$50,000 Budget - How's this project studio sound?

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For that money I'd get a Pro Tools HD system. Keep back a decent amount of money for the building work and then keep a little more for marketing.
 
I would...
  • ...budget some money for a modest studio
  • ...consider the Kurzweil KSP-8 with the mLan add-in that enables the KSP-8 to act as the sound card/audio interface to your computer
  • ...get the latest and greatest AMD Athlon64 on a PCI Express board and stick in a couple of UAD-1 DSP processors. Make sure the computer has the hotest PCI Express compatible GeForce graphics adapter that supports two monitors (you'll know why come January... Apple is going to be PISSED)
  • ...get two 19" LCD displays
  • ...get tape backup
  • ...get a good UPS
  • ...get more microphones
  • ...get a variety of preamps
 
Are we talking about building a commercial tracking studio?

There is something out of balance here . . . spending $50K and posting on the newbie board, for starters.

Other things:

32 channel board and a grand total of 7 mics? Do you already have some mics? Seriously, you'll need a few more vocal choices than the 103, 4000 & 58, plus a couple of pairs of SDCs, a pair of LDCs, a good quality dynamic, a ribbon, an omni, maybe a PZM. A tracking studio needs a serious mic locker.

Put a little into the building? What is the building right now? How big is it? Big enough for a control room, big live room, iso booths, bathrooms, kitchen? I'd budget at least $10K for the building and that's if you just need some partition walls and sound treatment.


There's more . . . but quite honestly I have $15K in my studio, so I know how to spend that much on a studio and how to work that studio. I dunno how to do a $50K studio. Do you know how to work in one?
 
What is the point of a 32 channel board and only 8 ins and outs. If you want to mix through the board you are going to need enough I/O to make it worth your while.

The shure drum pack is worthless, what happens when you have a drumset with 3 toms? or you want to mic the bottom of the snare as well? what about overheads?

You would be better off buying high end mic pre's and not getting the board.

Don't blow the money on all this at once. You will make some short-sided choices and blow the money on a lot of nothing.

I have close to 4 times that amount of money invested in my studio even doing the construction myself and getting manufacturer discounts on equipment and I still get into situations where I need more than I have.
 
bonoman. i agree with wheelema - go amd 64.
frankly and with the greatest respect i dont think you have to spend
50k. ive seen it done with 10k for a very nice daw set up (minus building work etc).
also with so many studios struggling to get income that have really top
end equipment and some that have been in biz for years even struggling - consider carefully this venture if your thinking of a commercial nature.
the heart of any studio daw these days is the convertors.
i wouild suggest you look at lynx. pro's think they are the cats meow - but check em out for yourself.
 
No offense, but your equipment list sucks. Soundcraft GHOST? ROFL!!! For that kind of money you can get something that rocks that mixer. Behringer anything? WTF? Not enough mics for starters.

Here is my equipment list for a studio I'm putting together on a 40k budget... and only 29k is for equipment--the rest is for acoustics, rent, remodeling, studio furniture, advertisement and so forth.

HARDWARE 13K

Distressor EL8x Empirical Labs
Massive Passive Manley
2-1176LN Universal Audio
LA2A Universal Audio
Monitor One Alesis
S3 Pair ADAM
2-610 Preamp Universal Audio
2108 Pre Universal Audio
TMC-6 Roland
DS501 Punch Gate Drawmer
Charisma 2 SPL
Transient Designer SPL
Pan 03 Palmer
162 DBX
120A DBX
HD24XR Alesis
800b 32x8 Soundcraft

EFFECTS 5K

Quintet TC Helicon
Voice One 2.0 TC Helicon
SRV-3030 Roland
SDE-330 Roland
Bass Pod Pro Line6
Tonelab Vox
ISA 428 Focusrite
SDD1000 Korg
PCM41 Lexicon
D2 TC Electronic
M*One TC Electronic
Aural Exciter C2 Aphex

MICS 4K

414 BULS (2) AKG
C2000 (2) AKG
RE20 (1) ElectroVoice
D112 (1) AKG
SM57 (4) Shure
SM7 (1) Shure
C-1 (2) Studio Projects
NT1 (1) Rode
C451 (2) AKG
SM81 (1) Shure

COMPUTER 4K

3.6 ghz + MOBO ASUS
200 GB HD (2)
2 gb RAM Kingston
Server Case 4U Skycases
VX70 Monitor ViewSonic
Powercore Ele TC Electronic
Sony Oxford Sony
Cubase SX Steinberg
Wavelab Steinberg
 
Cloneboy, I may have missed it, but how are you getting into the computer? (interfaces)
 
Farview said:
Cloneboy, I may have missed it, but how are you getting into the computer? (interfaces)
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I already own the HD24XR and Fireport, and about 10k or so of other gear and instruments now. I didn't include patchbays, cabling, utilities and other fun stuff on there either.

Why go down a digital generation when I can just copy?

I *HATE* mixing on the computer. My setup is designed to mix on the analog board. I'm probably adding a MTR-10 to the setup to mix down to analog 2 track by dropping the 2108 preamp or the ISA 428.

Also, my equipment build up is to be in stages. I can't really afford to get all the vital things I want at once so the upgraded mixer (Neotek Elite II) and HD recorder (RADAR II w/ upgraded converters) will come sometime during year 2.

