Build it for me...

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006productions

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Ok, I want to get a loan...about $12-15k...or less if I can. And have a home project studio. Nothing too fancy.

What I have already:

2x Shure SM57
MXL v67 (I think..I didn't buy it)
PowerBook G4 15"
external Western Digital 250gb FW400 10k RPM drive
PODxt Live with Metal Shop model packs
5150 combo
Drumkit From Hell 2
Drumkit From Hell Superior
Steinberg Cubase SX3
N-Track Studio 3.3
Sony Vegas 5.0
Waves Platinum Pack plug-ins
M-Audio MobilePre USB
Sony 1600 Home Theater System (Hi-Fi monitoring)

I have a PC from Dell, an XPS gen 2. It was top-of-the-line back when I bought it, but that doesn't make up for the fact that it's a Dell. It has an Intel Pentium 4 3.2gHz cpu with 800mHz FSB, 2gb dual-channel DDR, a Maxtor 80gb 10kRPM drive, a CD/DVD-ROM and a CD/DVD-R drive, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card, and ATi Radeon 9700 video card. 19" LCD display.

Now, I've been able to do some really great sounding stuff with what I have. Really great production. But, I have had a recent problem with my PC, it died on me. More specifically the hard-drive. When this happened, I was reflecting, and I really want a good recording setup. I work at a studio, it's my job. But I want to have a project studio at home to do whatever I want. I have had bands come to my house and record demos there free of charge since I love to record and help out bands. We have had to use Drumkit From Hell for their drums, which came out amazing, and they had no problem...since I don't have room for drums, or the mics for it either.

I'm not looking to record drums, but vocals, guitars, bass, and anything else besides drums. I like the Rokit powered 8" monitors, we just got some for the studio for tracking monitors and they are actually really good for mixing as well. We have Mackie HR824a's for mixing, but the Rokit's seem to be the same exact thing, with my ears anyway. And for the same price you pay for ONE Mackie 824, you get a pair of the Rokit's. Good deal :)

I want all digital, or as much digital as possible. ProTools is an option but only to a certain extent. Maybe a 002R, and an OctoPre w/ ADAT for 16 inputs (since I would like to have a mobile recording setup too for live shows). I've looked at MOTU, DigiDesign...everything, and I honestly could care less what I get. As long as it does the job, :). I have really great Waves plug-ins, so I don't need *that* much outboard gear, but it would be helpful to attack some things before it hits the computer.

As far as a DAW goes, I love Macs. I have a PowerBook, and the other studio I use to work at we used G5's with dual cores and ran ProTools HD3 systems. So, I'm confortable with Macs and ProTools. At the studio I work at now, we use a monster PC running Vegas 5.0, so I'm proficient with that as well. I use Cubase only for programming drums with DFH, not recording. I would like to use a PC for this, and have the studio owner where I work tweak it for me because his is just insane...we have had 1,000 tracks with plugs all armed and recording before to TRY and make Vegas crash so that we could bring up the backup session. So I know a custom built PC is a great idea.

Sweetwater has recording PC's that you can buy for decent prices, and even a rackmount one, which would be cool. Or I could just get a G5 with dual cores and get the ProTools setup. I would rather stick with a PC and use Vegas or N-Track, I love these prorams and they are just so easy to get stuff done quickly with. I would rather have ProTools for major projects, thats just me.

For mics, I know I need a really good condensor, or two. And also maybe a matched pair for acoustic guitars. I love Neumann TLM series mics, we used them at the old studio. At the current studio, we have RODE NT series mics for vocals, they sound great, very clear and transparent, I love them. Lately I've been noticing some companies making condensor mics that should cost 6x more than what they charge. So yeah...dynamics, I would like to get a few more, Sennheiser e609, Sennheiser MD421, Audix i5, etc. for recording guitar amps. For bass, I like to use direct...I don't like mic'ing up a bass cab, it just doesn't sound the same to me. So something good for that. I'd like to have at least 8 mic pre's, something like an OctoPre, or similar quality.

