Going from a multitrack to computer based - feedback appreciated!

Z

Zorlee

New member
Hi everyone!
First of all, I'm a drummer. I love the drums, and I love practising. A couple of years ago I bought myself some drum mic's and a Yamaha AW1600 multitrack recorder. I had some fun with it, a great practising tool.
Now I've sold the recorder - I wanted a computer based recording "studio" afterall, because I just wanted the flexibility of a computer.

Now, my goal with my home-recording gear would be to get clean and good sounding recordings, that's also user-friendly - I want to use the recording gear just as much as a practising tool (recording practise sessions, listening to technique/sound/dynamics afterwards you know..).
I would also want a setup that allows me to program some music, so that I could make new songs with synths/vocals + me on the drums for example...!

Well, the equipment I've got so far:

- 1 x Audix D6 (Bassdrum)
- 1 x SM57 (Snaredrum)
- 2 x Studio Projects B1 (Overheads)
- Cables/Stands

Now, I'm currently working full time this summer, and therefore I'm saving a lot of money for the upcoming recording gear. What I'm currently planning to get is:

- 1 x Macbook - 2,1 Ghz, 2GB Ram
- MOTU 8Pre Firewire Interface (I was going for the firepod, but since I've heard nothing but great things about MOTU as a brand, this interface is the most tempting)

Now, do you guys think it's a smart first move towards userfriendly, stable and good sounding recordings? I'm well aware of that I need studiomonitors and probably an 7200 RPM extrenal drive for the Macbook, but please, tell me what you think about my plans. This is a lot of money for me, and I would like to spend it in the best manner I can!

Thank you guys for your help in advance!
Yours sincerely,
Zorlee =)
 
OK, let's take these point by point, and remember, this is just one person's opinion and yada yada yada.

First off, congratulations for being brave enough to enter the insanity that is computer recording.

Your mic collection looks good so far. I would get whatever cheap mics you can for however many toms you have as well. You could spend money and get good sounding ones, but for right now I'd just get anything, they will make perfectly good trigger inputs when combined with a good software, lookahead capable noisegate.

The 57 and the B1 will also do fine as vocal mics. Believe it or not, so will that D6 for certain types of vocals

The macbook looks good. Im not sure I would bother, unless you were planning on using mac specific software. In the past I would have said at least with the mac you know its going to work, but at this point, except for if you need osx only apps, you are just paying twice the money for the same problems as anyone else

Yeah Im gonna get roasted for that, I dont care.

I like the 8pre. Remember that until further notice from the motu community at large, do NOT install the newer drivers, use the 3.6.7.x ones.

You may or may not need a 7200 drive. I have accidentally recorded to the 5400 internals on my laptops before with no ill effects, especially since you can 8 meg cache or more on them now. If you have lots of samples going you'll need the 7200 for sure to stream quickly off disk.

The gear you have chosen will make fine recordings. It will certainly be capable of besting any of the trash we hear on the radio nowdays.

If you insist on going with Logic, I would get the mac book, otherwise (my bias showing) I'd get REAPER on PC or Mac :)



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Macs are for macheads. I HAD to work with them & they were the bane of my existence. Thankfully the site turned, ever so slowly, to PCs.
You might be a machead & if so go mac but, as pipelineaudio suggests, the new breed don't offer the same usefulness in difference now.
IF you bought a PC (& a desktop even better) the money diff would mean you could buy more gear or software to get things happening.
 
Thank you guys so much for the inputs! I really appreciate it!
Well, I was thinking about buying Ableton Live - it looks like a really great program for, well live usage. I was wondering, can I use this as a recording program too? Or would it be better to get something like Logic Express or something (or maybe Reaper?) for this?
I would like much better to use only one program, so that I can get really comfortable (over time) with it - so can I use Ableton Live for both recording and playing loops and such live? I just really like Live, I've tried it a couple of times, it just makes sense! =)

Anyway - thank you guys for the input, especially on the MOTU drives. I will be careful not to install the newest drivers!
 
Live is a cool app. I would not use it as a primary mixing and multitracking app, but there are those who do and love it. To me it is a composition and performance app, and in that capability it pretty much smokes the rest. There are kickass videos on youtube of showing just how fast you can create a whole chunk of a song in Live.

