newbie wants to start a studio-has lots of questions

N

nisthana

New member
Hi,
I want to start my very small recording facility, mostly for my private compositions. I have a 10x10 room (I live in an apt) where I have set up some equipment, but I dont know where/how to start buiding my studio.

The equipment I have is as follows
1. Dell PC - 1.3 Ghz, 80GB, 256MB, SB Live (approx 3 yrs old)
2. Cakewalk Music Studio 2003
3. Makie 16 channel mixer (4 mic i/p with preams, mixer has phantom power)
4. Yamaha acoustic guitar, Yamaha DTX drumkit, Yamaha PSR 1000 keyboard.
5. 200W Aiwa stereo that I use as my amp.

I want to be able to record vocals and acoustic guitar using mics.For rest of the instruments, I run them through my mixer and record one track a time. I want to be able to mix all tracks properly, avoid noise and hums in the mix.

The room I have has a sliding glass door (opens into the balcony) and a small closet in the room (2'x8'). I want to know what kind of treatment should I give to the room so that

1. I am able to keep sound from going out of my room and reaching my neighbours,specially while playing drums ? I want to put something on the carpet and put drumkit on that something so the thud of the bass doesnt disturb neighbor below me. Is that possible at all ?

2.I am able to make my room ready to record vocals and guitar. Right now when I speak, I hear the voice reverberate, which I think could be bad for recording. I have a walk in closet in the other room and because of the distance between the two rooms, I probably will not be able to convert the closet into a vocal booth. (plus running long cables might affect quality ?)

3. I am able to mix the recording properly. I will be recording Indian music (from India) which contains heavy instrumentations (20 instruments playing together is not a big deal for indian music). I want to mix these with as much clarity as possible. (most of the instruments will be midi version, like sax, trumpets, piano, etc).

In terms of equipment, I want to know whats a good budgeted equipment list for novice like me. I have had no education in sound engineering and am picking up things on the web and learning, so I dont want to spend a hell lot on something I dont know much about. I have the following questions

1. How important are monitors in the mixing process ? Wont my Aiwa speakers come handy ? What monitors do you suggest for newbies ? Where can I get used monitors (i live in the SF bay area) ?

2. Do I need to get external preamp unit, or can I use the one on my mixer ?

3. What mic(s) do I need to buy ? Will dynamic do for both vocals and guitar ? Do I really need a condensor mic for vocals and guiar ? What mics (dynamic/condensor) would you suggest I can start with ? Any place I can get em used ?

4. Should I be buying a compressor unit or can I use the compressor plugin from Cakewalk ? Can you suggest some cheap compressor units ? What about other effects live eq/reverb/echo etc ?

5. What kind of headfones would I need if I want to mix using headfones ? Can you suggest some ?

6. Is my PC good enough for the job ? Should I be thinking of upgrading it ?

7. People say Protools is the killer software, but its expensive too. Do you think Cakewalk can be a good alternative for Protools (specially considering the fact that I havent learnt Cakewalk too yet). Other software that I might use ?

8. Can you suggest some books/sites that explain basics of mixing,tracking,recording, etc ? I have been reading the material on the net and the one on http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html really cleared my concepts. But I want to know more about them.

Thank you all for listening to me. I am sure I will get some answers from all the helpful folks around this bulletin board.
 
SMX_Dizzy said:
i'm gonna sound brief, but i don't think that computer is gonna cut it. More later...
Click to expand...
What config do you think might be able to handle this kinda work ? Is MAC better than PC ? (I like the cool looks of MAC so if its good for such apps, I might be able to make a case to buy one ;-))
 
In my opinion, that computer is fine for what you are doing, i think. With two exceptions;

1. More ram, try to max it out if possible, 256 isnt much nowaday's

2. get yourself a better sound card. Depending on how many channels you want to record at once from your mixer, you will need a pro audio card such as the delta 44 or 66. You can also look into getting different ones if you find yourself needing more inputs later, but i say start small.

Again, what exactly are u wanting to do? 4 tracks at a time? 24 tracks at a time? 120 tracks with 4 effects on each at a time? (the latter might push your system:)

As far as sound dampening in your room, it really depends how far you are willing to take it. You could put studio foam all over your walls, you can hang carpet from the ceiling, you could record in your closet, but i think you should expirment using diff. stuff to get the sound you want.

Mics; I would chck out the mic forum for this discussion, I would suggest a Sure Sm57, or two. You will need a matched pair of condensor's. but ill stop at that, otherwise the mic forum gremlins will steal me soul.

I would suggest not going big and getting overwhelmed with equipment that is too much. work with what you have and upgrade as needed.
 
SMX_Dizzy said:
i'm gonna sound brief, but i don't think that computer is gonna cut it. More later...
Click to expand...

I dunno, the 80GB hard drive isn't much either, especially if this computer is full of a bunch of other programs and files... digital audio work requires storage space.
 
Hi_Flyer said:
I dunno, the 80GB hard drive isn't much either, especially if this computer is full of a bunch of other programs and files... digital audio work requires storage space.
Click to expand...

