Early 70's Quality Home Studio for < 1500.00?

[atomicman]

I know a lot of people here are very big fans of expensive equipment, unfortunately I'm 18 and I'm only trying to record punk type stuff. The best quality I'm really worried about getting is about the same as what's on the second Stooges album. Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with micing drums and like (I've been reading around on the forums and links that people have posted, big help, but I'd like to get some help from people who can actually give me an idea rather than theoretical mumbo-jumbo).

As far as home recording goes, I don't have a lot of experience, I have a Fostex multitrack that's broken because the cassette recorder died, I've been running it through to my laptop and that's been working fine but it's just been slowly shutting off in other places.

I read a lot of people complaining, and an equal number of people raving about Behringer products. The only behringer equipment I own is a small 15-watt modeling amp and I think it's pretty cool, albeit a very different-sounding amp.

Any way, here's some things I've picked out that I was wondering about:

SMPro Audio DI-8 8-Channel DI/Line Mixer
Nady RMX-6 Rackmount 6-Channel Mic/Line Mixer
Yamaha MG10/2 Stereo Mixer
Behringer FCA202 F-Control Firewire Audio Interface
2x nady CM-88 Condenser Mic (For Overhead, but I've heard baaaad things about Nady, so that's why I'm asking before I go purchasing stuff that won't be any good at all.)
MXL990 Condenser Mic (For Vocals and what-not)
Nady DMK-5 Drum Mic Set (duh)
M-Audio StudioPro 4 (Active) Monitors

The computer all of this will be going through (Which I already own):
Athlon XP 3500+
1.5GBs Ram
Audigy 2 ZS Gamer Sound Card (I dunno if this will matter since I'm getting the audio interface, but the firewire is on it so there y'go)
2x250GB HDs
That's the important stuff.

As I said, even if Nady is crap, I'm not looking for amazing quality, just good enough to compare with the first Stooges CD if at all possible, and this is by no means set in stone and I won't argue if you say something's better because I'm sure you have much more experience in this area than I do, I'm just trying to get stuff to learn on and don't have much to spend at ALL. So basically, I can't take that 100.00 for a mixer and turn it in to 400.00 - It's just impossible. =(

I'd also be willing to buy used equipment if it's at least comparable in price and features, I'm just looking to get the best I can for a very small amount of money, if I had 10,000.00 to blow on a home studio you can believe I would.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth especially with information, because I know what it's like to have a n00b stumble in to your stuff and play with knobs and buttons asking "OOH WHAT DOES THIS DO!?!" without any knowledge on the subject at all. So while I gain knowledge, I'm trying to find stuff I can use for the next year or so.

Thanks doods and doodettes, whichever it may be!

 

[atomicman]

I'm sorry, I didn't post this in the newbies section. Excuse me. =x.

 

[dr.colossus]

Ok, lets just slow down and look at this from a what you'll really need type perspective;
Are you looking to record the whole band together, or are you going for instrument a t a time type thing?

Ok what I'd be doing in your scenario is nto bothering with the behri interface and Nady drum pack etc., and look at few bits of quality gear rather than a lot of stuff you'll hate and want to put on ebay in the future;

For a track at a time set-up I'd go for

Mics:
2 x Behri ECM8000 (overheads)
1 x AT 25 Pro (Kick Drum, Bass Guitar)
1 x Shure SM57 (Guitar, Vocals, (Snare))

Mixer:
Yamaha MG102

Monitors:
Whatever Tickles your fancy, but don;t skimp too much here!

If you have some change you might consider a Large Diaphragm condensor like the Studio Projects B1 (good for room mic, bass, some guitar , some vox). Or something like an RNC Compressor

So how do I use this gear?

Because we can only record two tracks at a time the whole idea of throwing six or seven mics on the kit spells disaster. I'd look at spending a bit of time placing the two ECM overheads and the Kick mic then mix... This will give you a more natural picture of the kit, a much better sound for garage type stuff. The RNC could really be pushed here for that old school fat kit sound.

I didn;t bother with a DI for bass, again I think a good garage bass sound needs to have that dirty "pushing air" type sound.

SM57 is arguably the best bang for the buck guitar mic, its been used on tens of thousands of recordings

OK Garage Vocals don;t get much better than an SM57, you can go one step further and record them through an amp (use the B1 to mic the amp) for a real dirty garage sound. Again the RNC would be a good assest here.

Do your mixing ETC on Pro tools LE or Cubase or Whatever, sell 1 million records, and yer done All in all you should be able to get a better sound out of two or three high qual tracks than a whole bunch of shitty tracks.

Other handy bits of cheap gear:

DBX163 (guitar, bass, kick drum compressor, with DI on some models)
Sennheiser E604 (guitar mic)
VTB1 (Preamp for some flava)
Second B1 (as an overhead option)

Don't Forget you;ll need cable an mic stands which can eat into a budget pretty quickly. This is all one guys opinion on a good cheap "garage sound" type studio. Good luck with it all

 

[ssscientist]

nto bothering with the behri interface and Nady drum pack etc.,

Good advice from the collosal Aussie doctor, but that leaves a gap in the 'getting the sound into the computer' area.

I would advise putting the Behringer Firewire interface back on the list, and laying off the Nady drum pack in favor of the following setup: One good LDC condenser with a -10 dB pad for the kick drum and two Oktava MK-012's for overheads. This is the setup I've used quite sucessfully for the type of sound you're looking for. It takes a little balancing to get both overheads in the right place so they're not picking up too much cymbal blast and so that they're picking up an even mix of snare and toms. You will need to have an SM57 on hand --- you should have one of those on your shopping list anyway --- to slip in on the snare just in case the drummer that you're working with has a weak left wrist.

Don't be afraid to buy used mics. As long as they're not dented and don't smell like beer or smoke you can be reasonably sure they've been reasonably well taken care of. And your microphone dollar will go much farther on the used market.

Everything in the very good previous post --- combined with my humble additions --- and you should be ready to start making recordings. Just be sure you pull that Audigy game card out of the computer before you add the Behringer so the two don't conflict. Play games somewhere else.