I like Beezoboy's mic list. I'm assuming that you're going to be recording a few mic channels at time and don't need quantity more than you need quality. IF that's the case, I'd suggest a few changes. The main thrust of my suggestions is for a few great channels of mic and pre, bypassing mid-level quality, but considering your budget limits.
I agree with the Lawson L47, but you also need another high caliber large diaphragm condensor. I'd suggest
the Soundelux U195 (Mercenary has it for $1150). I just trimmed Beez's list, assuming that you won't be recording many channels at a time.
With the computer, buy the parts and have it put together or take it to a local shop and pay $75 to have the parts put together. There's no way that a good solid computer costs $2000. No way! I've done it for a quarter of that price. Check
www.pricewatcher.com Buy a good barebones and add quality parts.
One thing that no one has mentioned is acoustic treatment. If you don't already have a source, go to
www.markertek.com Consider Markertek in-house cable. They use Canare cable (another brand name that is equivalent in quality to mogami).
I would also suggest a better sound card. Forget having pres on the soundcard. That's what outboard pres are for. For quality, you should consider an outboard converter or a card having great converters built in. RME makes a good relatively inexpensive converter (~$1600ish). Also, RME's Multiface card has moderately good quality conversion. The Lynx Two audio card has GREAT converters (low jitter)... on par with outboard converters (Apogee, Lucid, etc).
The Lynx Two A is a 4 in 4 out card for (~$950). You may want to get one or two of these depending on the number of simultaneous inputs you need.
So Here's my stripped down list from Beez's list (assuming few simultaneous inputs):
Lawson L47 - $2000
Matched pair - Josephson c42's $900
2 Sm57 - $160
1 Sennheiser 421 - $300
Beyer m160 - $500
Audix D6 - $200 (optional depending on need; ATM25 or D112 also good choices)
2 Studio Projects B1's - $160
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You need to specify what your priorities are here. If most recording will be vocals and music will be done via keyboards/samplers then you need a real nice set of vocal mics and you will need a small handful of vocal-related mics (that is you may want to scratch that set of Josephsons for a Soundelux U195 ($1150) and any other non-vocal mic). If you will be recording drums than your choices must then reflect that.
Mic Pres
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Here you need to be more specific. How many channels do you want to record at a time (to start with) If four channels consider the 4 channel Sebatron vmp 4000 ~$1600 at (
www.sebatron.com ). see the Kurt Foster review at
www.recording.org on this pre. For something more well known, consider 4 channels of API 3124+ for $2500 at mercenary.com Consider also 2 channels of John Hardy M1 for $1650 (
www.mercenary.com )... or Great River MP-2NV $2150 and others ... there's a lot of room here.
Computer
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$600-$700
2 Lynx Two A
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$950 each for 4 in, 4 out (2 for $1900 ) if you need 8 inputs.
See also RME products (e.g. Multiface is about $1000 for 8 channels, but the Lynx converters are likely better).
After this I would get:
DAW Software
Univeral Audio UAD-1 DSP card
Headphone Amp
Headphones
RNC
Cables