Buying tons of gear for my school. Help me choose!!!

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patlang12

patlang12

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My school wants to set up a recording studio. They have asked me to help them decide what to get. I have been asked to make three plans. A low end, middle, and then dream. The low end should only cost a few thousand dollars or less. The dream could go all the way up around $20,000 or even a little more! The middle should be somewhere inbetween. We are looking to get everything.
vocal mic
drum mics
acoustic mics
electric guitar mics
stuff for bass (probably just a mic)
interface (with computer. The school is a tech school so we should already have a computer, but we may get a better one just for recording.)
moniters
headphones
cables and stuff to hook everything up
mic stands and all of that other important stuff that is often looked over.
acoustic treatment

I know for the low end we will probably use a lot of the mics for more than one application but I think we would like to track a lot of stuff live. I have some stuff in mind, but I would love to hear what everybody says. Thanks a lot!
 
What a cool job! I would love to setup a studio on someone else's dime. Will the studio be used for recording school bands with horns and reed instruments and such, or rock bands, jazz bands, or a combination of everything? Or will the studio be used as a 'lab' setting for engineering lessons?
 
The school is really small and doesn't really have a school band so I don't think there will be horns. It will be a cross between a lab and learning about recording and just being able to record local bands too.
 
patlang12 said:
The school is really small and doesn't really have a school band so I don't think there will be horns. It will be a cross between a lab and learning about recording and just being able to record local bands too.
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Given the goal of learning, I would learn towards a PC with a mixer front-end, which is a setup that is scalable for all three budgets, plus is a good blend of hands-on analog and hi-tech digital, and will facilitate learning skills that transfer to different applications.

I would focus on dynamic mics that are both durable and well-known industry standards; like EV RE20, Shure SM57, Senn MD421, AKG D112. It would be nice to add a few condensers that are kept under lock & key, thinking like AKG 414, Shure SM81, and don't give those out to the first-year students.

If the budget allows, a few channels of external compressors would be nice.

I'm not a ProTools guy, but it seems that's the way the wind is blowin'. But then I would also have a good MIDI setup, which I understand isn't a PT strength :confused:

As for the room, don't screw around, hire a professional designer and installers. This is the most critical piece, and should be done first. If you're gonna end up on the low end budget, post over on Studio Building & we'll try to help.
 
I think it will be just about all digital because we are a technology school. We are actually a model school. There are tours going on there all the time. Al Gore's wife came a few years ago. We were thinking we may be able to get some serious discounts on this stuff. What interface were you thinking of. For the the low and medium ideas it seems that there is no better deal than the presonus firepod. Any other suggestions?
 
Also about the room. We are not sure yet what we will have for a room. They are planning to build some more at our school so we might be able to snag a room. We should be able to at least get a portable classroom. The stuff we get needs to be reasonably portable. I mean it will probably stay somewhere for at least a semester, but we can not be sure for how long so the soundproofing might need to be stuff we can move. Any more suggestions?
 
For the dream studio we are considering getting Pro Tools. If we do we will probably get a nice mac to use it with. What hardware would you reccomend looking into? It would be nice to have it be able to record 8 tracks at one time. I have heard that pro tools has a pretty steep learning curve. Do you think this would be too hard for a lot of students? If we get 20 grand or something around there would it be better to get something other than pro tools and spend that extra money on better mics and stuff like that? Also anymore suggestions on soundproofing that could be moved if nessasary. Thanks a lot!
 
Soundproofing by definition is heavy and rather permanently installed, so it's hard to move. However if you're in a portable I wouldn't worry about it; you're already isolated from the rest of the building.

Sound treatments can be made quite portable. Check the Studio Building board; several people have posted pictures of wall panels they have built.

My comment about the mixer was due to the hands-on learning aspect of it. It's true that in a purely digital studio (meaning mix-in-the-box), you don't need a mixer. However, for better or worse (worse, if you ask me), most audio production software is still designed around a virtual mixer model.
 
OK thanks for that. I will put a post in the studio building area about that. Does anybody have suggestions about pro tools. Any answers to the questions I asked in my previous post?
 
This is what I came up with for the low end budget around $2000. Tell me what you think and remeber that we already have the computers.


Interface: Presonus firepod $600 comes with software
Mics: pair of mxl 603’s for drum overheads and acoustic guitar: $200; 3 Shure Sm57’s for guitar amps, snare drum, bass guitar: $89 each= $267; Shure D112 for bass drum and electric bass guitar: $200; mxl V67g for vocals: $100 together = $587
Moniters: Waldorph 8.2’s: $250
Headphones: Nady QH560 Deluxe Studio Headphones 4x$25 + $50 HeadAMP Stereo Headphone Amp = $150
Assorted cables and mic stands: around $200
Sound Treatment: the rest of the money

I was thinking maybe another vocal mic if possible. Something to use on people who's voice doesn't sound good through the v67. Any suggestions?
 
You might want to look at the new Echo Firewire 12 (12 I/O via fireware)
 
I will check that out, but right now I need to leave to go see BB King!
 
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