Help me design my home studio

J

jason_m.

New member
Hello, I'm new here. I'm building a small home recording studio.

I'm on somewhat of a budget of about $1,500.00

What I have so far:

behringer mixer
nady mics
crown mics
pc monitor, keyboard, mouse, desk, mic preamp, eq's multi effects, headphones, instruments...etc...

What I'm looking into/planning on buying

Alesis monitoring system: around $399 I believe
A/D audio interface (edirol)
Custom PC tower: 200 gigs, CD burner, audiophile sound card, pentium 4...

That's all excluding additional mics, recording programs, and plug-ins.

Tell me your opinions on my PC tower, suggestions on brands and additions, cost cutting, etc...

Any help and opinions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
I would recommend something OTHER than Alesis monitoring systems.......

Yorkville, Event, Tannoy, JBL - all have excellent monitors....
 
Agreed re: monitors.

As for CPU, if you're feeling savvy, I'd just go to tigerdirect.com (or the retailer of your choice), and start selecting components, and build your own system. Price will be a little cheaper than buying a system, but the real advantage is that you have total control over everything that goes in there.

Before selecting CPU parts, decide on an audio interface and software. Then, go to the manufacturer's sites of those pieces, and dig up all info on incompatibilities (chipsets, motherboards, OS's, etc). Only then should you start to piece together a system.

If you're timid about building a system, you still need to go through the same process (ID your software, audio interface, incompatibilities, then go looking). The only difference is that you need to be able to ask enough questions to determine what the MOBO, chipset, etc. are in a pre-built system.

Or, you can do what I did, and just roll the dice. For me, it worked out. But I don't recommend it!

-mg
 
About the monitors: Do any other companies make 5.1 THX surround sound 5 piece speaker monitoring systems with remote control, receiver, and subwoofer for under $400?

About the software: I had planned on trying out as much software as possible with my setup after I had everything. I haven’t had a chance to try out any “REAL” software yet; so I’m definitely not set on any 1 recording program.

What I do know is I want to be able to do a lot of multi-track recording of: guitars, bass, and drums. I want this setup to initially be used for “high quality” demos for the most part.

I still need lots of help and suggestions. Maybe the information above will help.
 
I wouldn't use 5.1 surround unless you have a monitoring environment that's set-up for proper surround monitoring.

And if you're just starting out, you need to concentrate on getting good results with 2-channel mixes before worrying about surround.........!
 
Jason,

1) do you have any strong feelings re: Mac vs. PC?

2) are you interested in MIDI capabilities, or only audio?

3) do you already have any familiarity with any recording products (portastudios, mixer/tape decks, etc)?

This could help to narrow down what software you're looking at. Many stores have some computers with demo software. Most programs have demo versions on the website. Do you have any cpu that you could use to check them out, with your built-in soundcard?

then:

4) how many instruments will you need to record at 1 time?

5) will you record live drums at the same time as other instruments?

6) how many mics do you have? How many need phantom power?

This should help to narrow down what audio input device you need.

Where are you in NJ? I'm in Springfield, and if you're in the area, I can spend some time to show you what I've got, as a baseline.

-mg
 
Thanks for the advice Blue Bear, but what I had in mind was borrowing a decent pair of monitors for the initial mix and alternating between them and the surround monitors for the final mastering.

1) I have no gripes with Mac, in fact I wish I could afford a Mac and a PC and an interface that blends the two. I just think I’m going to start out with a custom PC tower first and take it from there.

2) I’m not interested in MIDI right now, but eventually I’d like to do some of my own drum programming for my drummers in the future, but I’d like to focus on the recording of natural instruments right now.

3) Yes I’ve had my share of 4 track recorders and karaoke-type tape deck recordings if that’s what you mean, and I use a mixer in my guitar setup.

I could check out some demos with my current PC, any recommendations?

4) Well, only 1 instrument at a time really… by multi-tracking I meant over-dubbing/layering for the most part.

5) Probably not, I’d probably do the drums first or record the guitars with a click track or something like that.

6) I plan on having about 5-6 microphones specifically for guitars and bass. As for Drums: one of my drummers has a drum mic set which I’ll use for both drum sets or combine with my mics for all the drum tracks.

I’m in Mount Laurel, NJ. Apparently there are 2 different Springfield’s in NJ, according to Mapquest: There is a Springfield (Union) and a Springfield (Burlington).
 
I'm in Springfield (Union). Never realized that there was another one...

If you've got a computer that you can check out some demos, I'd take a look at Sonar for sure. I don't know the quality of their demo, but go to www.cakewalk.com, and I think that you can find one there.

