building home studio and need some advice

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brokencause

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Im lookin into making a home studio for my band and im really not sure about everything i need. I need some advice and suggestions on the equipment i should buy. Also i dont want to involve my computer at any point in the recording mainly bc its packed full with mp3s and its nowhere near the room i plan to use for recording. My budget is around $2500 im willing to go over that but not tooo much. With this studio i want to be able to do everything, record, mix, and master. Ideally what i want is somone to give me a complete list of equipment that meets my requirements. thanks to anyone who replies to this, even if you cant give me a complete list give me some stuff to work off of.
 
If you are serious about this--record, mix, and master, you need to buy another computer. Sorry.
 
You could spend < $1,000 on the puter and still have $1,500 or more for equipment. Or maybe you could buy a cheapie ($500-600) and put your MP3s on it and move your other computer to your recording space.

You also need to tell us what you expect to be recording. More than one musician at once? Drums? Electric guitar?
 
When I started out, I didn't really have room on my computer either. If you've got a decent computer that would work for recording, go and get one of those portable hard drives to put all of your mp3s on. You can get a 40-80 gig one for fairly cheap. The other posts are right, though. If you're looking to do every step of the recording process yourself, then you've got to have a PC. If you want to start from scratch, you can get a decent PC, an mbox, a couple of decent mics and all the cables you'll need. If I had a budget like that, I'd personally just start from scratch and do it all right.
 
If you're looking for radio ready material you aren't going to get it on $2500. You might be better off spending the money at a studio.

If you can spend around $5k on up then you can start to come close. $2500 will get you just enough to be pissed off and think you've wasted your money.
 
To start with you don't need a new computer...you need an extra or bigger hard disk if the only problem is that the disk is full of MP3s...or dump somo of that stuff to CDR.

Then we can't begin until we know what your band consists of and how many of them you wish to be able to track at once.

Another big question is the nature of the room that you wish to use. It may take more than a few dollars to tune.
 
the problem isnt so much how much room ive got on the computer but that its not mine and its nowhere near where im gonna be able to use it correctly
 
i think i might buy another computer considering my budget and also i plan on recording bass drums and electric guitar. this is for my personal use and ive been to some pretty crappy home studios boy lemme tell ya so as long as it doesnt sound as shitty as some of the ones ive been to its just fine with me. if you wanna see how shitty the studios are heres one of them lol -www.coveruprecords.com
 
im thinkin the computer might be the way i HAVE to go based on my budget now i dont know if i should get a mac or a pc and i kinda want a lap top for the convinience of it being mobile just lemme know what would be best
 
brokencause said:
i think i might buy another computer considering my budget and also i plan on recording bass drums and electric guitar. this is for my personal use and ive been to some pretty crappy home studios boy lemme tell ya so as long as it doesnt sound as shitty as some of the ones ive been to its just fine with me. if you wanna see how shitty the studios are heres one of them lol -www.coveruprecords.com
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's definitely a beginner studio. But at least it's a start. You will be able to do much better with your funds. A laptop is one way to go. Another is to build one of the BYO machines (complete with handle) that I see coming out now. Just unplug it from the monitor, printer, keyboard, and mouse, and plug it into the same wherever you go.
 
Here's one way to spend your money:

Computer $450
Software (Sonar) $200
Sound Card (Delta 44) $200
Cables $50
Preamp (RNP 2 channels) $475
Compressor (RNC) $175
Microphones
(2 X MXL603s) $175
(SM57) $75
(AT 4040, 4033, Rode NT1-A, NT 1000, Marshall V69, SP T-3, C- 3) $300
Monitors (KRK V4) $500


Total $2600
 
I'm about to start build my new recording PC from scratch. The target is to be able to record a live band so I'll need at least 16 recording channels.

- a used 19" 4HE computer case, 70 euros
- atx power, 20 e
- mobo with AMD XP 2600+, 160 e
- 512MB ram, 80 e
- 120GB HD, 100 e
- wireless keyboard and mouse, 20 e
- DVD burner, 190 e
- old AGP display driver ? e
- TFT monitor, 200 - 300 e

For audio interface I'll probably get two Terratec EWS88MT (250 e) soundcards (total of 16 channels i/o) and two Sm Pro Audio 8 channel mic preamps (250 e) giving me total of 16 analog inputs. And if that's not enough I can install up to four EWS88MTs in my PC for total of 32 analog inputs.

The total for basic 16 mic input system would sum up to about 2000 euros (about $2250).

In the beginning I'll be running W2K pro and using n-Track 3.3 for the recording software.
 
brokencause said:
ive been to some pretty crappy home studios boy lemme tell ya so as long as it doesnt sound as shitty as some of the ones ive been to its just fine with me. if you wanna see how shitty the studios are heres one of them lol -www.coveruprecords.com
Click to expand...

To be honest you will be lucky to get a studio like that for $2500. Tdukex has some good recomendations but he left out sales tax/shipping, mic stands, cables, sound treatment which could easily add another $500-1000.
 
TexRoadkill said:
To be honest you will be lucky to get a studio like that for $2500. Tdukex has some good recomendations but he left out sales tax/shipping, mic stands, cables, sound treatment which could easily add another $500-1000.
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Actually, I included a wimpy $50 for cables--if he is willing to make his own.:D
 
I'm in a similar boat, looking to record and burn solid cds at home. I've researched both computer-based and stand-alone units and the comments seem to be that the computer-based are a pain - can crash, freeze-up, loss sound quality through connections and require lots of additional hardware. I'm looking at $1000 and under. What about the Boss 1180cd? 24 bit, 44kHz with the built-in cd burner seems like it would be everything I need to fall just short of studio quality and I would'nt ned to buy much else. I have a gibson gospel acoustic with a mackey pick-up and a crate 30d amp, plus a mic. With just a few new cables, I could burn some high quality cds with little headaches, right? Or, I'm clueless?

Oh, I record guitar and voice simultaneously and add drums, violin/fiddle and harmeny on separate tracks.

Thanks!
 
I have to agree with TexRoadkill

I doubt very seriously that you will be able to create a small facility that will be to make "radio-ready" material for your budgeted price of $2,500.00 USD. :(
 
tdukex said:
Here's one way to spend your money:
...................................
Total $2600
Click to expand...

tdukex, offerred you some good suggestions. ;)

spin
 
tdukex said:
Preamp (RNP 2 channels) $475
Compressor (RNC) $175
0
Click to expand...

so what's the preamp and the compressor. I know you need to amplify the sound before it goes to the soundcard but wouldn't you go with a mixer? also i don't know to much about what s compressor does can anyone tell me more about it and why you need one for recording?
 
Try the search function here gentlemen. Compression has been covered exhaustively.
 
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