My Studio Set up

[Bisson820]

alright, after the advice i was given i looked into it all and looked into every peice of gear suggested to me and have turned my list into this. tell me what you think.. i couldnt help but agree with you guys.

Computer: 8GB iMac 21.5in............................................. $1400

Software: Apple Logic Studio 9 ....................................... $500

Interface: Mackie Onyx 1620i ......................................... $1000

Vocal Mic: Neuman TLM-103 Large Diaphragm Condenser Mic............... $1000

Pop filter: Pop Filter................................................ $20

Inst/OverHead Mic: Shure sm94 ........................................ $180 x2

Kick Mic: Shure Beta 52A Kick Drum Mic ............................... $190 x2

Tom/Snare mics: Shure sm57............................................ $100 x4

Monitors: KRK RP8G2 .................................................. $250 x2

Headphone amp: PreSonus HP4 Discrete 4-Channel Headphone Amp.......... $130

Headphones: Nady QH560................................................ $25 x4

Engineers Headphones: Audio-Technica ATH-M30.......................... $50

DI Box: Radial ProDI Passive Direct Box............................... $100 x3





Total: $6,140

 

[Fishmed]

Looking better.
Do some research on the forums and make sure that you really want TLM-103. I am not going to suggest you not get them, but they can be limitting for for the price you'll pay for them.

(Don't forget to budget your cables too.)

 

[Bisson820]

I have experience with the Nuemann mic from when i recorded in a professional studio and i love the end result from it.

and yea... cables and all that will be budgeted ... but i am adding that in odds and ends equipment.

i've got 3 categories haha.... construction... gear... odds and ends...

 

[mattr]

...im getting the rooms all squared away...

Eh? Please elaborate!

As already stated by someone else, you should be factoring acoustic treatment into your budget with quite a high priority over non-essential gear.
You mentioned construction - does this mean its a dedicated studio being built from scratch? How much though has been put into the design of the rooms?
Unfortunately I don't at the moment and my room has remained untreated, but if I had this kind of sum of money at hand I'd be thinking more OC 703 and less at TLM 103
This is something to plan ahead and get right in advance.

 

[Jeff_D]

alright, after the advice i was given i looked into it all and looked into every peice of gear suggested to me and have turned my list into this. tell me what you think.. i couldnt help but agree with you guys.

Computer: 8GB iMac 21.5in............................................. $1400

Software: Apple Logic Studio 9 ....................................... $500

Interface: Mackie Onyx 1620i ......................................... $1000

Vocal Mic: Neuman TLM-103 Large Diaphragm Condenser Mic............... $1000

Pop filter: Pop Filter................................................ $20

Inst/OverHead Mic: Shure sm94 ........................................ $180 x2

Kick Mic: Shure Beta 52A Kick Drum Mic ............................... $190 x2

Tom/Snare mics: Shure sm57............................................ $100 x4

Monitors: KRK RP8G2 .................................................. $250 x2

Headphone amp: PreSonus HP4 Discrete 4-Channel Headphone Amp.......... $130

Headphones: Nady QH560................................................ $25 x4

Engineers Headphones: Audio-Technica ATH-M30.......................... $50

DI Box: Radial ProDI Passive Direct Box............................... $100 x3





Total: $6,140

You could spend $1900 on Mac and recording software or you could spend $500 on a PC and another $60 on Reaper and be just as good...

Another option for the interface to check out is the MOTU 8Pre.

 

[Bisson820]

You could spend $1900 on Mac and recording software or you could spend $500 on a PC and another $60 on Reaper and be just as good...

Another option for the interface to check out is the MOTU 8Pre.

uhhh no... sorry PC is not gonna work for this... especiall a $500 one. dont know much about reaper... but i love logic.

im pretty well computer oreinted, its my job.

 

[Jeff_D]

You can build a PC that will SMOKE a mac for a fraction of the cost. Just sayin.
If you are already good with Logic, then stick with what you know.

 

[Fishmed]

I have experience with the Nuemann mic from when i recorded in a professional studio and i love the end result from it.

and yea... cables and all that will be budgeted ... but i am adding that in odds and ends equipment.

i've got 3 categories haha.... construction... gear... odds and ends...

I am happy to hear that you have had first had experience with the mic; I would have hated to see you buy something that expensive without knowing what you were getting into.

I think you are on your way to making some great music... that you can post here for us to listen to.

 

[stealth_prod]

Well what is your budget? If you have room id suggest a Shure Sm7B also. Great all around mic.

 

[Bisson820]

a PC will never blow a mac away when it comes to recording... fact...

and i will deffinately post some up!.. its gonna be a little while tho lol..

and i was looking at the shure sm7b for a while actually... i might get it for a secondary mic if the budget allows.

