Home Recording Studio Equipment?

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dansted

New member
I want to build a one room home recording studio with a laptop. The final goal is to be able to record good quality songs/jingles that I eventually can sell.. But I am absolutely no genies when it comes to equipment, therefore this will surely be a lot of stupid questions!!

Does an audio-interface have midi sounds built in, or do I need some other form of hardware/software?

Should I use an audio-interface + a mixer or just an audio-interface, which gives the cleanest signal?

What equipment (audio-interface, mixer, etc.) is good when I want:
- The least possible noise on my songs
- To connect and record 8 condenser microphones at once (drum recording)
- To connect an electric guitar
- To connect a midi controller
- Good sounding midi sounds

And what about the laptop, what brand laptop is the most noiseless?



Thanks!!!!
 
if you want 'clean' - less is always better. Presuming entry level gear is what we are talking about, eliminating the mixer will most likely give you the cleanest sound.

an interface is the actual hardware. Most hardware does not have midi sounds built in (besides units designed for that particular purpose). For midi sounds, you typically use software- such as Reason, or various other sampler/ sound engine applications. These are more or less plugins. some have standalone capabilities, some are reliant on your DAW.
 
TragikRemix said:
if you want 'clean' - less is always better. Presuming entry level gear is what we are talking about, eliminating the mixer will most likely give you the cleanest sound.

an interface is the actual hardware. Most hardware does not have midi sounds built in (besides units designed for that particular purpose). For midi sounds, you typically use software- such as Reason, or various other sampler/ sound engine applications. These are more or less plugins. some have standalone capabilities, some are reliant on your DAW.
Click to expand...


Really? How much impact does having a mixer (vs. a smaller pre-amp) have on the quality?
 
There are plenty of interfaces available that will meet your requirements. I suggest looking at firewire interfaces for 6 or more channels.

http://www.sweetwater.com/shop/computer-audio/audio_interfaces/

There are some mixers that include a firewire converter, I use one and love it for its flexibility.

Most any laptop will do, the laptop itself will not add noise unless the fan is noisey. You might want to consider getting a 2nd physical hard drive for your audio files. You run your daw application on your o/s drive and store teh audio files on your 2nd drive. This way, when you're recording the DAW is not competing with the o/s for drive access time while writing audio files to disk.

midi controllers:

http://www.sweetwater.com/shop/keyboards/keyboard-controllers/

Midi sounds are a different story and range from free to more than you could possibly imagine. For that you should do some research. Most DAW's will have basic VSTi's included. A VSTi is a software-based midi instrument. It runs within your DAW and you control it with your midi controller.

Hope this helps,
 
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JonPaulP said:
Really? How much impact does having a mixer (vs. a smaller pre-amp) have on the quality?
Click to expand...

From his original post, it seemed he was going to say "ive got 400 bucks to spend", and in that case, adding a completely unneccessary budget mixer, coupled with mediocre cabling, could definitley reduce quality.

but since he's got some cash to spend, it would not. just don't skimp on the cables, or throw it together with duct tape and shoe string.

and if pre's are built in to the audio interface, and you are presumably not buying a mixer with high end pre's, i'd venture to say a simple signal route would be optimal. Why add another piece for nothing? and if he wants 6-8 simultaneous tracks for drums, a mixer might give him less flexibility in the mixing stage. Its harder to adjust levels of say a snare within a stereo mix than if the snare was on its own track.

just thinking, what type of condensers are you going to be using?
 
My obligatory standard reply-for-newbies that I keep in Wordpad:

First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/07...ce&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)
You can also pick up this book in most any Borders or Barnes&Noble in the Music Books section!

Another good one is: Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Gui...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215734124&sr=1-1
(I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6!!)

And you can get a FREE subscription to TapeOp magazine at www.tapeop.com

Barnes&Noble or Borders are great places to start --- they have recording books and you can go get a snack or coffee and read them for FREE! Don't pass by a good recording book --- this is a VERY technical hobby and you REALLY want to start a reference library!!!

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics and have good tips:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs
http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig: http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm

Also Good Info: http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

Other recording books: http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html

Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) and NOT quality music production.
#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.
Here's a good guide and suggestions: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm


Plenty of software around to record for FREE to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (multi-track with VST support)
Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/ (a stereo audio file editor with VST support)\
Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/
Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com/smm

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ (It's $50 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)
I use Reaper and highly reccomend it...

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($25) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com
Demo you can try on the website.

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full FREE studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (November 2006 they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150, November 2007-on the racks Dec in the US- they gave away SamplitudeV9SE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)
 
TimOBrien said:
Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) and NOT quality music production.
#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.
Click to expand...

Well ... you don't have to necessarily replace the soundcard do you? If you're using an external audio interface, the soundcard is not being used, correct?
 
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JonPaulP said:
Really? How much impact does having a mixer (vs. a smaller pre-amp) have on the quality?
Click to expand...
That depends entirely on the mixer... chain's only as good as the weakest link... If the item doesn't add quality or functionality... there's no need for it
 
famous beagle said:
Well ... you don't have to necessarily replace the soundcard do you? If you're using an external audio interface, the soundcard is not being used, correct?
Click to expand...

NO...You dont need to phisicaly remove the sound card..you can keep it in to here web sounds!!!
 
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