I don't know much about other programs (Cubase, Nuendo, etc), so I'll let others offer suggestions.

If you're mic'ing drums, you're probably looking at at least 8 mic inputs (2OH, snare, 2 tom, floor tom, kick, hat). This will narrow down the audio interfaces quickly. You can mic drums with as few as one mic, up to a nearly infinite amount. So, first, I'd pick how many mics you want to be able to bring in at the same time. Looking for 8 ins, I'd start by looking at the Aardvark Q10, the MOTU 896, and probably a few others (NOTE: I haven't used any of those, just what my impression is).

If you're in the Union area, and want to take a look at Sonar, you're welcome to stop by. Let me know.

-mg
 
Springfield is at least a 100 minute drive from here... I don't know how soon I could make it out there, but I appreciate the offer, and I might take you up on it sometime. Too bad you aren't in the "Burlington" Springfield which is much closer to me.

In the meantime I'll check out the Sonor demo.

For the drums I think I'll be using at least 10 mics. What if I just ran the 10 mics into a mixer with 10 mics pre's into my audio interface with 2 ins?
 
It takes a little more work than running separate ins, because you have to get the mic balance at the mixer. So you can't raise the level of the snare to the floor tom after the fact. But it's by no means impossible; thousands of hit records were recorded with mono or stereo drum tracks in the early days.

If you're just looking for audio, you might want to pick up an issue of Computer Music (a british mag, check Barnes and Nobles or Borders). They distribute a free recording software, which is supposed to be pretty adequate for you to come up to speed on, so that you can take your time and get an idea of what you like and don't like for free. The only disadvantage is that you haven't checked for incompatibilities with your eventual system. But, if you go through the major Software sites (Sonar, Cubase, Nuendo, etc), you should be able to narrow down your search in terms of incompatible hardware. And if worse comes to worse, you can always replace an incompatible component; it's just a shame to purchase with the intent to replace.

Let me know if you think you'll find yourself in north-central Jersey.

-mg
 
Well I definitely have A LOT to learn about drum recording, and I need all the help and information I can get. Obviously my idea was not the best and pretty basic.

I know next to nothing about the MOTU’s and the Firewire racks… Are there some good sites that explain these units in detail to a beginner? What is the difference between hooking 10 mics up to a MOTU rack, instead of a mixer? I assume the MOTU has a virtual mixing board that you adjust with your mouse on screen. So Why is that better?

I’ll check that Computer Music Magazine out today.
What type of incompatibilities might there be? Because my initial plan was to get my setup then try out as much software as possible, and I still would like to do that… What steps can I take to try and prevent this from happening? What type of components could be incompatible?
 
mgraffeo said:
If you're mic'ing drums, you're probably looking at at least 8 mic inputs (2OH, snare, 2 tom, floor tom, kick, hat). This will narrow down the audio interfaces quickly. You can mic drums with as few as one mic, up to a nearly infinite amount. So, first, I'd pick how many mics you want to be able to bring in at the same time. Looking for 8 ins, I'd start by looking at the Aardvark Q10, the MOTU 896, and probably a few others (NOTE: I haven't used any of those, just what my impression is).
Click to expand...

By the way all those units are WAY out of my price range. I need something with 10+ ins but nowhere remotely near $800-$900...
 
Oops, should have asked about that, too. My bad. What's your price range?

If you just want to bring 2 channels into the computer (stereo outs from the mixer), you can do that pretty cheap. I don't know enough about the various models to comment. If you want to be able to bring 10 channels in, that's not going to be too cheap.

I use the Event EZBus, from which you could take up to 12 digital outs into the computer (8 ADAT Optical into a PCI card, 2 via USB, 2 S/PDIF). The trouble is that by the time you've bought the EZBus, PCI card, and external mic pre's (the EZBus only has 2 XLR inputs), you're back up in the price range you don't want to hit.

Anyone else, suggestions?

-mg
 
you could probably shave off a few ins by using your mixer to combine a few of the mics. for example, you could probably get the levels for your toms set ahead of time and record them as one track. You may want to change your toms in relation to the snare (which you will still be able to do after the fact), but the toms can probably remain consistent to eachother assuming you take the time to set it up properly to begin with.
 
My price range is about $1,500 excluding software. I’ll have to read into the EZ bus, but it sounds like it might be out of my price range right now.

I don’t know what a Tyko band is. But I’m going to be recording 2 drummers with relatively large kits. They’ll be playing some technical material and I want to be able to hear everything very well.

Thanks for that idea ComplexProcess, I’ll have to try that. I had thought that I might have to record some or all drum tracks separately previously.
 
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