Building a studio, need help!

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CallousNorth

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I'm in the process of building a small local recording studio and I need to know which is the best solution.

I am looking to record about 9 tracks simultaneously with the ability to edit them individually afterwards (drums). What will be the best solution? I'm thinking a large firewire digital interface?

Please help! I have about £1,000 to spend on this piece of equipment.
 
CallousNorth said:
I'm in the process of building a small local recording studio and I need to know which is the best solution.

I am looking to record about 9 tracks simultaneously with the ability to edit them individually afterwards (drums). What will be the best solution? I'm thinking a large firewire digital interface?

Please help! I have about £1,000 to spend on this piece of equipment.
Click to expand...

Most of those firewire interfaces have 8 preamps and some have expansion capabilities via ADAT lightpipe or the ability to connect another firewire interface in tandem. You have lots of choices. Presonus FireStudio, MOTU 8Pre. MAudio Profire, etc.

As far as software, most of the interfaces come with something (I think the Presonus stuff comes with Cubase). Personally, I can't recomend Reaper enough. Great software CHEAP.

Mics, monitors and acoustic treatments are also equally important things to consider in the construction of your studio. I know it can be tempting to skimp on acoustic treatment because it isn't actually *gear*, but a good sounding space will be a HUGE benefit no matter what interface you pick.

Good luck...
 
Not to sound discouraging, but how much research have you put into this?

Project studio to do home recording and free demos for your friends?
Awesome. That's what I do and it's a great way to learn and have fun.

"Small local studio" almost makes it sound like you're gonna be trying to make some money off of it.
If that's the case, you probably ought to know a bit more about the standard kinds of equipment you're gonna need, based on the above question. Otherwise you're gonna be screwing over anybody you fool into paying you for recording time.

If not, or if you've been recording for years and just need to fill in this tiny gap in your collected knowledge, then forgive me.
It's been a long day.
 
If you can afford an 8pre, I HIGHLY reccomend it. IMHO (and as someone who demonstrably NOT a fan of MOTU ) it is the best bang for the buck going right now. The absolute lowest latency available, nearly the lowest CPU.

Use the 3.6.7.4 drivers if you can, the newest drivers are not as good.

We really need to know a lot more about your existing setup and what your goals are. This is something you don't want to jump blindly at.

What gear do you currently own? What sort of computer do you have? If it is too slow can you afford to upgrade?
 
Don't worry, I've produced a few demos before using an analogue mixer and soundcard, but that was without REAL drums. I needed a digital interface for drum recording and I was unsure about how many tracks I could multitrack record with, because I heard that some claim to have like 20 inputs, but can only multitrack like 10.

I just needed confirmation, thanks guys.
 
A motu 8 pre paired with an 8 channel adat out unit like the behriner ada8000 will give you 16 simultaneous inputs. I do this combo all the time and it works well
 
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