About to buy...

[bean....]

I think I have pretty much decided what I want to buy, but I want to make sure that I am not being too stupid about anything.

•The Digi002 Rack with the factory bundle. Are the built in preamps going to be quality enough for a wide range of applications (by quality, I mean good enough for a first time home studio).

•Two Shure KSM32's. It seems these can do many a thing, but for recording guitars, guitars amps, pianos, drums and vocals, does the only-cardioid pattern take away a lot of versatility.

•Yorkville YSM1-p monitors. I have heard good things about these monitors from this forum and from around the web, but how do they stack up against other monitors in their class?

•The Evolution 61 key midi controller. Can I assign the controllers to control different parts of ProTools and plug-ins (pan, dif. parameters of plug-ins)?

•The Extreme Isolation headphones. For miking everything, can these give me a 'just mic' sound? Are these a good deal for 100 bucks?

This is just about fillin' up the budget, so staying within this, give or take a hundred bucks, is there shuffling around that should be done? Am I spending too much or too little money or attention to something?

 

[Giganova]

I see that someone has done a lot of reading and homework. The package looks very good to me. Good choice of monitors, and the Digi will give you Protools LE for free. I'm not too crazy about the mic choice, but here's the place to discuss this with the other guys who might throw in their advice (I'd get a LDC for vocals and a SDC for instruments, but that's just me). The Digi pres are good enough to get started. You can always add decent pres later. Do you have a fast enough computer? Don't forget that you need a lot of memory (1Gig if possible) and two hard drives, one for the software/OS, one for storing the audio files. Don't forget to add the lil goodies to your budget (MIDI & audio cables, headphones, mic stands, etc) which might add another 2 hundred buxx or so.

 

[Leeking]

yup, you might want to look into get some cheaper mic alternatives and use some money saved on acoustic treatment.... they are worth it.

 

[Leeking]

BTW, that's a good startup system you have there....

 

[xstatic]

The Digi pres are OK to start with, but if you do a lot fo recording you will most likely outgrow them. However, liek I said, they are not a bad way to start at all The KSM 32's are also good mics for starting with. They may not be the best mic at any one thing, but will be easy to get a pretty good sound out of an most all tracks you will probably do. It may however be a good idea to start with some cheaper mics (only so that you could have more mics available to you.

 

[Sklathill]

I personally think the KSM32 is a good mic to start off, if a bit expensive, and I'm not sure I'd get two of them. I personally love my CAD M179 multipattern mics, and a bunch of guys here think its a great value, but an even better multipattern mic would be something like the Audio Technica 4050, which is around the price of the KSM32. In any case, the best mic is the mic that sounds best, and until you use it, you'll never know. Me, I'm a big fan of "MORE MICS" so I like looking at what can be had under 200...

Most good MIDI software will allow you to remap you CCs...but I'm not sure about Pro Tools. Never liked using it for MIDI, honestly. I'd think it would at least be able to translate after the fact, but I'm not totally sure.

The yorkvilles are solid, solid monitors. I doubt you'll find any problems with them. I would have gotten them if they weren't just a smidgen out of my range after I upgraded my sound card...

 

[bean....]

Thanks for the replies,

I already have an SM 57 and Oktava MK 012 so I have got a start on some instruments.

The computer is not a problem. I have a G5 (I'm a mac guy) dual 1.8 with a gig and a quarter ram with an 80 gig stock HD and an 120 gig add-on internal HD.

It seems like what you guys think of the KSM32 is good, but maybe not worth it. What are some other mics that you think would take a good place. I have heard a lot (good things mostly) about the M179, and researched it QWYGHT a bit. With its price tag, it just seemed to me as maybe a little bit lower qual.. I was looking at a bunch of mics, espesh the KSM32, and when someone here (or maybe somewhere else) said Eddie Kramer (my GOD - Kramer Archives) used them, it just really got me lookin' at 'em differently.

As for maybe getting acoustical treatment, what would you suggest. I have, actually, looked pretty heavily into it, but for some reason I decided not to go that route. What would you guys suggest? I have looked deeply into Aurelex (that booklet thing they had at GC is PRETTY cool, ESPESH when your on a carride from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Eugene, Oregon. The MF cats. are AMAZING for that, too; cuz you can just dream away for 50 hours), but are there any other companies that stand above them?

Don't worry about cables, stands, and co., I already got that covered in the budget. I've actually got some old AKG 240 headphones (they're like, the 2-ply Cottonelle of headphones: they feel SO good to use 'em), but the open-air design leaks, and doesn't keep anything out. Are the Extreme Isolation HP's really that EXTREME?

 

[xstatic]

I wouldn't say that the KSM32 isn't worth it, just that you might get more value out of having a couple more mics beofre you specialize to heavily. Actually the 4050 is another great mic at its price. Very usable on darned near anything. My 4050's get just as much use as my KSM 32's, but the 4050 does have multiple patterns as well.

 

[Leeking]

for acoustic treatment, look into www.foambymail.com

they offer some great deals through ebay..... they are VERY affordable and they work!

you can do some pretty decent treatment for about $100....

 

[Ronan]

Let me chime in with some differing ideas:

It seems like what you guys think of the KSM32 is good, but maybe not worth it. What are some other mics that you think would take a good place.
?