The cost of those two items is so prohibitive that I felt they had to wait until phase 2. The other reason why there are no AD/DA converters on my list--the good ones will come with the RADAR.
 
protein said:
For that money I'd get a Pro Tools HD system. Keep back a decent amount of money for the building work and then keep a little more for marketing.
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No offense, but why spend top dollar for a system that will devalue astronomically? I mean, if you are going to record digitally either do it sensibly with equipment that keeps value better like a HD24 or better yet a used RADAR 24 bit?

Personally, for what you get with Pro-Tools it is not worth the bang to buck ratio. To me all they are is a successful marketing campaign led by Trent Reznor's audio experiments into becoming a bogus 'standard' that is accomplished equally as well by a half dozen other companies products at 1/10th the price.

Not to turn this into a pro/anti Pro-Tools argument. I myself would be hesitant on investing that much money in something I know will instantly devalue by a factor of 5 in 2 years.
 
Cloneboy Studio said:
Not to turn this into a pro/anti Pro-Tools argument. I myself would be hesitant on investing that much money in something I know will instantly devalue by a factor of 5 in 2 years.
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but that's true with any digital recording program you use. it what you say is true, then why buy a computer? it's only going to devalue. why buy a digital effects processor?? it's only gonna get beat out by a new processor in a year or so. truth is you can say the same thing for some analog gear. hardly anything ever increases in value. consider the first analog tape machines. compare how much they were back then and how much they are now.

how many recording studios are there that still have and use EVERYTHING from when they started 30 years ago? everyone updates...it's human nature. you want the newest and best thing that there is to get. It's also what makes our economy stay strong. but there isn't any reason that you can't keep a G5 with Pro Tools HD Accel 3 for years and years to come? With good upkeep it can last you for a long time. It's not like they've built in a bug to stop working after 2 years (at least i hope they haven't :eek: :D )
 
u2bonoman said:
Hello all, I might be coming into a little money soon. It will be around $50,000. I figure I will get lots of gear, and put some into the actual building itself... ....
Ok... can you guys help me with some stuff I may be missing?? How does this setup sound???
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Get some one that has made a ton of records to help you spend this money!!!! Really! Hiring some one with some serious knowledge can help you spend this money wisely. Find some one that does not work at a music store. Sad thing is that lots of guys that sell pro gear have never made a record in their life (certainly not all, but most)

$50k will not buy you Abbey Road studios, but for that money you can put together a really kick ass room, if you mix and match new and used equipment. A good consultant will help you figure out what you really need for what you want to do with the studio. For that kind of money you can put together a nice cozy pro level studio. The gear you have spec'ed out is a so so project studio.
 
I'd take 25k of that and just make a control room, live room, dead room, and full fledged echo chamber.

That would make even Behringer stuff sound good.



All the equipment in the world doesn't mean squat.
 
Ronan said:
The gear you have spec'ed out is a so so project studio.
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That was my point. The gear selection wasn't very powerful... it seemed like what a musician would think was good stuff. Not to bash on you, because the pro audio world is so small and poorly documented its not easy to figure out what's good and what isn't.

I'll give you a hint though (shameless plug for Fletcher): mercenary audio generally carries only top of the line gear. If they carry it chances are it will rock your world.
 
bennychico11 said:
but that's true with any digital recording program you use. it what you say is true, then why buy a computer? it's only going to devalue. why buy a digital effects processor?
Click to expand...

In general I buy devalued digital processors and gear at a fraction of the regular price a few years after it's out. I don't care to be 'state of the art'... to tell you the truth most of the digital processing in the 80's is good enough for me.

I mean, a Roland SDE1000 still sounds good. A Yamaha REV7 or SPX90 still sounds decent. All can be had for a pittance.

I'm a firm believer in using whatever it takes to get the job done. If you look at my gear list/method I'm using digital recording, analog processing, analog RTR mixdown, digital processing, some computer/plug in processing (mostly wave editing), some tube gear, some class A gear, and so on.

I look for good products that have a lot of character.

In general I'd rather have a 2k unit devaluing rather than a 10k system. When I go to buy my RADAR it *will* be used and probably set me back about 3k.
 
well heres further thoughts fwiw....
if you anticipate a significant revenue stream for your studio ,
and have solid signed contracts lined up then i would say go for a high end studio. maybe even consider purchasing an existing recording studio with
proven year after year revenue flow.
there are certain businesses in this world that do well.
particularly businesses that people NEED . food is one, and pharmacy products is another as examples. these type of businesses survive recessions as well. but the recording biz is not a basic need.
the negatives with the biz is equipment devalues, cut throat hourly rate
slashing and in a recession a lot go under. particularly with big loans.
in summary there are just too many studios around trying to earn a living.
my feeling is stay very very small , picking up used quality stuff as you build
up and dont get into big loans you might not be able to repay in the future.
 
I'm all about the "good gear with character" and the USED part will take you far... Especially for "keystone" gear. Nameplates like Sontec, Manley, Massenburg, Cranesong - Whatever you but it for used (typically around 30-33% off list) is probably what you can sell it for down the road. Top-flight analog gear tends to hold its value as long as it's well maintained.

Once the word "digital" is in there, obviously this isn't the case. But for sure, if you find a nice used RADAR out there for cheap, it'll certainly sound continue to sound good as long as its functioning properly.

Best of luck, and keep checking those "Used Gear" listings - But be cautious buying from anyone online - espcially if they don't have their own domain or use free-to-the-public e-mail services.
 
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