Thoughts on must have equipment??

B

Barry B

New member
With regards to effects such as reverb/echo etc are they must have in a studio. If money was an option would you still put these units/packages at the top of your shopping list?

Ok I'm fairly new to the home recording process. I have vague ideas of what everything does and feel I can knock up some decent mixes.

I've over the years used other people's studios to mix my songs and have again over the years been given various bits of equipment to the point where I feel I'm open enough to start learning more and mixing stuff myself if only so that I can have a better idea of how to explain my concepts to a seasoned engineer and it appears to be working.

i've got amongst other things. A Hard Disc recorder which has various effects, reverb, echo, flange etc which I was using to track stuff on but I now use for vocals only. I also own a desk which has built in echo, reverb etc. I've tried and my friend who is pretty clued up on these things to get the desk effects to work and they don't. I've tried using an external effects unit I borrowed off a friend to work via the desk and that didn't work either.

I've made a few mixes via the desk and hard disc recorder. The vocals have various effects applied to them and the music (via the desk) doesn't. I think they sound alright and no one has mentioned ''hey where's the reverb on the guitar douchebag?!?!'' But I've been kind of used to just applying this stuff when at other people's studios and am wondering if its just me thinking I need to have this equipment because others have it or do I need to have this equipment?

I've got monitors on my list and was thinking should I would invest in a new desk and reverb unit after that?


Thoughts??
 
I have no outboard equipment and have no desire to own any. That's just me though. It's really about personal preference I think. I personally don't think you'd absolutely need the equipment, but you don't have to need it. It's fine to just want it. If money isn't a problem, do whatever you want to do! :)
 
Hi legionserial,

I should've added that I don't use any computers other than to two track the finished product. So it's not like I'm going to be using the effects from any packages such as Logic/Pro Tools etc.

So when you say you don't own or have the desire to own any outboard gear is that because you use the effects on a computer package or that you can get by without using ''those effects''
 
Barry B said:
So when you say you don't own or have the desire to own any outboard gear is that because you use the effects on a computer package or that you can get by without using ''those effects''
Click to expand...

Yup. That's totally it. I don't use a lot of effects in my work but I still need compressors and reverbs and most of all a good parametric EQ. Reverb I could probably live without a reverb if I had to (but only if I had to), but the others...I would probably find it pretty difficult.

In which case I'd say if I was in your position I would indeed invest in a good reverb as well as a whole bunch of other stuff. :D
 
I've never done a side-by-side between hardware and software. Personally all I've used is Sony Soundforge and found no cause for complaint, but then all I do is voiceover and clarinet so your expectations may be different.
 
If your looking for serious outboard effects check out the Eventide stuff. For strict reverb the yamaha REV boxes are popular.

personally i use the onboard cubase reverb (software). For delay I use a boss dd-20 outboard. It has some pretty good fake analog settings.

If you only have one of the units you have the option of using one insert or using the aux sends / return or use a sub group.
 
Some *fabulous* sounding reverb units at a low price:

Behringer 2496...$100 or less. Unbelievably good long reverb sounds.
Kurzweil Rumour...$350 or less. Great general effects unit.
Yamaha Rev5...$300 or less. Long reverbs aren't as good as the other two, but the short room sounds are amazing.

All that said, you certainly don't need hardware to do just as well. The UAD reverbs are great. Furthermore, unless you're got great conversion that makes the extra trip out of the box worth the while, there's no point in doing it. Might as well stay ITB with everything.

Frank
 
Yo Barry! It is the opinion of the majority here, I think, that software plugins are as good or better ( usually better) than hardware for pretty much any FX, EQ, compression, etc. until you get into a pretty high end price range, and they are a lot cheaper. That said, if you are looking for a cheap outboard reverb and multi-FX box, it's hard to beat this:

http://www.8thstreet.com/product.asp?ProductCode=41360&Category=Audio_Processors

Best of Luck.-Richie
 
I have a buttload of old vintage reverbs and compressors...bought them from Craigslist and I havent spent as much as alot of us did on brand new cheap units.
 
I don't use reverb near as much as I used to 20 years ago. I like the reverb on Tom Petty's voice (can't hear any).

I use a Yamaha SPX1000 for reverb and I like it.

A friend of mine had a Lexicon Omega with the Pantheon reverb and man that thing sounded good - really good.

When I was a kid a friend of mine's Dad had a big studio and he had an EMT plate and I liked that a lot.

The reverbs that came with Cubase I didn't like - they sound cheap and I can't stand the cheap outboard boxes from companies like Art and Alesis.

My best advice is do everything as cheap as you can and spend any extra money on Neumanns 'cause there's no way around that and I know of nothing that will impact your sound more than a pro $2K - 5K mic.
 
