basic setup help

[drummerboy83]

Hi guys, im looking at setting up a small studio for recording the band im in and my own compositions. Im currently studying music at college which includes recording, so I know the basics and am still learning. My question is what sort of equipment would you recomend I purchase bearing in mind that I am on a budget and am looking at buying a peice of equipment at a time. What would be the best (most useful) things to buy first. I already have an 8 track and monitoring. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx, Gaz.

 

[regebro]

Well, that IS the first parts to buy. I assume this is a 'porta' of some kind, ie an 8-track with mixer and maybe effects?

After that, getting some good mics would be necessary. A nice condenser and one or two SM57 for starters.



Then, it's all a matter of pushing what you got to the limit, and when you hit a limit of your equipment, you buy yourself out of it.

What that limits are, only you can tell. Or well, if you post in the mp3 clinic you'll get help too.

 

[Phyl]

If the 8 track you refer to is a recorder, then the next step would would seem to be microphones, cables, and possibly an outboard mixer.

You'll have to invest in some microphone pre-amps too unless your recorder already has them.


After that you may want to look at external effects such as reverb, compression, eq, and the like.

Tell us more about your 8-track. Analog? Digital? Phantom power? Effect send/returns, yada yada...

Tell us more about how you plan to record. How many mics for the drums, vocals, etc...

 

[drummerboy83]

thanx guys, the recorders a Yamaha MD8, dont know if you guys are familiar with it, its got two aux sends, no built in effects just eq, two mic inputs, 8 line inputs. As for recording the drums I have bass, snare and two overheads and also a yamaha dtxpress electronic kit which sounds really good when recorded. Were planning to record live then tweak eq ect after. What decent/budget pre amps, effects units would you guys reccomend.

Thanx, Gaz.

 

[Phyl]

With only two pre-amps on your recorder, I think you will need an external mixer to handle all the mics you will be using for drums, vocals, mic'ed guitar cabs, etc.

If the dtxexpress is an electronic drum kit then you can send it's outputs to your recorder line in, eliminating the need for some microphones.

Look at Lexicon, Yamaha, and TC Electronic for reverbs, they all have some low end units that should work for you. Lot's of economy compressors out there too.

Sounds like we still need to talk about microphones. You probably have some dynamic mics already if you've been playing out. These will work fine for recording guitar and bass cabinets. You could also use them for vocals but will get better results with a large diaphram condensor mic. Look at Rode, Audio Tecnica; better yet, hand around the mic forum and you'll get plenty of mic advice for drums and vox.

Good luck - don't forget to post some results in the MP3 clinic.