A new home studio setup

Special K

New member
This will probably be elementarary to many people, but I would appreciate some advice.

I am looking at setting up a recording studio at home from scratch. I was thinking of having the following setup:
40 gig harddrive
512 MB RAM
fast fast processor
Alesis ADAT 8 track
I will run Nuendo for most of my recording

I will be combining mostly live band recordings [bass, drums, lead, rhythm, vocals], but I also would like to have some MIDI capabilities

Now, I am unsure about some pieces of equipment. Preamps: which ones are best for a reasonably low budget?
Mics: I was thinking of starting off with some SM58 and SM57s - any advice?
Soundcards: which are best? I am prepared to spend a bit of money on this

Plus: should I buy a computer, or should I get a hard disk recorder?

Does anyone have a list of thier equipment for their personal studios?
 
why do u need the ADAT if u have a computer and a cd burner?
or do u get the tracks from the band recorded on adat?

if not, then better spend the money for a good converter unit or a mic preamp.

please take care what motherboard u are going to use. some of them are creating pops because they handle the pci irq's wrong.

what kind of music are u into?
 
Regarding your hard disk; stay with 7,200rpm IDE. SCSI $$$ and 5,400rpm not highly regarded for audio recording.

Some believe you should have separate hard disk for music. Toss a coin.

I personally am not a believer in fast fast processors. fast fast = $$$. People were flat on their backs with disbelief at the blazing speed of the 1ghz when it came out, now that they are pushing 2ghz people dismiss it. Don't. It's as fast you need and cheaper.

Re: audio cards, I am poor resource there. the ST Audio C-Port seems to be highly regarded (incl. two mic pres), as does the Audiophile 2496. If you are dealing with ADAT you might research the RME Hammerfall cards.

By the by... a hard disk recorder (i.e., the Mackie), is just a PC with a custom interface and a higher price tag, though clearly optimized for it's purpose.

Mics and pres are religious topics. To steal a phrase from my industry, no one got fired for buying from Neuman or Avalon, but if you have finite resources troll the mic thread for idea on mics and pres. If it was MY money I'd drop it on a M-Audio AudioBuddy and a MXL V67G or Studio Projects C-1.
 
Last edited:
I am using the ADAT to capture the band - I really prefer a live sound, and from what I can gather, most computers would chug a lot when faced with recording mulitple tracks. I also don't have a lot of money to fork out on a sound card with many DIs - I find using the ADAT works OK, and as far as I can see, it is the most economical way of doing things.

Most of the music I am recording is either accoustic guitar and vocals, or band (electric, bass, drum kit, percussion, sax). I have some samples of some previous work i have done on my website: http://www.kuks.f2s.com/downloads.htm
Contraband are the group I will be working with most
 
Back
Top