 

[Jeff_D]

a PC will never blow a mac away when it comes to recording... fact...

and i will deffinately post some up!.. its gonna be a little while tho lol..

and i was looking at the shure sm7b for a while actually... i might get it for a secondary mic if the budget allows.

Maybe "blow away" is strong wording. A computer is a computer- depending on the specs. Point; a PC will do everything a mac will do at a fraction of the cost.

ANYWAY... with the money you're dropping on mic(s), I'd definitely consider some (or a single) nicer preamps than what comes stock in your interface. Ideally, you'd have the capability of bypassing the preamp in your interface. Just more to think about.

And yeah, seriously give some thought to your room acoustics. All the gear in the world wont make a bad space sound good.

 

[mattr]

a PC will never blow a mac away when it comes to recording... fact...

Meh. Fact!? Strong use of the word fact. I wouldn't go throwing opinion around as fact...


To be honest I'm very disappointed with with my quad core, 4gb RAM, 2tb HDD, quad monitor PC DAW running Sonar 8 with a few trimmings (i.e. UAD plugins, control surface, etc). I built it more than two years ago now at a total cost at the time of a lot less than the equivalent iMac. It only handles anything I throw at it... I've had projects running with 140 tracks or more without a hiccup. Its not shiny either. Very disappointing. I should have got a Mac.


Anyway, in all seriousness and fairness, Macs can be great.
I certainly wouldn't turn down an offer of a fully spec'd out Mac Pro for recording, but anything less than that and I think you could perhaps do better with a good PC DAW.
Core i7 systems are becoming cheaper and cheaper to build, and they certainly have a hell of a lot of number-crunching power in them!


In the end it all comes down to what user interface and DAW you feel comfortable using, after all the choice of computer and DAW has no direct bearing on the quality of your recordings (unless performance limitations hinder you in achieving the mix you are capable of)... this all comes down to many factors: your signal chain, your performers, and last but not least - you.

So if you want a Mac on the basis that you think it will have some magic bearing on the quality of your work, then I would recommend you reconsider. Don't knock a well setup PC-based DAW until you've tried one.

If, on the other hand, you want a Mac because you have lots of experience working with Logic and feel comfortable using it, which will increase your efficiency and productivity as a result, then that’s a perfectly good reason and I would say go for it!


Hope that clears a few misconceptions but I don’t want to be the one to start a typically braindead Mac vs PC argument. There is no argument about someone’s choice because they’re both great, they both work; it’s all down to personal preference. The argument comes when that choice is made for the wrong reasons.

 

[Bisson820]

i used to be in your shoes man.... thought PC was just as good and mac was a hype.... but when it comes to recording... mac is superior...

your comparing a completely souped up PC to a out of the box mac.... lol

i've been able to dive into the guts of both PC and Mac and their OS... mac was superior in both cases.

I will be pretty happy with my iMac that has 8 GB's of ram and 2.63 dual core.. along with logic pro (my desired software)

am i saying PC is incapable? of course not... i've always used one for recording...

but with any PC... it comes with alot of maintenance and problems.

i used to be totally against macs.. untill i looked into them and understood a whole lot more about computers... (i work for a CIS department now... IT stuff)

 

[Jeff_D]

That souped up PC STILL cost less than an out-of-the-box Mac, lol. I'd consider myself equally qualified with computers- I'm an architect & draftsman and I manage the IT for the firm I work for (makes me also a daily computer user & fixer).


Seriously though... with the amount of cash you are looking to spend, make sure you have a way to implement better and/or different preamps either now or in the future. AND REALLY seriously, room acoustics- crucial!

 

[mattr]

i used to be in your shoes man.... thought PC was just as good and mac was a hype.... but when it comes to recording... mac is superior...

your comparing a completely souped up PC to a out of the box mac.... lol

First of all, its not 'souped up'; its exactly how I built it (though with two more hard disks added last year). Its not even that great in terms of spec - about average nowadays.
But I get the feeling you didn't actually read my post properly. I actually said twice that I though Macs were great, and that both Mac and PC are perfectly suited to recording tasks!


I just think that you have to be choosing for the right reasons - again I really don't want to be the one to start a pathetic debate, but when you say "superior", can you justify what is superior about it for your situation?

Its not audio quality.
Its not performance.

As I said it could be that you just had more experience working with Logic and felt comfortable with the GUI; whilst this wouldn't make it superior, this would be a perfectly good reason to go this route.

Maybe stability is one that can be justified; I would definitely be far more confident running a live rig (recording or performance) off a Macbook Pro than a Windows laptop.