The KSM32s are amazing mics. In some applications they stand up to mics at any price. Eddie Kramer and I are both big fans. I would consider looking seriously at getting one KSM44. It is a different and maybe more versatile mic. I did beta testing for the KSM44. It is not quite as natural as the KSM32 but a more "exciting" mic and a bit better for what most people want to hear in a modern recording. For about the cost of two KSM32, you could almost get into an AT tube 4060 which is an absolutely stunning mic.

I am of absolutely the oppisite mind set in regards to the number of mics as some of the other posters. I would rather have 3 good mics to make an album than 20 crappier mics. One good condenser, a SM57 and a Beta52 or D112 and the world is your Oyster!!

As for maybe getting acoustical treatment, what would you suggest. I have, actually, looked pretty heavily into it, but for some reason I decided not to go that route. What would you guys suggest? I have looked deeply into Aurelex (that booklet thing they had at GC is PRETTY cool,

Its is almost imossible to make recomendation on acoustic treaments with out knowing more about your recording space, you many not even need any (even though that is rare) Do not get suckered into Aurelex at Guitar Center, Any one who knows anything about Acoustics and studio design will tell you that it is over marketed crap that will not really help much. Aurelex will only tame down the high end of the sound with out dealing with everything below that and most people really have their problems lower than Aurelex will deal with. If you have bass problems you are going need to build or purchase bass traps (not that cheap) if you have problems above the low bass, you are going to want to be using medium density fiber board (owens corning 703 or 705 are the most common). Its a little tough to find since its sold to commercial contractors, but its cheaper than studio foam and will smoke the pants off foam treaments.

 

[mshilarious]

Instead of two KSM32s, I'd get one KSM44 and a pair of SM81s. Or just one SM81 for now if that's too much. My setup is basically that, except I have a KSM27 (similar response, but not multipattern) as I can't afford the 44.

 

[xstatic]

Ronan is right about the mics on several different levels. My biggest concern with getting enough mics is if you are also doing drums. What I really wasn't thinking of is how YOU prefer to track. For me, it all starts with drums, and that means a large mic package because I prefer to use more than just kick/snare/overheads. So for me, I would rather get just one AT4050 (multipattern for flexibility) and make sure I have at least a halfway decent set of drum mics.

 

[bean....]

Considering that I am going to do mostly Ac. Guitar, El. Guitar and piano right now (drums/vocals probs in the future), would the one KSM44 be a better fit? I really wanted to get into stereo recording, and two of the same mic seems pretty necessary. Has anyone compared the AT4050 and the KSM32? I would really like to do it myself, but I am not sure about GC's return policy w/ mics and I don't know anywhere else here that would carry them. Would two KSM44's be overboard if I knocked somethin' off the list or saved up a little more? Or should I look at one KSM44 and another cheaper mic (I heard someone SM81). What if I got one KSM44 and two CAD M179 mics? Would that be a good deal?

And by the way, YOU WORK WITH EDDIE KRAMER!!!! Ronan, you're like my god by association. Is he a cool guy? He seems like he's more into the music aspect of recording than the recording aspect (if that makes sense). I probably have no idea what I am talking about, but it's cool. You must be a beast yourself (along with everyone here, of course) to be working with such a big name. How'd you guys meet?

And another completely off-topic comment:
If anyone here lives near Portland, did they see the huge blues festival (I think last weekend?). On the stage that I walked by, it looked like they were using KSM32's or 44's for the drum OH's, and the drums sounded pretty nice. I wanted to know what kick mic they were using, or maybe it was just the HUGE subs, but you could really feel every time the drummer hit the bass drum.

 

[xstatic]

Especially in a live rig, the sound is about WAY more than just the mics used.

 

[bean....]

Especially in a live rig, the sound is about WAY more than just the mics used.

Understandable, man. What I was sayin' is that it just seems many people in the whole recording world aren't looking at the music anymore; its about what people here say: trying to polish turds, and what it seems Eddie Kramer is just holdin' on to his traditional (better), rock 'n roll recording styles while Nickelback takes a shit, has a guy play with it for rediculous amounts of money (understandably, as polishing a turd is hard as fuck) and sells it for 20 bucks.

If thats what you were commenting on. If not, I'm an idiot.

**Yaaaaa, I am an idiot. But if you were talkin' about the blues festival, that is 'understandable, man,' too. I am in total agreeance, but, I was just sayin' that it sounded good, and that I saw the mics, so they had to contribute something, right.

 

[chessrock]

I'm not too crazy about the mic choice

I'm actually quite fond of it.

 

[bean....]

OK, so here are some options for the mics (add others if you want):

•Stick w/ 2 KSM32's
•One KSM44
•One KSM44 w/ two M179's
•Two AT4050's
•Two M179's (save some mons.)
•One KSM44 w/ a SDC (mabes another Oktava MK012?)

...

 

[bleyrad]

•Yorkville YSM1-p monitors. I have heard good things about these monitors from this forum and from around the web, but how do they stack up against other monitors in their class?

Blows 'em away. Hell, they blow away the Mackie 824's IMHO as well. They sound pretty similar to Genelec's, as a point of reference.

 

[Big Kenny]

1 shure 32
2 cad 179's
should keep you busy til you need to mic drums, then get another mk 012 (two overheads) and a kick (search, topics been bled to death) put the 57 on the snare and rock on my man!

 

[bean....]

1 shure 32
2 cad 179's

How did I not think of that, man? That seems pretty good, thanks.

Any other suggestions?