Absoluthidy
New member
I've achieved a very inexpensive and accurate sound with the following setup for recording music in the metal genre. I mean the sound is really nice and clean for the equipment used (Pre-Amps are sooooo important)
Quad Core Intel based chipset Q6600 (So maybe this part is expensive, but it's my gaming machine... so i don't really figure it into my studio price... plus you can build a cheap rig by buying a case, quad core, 4 gigs of ram, and a hard drive)
M-Audio Firewire 410 (85$ on ebay)
M-Audio DMP3 preamp (150$ from ebay or Sweetwater.com)
Samson C01 Condenser (35$ from ebay, originally 100$)
Sennheiser Dynamic (90$ guitar center)
Klipsch 2.1 Speakers for monitors (100$ from ebay)
the most expensive piece in my recording setup is probably my DAW though...
I use Cubase. (500$)
If you use bittorrent, you can get it for free. But i do not endorse or recommend this method. Don't be a communist. Embrace capitalism and our software engineers. People worked hard on this program.
If you want to get really fancy you can use Nuendo or Pro LogicStudio but they run about a grand.
Now a little about each piece...
Samson C01- This is an exceptional little condenser. It has a large diaphragm and really shouldn't be used to record electric guitars. But for everything else it is amazing. I've used 500 dollar mics in different studios before and you get about the same quality with this guy. For the price, you can not beat the quality. It's superb for recording acoustic guitars and vocals.
Sennheiser - my workhorse mic. I use this live and in the studio. I double it up with the Samson for my screaming and it records the kick drum so well. It does a good job on the snare and toms but it really really does the kick drum well. I would take this mic over a Shure Beta 58a anyday.
M-Audio 410 Firewire - Best 2 channel audio interface money can buy. Don't even waste your time with anything else, especially the M-Box line (unless you use protools LE). I recommend that anyone wanting to buy an Audio Interface just skip USB powered ones completely. You'll have it for a week and want to upgrade to firewire.
M-Audio DMP3 Pre-Amp - This 2 channel pre-amp is a friggin steal for the price. Ever since I bought this thing everything I record through it increased in sound quality ten-fold. Great for drums and vocals, but the best part is that you get a better sound recording on a direct line from your amp through this baby for electric guitars and bass. I've used mics placed on cabs and re-positioned them until I thought I had a good sound... then i plugged directly from the guitar through my amp to the DMP3 and then to my Interface... and now I will never go back to using mics to record guitars. it's such a waste of time and my clients time to spend an hour achieving a proper mic placement.
Klipsch 2.1 Monitors - These are pc speakers. there's no denying that. But Klipsch makes (in my opinion...) the best speakers money can buy. Angled properly, these speakers deliver a wide sound and superb clarity. I plug into the headphone jack on my Interface and let all the sound run through there.
When i want to record vocals or drums, i just plug headphones into the jack on the speakers preamp/control module.
Cubase/Nuendo - Same code for music production. Nuendo just offers more plugins and video/audio mixing capabilities... Hell, The Hangover was put together on Nuendo. Anyways, i've used Acid 7, Pro Tools, Pro Logic Studio, Reaper, Sonar, etc... I just can't find a better program than cubase. It's simple to use and gives me everything I need. I was a diehard Acid fan forever... in fact I was probably a little too biased towards Acid since it was the first program I used and I knew everything about it... But once I picked up Cubase, there wasn't much of a difference in manipulating it to do what I wanted and it just offered me so much more. Not to mention Cubase is awesome at recording vocals which is easily the hardest recording process of all the instruments.
as i mentioned before you can piece together your own Recording PC for not a whole lot of cash. With the total cost of my setup I have a two premium channels to record from that are comparable to a mid-level studio, where they probably payed at least 30 grand for their setup.
But you can not buy good ears and a good mind. Whatever you purchase for your studio, if you do not read about recording methods, find your own ways, and are not able to discern what sounds like shit or what sounds like gold, your mixes will always sound like garbage. Not everyone is cut out to be an audio engineer or even a half-assed audio engineer.
So before you go out and spend a couple grand on a decent setup, figure out if you can even do it. Mastering a DAW takes awhile and not only that, but the smarter bands will not pay you to just record them, they want a musically inclined person to offer suggestions and help them as well. This is what keeps business rolling in.
