Building a first recording environnement

[Discursion]

Hey everyone! I found the forum while falling on some link that directed here. I am from around Montreal in the province of Quebec, Canada. Basically, I've been a guitarist for the last 8 years or so and I will soon be living with one of my best buddy inside a house in which we planned to seriously start playing music. We're both 20 (by the way). I had the feeling like we were getting a bit over-ambitious about this whole idea of perhaps having a way to record our own music at home and get good and satisfying results, s, so I wanted to ensure about how much we would have to invest, and I wanted to know the whole business. I'm also entering university and I will be doing a minor in Numerical Music along with my Computer Sciences BAC.

Up until now the project seems pretty simple, but when we had to look into details everything, things went a bit more complicated. The idea was to be able to get a full band into the basement (we have enough room for that) and be able to record everyone jamming, but each would have his own individual track. Which makes about, I don't know, perhaps 5 tracks (2 guitars, 1 bass, 1 drum and 1-2 mics, perhaps a synth eventually)? For now my friend (who's a drummer) has his own complete electronic drumset with which he can use MIDI softwares to get a good drum sound, but obviously we will eventually get a real drum and then we'd have to get drum microphone if we want to record (now would it require even more simultaneous tracks for the mixing?). Because we also want to be able to make projects that are not a live band playing. So we'd need to record accoustic drum. So I'm here to find what type of console we'd need, what kind of computer I should look for, and what have I forgot to take into consideration.

Note also that I'm currently reading all those guides everyone's suggesting. It's just that I will soon need to take decisions and spend some money to get started, so it'd be preferable for me to have something to lead me, some advice or something a way that I can explore safely. Having people's opinion will for sure help guide my choice. Thanks in advance for that. Here it goes.

My actual plan.

Budget : ranging from 2000 to 3000 CAN$, without my friend's contribution (he's going to buy the monitors and the console with me, but the computer's mine!)

-Buying a whole new computer mainly dedicated to music recording. I also want to have good speakers, 2 screens, from 4 to 6 GB of DDR3 RAM, a decent audio card if that's what I need, a decent graphic card (I'm a Programming student y'know), wireless mouse 'n' keyboard, etc.
Q: What kind of Motherboard, audio card or PCI/FireWire/USB Audio Interface, RAM, etc. would it require, in order to record multi-tracks?
Q: Should I get an Audio Interface instead of an audio card?
Q: What website would you recommend to buy components, and which components would you suggest?

-Buying a console.
Q: What would it need to record a full band? What would you suggest?
Q: Should I go USB, Firewire or PCI?

-Buying a new guitar and amp (those are details for now).
-Buying monitors.
-Buying proper mics.

Having both the console and a strong computer - a whole functional system that would allow me to record with a decent quality many tracks simultaneously - is the primary objective. The instruments, amplifiers, modulers, pedals, microphones are really secondary. I already have my own guitar and my friend his own drum.

I'll keep searching for answers but if you already have an idea and would like to help me out, spare some of your time to save me from endless searches, I'd really appreciate. Otherwise, well sorry for the English mistakes if any, I'm originally a Frenchspeaker. Thanks in advance!

Oh and well I'm (we're) going to be making metal music in a general way. I'm really into prog stuff. My project has its MySpace, which is named Discursion, just write myspace slash discursion... yet there is only one instrumental song recorded yet, and I had help from Australia to get a really-not-so-bad sound. Can't wait to get further into composing and recording.

 

[Armistice]

Lotta questions there...

A few answers...

1. Forget soundcards... get an audio interface with enough channels to record as many sources as you'll ever need. Drums ain't one channel, by the way... probably 4 minimum and more if you want to head that way.. You will also want to multi-mic various things from time to time as you develop your techniques.

2. Read tweakzguide

3. If you're going to try to record metal in a house, then you'll probably need to treat the room, and you'll also need monitors.

What you record on is just the medium and not the most important parts of the project - they would be who you record, playing what, how well, with what level of engineering, equipment and knowledge. Tracking is critical... you can't fix it later... so don't worry so much about your PC etc. it's all the other stuff and the knowledge of what to do with it that will make the difference.

