Advice needed

[WaCoLaCo]

guys,

I am planning to set up my home studio. In the past I have owned several digital multitrackers Fostex/Tascam/Yamaha etc., which did not (any of them) satisfied my requirements either in terms of quality, effects or amount of tracks. It's good for demo's or recording ideas, but I don't think it is feasable for professional records. Some of you may disagree, that is all right, respect, but I am not looking for opinions regarding that, rather an advice towards where should I start in terms of the purchasing of the equipment.

Please help me out with the following:

These are my requirements:
I need to be able to record 40 tracks
Studio mixer with motorized faders
Effects and compressor boxes
Serious qualizer box with graphics front pannel
whatever I need else

Once I started the research on the internet, these is numerous offers on all kinds of equipment. I prefer "old fasion" way of working, instead of playing around with software and computerised effects. (It may work for some, I dont like to have my production made on or through a PC; except for e.g. drum editing /corrections/ in e.g. cubase, which is really handy)

Please help me out. I have relatively limited budget. I need to know which way to go to be able to produce _professional_ quality records at home.

What should I do?

Thanks,

peace,
WaCoLaCo.

 

[Track Rat]

What's your budget? I hope you have VERY deep pockets.

 

[WaCoLaCo]

Answer

I think I can came up with 10k.

 

[manning1]

are you saying NO COMPUTER INVOLVED ?
i'm ver happy with my amd pc - does 48 tracks.
but this might not be what you want. please clarify...

 

[Ronan]

but I am not looking for opinions regarding that, rather an advice towards where should I start in terms of the purchasing of the equipment.

Please help me out with the following:

These are my requirements:
I need to be able to record 40 tracks
Studio mixer with motorized faders
Effects and compressor boxes
Serious qualizer box with graphics front pannel
whatever I need else

Once I started the research on the internet, these is numerous offers on all kinds of equipment. I prefer "old fasion" way of working, instead of playing around with software and computerised effects. (It may work for some, I dont like to have my production made on or through a PC; except for e.g. drum editing /corrections/ in e.g. cubase, which is really handy)

Well 10k is a pretty nice budget for a home studio, but you have limited yourself a bit with your requirements, especially if you actually do want "an old fashioned" way of recording (which I am also a big fan of)

First of your need for motorized faders in your budget has forced you into looking a a low end (but pretty expensive) digital console like a Mackie dB8 or a Yamaha 02R (or the equivelent). You could get some really good analog, not automated consoles on your budget.

There are not really very many pro graphic EQs out there these days, and they are usually used for tuning a monitoring sytem. Its very rare that graphic EQ are used in recording. Parametric style EQ are much more common and usefull, but there should be something out there to fit your requirements if you look hard enough. API makes a nice one.

If you need to record 40 tracks you are going to need to work in the digital domain. You could sync up 5 ADAT machines, but that is a pain in the ass so you will have to get into some kind of DAW questsion, and then one of the questions gets to be how many tracks you need to record at one time and how many outputs you need to your mixer. There are a ton of options. I not sure what you mean by not wanting to have your productions done through a PC, but then wanting to edit drums with Cuebase.

Posting here is a great way to get started figuring things out, but I get the impression that you should keep chatting with people and getting a better grasp on how you want to work, before you start shelling out money for gear. You might want to see if there is a cool engineer in your town. Ask if you can take him out to lunch and pick his/her brain. It might help you figure out how to best approach your recording technique and I have never met an engineer that was not up for a free lunch.

Good luck, its gonna be fun.

 

[Cloneboy Studio]

Mackie D8B
Alesis HD24 (2)

Right there you are talking around 6-7K

Spend another 1500K on an assortment of average mics

About 1500 bucks gets you a Langevin EQP-1A (you said you wanted a good EQ)

10K right there

 

[mshilarious]

I dunno how you are gonna get there. Isn't a 02R96 like $9K? Then you'd still need a $5K mic budget at least, plus say $2K for monitors, then there's cables, stands, a desk, any outboard gear you think you need.

How much have you budgeted for construction? 2 professional quality rooms (control, live) could run up to $20K.

Instead you could go for a single HDR and a 01V96, that's only 24 tracks (with some room for expansion), but that would leave plenty for mics & monitors. Next head over to the Studio Building board and figure out how to treat one room so it sounds nice, do that yourself for maybe $3K or less.

 

[WaCoLaCo]

Title

I will check the Mackie D8B and Alesis HD24 combination. I will drive to Germany, I know a store with good deals.

One more question. Are you guys familiar with IZ-RADAR24 (OTARI) in combination with OTARI STATUS mixer (with digital totall recall, EQ, etc.)?

What are the estimated prices for these things second hand in the states?

Tnx,
WaCoLaCo.

 

[manning1]

if you want THAT QUALITY OF A HIGH END studio at a much lower price i suggest you check out an amd 64 computer with a lynx two sound card
approach. if you check with a lot of pro recording folk running this combination its quite a great solution. just make sure if you go this route you ask the lynx folk recommended amd chipset and motherboard.
probably nforce for the chipset. this combination will probably cost you around 1900 bucks or so. and i assure you will be very difficult to beat with a standalone solution.