Home Studio: help! what exactly do i need to buy?

[AndyD2003]

Hi
I want to set up a home studio and i keep getting confused as to what i need...

I want to record good to excellent quality dance music AND "real" instruments (vocals/guitar/digi piano etc), sample and record to CD etc

What i think ive gathered so far....NB: i may have got some bits wrong here hence i need some help....
1) Macs are still better than PC as operating system
2) A G4 would prob will work ok but would need a better sound card (no idea of which one is recommended), or can wait till G5's early next year...
3) No idea of how easy it is to replace Soundcard (eg would this need to come presupplied with the eg Mac)
4) Cubase is more user friendly than Logic (though is more expensive) but both are as good as each other though Cubase chases Logic so maybe get Logic???
5) Cubase (and Logic) is fine for both dance music and recording of "real" instruments
6) You need pro-tools (there are 3 versions of this, depending on how professional you want..) to edit and "edit/produce" the sounds
7) I understand Pro-tools and Cubase should work fine with a G5
though saying that people (eg on this site) are saying are cheaper alternatives to Pro-tools
8) You can buy a keyboard with sounds on if you like (the more the merrier) or use a dumb midi keyboard (a cheap one around £100 or less is fine) and then you need an external sounds system of sorts - im really vague on this area...)
9) Do you need a midi interface? (not sure what that means...)
10) Or is the sound card may be fine in terms of giving you the sounds you need for elect guitars effects (plug these directly into system?), acoustic guitar effects etc, etc
11) Or do you need an external mixer? or can plug into computer somehow? bit vague on this too... (my main focus is me recording by myself....though if could record more than one instrument at a time this could be a bonus)
12) Sampling: you could use the computers hard drive/processor to sample (this adds an additional "drain" on the resource) or can an external sampler...not sure which is better idea....though either way you're probably only looking at sampling a few seconds of music each time???
13) You need proper studio monitors and neutral headphones that do not contain any EQ (so can judge the sound properly?)
Probably can get by with a sure mic that i use when sing live with the band (though get a "screen" for it)


My budget is about £3 - £4k ish or more even, but main focus is getting the right stuff, i want to give this a good bash and not suddenly realise i cant do certain stuff...turnkey (charing x road, london) have not been that helpful, also i have not seen a proper list of what u need to get from magainzes eg Sound on Sound., others too..so the main thing i am missing is knowing what items i need to get (and also the nitty gritty detail....what make and models etc, etc) so any help would be really , really appreciated

many thanks
Andy

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

Ok, point by point.

1) Mac is NOT necessarily better than PC. Macs are typically easier to take care of, though, and by the character of you post you may want to go with the Mac for that reason.

2) G4 or G5 is fine. In the states the G5's just came down in price and several new models have been introduced. I'm not sure about what's availible across the pond but I'd imagine its the same.

3) Moderately easy. Concider a Firewire (or *maybe* a USB) interface as all you need to do is plug them in and install the software.

4) Cubase is much eaiser to use than Logic. Logic has a pretty steep learning curve.

5) Yup.

6) No!!! Either Cubase or Logic can do all the editing that you might use Pro Tools for. Cubase, Logic and Pro Tools are all about the same kind of program. You don't need Pro Tools.

7) Yup

8) Keyboard with sounds built in is convenient in that its all in one packages and you have only to hook it up to your mixer. Dumb contoller and sound modules are convenient in that its easy to upgrade/sell/trade modules. You can use both types of keyboards to play software sound modules (and external sound modules for that matter.) Pretty much up to you.

9) MIDI interface lets the keyboard talk to the computer- its the way you record MIDI. You will need a MIDI interface BUT that new soundcard may have a MIDI interface built into it, depending on which one you get.

10) The built in soundcard will not be good enough for decent quaity recording.

11) The main values of a mixer is that it give you many mic preamps and inputs, lets you control monitor levels easily, and looks really cool. You may not need one, depending on the soundcard (called an Audio Interface) that you buy.

12) Computer-based samplers kick boo-tahy! Sure, they take up some resources, but all your setting are saved in Cubase or Logic and automatically load up when you open the session. With external ones, you have to load up the samples manually.

13) Good monitors are a must. If your speakers are coloring the sound there is no way to effectively mix it. Headphones don't matter so much as they are mainly used for tracking and not mixing.