Good luck..

 

[guitaristic]

Welcome to HR!

For an interface, I'd definitely recommend the Tascam us-1641. It's USB 2.0 and can run 16ish tracks. I've got one and it works great! Should be enough to meet your needs, and it's also a really good price. Runs about $300 US dollars! (forgive me, but I think US and Canadian $$ are almost the same, right?)

I'll leave the computer advice to someone else! Not my area of speciality lol

As for mics, I'm thinking that a dynamic mic would be best for metal vocals! Maybe take a look at the Shure sm7b! QUALITY mic! I run a CAD pro-7 piece kit on my drums (take a look at it if you do buy a drumset and need mics), but I'm sure other people will have plenty of suggestions! Sm57s are inexpensive, "workhorse" mics. They sound good on a lot of things, especially guitar cabs.

Here's the link to tweakz that Armistice was talking about: Tweak's Guide to the Home and Project Studio
Lot's of good stuff in there. That's the great thing about this place...if you're willing to learn, you'll learn! Like, a ton.

And kudos to your English!

 

[Discursion]

Thanks a lot for the quick reply. I'm currently (since around a week) reading the Tweak's guide but some informations appear (mostly concerning DAW) to be out-dated. I had that doubt concerning sound cards, so yeah I'll look for an Audio Interface, that's what I expected, your confirmation is appreciated. So would you say I'd need to be able to record over 10 tracks at the same time? Is that something fancy or affordable to do? Also, treating the room is something I cannot take into consideration for now, but I eventually will, I just hope it won't affect the music too much until then. Monitors are considered, I think I'll be fine for this.

Anyways I guess I'll read further more the guide, but I already know the basics of tracking. My questions are really only oriented towards the recording system, what it needs to record a full band the way I plan to do. The other details about the sound itself is kept for after. I think once you got DA and main console, you already have something solid to build on. I'm not looking for anything fancy, just a computer that received what the console sends it, that receives instruments signals.

I know that knowledge is the best way around (and I'm working on it of course) and I'm in no way willing to act like a Spoony but at this point I'm having a hard time figuring out which components to buy.

What I'm planning.

Computer (DAW)
-Motherboard : No idea yet. Really.
-RAM : 4 to 6 GB DDR3.
-Video card : Not really important (something that allows 2 screens)
-Speakers : Something decent, probably worth around 300$.
-Screens : Two identical, for viability and effectiveness I guess.
-Audio card : So I guess I do not need one. But how do I connect the Audio Interface with the computer exactly?

Audio Interface
-As many in/out as I'd require; which is not something I'm sure about.
-Something good enough to do the multi-tracking I want.
-I guess having two MIDI in just in case would be a good idea.

Console (analog hardware, mixer)
-Channels : I was thinking 16 or more (without counting the "returns").
-Bus : 4 busses, not 2+2 (not counting master-outs). 2 go to DAW, well I mean they go to AI first, 2 go to console.
-PCI, USB or Firewire? Are Audio Interaces generally Firewires?

Monitors
-Not really important yet.

Preamps, compressors, etc.
-Not really important yet.

Instruments (microphones, guitars, drum...)
-Not really important yet.

Sequencer
-Not really important yet.


Want I expect.
-To be able to record around 10 tracks at the same time. Possibly more.
-To have control on every instruments via the console.
-To eventually add preamps, compressors, effects, etc.
-To get a decent quality of sound basically.

Again thanks alot for the quick replies (kind welcomes) and everything, all the advices will be taken into consideration, really important for me. I hope to have provided enough informations but don't be afraid to ask. Are there specs I forgot to consider anywhere?

 

[mjbphotos]

To record that many tracks make sure you get an audio interface (and obviously the computer) with Firewire connection. Most likely any interface you get will come with some type of software, but Reaper is a good (free to try) DAW.

 

[Discursion]

EDIT : Oops sorry I read wrong. Yeah I will get Firewire, now that's for sure, I received many advice concerning that.