Minimum for profesional recording

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skaman

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Hi guys.

Im prepearing album with my band. I have a simple question. What is minimum gear that i need to record this album professionally. We really dont have money for pro studio and my home studio is quite ok. I have 4 channels (m-audio delta 44) and i intend to buy another delta 44, so i will have 8 chanels. Im intending to have 3 sm 57 for toms, 2 sennheisers md 425 (one for snare and one probably for hihat. beyerdynamic overhead pair and probabli beta 52 for kick. but my big problem is mixer. i have oldtimer studiomaster and i doubt that it isgood enough for this. what 8 chanell mixer do you suguest?

and something about compressor. should i compress snare, kick and bass guitar thacks on input with analog compressor or no? some friends says yes, some says live it for the mix, but problem is that i intend to mix in cubase, so i wont be able to use analog compressor in the mix. what is your opinion?

for vocals and trumpets I will borrow some cool, dbx preamp and rode tube condenser mic so problem here is solved.

thanks for your answers.

take care.
 
well, as a "minimum" i suppose you would want some gear that would allow you to make a CD, so the minimum spec would be
Mic->pre->AD converter->CD burner

However, I think we are getting ahead of ourselves here.

It appears to me that you aren't really clued into what you're really trying to do. Whilst the gear you list will work on stage, and, technically, you can get that sound into your copmuter, you're probably not working at a "professional" level.

I would suggest getting an 8-channel pre/AD converter instead of another Delta- one that can go directly into your computer, so that you can track straight to your mixing software and work from there. You can use the delta you already have to get the signal from the DBX pre you mentioned.

If you really want to go the 8 ch mixer/2 delta route, I would probably suggest something in either the A&H mixwizard series, or the mackie onyx series- they're two small format mixers that have half-decent pres in them. This also lets you use a compressor where you need it, running it as an insert. Keep in mind that most audio programs these days have decent compressor plugins, so you may not need an outboard compressor (esp if you can only use cheap ones).

I usually compress the snare, kick, vocals, and then whatever else the track needs (like toms, guitar, bass, harp...). What and how you compress thigns is really dependant on the sound you're going for.

Ok this was probably a bit rambling, and not much help, but i'm tired... If you've got more questions shoot them trough overnight and I'll attempt this again tomorrow...
 
concerning the use of outboard gear, you don't have to track with the compressor.

i suggest you track without the compressor and then add it later. let's say you want to compress the kick drum. then select o/p 1 for the kick, and plug o/p 1 into the compressor. then bring the compressor back in at i/p 1, and record that. then you'll always be able to control how much comp you want, whereas if you track with it, you're stuck with it.

good luck on your album!

MD
 
The best you can do is read as much as you can on the forums and learn.
Professional sound is about skill experience and knowledge and with lots of that one can make a professional sounding recording with minimum gear.

And don't hesitate to ask questions, lots of good guys here who can and will help you.

Peace.
 
You could get the other delta 44 and 8 preamps like this(cheapest I can find)
 
"i have oldtimer studiomaster and i doubt that it isgood enough for this."

i'm in the market for one of those. oldtimer studiomasters are awesome boards.

i think you have enough to go on gear wise...git recording. :eek:

oldtimer Mike
 
The bad news is that you will require the services of a professional to get professional results. The good news is that you can twiddle a demo to your hearts content in the privacy of your own home and "author" your own CD masters with the current level of product on the market.

The second half of the good news is that "professional quality" has dipped to an all-time low so you may very well be able to craft something that approximates a "boutique label" release if you get the sounds/performances to work on your end... the second half of the bad news is that you do indeed have the capability to scrutinize and edit any and all life out of the product in an attempt to replace "talent/performance and emotion" with "perfection and accuracy".

The only advice this 30+ yr. professional can offer you is to have fun. Find an internal peace, and point where you can be satisfied. Be sure to pull back and look at the whole forest without focusing on a couple of not so pretty trees.

