My first home studio

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jet Black
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Jet Black

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Hey guys I'm setting up my first home studio (woo!) to learn how to record for personal use. I've been in and out of studios the past couple of years and would really like to set a studio up specifically for tracking, experimenting and nailing down specific sounds I'm looking for. I have many questions to start off with so thank you for your patience.

Here is what I have to work with:

Two 15x12 rooms with 12 foot ceiling (drywall walls)
A 20x40 room with 12 foot ceiling (drywall)
A 20x20 room with wood floors and wood walls with a 30 foot ceiling

As for gear I currently have:

A StudioMaster P7 board
Computer with pro tools
Furman RV-2 Spring Reverb
Five SM58's
Two SM57's
Three PG56's
One PG52e

My goal is to be able to track my songs getting the sounds I want and then send them out for mixing/mastering. Any advice on anything is much appreciated.

Here are some basic newbie questions:

1. Do I need an external audio interface to connect the mixing board to my computer? If so which ones would be good for tracking in multiple things at once?

2. I would like to buy a vocal mic that has a 50's/60's sound. You know that slightly distorted thing that's going on in songs like Bang Bang by Nancy Sinatra.

3. What essential things am I missing to get started up? I know I need good monitors. Do I need a limiter?

Thank you guys I'm sure there will be more questions to come!
 
The mixer shoudln't come into the equation unless you like it for its controls and mic preamps.

You definitely need some kind of audio interface to get the analog signals to digital to get into your computer. You'll want some condensor mics to supplement all the dynamics you have.

Lucky you to have all the room choices. Most likely the 20x40 will be your best room, but you'll need to do some acoustic treatment in whichever room you decide on - bass traps, gobos, sound abosrobtion on the walls to cut down the slapback echo you are sure to have,
What are you going to be recording - what instruments, what styles? How many separate simultaneous tracks at one time?
 
mjbphotos said:
The mixer shoudln't come into the equation unless you like it for its controls and mic preamps.

You definitely need some kind of audio interface to get the analog signals to digital to get into your computer. You'll want some condensor mics to supplement all the dynamics you have.

Lucky you to have all the room choices. Most likely the 20x40 will be your best room, but you'll need to do some acoustic treatment in whichever room you decide on - bass traps, gobos, sound abosrobtion on the walls to cut down the slapback echo you are sure to have,
What are you going to be recording - what instruments, what styles? How many separate simultaneous tracks at one time?
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Cool, thank you. I will be recording rock music. Guitars, drums, bass, organ, piano, tambourine. We'll probably do each instrument separately but we would like to have the option to record two guitars, bass, vocals, and the drums all at once. What kind of treatment should I be doing to the room?
 
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Jet Black said:
Cool, thank you. I will be recording rock music. Guitars, drums, bass, organ, piano, tambourine. We'll probably do each instrument separately but we would like to have the option to record two guitars, bass, vocals, and the drums all at once. What kind of treatment should I be doing to the room?
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My advice is to research room dimensions and acoustics. You can spend a considerable amount of money on room treatment. Even divisables are not ideal and your room dimensions can cause issues.
 
Simman said:
My advice is to research room dimensions and acoustics. You can spend a considerable amount of money on room treatment. Even divisables are not ideal and your room dimensions can cause issues.
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Is this only necessary for the drums? Because I've recorded vocals and guitars in rooms that were not treated and they sounded great. Of course there was a lot of instruments and stuff crowding the room at the same time maybe absorbing sound? Right now my 20x40 is completely empty.
 
Jet Black said:
Is this only necessary for the drums? Because I've recorded vocals and guitars in rooms that were not treated and they sounded great. Of course there was a lot of instruments and stuff crowding the room at the same time maybe absorbing sound? Right now my 20x40 is completely empty.
Click to expand...

From an acoustic standard point it doesn't matter. Before you spend money on room treatment I would research/understand what room issues I'm trying to overcome.
 
It is a lot less noticeable in a large room, but any square room will give you lots of problems. and 1x2 is nearly as bad. As Sinman said, do some research. It might cost you less to cut some of the space down i.e. 12x20x37 would give you a pretty nice space.
You've got a lot of great spaces there for just tracking. Sounds like a lot of fun. 30' ceiling? Huge!
 