Mics are a whole new ball of wax. There are many options based on what you intend to do with them. In any case, I'd start with a few sure-fire buys (Shure SM57 and a one of the low cost Condensors like MXL V67 or Studio Projects c1) and learn how to use them. Then you'll know a lot more about what to buy next.

As far as make and models go... you'll have to ask someone esle as I'm not familiar with dance music.

Good luck!
Chris

 

[griffon65]

1. No comment never used MAC but I really haven't had problems using my PC.

2. Yeah it should be fine (again Im not a MAC user don't take my word on this). When you record/mix don't run other programs except the essential ones and you will have no slowdown or any other problems.

3. Its not too difficult It may seem a bit daunting at first but the results are worth it. USB is not the best way to go for recording. Its good for printers and other low info devices but the amount of data being transferred when recording sounds is not something you wanna handle over USB.

4.Havent used either. But from what I read it should be fine. I usually use Sonar for recording and Sound Forge for adding effects and equalizing my songs.

5. It should be fine for recording any type of music

6. Nah they can edit but if you can snag a demo of other tools that can edit and add effects then check em out. you might find something better suited to your taste. Like me in question 4 sonar can do the editing just as good as sound forge but its interface is VERY clumsy and time consuming. So I use sound forge for the editing because its way faster. On the other hand sonar in much more convenient in recording so I use it for that purpose. Another words if you can experiment with different tools to find your personal preference.

7. Yeah shouldn't be any problems as long as you meet system requirements.

8. I dunno... sorry

9. Get a keyboard interface or something that more all in one like the omnistudio

10. Most soundcards don't have direct plugins for instruments, instead you connect the soundcard to an interface which has plugins for guitars and mic, etc., But its a lot easier to just get the keyboard to emulate instruments just make sure buy a good one.
The only thing you would need an instrument for is amped guiter and you dont plug that in, you have to record the amp with a mic.

11. You usually will need an interface. Some soundcards have built in preams and mic connection. But the pre-amps are generally infirior to interface peramps or seperete ones. Also depenind on what type of mic you get you need phanthom power wich a soundcard cant provide. And there also might not be a way to plug in the keyboard to your soundcard directly.

12. Use a computer one its cheaper. On another note, you might wanna look into "music synthesizers" this is a keyboard that you use on your computer to make beats. Saves money cuz you don't have to buy a real keyboard. Check out Cakewalk Project5 from what I heard its very good. They also have a demo so you cant try it out before buying.

13. Well you wanna get a headphone so you can hear the beat while your singing obviously. You can get a good studio head phone for $50. A shure is a good mic for all around but you really might wanna get a C1, you really cant go wrong with this mic.

By the way all this info might be way too much for you to digest at once so do this:

http://digitalproaudio.com/
1-800-240-4079
Brian
This guy specializes in this stuff and is very helpful. I actually just bought a ton of stuff from him and he was really helpful in terms of cost and product knowledge. I should get my mic in the mail tomorrow and then I can come back and let you know if this guy really rocks or not. If you have any other questions just ask.

 

[manning1]

dance music.

cant answer everything due to time,. BUT good DAW
amd 2500 , 2 7200 rpm drives, reme or lynx sound card for PRO
or still good. check put m audio series. or echo mia.
mics - boatloads of them available. a whole topic in itself.
check out beyer mics. never disappoint.
mixer. if yopu got the money the MIDAS venice sure looks nice.
but money. but for cheap another poster on here just told me his yamaha mg mixer is clean and quite and they start at 100 dollars.
before you spend on multitrack software these will knock your socks off for little money. try the demoes. powertracks 29 dollars and magix audio studio. 49 dollars . you dont need any more to do a hit record imho. also check out , my wife just bought me a little stocking stuffer for 10 dollars called ejay dance in the bargain bin. i doubt i'll use the 16 track sequencer but it comes with 3500 dance samples that i'll probably find a use for.
bottom line. and i'm a computer and engineering nerd.
you wont beat the value of an amd PC imho. the PC hasway
more choices than a mac in terms of software for music etc.

 

[griffon65]

just thought I'd give you an update. I just fixed everything up and it works perfectly. You should definatly call the guy above if you want details on what to buy.