At the level you're working you can either run into a little too much of the 'ah, it's good enough' [when it really ain't] and/or a little too much of the 'micro-management into oblivion' thing. In reality the most important thing you can do is to get comfortable with the tools at your disposal and then have fun with the whole making music thing.

As long as the music is permitted to feel like you had fun making it then you're 2/3rds of the way there. The other 1/3rd is tweezing it to sound good without tweezing the life out of it. The really hard part is getting a handle on when it's good and when it's not good... but that too will come with practice and experience.

Best of luck with it.
 
skaman said:
What is minimum gear that i need to record this album professionally.
Click to expand...
If you know what you're doing, a microphone and a tape recorder.

If you don't know what you're doing, even $500,000 of Grade A Large studio gear isn't going to help you.

Don't get into the gear slut trap. Learn how to get the best sound possible out of limited gear in a single take and you'll be much closer to making professional-quality recordings (as compared to "professional", which these days has little direct relation to "professional quality") than you ever will by going out and getting a laundry list of gear and software without first learning why it's there.

G.
 
pandamonk said:
You could get the other delta 44 and 8 preamps like this(cheapest I can find)
Click to expand...

I wouldn't get that preamp. There are some serious design issues with it. The top end rolls off WAY before 20kHz. Also the gain is fixed, and the output is controlled via a volume knob on the output stage, which means loud sources (like your drums and trumpet) would clip the input no matter how much you turn down the "gain" knob. There's a good thread here detailing some relatively easy fixes if you're the DIY type. http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=344&highlight=pr8

Why not use the pre's in that mixer you have.

The minimum you need is microphones->preamps (in your mixer)-> A/D converters (in your interface)-> recording computer and DAW program. All of which you seem to have already. Don't worry about hardware compressors for now, just give your self a good amount of headroom below 0dB when tracking and use the compressor plugins in your DAW for compression. The only thing I think you still need (or maybe you didn't list) are monitors and possibly acoustic treatment. A lot of people neglect the monitoring chain, but it's pretty important if you want mixes that translate well on different playback systems.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Don't get into the gear slut trap. Learn how to get the best sound possible out of limited gear in a single take and you'll be much closer to making professional-quality recordings (as compared to "professional", which these days has little direct relation to "professional quality") than you ever will by going out and getting a laundry list of gear and software without first learning why it's there.

G.
Click to expand...


THANK YOU!!!

I was hoping i would see that here!
 
Hi.

Well. I think I will use that old mixer anyway. It does sound quite warm. and probably no HW compressor(i reather use cubases or buy some extra waves plugins). Abouth monitors, I forgot to mention that I have couple of tannoys (quite ok) about treatment, we are buying foam and we are triing to further dathen our rec. room. and in corners we will put some foamtreathed seats and some blankets on the celling. (room is 4 meters high and 3,5 X 2,5 lenght and wight, not ideal, but all we can afford for now).so i think all we need is a descent coputer and we're in the game.

thanks for such a nice feedback, I'll be glad to share my experixnces with you if I will get some good results.

take care for now.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
If you know what you're doing, a microphone and a tape recorder.

If you don't know what you're doing, even $500,000 of Grade A Large studio gear isn't going to help you.

Don't get into the gear slut trap. Learn how to get the best sound possible out of limited gear in a single take and you'll be much closer to making professional-quality recordings (as compared to "professional", which these days has little direct relation to "professional quality") than you ever will by going out and getting a laundry list of gear and software without first learning why it's there.

G.
Click to expand...

+1

by no means a pro recording, take a listen to a track I did a few years back. I'm sure you would be suprised if I told you the gear used to record it. (Mackie VLZ preamps, Rode NT2, SM57, Echo Gina24, Sound Fonts) Simple pop song, the fact that he is a great songwriter helps out quite a bit. The key was that I was unemployed and had TONS of time to experiment, mix, tweak, etc....

Josh Zuckerman - When Love Comes Back Again
 
Fletcher said:
The second half of the good news is that "professional quality" has dipped to an all-time low
Click to expand...


hahahahahahahahaha
so true

:D
(hell, i'm part of the problem)
 
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