Maybe ease-of-getting-going is another one... from what I've seen/used of it, plug 'n' play with interfaces and Core Audio is great.
Far cry from the time I had to put in to getting my Motu drivers running optimally on my PC (though now they're set up now, it runs great).



So yes, one can be superior over the other for different purposes, but just to say that 'its superior' is a very blunt and incorrect statement.
I suppose some parallels can be drawn between that and the whole Pro Tools LE thing.

If you know what you're doing and can afford a good rig, Pro Tools HD is great... its really powerful... the DSP cards and I/O are hugely expandable / scalable... it has a streamlined, no-nonsense interface and design... great workflow... etc etc.

But then there is Pro Tools LE, which is a crippled, native-running imitation of Pro Tools HD. If you understand the limitations and have a good reason to get it then that's fine, but waaayyy too many people buy into the mbox/LE product line because they've heard that "Pro Tools in an industry standard", "Pro's don't use anything other than Pro Tools", or have some strange misconception that because "the pro's use it" then it will make their amateur recordings sound magically better. All these aren't even true, let alone reasons to buy it!









Anyway, back to the topic...

Scouting over your current gear list, I would recommend rethinking about getting four SM57s. Maybe get two SM57s and two MD421s? 421s are a bit more expensive, but that would give you more flexibility (both are great mics for guitar cabs, 421s are great on toms, etc). Or one of the many other nice dynamics? Basically, you can do a lot better for yourself than just four of the same mic.


Other than that...

Acoustic treatment
Acoustic treatment
Acoustic treatment
Acoustic treatment

 

[Bisson820]

its all about reliability. a PC is less durable and has a LOOOT less of a life expectancy than a Mac is my biggest turn on to macs...

with either machine you should have an external, however a PC has a much easier time kickin the boot... and i really dont wanna risk losing my work and clients work due to the errors in external capacities that the PC might contain rather than the Mac.



and yea... room design is what im diving into right now.

 

[Jeff_D]

its all about reliability. a PC is less durable and has a LOOOT less of a life expectancy than a Mac is my biggest turn on to macs...

wrong again.
no advantage to one over the other... unless of course you are comparing a $1400 Mac to a bargain PC with cheap components. I have 3 PC's running in my house now. I think my recording computer is going on 6 years old now. Now, I would buy the argument that its alot easier to fill up a PC with spyware, junkware, virus etc. that will KILL a PC's performance, but come on, all of us *here* are smart enough not to let that happen. And even if it does happen, most of us *here* are smart enough to fix it. And, that is the only advantage I can think of of a Mac over a PC.


The room stuff is really important. I'd start looking for a local source of rigid fiberglass or rockwool. You'll need to find a commercial material supply house. You wont find this stuff at Home Depot or Lowes.

 

[Carny1122]

I'm still really curious why you want the TLM 103 as your only LDC. Yeah, for a grand, that mic kicks mad ass. I've used it a number of times on my vocals and at least 4 other people's vocals, but keep in mind that there are mics out there that are very similar in sound quality - especially if you throw the right plug ins at it - and you won't notice an audible difference in the end. Having, essentially, 1/6 of the entire cost of the start of your studio being one microphone is a sizable hunk of money. But hey, if you like it and you're set on it, go for it! It really is a great mic for the price.

Consider a good deal of money for room treatments, also. I was one of those "oh, I don't really need it!" suckers for a while, then got some...WOW Huge difference, so definitely consider that.

Just curious, what are you going to be recording - individual instruments, or a whole band together? I think that the Mackie is a definite safe bet either way. And I love Logic, so good choice with that.

 

[Bisson820]

Jeff.... sorry dude... but after hearing that you think PC has an equivalent life expectancy as a Mac just destroys your credibility to me... im sure you can do great things with your PC... but ... no... im done with that.

anyways...

my plan is using 6 mics on an average drum kit.. 1 or 2 on the kick... depending... 3 or 4 on the toms/snare depending.... and 2 overheads regardless...

with the other 2 inputs im planning on having bass and rhythm going with the drums. just to get the foundation of the song down.

of course adding afterward.

edit - and im going to make my rooms right... reading alot about that now.

 

[Jeff_D]

Jeff.... sorry dude... but after hearing that you think PC has an equivalent life expectancy as a Mac

I still have my Dell P3 933mhz that I got in 1998 for ~$600. It still runs. Granted, I wont be accomplishing much with a 933mhz processors & 256mb of ram, but its useful life has been exceeded by new technology over the past 11 years and not the life of the actual hardware.

besides that PC's are cake to fix. Where do you get Mac parts again?

I'm not trying to talk you out of buying a Mac. Just giving the poor kid that comes along to read this both sides of the story, lest he think a Mac is somehow *superior*