Jet Black said:
Is this only necessary for the drums? Because I've recorded vocals and guitars in rooms that were not treated and they sounded great. Of course there was a lot of instruments and stuff crowding the room at the same time maybe absorbing sound? Right now my 20x40 is completely empty.
Click to expand...

From an acoustic standard point it doesn't matter. Before you spend money on room treatment I would research/understand what room issues I'm trying to overcome.
 
I guess first thing is first and I should test each room out before doing anything. I do want to use the preamps in the studiomaster I have. I guess I'm going to need at least an 8 channel usb audio interface. Any recommendations?
 
BroKen_H said:
It is a lot less noticeable in a large room, but any square room will give you lots of problems. and 1x2 is nearly as bad. As Sinman said, do some research. It might cost you less to cut some of the space down i.e. 12x20x37 would give you a pretty nice space.
You've got a lot of great spaces there for just tracking. Sounds like a lot of fun. 30' ceiling? Huge!
Click to expand...

Larger rooms have less standing wave issues than a smaller room but check John Sayers site out. Loads of priceless information.
 
Jet Black said:
I guess first thing is first and I should test each room out before doing anything. I do want to use the preamps in the studiomaster I have. I guess I'm going to need at least an 8 channel usb audio interface. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

Depends on budget. I'm using the Tascam US1800 (highly recommended $199 w/$50 rebate right now), but I don't think you need preamps if you're using the P7 for pres... Also MOTU 8 Pre USB is highly recommended and has great preamps ($549) and there are others that are more/less like Scarlett 18i20 or UR824.
 
BroKen_H said:
Depends on budget. I'm using the Tascam US1800 (highly recommended $199 w/$50 rebate right now), but I don't think you need preamps if you're using the P7 for pres... Also MOTU 8 Pre USB is highly recommended and has great preamps ($549) and there are others that are more/less like Scarlett 18i20 or UR824.
Click to expand...

The Tascam looks like what I'm looking for, thanks. I bought one of the smaller Scarletts before and the pres were dead. After I took it back and got a replacement the same thing happened one was dead the other messed up. I had the store test them both out and they came to the same conclusion so I don't really trust those units anymore.
 
Hi J.B.

Yes, go for the Tascam for now but keep the box and all paperwork and discs pristine for re-sale.

If you are going to do this thing properly (and with THOSE spaces, shame on you if you don't!) in a year or so you will need better kit.

At the moment I would say RME or MOTU and ADAT expandability but the AI/MIXER/Surface, lines are now blurred and getting ever blurrier! In a year or so who knows what will be top reccy?

Personally I would go for 40feet and break it up with a stud wall but not full width. Hide a drummer behind there..Shall we give him a window? Nah!

Dave.
 
The 1800 works well, but I would suggest starting out with something that is expandable. Especially since you have multiple rooms.

Once you start adding snakes from other rooms, you will find that you will be fiddling with cables more than you like.

The 1800 cannot be expanded as far as more input channels. Something like the Steinberg UR824 will allow you 2 sets of ADAT inputs for a total of 24 input tracks. I myself purchased two of them and a cheap Behri Ultragain Pro-8 that I now use for scratch tracks. So much easier to not have to swap out cables.

A patch bay would be nice for this as well, but that is a bunch of fun time with a soldering iron (personal exaggeration). Unless you enjoy doing that type of thing... :)

Screw drummer windows! I go with video monitoring so they cant see us talking shit about him! LOL
 
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Thank you for all the ideas and advice. Currently I only have 2.5k to spend so anything I can DIY I will.
 
jimmys69 said:
Oh and get yourself one of those Brother Label maker things! :) Priceless!
Click to expand...

:laughings: :thumbs up:

After awhile you just know your studio...bet when you DO need to label something, that's that way to go.
I've had one for years...
 
"Currently I only have 2.5k to spend so anything I can DIY I will."

Good man! There are lots of economies to be made if you roll your own. Don't buy expensive 1/4" diameter mic cable, the ~1/8", 4mm foil screened stuff is just as good for "semi-static" tie lines and having just a drain wire for earth makes it far quicker and cleaner to terminate than braided stuff.

A big saving is to use CAT 5/5e solid 4 pair network cable. The shielded version gives you 4 balanced twisted lines and even if you don't fancy them for mics (tho' they work perfectly well!) they are fine for line levels and headphone feeds, talkback and even MIDI! You can buy a pair of simple balun boxes and stuff Video down it. Not to mention of course computer data!

Dave.
 
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