Gonna have a little money to spend. Help

[Freudian Slip]

OK been doing the Home record thing for a while as well as stepping into a pro studio once in a while. I am going to have about $1000.00 to $1200 to spend in the next month or so. What I am after is some opinions on bang for buck on what I'm after.

I can give you an Idea what I have to start.

DAW
Echo layla 24
2 sets of monitors tanoy proto j's and BX8's
Mackie sr24-4 board
some nice 31 band EQ's (not much good for recording)
A DBX project1 266 compressor
B powerplay 4600 head phone amp
Mic's include
1 at-3035
3 sm57's
1 beta 52
1 AT-813
2 AKG c-430 overheads
2 MXL 990 (really do not used them much)

Any way theres alot more but that is most of what I use.

What I am wanting is this:
A Nice pre amp / channel strip
a patch bay
a 12 space rack
2 more channels of compression (better that the 266)
2 parametric EQ's
1 guitar pre (cause I have to record same room with the drums)
I plan on the guitar being scratch but it would be nice to have it useable if the take is good.

And if possible 1 decent LD

I started out thinking ....
1 beh... patch bay $40.00
1 rack $160.00
1 V amp pro $170.00

and that's where it gets to the choices

2 threeQ's?
2 vtb's and 2 presounus para-eq's
some nicer 2 channel pre/EQ/comp ?
I don't know I was leaning tward the threeQ's but the fact that the comp ratio is set is not appealing and it would be $400 plus for two of them.

anyway I am trying to simplefy things so that I have a couple of complete siglnal chains at least, that would work well for kick, snare and vocals.
the rest I can just use straight preamps from my mackie.

To sum up that do you think I should get. I record rock N roll btw.

Thanks for reading my long drawn out question.

F.S.

 

[borntoplease]

i would skip the patch bay... you'll double your cableing cost.
as far as the LDC for vocals go...
look into the ADK Vienna and Hamburg (299.00). im getting a hamburg. the ADK line looks to be sweet. for the 2 channels of compression, i would say your most bang for you buck would be the RNC 1773 (175.00). i think a decent, and i emphasize decent option for a pre amp would be the VTB1(129.00), that is to stay in your price range. there are tons of options once you get into the 500.00 plus range. i dont know too much about EQs so i'll stay away from that. i can say that joe meek gear is decent stuff... i havent used it, but a lot of people are pretty happy with it. i hear its pretty "colored". (damn, that word is thrown around a lot...)
there are some things to think about.

 

[Freudian Slip]

Thanks Borntoplease.

I will think about your patch bay comment. I planned on dumping a few hundred more into cables due to it. I may be able to skip it. What I want is to be able to change, adjust and experiment quickly though.

I have thought about the vtb preamp. as far as the RNC goes the only thing I don't like is that it appears you can not use the 2 channels independently of each other.

 

[apl]

You might look at a RODE NTK.

 

[borntoplease]

as far as the RNC goes the only thing I don't like is that it appears you can not use the 2 channels independently of each other.

explain what you mean... on two different sources at the same time?

 

[Freudian Slip]

explain what you mean... on two different sources at the same time?

What I'm trying to say is it looks like the settings effect both channels identcaly. in other words I couldn't set up one channel one way and the other channel another way at the same time. It appears to be just what it says, a stereo compressor as upposed to a 2 channel compressor.

Am I mistaken?

Excuse my poor spelling.

 

[Freudian Slip]

Thanks apl. I think that is more than I will have left on the mic front. more like maybe $300.00 still looking at my options.
I am leaning tward perhaps skipping the component set up EG: vtb, rnc, eq3b. I am looking at the Twintrack and the TwinQ. The twinQ seems to have everything I want. It has a variable impidance pre, a fully functional parametric and a adjustable compressor on each channel. and it has spdif out which for me means being able to record 10 tracks at a time instead of 8.

if I buy it before March 31st I get a JM J37 condensor mic (no Idea how good that is)
I could still get the rack and the V-amp pro. and I would hopfully have a two channel pre that would work good for kick & snare, and vood on vocals.

I really want to put everything at my fingers on a couple of channels and the conveluted way I have to do it on my board is just a drag.

I think this might work out well for me. It doesn't let me buy everything I want but it gets me close and the next buy can be a 4033 or a NTK.

We shall see. I'm looking around in the $500.00 to $800.00 range to see what's out there for dual pre's. So far the twinQ is the only thing in my range so well featured.

Later
F.S.

 

[borntoplease]

the RNP would be a good option for a pre. 475.00 bucks.

 

[Freudian Slip]

the RNP would be a good option for a pre. 475.00 bucks.

I have thought about that. Not many features though.
F.S.