Quad Core Intel based chipset Q6600 (So maybe this part is expensive, but it's my gaming machine... so i don't really figure it into my studio price... plus you can build a cheap rig by buying a case, quad core, 4 gigs of ram, and a hard drive)
M-Audio Firewire 410 (85$ on ebay)
M-Audio DMP3 preamp (150$ from ebay or Sweetwater.com)
Samson C01 Condenser (35$ from ebay, originally 100$)
Sennheiser Dynamic (90$ guitar center)
Klipsch 2.1 Speakers for monitors (100$ from ebay)
the most expensive piece in my recording setup is probably my DAW though...
I use Cubase. (500$)
If you use bittorrent, you can get it for free. But i do not endorse or recommend this method. Don't be a communist. Embrace capitalism and our software engineers. People worked hard on this program.
If you want to get really fancy you can use Nuendo or Pro LogicStudio but they run about a grand.
Now a little about each piece...
Samson C01- This is an exceptional little condenser. It has a large diaphragm and really shouldn't be used to record electric guitars. But for everything else it is amazing. I've used 500 dollar mics in different studios before and you get about the same quality with this guy. For the price, you can not beat the quality. It's superb for recording acoustic guitars and vocals.
Sennheiser - my workhorse mic. I use this live and in the studio. I double it up with the Samson for my screaming and it records the kick drum so well. It does a good job on the snare and toms but it really really does the kick drum well. I would take this mic over a Shure Beta 58a anyday.
M-Audio 410 Firewire - Best 2 channel audio interface money can buy. Don't even waste your time with anything else, especially the M-Box line (unless you use protools LE). I recommend that anyone wanting to buy an Audio Interface just skip USB powered ones completely. You'll have it for a week and want to upgrade to firewire.
M-Audio DMP3 Pre-Amp - This 2 channel pre-amp is a friggin steal for the price. Ever since I bought this thing everything I record through it increased in sound quality ten-fold. Great for drums and vocals, but the best part is that you get a better sound recording on a direct line from your amp through this baby for electric guitars and bass. I've used mics placed on cabs and re-positioned them until I thought I had a good sound... then i plugged directly from the guitar through my amp to the DMP3 and then to my Interface... and now I will never go back to using mics to record guitars. it's such a waste of time and my clients time to spend an hour achieving a proper mic placement.
Klipsch 2.1 Monitors - These are pc speakers. there's no denying that. But Klipsch makes (in my opinion...) the best speakers money can buy. Angled properly, these speakers deliver a wide sound and superb clarity. I plug into the headphone jack on my Interface and let all the sound run through there.
When i want to record vocals or drums, i just plug headphones into the jack on the speakers preamp/control module.
Cubase/Nuendo - Same code for music production. Nuendo just offers more plugins and video/audio mixing capabilities... Hell, The Hangover was put together on Nuendo. Anyways, i've used Acid 7, Pro Tools, Pro Logic Studio, Reaper, Sonar, etc... I just can't find a better program than cubase. It's simple to use and gives me everything I need. I was a diehard Acid fan forever... in fact I was probably a little too biased towards Acid since it was the first program I used and I knew everything about it... But once I picked up Cubase, there wasn't much of a difference in manipulating it to do what I wanted and it just offered me so much more. Not to mention Cubase is awesome at recording vocals which is easily the hardest recording process of all the instruments.
as i mentioned before you can piece together your own Recording PC for not a whole lot of cash. With the total cost of my setup I have a two premium channels to record from that are comparable to a mid-level studio, where they probably payed at least 30 grand for their setup.
But you can not buy good ears and a good mind. Whatever you purchase for your studio, if you do not read about recording methods, find your own ways, and are not able to discern what sounds like shit or what sounds like gold, your mixes will always sound like garbage. Not everyone is cut out to be an audio engineer or even a half-assed audio engineer.
So before you go out and spend a couple grand on a decent setup, figure out if you can even do it. Mastering a DAW takes awhile and not only that, but the smarter bands will not pay you to just record them, they want a musically inclined person to offer suggestions and help them as well. This is what keeps business rolling in.