building a kickass! studio

[dawg711]

Hello all,

im a complete newbie, but have been doing alot of research for putting together my studio. below ive compiled a list of what im planning on getting (basic pieces) along with a few questions, any responses will be greatly!! appreciated.soundproofing and acoustic treatment is pretty much sorted, ive slaved for hours on the net and have built a great studio, (i believe it to be anyways) i got most of my info off john Sayers site which is awesome. ive got my drum booth, vocal booth and control room sorted. that was what i thought to be the foundation of my project and have spent the last 4 months getting that done. now it?s on to the actual recording side of things

Mackie onyx 1640i
cubase 5
line 6 pod x3 studio
drumagog 5 platinum
ddrum pro triggers
synergy origin aw300 (with added hardware and firewire ports)
KRK Rokit RP6 G2 Active Monitors
along with a bunch of mics and cables amps etc

1) i want to trigger the drums, will plugging them straight into the mic pre's and then altering with drumagog be a technique that can achieve high quality results? also ive decided it probably to be best to mic the cymbals?? also can drumagog settings be used to trigger live recording in real time? so i could maybe call up some pre sets?

2) for guitar i would love to mic an amp up and record, but also record a completely dry signal at the same time and then choose a guitar sound for it when mixing and blend the two together and with the miced amp use that alone as playback for recording purposes too. possible??

3) for the computer i know it's of huge importance to ensure its powerful enough to run, will this be sufficient. what would you recommend for rpm and how could i increase my cpu so it?s capable of running alot?

4) when a band records i would want them all to play together, just to determine the timing, create a click track and focus on the drums. can i plug all guitars into mic pre's on the Mackie and choose an appropriate sound in my daw just for reference then record them each separately afterwards?

5) for vocals would i be better off getting a different mic pre as appose to the ones in the Mackie?



as i said before im a complete newbie, so apologies in advance for any (stupid questions) i want this to be a top quality studio which could rival top quality recordings.

any feedback would be great!!!!!

David

 

[Supercreep]

i want this to be a top quality studio which could rival top quality recordings.

Hi, David - Welcome to HR.

I recommend that you dramatically lower your expectations.

Even if your recording environment is top-quality (which is questionable), and your gear was high-quality (which it isn't), you are admittedly a noob, and the skills needed to turn around a pro mix aren't something you can buy. Industry folks work at this stuff for decades.

You might want to focus on one aspect of your workflow at a time, instead of trying to address everything at once. Also, RTFM. It will help you focus on things you can't figure out, instead of things you just don't want to figure out.

That said, you're in the right place. Welcome aboard.

-SC

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

1) i want to trigger the drums, will plugging them straight into the mic pre's and then altering with drumagog be a technique that can achieve high quality results?

If you have a high quality drummer. If your drummer couldn't keep time with a clock, sample replacement won't help that.

also ive decided it probably to be best to mic the cymbals??

I see the question marks but I don't see the question.

also can drumagog settings be used to trigger live recording in real time? so i could maybe call up some pre sets?

Drumagog is all about replacing real drum hits with samples. It does this by looking at the drum track waveform and finding the peaks (based upon user-selectable thresholds) and replacing them with the selected samples from it's library. As such, it's really meant to be used in post and not live.

for guitar i would love to mic an amp up and record, but also record a completely dry signal at the same time and then choose a guitar sound for it when mixing and blend the two together and with the miced amp use that alone as playback for recording purposes too. possible??

Yes. This requires a DI/splitter that allows you to take your guitar out signal and send it to both your amp and your interface at the same time.

3) for the computer i know it's of huge importance to ensure its powerful enough to run, will this be sufficient. what would you recommend for rpm and how could i increase my cpu so it’s capable of running alot?

I wouldn't even worry about that part of it. Using today's computers for audio is like using a car to transport a loaf of bread; you have an overkill amount of horsepower available for the task.

when a band records i would want them all to play together, just to determine the timing, create a click track and focus on the drums. can i plug all guitars into mic pre's on the Mackie and choose an appropriate sound in my daw just for reference then record them each separately afterwards?

You'll want to make sure you have enough channels of headphone mixing and distribution for each band member to hear what they want/need to hear while recording in such a situation.

5) for vocals would i be better off getting a different mic pre as appose to the ones in the Mackie?

The pres in the Mackie wil serve you fine. A really good pre - assuming you have a really good mic to plug into it - will make a difference in sound, but you have to spend a couple of bucks to make it worthwhile. Something like a Grace m101 is a great "gold channel" pre to use without spending well into 4-digits for a Big Boy pre.

i want this to be a top quality studio which could rival top quality recordings.

That ability will be far more up to you and the people you record than it will be up to the gear.

G.

 

[dawg711]

cheers man, perhaps i am a little too far in the future with the whole thing right now, one step at a time it is =)

 

[dawg711]

thanks so much southside glen. thats helped alot. cheers for taking the time to reply =)