts is this equipment ive listed you feel adequite to get me the desired results i spoke of earlier given the enviroment is acoustically correct and the technique is not lacking which means having the ear to hear what one mixes then the skills to put it all together, is there anything in my list you would personally avoid essp the panel does anyone know anything about studiomaster panels there is a link above linking to the very panel i speak of all its spec are there too.

gee guys you have all been real nice i thank you all i just hope iam making some sense here :-))

Kind regards
Wayne
Melbourne Australia

Cyan Let me know if your in melbourne cyan i,ll come meet ya hehehe sydney is my old home i,ll be back there in september for another old hometown visit spent all my rock n roll days watching all the best undiscovered acts there :-)