Help - Buying Studio Equipment

C

Cageofmind

New member
Hey guys,
This is my first post in here and I am looking for a little help. I am interested in possibly getting into the recording aspect of the business. I am tired of spending mounds of money to record at local studios. I am just going to be upfront with all of you, I dont know a bunch about recording at this moment. But, I am a fast learner and extremely good with a computer, so learning shouldnt be a problem. I am curious as to what some of you guys would suggest for a set up. I know that is kind of vague because everyone has their own personal tastes but I am kind of curious as to what everyone thinks.

I own a pretty high quality PC and a dead room that should be good for recording in. One of the main things with this setup is I have to be able to record my drums through it. For that I need between 10 and 14 inputs. Drum mics are not an issue, I own my own high quality mics for my set. Software also wont be an issue, I have almost every piece of music software out right now. I need to be able to record Guitar, Bass, Vocals, and my drums. I need an interface, a mixer, monitors, a sound card, mics, and anything else to give my recordings a good quality sound. Basically the works. I am looking to spend between $3,000 - $5,000 (But of course cheaper is better).

Please include links and model numbers if at all possible! Let me know what you think!
 
Welcome Newb. You have come to the right place for learning. Many of the folks here are rookies and many are well experienced and skilled. Some are pros but, several are merely bedroom recordists. That’s a good thing. We have a healthy blend of people here who contribute to the communal bond.

However, a big broad-stroked question like that would sure take a lot of typing to answer effectively. I wouldn't know whether to start teaching you about all the different types of gear first or just start recommending brands. If it is a shopping list you seek, everyone here would probably disagree to the ends of the earth anyway. To be an educated consumer in this business you need to do a little homework.

I would first hang around and spend some time reading. There is a wealth of information here. Many questions are already answered. Learn to use the search tool here and ponder the discussions until your heart is content. In no time at all, you may find yourself helping others. And that's what makes it all go round.

While many of us cannot afford the really high end gear, we don't really like the cheapest stuff much either. We tend to stick in the middle somewhere where price and performance seem to meet one another.

Good Luck
RawDepth
 
Cageofmind said:
I have almost every piece of music software out right now.
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All bought and paid for legal copies, I'm sure...

If you have all the stuff you list, then all you're really missing is a quality way to get sounds into your computer, assuming you won't mind mixing 'in the box'. This is one that everyone here is talking about, but with 8 inputs you'd need two of them to get your target number of inputs. The good news is it is possible to run two at once. Alternatively, there's this and this.
 
Reply

To RawDepth: Thank you for the kind welcome. I do believe you are right, I probably should be doing more research before I throw out such a vague topic. I thought I would throw it out there though and just see what you all had to say back. I will be taking another look around through these forums and gather some more information. Thank you.

To ssscientist: Thank you for your reply. Of course all of that software is legal, what do you think I am, some sort to theift? :p I read a whole thread on here about The PreSonus Firepod, seems as though it is the hot new thing on here to get, I just wish it had a few more inputs. Quick questions about that though, is Cubase the only software that works with that interface? I really dont like Cubase. Why wouldnt I just go out an buy a mixer with the right number of inputs and plug it into the computer? How would that work? For the most part, most of the threads I have read in here have been anti-mixer, why? Just curious.

Anyways, thank you to both of you for your help. I will be back soon enough with more questions!
 
If you are serious about recording do yourself a favor and start slow, as well as read/find out everything you can about the subject before you start buying stuff.

If you start buying stuff today you will end up replacing most/all of it within six months and wasting some serious money.

There's the continual argument about gear vs. engineering as being more important for recording. Personally I find that both are equally important. Right now you need to focus on upping your knowledge so you can pick the RIGHT GEAR FOR YOUR NEEDS.

In my experience the budget you'll need to think about spending is around 5-6k to equal even a moderate "pro" studio... that and about 2 years experience. If you have the time and money by all means go for it. If that seems too long to wait and too much to spend maybe you should stick with the local studios.

Just to put things in perspective, at the studio I work at the average microphone is around 1000 bucks. I'll have anywhere from 4 to 12 mics up on an average drumkit. Plus preamps that run around 500 to 1000 bucks PER CHANNEL. Plus all of that running into a ProTools HD4 setup that costs 10 times your total budget.

Moral of the story: spend your money wisely if you want to compete. You can do it, but you can't "waste" money on bad or cheap gear.

Also, sad to say, the software that you have probably isn't top notch... seeing as the better plugins are either TC Powercore or UAD-1 plugs that need the hardware to run. Waves plugins just don't cut it anymore in the pro world.

It's a lot to consider and a bigger step than you think... especially since about .02% of recording has anything to do with "computer smarts."
 
Cageofmind said:
I just wish it had a few more inputs. Quick questions about that though, is Cubase the only software that works with that interface? I really dont like Cubase.
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The Presonus Firepod has only eight inputs. But, as I pointed out above, you can use two at a time to feed a total of sixteen inputs into your software. It does NOT work with only Cubase, which I don't currently use, but with Tracktion, Reason, Live, FL Producer and Acid, all of which I do use as well as packages like Sonar and N-tracks which are at the high and the low end of the software spectrum. There is one piece of software the Firepod will not work with - protools. That's because Digidesign wants it that way - they've recently bent to market forces and made some MAudio products, but IMHO that's just a marketing ploy.

And Cloneboy is both right and wrong. Right in telling you that if you rush into buying anything you'll probably be sorry and end up punting some things, and wrong in implying you need to spend a ton of money to get professional results. A good DAW - self contained hard disk recorder - can give you solid, professional results in the hands of a good engineer, and the '$1000 mics' and '$500-$1000 mic pre's' can sound like absolute crap depending on who's behind the board...
 
Listen to Cloneboy and Sscientist. Buy a piece and really learn how to use it, then buy a piece that is complimentary. Save a ton of money that way and turn around a better product, too. I'm a MOTU 896HD afficianado.


-Casey
 
These folks all dwarf me in terms of knowledge and gear, but I thought I'd add a little tidbit of advice.

I was in the same boat as you, having recorded at some pretty good studios, setting me back some serious coin. I too thought I'd try my hand at doing it myself and had considered blowing $5000 right off the start, but instead decided I would buy a bare bones setup so that I could decide if engineering was for me or not. I would be wary of spending all that cash if you've never done anything like this yourself before.

If you've got mics and software already, try just running one Presonus Firepod for now (surely you can trim your setup on your drums down to 8 mics for now) and mess around for a few months before going and spending your entire $5000 when you're so new to the game. Maybe I'm wrong, but starting out cautiously has worked out very well for me thus far. Best of luck!
 
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