I'd say it's probably fine.. recording at 24/48 seems to run me an average of 2 gigs per song pre-mixdown (at 13-ish tracks per song).
 
Thank you guys for you responses. Really appreciate that. The way I record is that I play one instrument at one time. I compose my music and play instruments on midi, or real ones if available (like electronic drums or guitar). So I wont need multiple inputs at a time. Howvever I have been reading about how soundcard can affect the quality of recording, so I am gonna look into it. Yes 80G is not too much now a days, so I was thinking of upgrading my comp to a better conf, but you know how it is with expenses. I am talking baby steps, one thing at a time. First I will get a mic. Now I heard condensor mic can pick up sound of heart pumping blood, and in my surroundings (where I clearly hear the humm of airconditioner used by my neighbor), I think condensor would not be helpful. So I might start with SM57 or 58. I dont know which one is better, but I can afford two of these (umm..used). BTW, what is a "matched" pair of mics ?
Next comes monitors. I have no idea about which one to buy etc. My biggest worry is not my sound card, but my room. I guess I would hafta try different combos. Could someone tell me where could I find these materials (like foam etc ?) I went to guitar center the other day and the guy gave me a price tag for $300 something do to the room partially. Well my wife was with me, so, as you know, this project was canned :-)) So if I could get foam sheets in home depot of something I can try placing them in my room.
Anyway, I think I gotta take it one step at a time, so keep suggestions coming, I am listening.
 
1.
Drums are loud. Isolation is expensive. Read here:
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

2.
You won't have any problems with running long XLR cables.

3.1.
Monitors are very important. Home stereo speakers aren't all that good for mixing because you want monitors to have a flat frequency response, which home stero speakers don't have.

3.2
You can use the preamps in your mixer, but you might like the sound of a nice external preamp better.

3.3
Look on ebay. There is a mic forum here that has more than enough info on what to get.

3.4
Up to you.

3.5
Headphones aren't really a good choice for mixing.

3.6
You said you only want to record one instrument at a time. Your PC will handle that. You also said you might have 20 or so instruments, which is a lot of tracks, your computer won't like it. I would upgrade the RAM to at least 512MB (I don't know how much those Dells will let you put into them). You should also consider a second hard drive for your audio data. Your CPU will start to limit you if you use a lot of effect plugins.

3.7
I like Cakewalk products :)

3.8
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=155303
http://www.bluebearsound.com/articles/index.htm
 
Wow... an apartment musician.

1. If you like your room, your neighbors, your hood.... do NOT play drums in that apartment...
2. From experience.... You MUST upgrade that computer. OMG that is not going to work for you. Today's throw a-ways are better. You can get a quad core monster for 600 if you get a bare bones system and someone who knows what they are doing. Sorry but your frustration will be huge with 256 memory. Not sure where you bought that but that sounds like 10 year old specs... or 12 to be sure. Ask friends and co workers if their garage has an old computer sitting in it.
I used to record sound on a comp like that but it was.... trying. Stressfull. Frustrating. All your software has to be old to even run. Plugins will have to be old versions or discontinued. Ugghh!!! I can't even begin with the issues. PLEASE ask around and upgrade. I would send you one of my old ones if it was practical...
 
You might get away with doing some work on that computer, but the general consensus is right; It's very old and underpowered by today's standards.
I'm not one of these who thinks everyone needs the latest i7, but you're probably running a first gen p4 chip there.
I have a core2 duo e6700 computer here that I probably couldn't give away. :facepalm:
Asking around is good advice.

Given your environment, I'm wondering if there's a happy medium available?
If you plan to record each instrument separately then drums are the only problem, in terms volume and multitrack equipment.
I wonder if you could arrange to track your drums elsewhere, then work away recording the rest at your leisure with a single mic or stereo pair?

I'd lose the mixer unless there's some specific reason for it.

ProTools is not necessary. If you happen to like it then that's cool, but it's one of the most expensive suites you can buy and a lot of people spend the money because they think they have to. Help yourself and google reaper recording software. ;)
It's very capable and very cheap.

If treating your room isn't feasible, I wouldn't even bother with speakers/monitors.
Mixing on headphones isn't ideal but it's better than mixing in a bad room, in my opinion.
If you go down that road though, don't get cheap tacky headphones. Find a good entry level 'pro' pair from akg or sennheiser or something.

I'm thinking maybe
  • Reaper software,
  • A tascam/presonus 2 channel interface
  • A pair of shure sm81s/rode nt5s/samson co2s for instruments,
  • One sm58/nt1a/mxl990 for vocals
  • A pair of sennheiser hd280 pro headphones


That's a nice simple cheap setup that could take you pretty far.
If your room's extremely live you could look into a pair of DIY rockwool panels for when you're recording.
Again, not the ideal solution, but they're portable, cheap and effective.
 
Well the thread was at the top of the list I didn't realize it at all. Let me check my settings... OMG that is old...
 
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