Also, a control surface. I really like the Mackie Control Universal, plus it works perfectly with Vegas. I guess what I'm trying to get at is I want some ideas for equipment based around a custom built PC for recording with Vegas, lol. I will be using this mostly for myself, but I do have friends that will be recording their demos and whatnot there as well. So I need to be able to record guitars, vocals, bass, all at once, etc. So, any takers? Throw everything in, keep it as simple and cheap as possible, but I want good stuff of course, :) Thanks in advance.
 
Ok, I'll reply to my own post, hehe. Here's what I've come up with on my own:

Sweetwater Creation Station LE
http://www.sweetwater.com/creation_station/towerle.php
I can put the other sticks of RAM from my old PC to make it over 2gb

Sony Vegas 6.0
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Vegas/
Audix i5
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/i5/
Mojave MA-200 condensor
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MA200/
Mackie Big Knob
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BigKnob/
Mackie Control Universal
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MackieCont/
Dynaudio BM5A monitors
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BM5A/
Presonus Digimax LT
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DigimaxLT/
MOTU 828mkII
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/828MkII/
Mackie HM54 headphone monitoring
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HM54/

All that plus cables for everything comes out to around $7k. Good deal? Anywhere I can save some more cash and not suffer too badly in quality?
 
For a PC, your money will be A LOT better spent on something like this. Hate the case, but you could move all the stuff from it into your case. Dual core processors are the way to go, and AMD are leading the race at the moment. Could use your RAM and HD you have at the moment and have a REALLY nice PC. If you went for the other one because of the sound insulation etc, take a look at what Ricks been upto. It's gona be a lot better than auralex in the case, and probably end up the same price, for a much better PC.
 
Actually, I'm not sure why more of you don't consider a rackmount case, like so:

90 bucks with the power supply, and these things pop on ebay all the time. Most of us have racks, and rackmount gear, why not get the PC off the floor, away from the cat hair, and into the rack and protect it like the important piece of gear it is?

There are 1U, 2U .... all the way to .... 8U if you have something huge you need to house.

Rackmount PC cases often have more fans than you can shake a stick at, which keeps things really cool. If the quantity of fans annoy you, you can easily string two diodes in series with each one to slow them down. Modern motherboards allow you to set fan speeds as well...

Rackmount cases can be bought with dual power supplies too.. which means you have redundancy in case one explodes on you. Those cases are usually a bit more expensive but I personally think it's worth it. You plug one into the wall, and the other into a battery backup system (UPS) and plug that into the wall.

Just a thought....
 
Hmm, it seems like I could save a lot of money by building one myself. I use to build custom PC's with my dad a long time ago when they were a much more demanded product, but now everybody shoots for the $400 deal from Compaq that has everything incuded, my dad couldn't compete with that, so he stopped doing it a few years back, heh.

I definitely want an ASUS board, I hear nothing but great things about them, especially for recording purposes. Intel Pentium 4 chips are great, but I keep hearing a lot of great things about AMD processors..can anyone point out any REAL major advantages against a Pentium chip for recording purposes? And yeah, I have a ton of RAM just sitting here already, so I wouldn't need to spend money on that, or a drive. Just a mobo, a case, power supply, and CPU really. I wanted a rackmount PC from Sweetwater but the price was just too much over what I want to spend.

Ok, so can anyone point me in the right direction for the parts I need to get? I tried to search around newegg.com and it's kinda hard to navigate, lol. Remember, I need an ASUS board that will take dual Intel or AMD (probably Intel) chips, have at least enough slots for 4 sticks of 512mb RAM, and of course the CPU chips themselves. It's becoming apparent that I can build it myself for much less than I can buy one with the same components or comparable components.

As far as the other gear, your thoughts on it? Anywhere I can save some money with something similar but less cost? Thanks guys for the help so far.
 
Why not buy one, like i suggested, with all the stuff you need. It ends up cheaper. Well did for me anyway. AMD X2 processors out-perform Pentium dual core on most applications.

And Frederic, yeh I'm planning on a rack-mount case. Definitely a good idea. Don't know why i didnt suggest it :o
 
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