Newb looking for advice.

[Megatherion]

This is my first post here so please be gentle .

I've been playing in bands for about 10 years now, and after spending lots of money over the years for studio time I've decided to start buying gear instead of studio time which is something I probably should have started ten years ago.

So after doing some reading I purchased an Echo Layla 24 for $500. Brought it home unboxed it plugged it in and did some recording. The layla worked good but the software that was included are all demo versions and left a lot to be desired. Also after spending some time tweaking knobs with a mouse I came to the conclusion that tweaking with a mouse sucks. So after spending 2 days recording all the tracks to two songs I was impressed with the out come not that it was a real high quality recording but when considering how it was recorder it didn't sound half bad, I've heard many demos over the years that sounded far worse.

I guess what I'm looking for is some advice or suggestions on where I should go from this point to improve the quality of my recordings. I want to stay around say $3000 for my initial budget. I know I need a good set of monitors, and perhapes a mixing console but which? Not knowing much about mixers other then plug in mics, set the levels push the main mix button, unmute and push up the main faders. And what about software I've seen so many packages and with what they cost how do you know which one to buy? I used Cubase about 2 years ago but the computer it was on couldn't really handle it. The computer hardware is not an issue for me, computers are what I do for a living. Anyhow faced with so many choices out there what would you buy? Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated, keep in mind I'm not looking to buy the cheapest stuff on the market but unfortunatly as always money is the limiting factor.

Thanks.

 

[TexRoadkill]

Unless you want to wait another 10 yrs until you can put out good recordings I would stick to spending money on the studio, lol. Home recording is usually not more economical when you compare the final products and time investment.

What are you wanting to do with your studio? Are you recording drums and entire bands at once? If you want to actually mix with a mixer then you are going to be limited by the number of outputs on your soundcard. With the Layla you could mix up to 8 channels on an analog board and up to 16 channels on a digital board with an ADAT card.

If you just want to control your software with faders then you could get by with a DAW controller that doesn't actually mix the audio it is just a remote control for the DAW.

Look at the stuff by Mackie, Soundcraft, Allen & Heath, Yamaha and see what mixers look like they will fit your budget. Cubase SX software is pretty cool. There are alot of monitors to choose from. Pick a mixer and see how much money you have left over. You didn't mention mics, headphone mixers, effects processors or any of the other stuff so your $3000 will probably go pretty quickly depending on what all you need.

 

[Megatherion]

Thanks for the reply.

The intentions are to record the whole band but not at once this includes drums, guitars, bass, keys, vocals and an occasional horn. We have several mics mostly sure sm57's and 8's Really I know we are not going to get commercial quality, but I've never gotten what I would call real commercial quality from the various studios I've worked with. It always seems that the final mix volume is always quiter then a commercial product, or the mix ix not perfect, a lot of this I'm sure is do too budget restraints. The real purpose is mainly for learning, when you don't know anything it's hard to relate what your thinking or what you want to the guy your paying to sit in front of the console. Also for writing puposes and for demo's a setup where we could throw some stuff down and play it back, burn it to cd. Many times I've recorded something and then said wow that really doesn't sound like what I had intended, or this part doesn't really fit or what have you.


I know I could easily spend tons and tons of cash but really I'm just looking for a setup to learn on and be able to expand on later if I decide it's something I think I can do and when the budget allows .

Thanks.

 

[manning1]

megatherion go look at powertracks at pgmusic.com.
all you ever need to do a song and its 29 bucks. a lot of pro's use it,
if you dont believe me just go on the forum. i use it plus magix music studio
total for the two is less than 100 bucks. and you will have more power and fx and capabilities than you will probably ever use.
i love both packages. BUT really explore them. these are very deep packages with lots of features.

 

[manning1]

also do yourself a favour and demo the rane ms1b mic preamp sometime.
very well respected for the price. alto have a new line of cheap mixers that
sounded pretty decent when i tried them. certainly respectable.
if you ever see an old trident mixer cheap - grab it.!!

 

[Megatherion]

Thanks for the info on the software it definitly looks worth the $29!

Also will definitly check out that preamp.

 

[Han]

Some homerecording studio's get very good quality, but the owners have learned a lot and invested a lot.

It may be great to record your own demo's at home, but you need a whole lot of skill to get more than decent quality and quite some gear.

OTOH there are a number of inexpensive studio's that can give you the quality you want. You have to search for them, ask for recent work, visit them.

In our studio we can record 50 tracks simultainiously, we have more than 40 mics and most of them are classics. Hammond, Rhodes, Grand piano, Fender and Marshall amps, a killer drumkit, it's all there and the room is big and sounds good. And the rates are $50/hr

I'm not telling this as spam, but just for an example, I don't need to advertise since I have business enough.

A band that can really play well, records between six and sixteen songs in a day and it sounds, well..........

There are many studio's like ours, so maybe it isn't such a good idea to invest in a whole lot of gear if you don't really want recording as a hobby.

And if you want loud CD's that sound good, you have to go to a good mastering house.