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Sounds like you've got a good idea of what direction you want to go in... I think that investing in a good microphone and pre-amp is #1. Although, there's no point in getting a $2000 microphone unless you have a nice pre-amp to feed it to. So keep all of your purchases in perspective to the hardware you have upstream from your microphone. After that you might consider a nice compressor, a good parametric EQ, Graphical EQ, De-Esser (if you record a lot of vocals and pick up a lot of sibilance.) maybe a nice delay (Supertaps from Waves is nice), and Reverb. If you're running a DAW for your mixdown, then I would probably suggest getting RTAS/VST plugins as opposed to analog gear to apply any kind of post-production/mixing to your sessions.

After that, if you don't plan on getting your music professionally mastered, you might consider a decent multiband L2 or L3 stereo compressor, so that you can do a "poor mans master" and get everything sounding reasonably beefy and put those final touches on along with having a limiter on your stereo master track.

Hope this helps... Good luck!
 
Barry B said:
With regards to effects such as reverb/echo etc are they must have in a studio. If money was an option would you still put these units/packages at the top of your shopping list?

Ok I'm fairly new to the home recording process. I have vague ideas of what everything does and feel I can knock up some decent mixes.

I've over the years used other people's studios to mix my songs and have again over the years been given various bits of equipment to the point where I feel I'm open enough to start learning more and mixing stuff myself if only so that I can have a better idea of how to explain my concepts to a seasoned engineer and it appears to be working.

i've got amongst other things. A Hard Disc recorder which has various effects, reverb, echo, flange etc which I was using to track stuff on but I now use for vocals only. I also own a desk which has built in echo, reverb etc. I've tried and my friend who is pretty clued up on these things to get the desk effects to work and they don't. I've tried using an external effects unit I borrowed off a friend to work via the desk and that didn't work either.

I've made a few mixes via the desk and hard disc recorder. The vocals have various effects applied to them and the music (via the desk) doesn't. I think they sound alright and no one has mentioned ''hey where's the reverb on the guitar douchebag?!?!'' But I've been kind of used to just applying this stuff when at other people's studios and am wondering if its just me thinking I need to have this equipment because others have it or do I need to have this equipment?

I've got monitors on my list and was thinking should I would invest in a new desk and reverb unit after that?


Thoughts??
Click to expand...

You'd probably be better off using plugins for reverb until you're ready to dish out some real coin. Your computer is a capable machine - moreso than most hardware dsp.

The other folks have got you pretty well covered. Welcome to HR. You're in the right place.
 
any reverb Lexicon or Eventide puts out is an automatic buy.


In specific the lexicon 480. The TC Electronic system 6000 reverbs sound pretty nice too. In terms of plug ins, Altiverb (with the full reverb package) is by far a good choice as far as I know of.
 
I hear ya....but are they really any better than the digital Yamaha reverbs that we heard on all the 80s records...I have analog reverbs and spring reverbs...and I want to build a plate (there was an artical on how to make one in Tape-op a few years back)...I allready have a spot I want to mount it since it can be a pretty big device.
 
Cheers for the replies guys. I wanted to try and stay away from the whole computer aspect of things and do one off mixes via the desk. I work with computers all day and hate them lol and prefer sitting there pushing faders and having cables all over the place. I feel like I'm having fun that way lol.

I'll guess I'll look at tracking everything seperately in the interim untill I stumble across some more gear at a nice budget that suits how I'd like to work.
 
LeeRosario said:
any reverb Lexicon or Eventide puts out is an automatic buy.


In specific the lexicon 480. The TC Electronic system 6000 reverbs sound pretty nice too. In terms of plug ins, Altiverb (with the full reverb package) is by far a good choice as far as I know of.
Click to expand...

Those are great reverbs...not exactly budget-friendly though. The 480L is like $4K. The ones I listed are fantastic (I use them all the time) and they won't break the bank. The Behringer 2496 is as good as anything until you start paying eight times or more the Behringer's price. I know it's hard to believe...I hate 98% of what Behringer makes, but this thing is unbelievable.

Frank
 
LeeRosario said:
any reverb Lexicon or Eventide puts out is an automatic buy.
Click to expand...

I agree in general with you except once I did a pa instalation for a church and thinking like you did, I bought a Lexicon Alex reverb - it was horrible and no way should Lexicon have put their name on it - total garbage.

But everything else I've heard from them is 1st rate - we all make mistakes.

darrin_h2000 re: the plate. When I was a kid a friend's Dad had an incredible studio (Neve/$10K Neumanns etc) and his EMT was about 10 ft long. It was on a stand in a back storage room. You couldn't see the plate - it was inside the unit. The sound of that thing was like water splashing when someone dives in a pool. What a studio that was - his Dad paid $175K for the mixer alone around 1974 and Alan Sides came over and supplied all the mics (I loved the U48) and designed the speaker setup. He had Santana, Sly, George Benson and people from Disney in there. Vintage Steinway concert grand, old hardwood floors with 20' ceiling... and people ask me if I like mp3's. I used that studio a lot and never paid 1 cent and I'll never be able to thank Herb Ono (the Dad who has since passed away) enough. To fall into that at 21 sure was lucky.
 
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