Jesuslovesyou said:
ok basstraps and diffusors, i haven't studied the physics of soundtrapping very much at all, so you can fill me in on some info you got. I mean a lot of my music will be done on the computer meaning, im going to get a lot of midi controllers etc, so there is going to be electronic sheen on things and that warm acoustic guitar tone won't be high on the list of needs for me right away. Keeping noise and bad room sounds out of mics will be important, but thats going to be second on the budget. What do you suggest specifically, do you want room dimensions and instrument setups?
First of all, the sm-57 is a standard mic in every studio in the world, and is not garbage. It's useful for almost everything. For mics, I recommend CAD, I've had great luck with them, and A/B'd them against a lot of higher end mics with some studio cat friends of mine who finally had to agree, they're great.
The Behringer SL2442FX pro board is real good, I use one live and I'm going to check it out for the hell of it, in my studio. I use Aardvark soundcards, but I'm probably going back to M-audio, I had one originally, and they sound pretty incredible. Still, the Aark 24 and some of their other stuff is pretty cheap now, since they VANISHED without a word.... grrrr, but updating drivers will be an eventual problem.
I agree about room treatment, you have to realize that most things that you record, for instance drums, acoustic guitar, vocals, you are also recording the room. The same is true for listening back. Get a good set of self-powered nearfield monitors, I use the Tannoy Reveal Actives, and they sound great, I checked them against a lot of other brands too, and in fact a studio friend of mine checked mine out and just ordered a pair. Originally $1400 a pair, you can get them for somewhere around $600 now. Great deal. Don't even bother thinking about using PA speakers to monitor with. Any midi keyboard will be great for triggering samples, etc. I use Sonar 4 producer edition, and it's great. I have a friend who has Sonar 5 Producer, and I've seen some videos of what it can do, and it's leading the pack right now, 64 bit! I use Vegas Video too, you'll probably like it. Get Sound Forge too, it's the one of the best programs out there, and with the plugs, it's amazing. Go for it. A lot of people are using Nuendo too, in pro studios. Get yourself a good comfortable squeek-free studio chair, you'll be glad. If you need some isolation under your audio monitors and the surface, try mouse pads, they worked fine for my Tannoys and were exactly the right size. Save some of your money for a decent mic preamp, that's pretty consistantly the main thing most top producers and engineers insist they can't live without. You can get some quite decent ones for a few hundred dollars, and it's a great investment, for vocals, bass, etc. The RNC is good, check it out. You should have a stereo compressor and a patch bay too, investigate it. Don't forget you're gonna need patch cables, speaker cables, etc, and maybe a short snake, depending on how you're going to work. That can add up to some money, don't get crappy cables or you've just wasted all the money you spent on good stuff. A couple of direct boxes, Behringer puts out some great stuff of this type for almost free, ha ha. Their gear has gotten a lot better than people would have you believe. I use their Powerplay Pro XL headphone amp, and it rocks. Also, their Autocom MDX 1000 compressor, an older unit, is real good, I got it because a studio friend told me they were in demand a lot. $75 used.
You'll want a comfortable desk.. I built mine, based on several designs by pro companies, it was a bit of work, but it looks great and is Frikkin HUGE. I have dual vid monitors, which is great for separating tracks and different views, you should think of that, makes working a lot nicer. You should probably get some flat panels, I'm stuck with CRTs, the blast out heat, and cause some hum (but not with the Tannoys! which are built to withstand that) from my guitars. I tilted the vid monitors back and lowered them down because the recommended eye level was causing a lot of neck strain.
It wouldn't hurt to consider having a small recorder of some sort (check edirol) to go out and sample things that you might want to use in recordings. You should put aside some money for drum libraries on disc, and maybe a drum machine, though soft synths do great for this too. Hope all this helps. ScreamingPirhana.....OUT.
What about a separate computer for internet. I'd keep my audio PC offline as much as possible.
+ve rep points given.