For tracking real instruments and editing real sources of audio, its REAPER, Vegas or Samplitude to me, but I come from a different sort of looking at it

For creating parts via midi and virtual instruments, Logic and Cubase as well as EXT seem to do well for people I know

You just have to figure out which world you will be spending more time in...Any app can do either function now ( except Vegas sort of), its just they place different priorities
 
Zorlee said:
Hi everyone!
First of all, I'm a drummer. I love the drums, and I love practising. A couple of years ago I bought myself some drum mic's and a Yamaha AW1600 multitrack recorder. I had some fun with it, a great practising tool.
Now I've sold the recorder - I wanted a computer based recording "studio" afterall, because I just wanted the flexibility of a computer.

Now, my goal with my home-recording gear would be to get clean and good sounding recordings, that's also user-friendly - I want to use the recording gear just as much as a practising tool (recording practise sessions, listening to technique/sound/dynamics afterwards you know..).
Click to expand...

Just curious... given that one goal is user friendly gear for recording practice sessions, why did you sell the AW1600? It can do that in a snap without much extra gear, it's quiet and it's easy to move around if you practice in different places. I have an AW1600 and much prefer using it to the DAW for recording practices, jams, solo tracks and for remote recordings. Plus you can pull tracks into a DAW later (using USB) for mixdown.

The main advantage of the DAW is automated mixdown, but the standalone beats it for just getting a few tracks down. YMMV, but I tend to find that being near or using a computer pretty much kills off new musical ideas. The standalone just seems like an appliance... like an updated version of my old Tascam 388 with a better workflow. Just a thought. Good luck with whatever you choose!

Cheers,

Otto
 
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Thank you guys for the feedback! =)
I've watched a whole lot of those youtube videos, very cool stuff!
About selling the AW1600: Well, user friendly recording of practise sessions is one thing, but I really want to have a workstation were I can compose songs (programming different instruments) and a workstation were I can quickly enter ideas. To do that, I will need soft-synths and therefore, a computer. Of course, I could buy a good keyboard or something like that, but it looks easier to use soft-synths.
AND it just felt really bad to edit on a tiny black/white screen, instead of a big screen with more possibilites..
But we'll see, hopefully I'll find the right setup for me in the end - I hope this is it, hehe :)
Thanks anyway!
 
Don't forget, it's not either/or. You can use the standalone for what it's good for and a DAW for what it's good for. Heck, I still have big 3M analog machines, and I often mix from DAW to a little MicroTrack via SPDIF. :)

Cheers,

Otto
 
i think getting a macbook is a good idea. I am getting one for recording, (as well as a personal computer) thats the big thing right there, if you want to include using this computer as a personal computer, i think, go mac! That way you can access internet without worrying about viruses like on windows. There are tons of great apps to start out with (i life). You can start with garageband and maybe then go to ableton live? I have used live a fair bit because I got the "live lite" version with some hardware (line 6 toneport) the new upgraded live lite 7 offers 8 tracks of either midi or audio tracks. (before it was just 4 audio and 4 midi) now i know that is really limited. IT's good for just getting the hang of it though to see if you like it. I think you can prob download a demo from the site too. Back to the mac though, if you are going mac, you should really consider checking out logic. It's seems to be getting more popular since it dropped half in price ($500) and has sweet instruments and extra applications like mainstage for performing live, soundtracks for making movie music (hence the name) and a mastering program called wave burner for burning and completing a cd with your music on it. Thats the full bundle called logic studio. You can get the express version for only $200 and it has most of the same instruments and efx, but no extra applications. It also doesn't come with the massive loop library logic studio does (like 49 gb)... So I would really look into getting logic if you getting mac just to see what you might be missing out on. Some also prefer digital performer, another mac only app (made my motu!) It doesn't seem as popular as logic but it may be worth checking out for you.

as for your mic setup, that sounds like that will work well.

you also said, you want user friendly, then i say go mac. Spend less time figuring out how to make music and actually just make it. Drivers seem to work well on mac with interfaces (especially motu) ... but do beware what pipeline audio suggested.

good luck with your decision.
 
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