4 Peice band.

[Rob935]

Hey, i want to start by saying what a great site this is!
this is my first post so i hope i dont make myself look too stupid!

Im in a 4 peice indie rock band (singer/ guitarist, drummer, lead guitar and bassist). we have good instruments and amps.
I am wanting to build myself a small home studio for recording our material

I have cubase and a powerfull laptop but this is as far as i have managed to get so far. from what i have gathered recrding one or 2 instruments at a time would be the easiest/ cheapest way to do this?

I have about £400 to spent (about $700) on the rest of the equitment. any suggestions on what i should be spending my money on would be great.

-Do i need a mixer?
-what do i need in the way of pre-amps?
-what would be the best mics to buy on a budget (for vocals and amp micing)
-Do i need a full drum mic kit (our drummer has a medium - large sized kit)

I really dont have much idea of what i need to make goodish quality recordings on this budget so any help would be great!


Cheers- Rob

 

[mikemorgan]

Look into the Korg D888 or the new Zoom HD16CD. Great starter gear and useful live as well.

 

[pandamonk]

Hey, i want to start by saying what a great site this is!
this is my first post so i hope i dont make myself look too stupid!

Im in a 4 peice indie rock band (singer/ guitarist, drummer, lead guitar and bassist). we have good instruments and amps.
I am wanting to build myself a small home studio for recording our material

I have cubase and a powerfull laptop but this is as far as i have managed to get so far. from what i have gathered recrding one or 2 instruments at a time would be the easiest/ cheapest way to do this?

I have about £400 to spent (about $700) on the rest of the equitment. any suggestions on what i should be spending my money on would be great.

-Do i need a mixer?
-what do i need in the way of pre-amps?
-what would be the best mics to buy on a budget (for vocals and amp micing)
-Do i need a full drum mic kit (our drummer has a medium - large sized kit)

I really dont have much idea of what i need to make goodish quality recordings on this budget so any help would be great!


Cheers- Rob

£400 for everything...

1st read A LOT!!! Start with this.
Then get yourself down to your local travisperkins(you'll have to register) and order "ROCKSILK UNIVERSAL SLAB RS45 50MM X 1200MM (600MM) 2361386 (221587) £27.23 PK". These in frames wrapped in fabric will suffice for acoustics(I'll explain more later, or if you come to the building & display forums).

Now that your acoustics are decent, you'll have about £300-350 left. You could get:

Alesis MultiMix 8 FireWire £200
kick/bass mic £40
snare/guitar amps(sm57 copy) £25
2x LDC(large diaphragm condenser) vocals, drum overheads, acoustic guitars, etc. £80
then stands 2x these and 2 these £35
and cables 4x these £20.
shit, you need monitors:
Tascam VL-X5 £130

total about £550-600

Hmm to bring the price down a bit you could get:
the acoustics as before
4 channel pre £55
m-audio delta44 £100

Although the alesis will be a lot better than these!! For £45 more, go with the alesis!

kick/bass mic £40
snare/guitar amps(sm57 copy) £25
2x LDC(large diaphragm condenser) vocals, drum overheads, acoustic guitars, etc. £40
then stands 2x these and 2 these £35
and cables 4x these £20.
Tascam VL-X5 £130

Total £500ish(although spend the extra £45 for the alesis!)

 

[Rob935]

Cheers, thats really helpfull guys!
I think i can manage to stretch to £500/£600 if needed
do i definately need monitors or would i be okay using headphones?
-Rob

 

[pandamonk]

Cheers, thats really helpfull guys!
I think i can manage to stretch to £500/£600 if needed
do i definately need monitors or would i be okay using headphones?
-Rob

Headphones are a nono really, otherwise the pros would use them and forget the monitors. They are good for reference, but I'd never use them for mixdown. Definitely get yourself a set though. For monitors, you'd generally want ones with bigger subs than i suggested, but in your price range, they'll probably be the best you'll get. You might get better passives with an amp, but i generally trust actives over passives.

 

[Dani Pace]

Headphones are great for you (and your bandmates) to listen through while recording but decent monitors are nessassary for mixing. It's almost impossible to get the bass right through headphones.

 

[pandamonk]

Headphones are great for you (and your bandmates) to listen through while recording but decent monitors are nessassary for mixing. It's almost impossible to get the bass right through headphones.

And even if you do, I've found serious stereo issues. Things just don't sound the same through headphones. You can get it to sound great on headphones, then switch to speakers and it's awful.

 

[TimOBrien]

My obligatory standard reply that I keep in Wordpad:

First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/07...ce&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm

Also Good Info:
http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

Other recording books:
http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html


Plenty of software around to record for free to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/
(It's $40 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($20) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com
Demo you can try on the website.

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (Last November, they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150 - pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)