M
manning1
Banned
NEWBIES - CONFIGURATION OF A LOW COST HIGH QUALITY RECORDING STUDIO TO BUY.
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The purpose of this article is to provide newbies with the lowest
cost, highest quality configuration of your first studio.
based on my 25 yrs building several studios.
In fact you will probably never need more. IMHO if you cant get a radio playable worldwide gold record with this studio, you wont with anything.
all the rest is your engineering skill and how good the songs are that you write.
1. DAW PC - 2ghz or more amd processor, 512mb ddr ram plus two 80gb 7200 rpm fast ata hard drives. windows on one and your multitrack application, and on the second your audio tracks.
2. sound interface. RME. very good convertors.solid drivers.
3. MICS - one "honey mic" eg : 441 or a beyer ribbon.
and several inexpensive but still good mics. v67, b1, sennheiser
e609 maybe. still good but inexpensive. the audix range starts at 40 bucks and are often overlooked as are cheaper beyers. i like anything beyer frankly.
4. Mixer - this is a difficult choice. i would check out used folio
notepads. pretty good preamps in them and supplement with a couple of "honey" preamps like a vtb1 or fmr. also maybe audition the new yamaha mg series that some folks seem to like or do what i do and build your own mic pre's out of
high quality low noise op amps and transistors. low noise parts
include LT1028, op37, max 427/37. HA5127/37/47, and transistors like analog devices superb mat02 used in high end electronics.
this transistor has the lowest noise. just ONE NANOVOLT.
a resistor has far more noise. other favorite low noise transistors of mine are mpsa18, mps6521 . i also like zetex e line transistors because they are rugged as all get out with nice sonic signatures.
also check out benchmarks little kit mic preamp for 99 bucks.
bit of assembly work needed. PAIA.com , rane, and jensen transformers, and epanorama.net have lots of mic pre schematics/kit ideas.
BUT A WORD OF WARNING. DONT ATTEMPT ANY MIC PRE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT UNLESS YOU TAKE A SAFE
ELECTRONICS COURSE FIRST AT A COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
you can check out some of my songs if you wish done with my diy mic pre's at soundclick.com/bmanning. "Woohoo" and many others were done using them in my 50 plus song catalog. you can compare to elite equipment by listening to "take my love" done in an elite studio with all the normal elite studer gear etc. woohoo and lots of my others were done with an amd daw.
5. software. heres the software i recommend. all under 100 bucks, all superb, and all capable of as many tracks as your PC can handle.
If configured right will get you easy 40 tracks. some folks get
up to 90. I stick to 24 rigidly because i believe any more is OVER PRODUCING.
*** powertracks V8 pgmusic.com (29 bucks) - 24 bit if you want it. 48 digital audio tracks plus a superb midi sequencer plus great notation for those into sheet music. plus a great user forum with a lot of highly knowledgeable pro's.
oh i forgot, if your into guitar and vocal effects - lots of neat
vintage style fx built in like rvb/echo etc. check out the "guitar trails" preset sometime and many others for bass etc.
*** n track fasoft.com (about 60 bucks) - 24 bit if you want it.
highly intuitive. tons of great features. plug in support. great mixer with paraeq built in etc. superb helpfull user forum with lots of pro's.
even used by some radio stations. check out the references.
*** magix audio studio 7. for 49 bucks a steal. HUGE and i mean HUGE set of features that would take me a book to write about.
huge number of fx built in. superb mixer. the editing ease is amazing.plus even pitch correction. this is a PRO piece of software imho.
and then there is the midi studio side of the house for midi zealots.
an impressive value imho.
*** traktion. just go to raw material softwares site and read about it.
a superb audio multitracker imho. plug in capable etc. good price.
huge set of features again.
*** multitrackstudio.com - this is what i would term a jewel that
many newbies are crazy to ignore. superb stability.they kept the interface simple for ease of use. DID I SAY STABILITY ? amazingly stable. once again huge set of features. handles plug ins. plus has a huge number of its own clever effects. do yourself a favor and check it out.
*** free ones. check out audacity. constantly under development.
very nice for free. sounds great. some clever built in fx. but i dont
think as far as i know if it handles multi in sound cards yet.
also muzys given away free in a british computer music mag.
have not had much chance to play with it yet.
*** Hi end software. they are all excellent imho. sonar, nuendo etc
but if you want YET ANOTHER one to look at that a lot of PRO's like check out SAWSTUDIO. this one is overlooked often for some reason i dont know why,
but PRO's like it for its legendary stability.
frankly its all good these days. frankly i opted for the under 100
dollar software because it gives me everything i need.
and lets me save up imho where it really counts - good sound card, good pre's, and good mics.
but do your own unbiased comparisonson what suits YOUR NEEDS.
hitsquad.com has all the demoes. or links to demoes.
6. MONITORS. over the years ive bought expensive and cheap
monitors. and my conclusion is you could spend a small fortune on monitors, and STILL your mixes might not translate to many different listening environments.
remember not everyone has expensive monitors in the world.
also ive seen too many mixes mixed on hi end monitors fall apart when played on lesser systems.
so do yourself a favor. a pair of yorkvilles is a fine compromise imho for value for money supplemented for checking mixes, get some car speakers, a terrible mono spkr from the junk store and some earbuds. plus one decent set of "honey" headphones like AKG K series monitors or some other honies.
7. COST. i costed the foregoing out with the under 100 dollar multitrack software and some diy mic pre's at about 2500 bucks. with the same software and commercial pre's at about 3500 bucks max as a rough guide.
either way imho , if you shop wisely, and find the deals, maybe a used 441 for example to save money,
or even build some of the diy tape op mics you should have a great sounding studio limited only by your imagination.
if you REALLY WANT TO PENNY PINCH try building your own mics with just one honey used mic,
and a stereo sound card instead like an echo or audiophile you can come in under 1800 bucks
MAYBE by shopping around.
BUT you'll still have great sound imho.
I sincerely hope this helps some newbies out with a great sounding beginners - actually pretty pro studio.
happy new year to all.
PS - if you want a great free reverb plug in based on rvb models
check out the SIR reverb and forum on the net. On the net are also some great shareware audio editors for a few bucks. all at hitsquad.com for links.
or just google to find them.
pps - i know a lot of pro's question a behringer , but i have to say
totally impartially if you really have no money to spend on a mixer.
to my ears 49 bucks is a very good value for money for the UB802.
Its way more quality than i had when i started 25 yrs ago .
if your seriously short of money i would at least audition it or
the behringer ultragain mic 100 before you consider diy preamps. anyway thats my take. let the flames begin !!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The purpose of this article is to provide newbies with the lowest
cost, highest quality configuration of your first studio.
based on my 25 yrs building several studios.
In fact you will probably never need more. IMHO if you cant get a radio playable worldwide gold record with this studio, you wont with anything.
all the rest is your engineering skill and how good the songs are that you write.
1. DAW PC - 2ghz or more amd processor, 512mb ddr ram plus two 80gb 7200 rpm fast ata hard drives. windows on one and your multitrack application, and on the second your audio tracks.
2. sound interface. RME. very good convertors.solid drivers.
3. MICS - one "honey mic" eg : 441 or a beyer ribbon.
and several inexpensive but still good mics. v67, b1, sennheiser
e609 maybe. still good but inexpensive. the audix range starts at 40 bucks and are often overlooked as are cheaper beyers. i like anything beyer frankly.
4. Mixer - this is a difficult choice. i would check out used folio
notepads. pretty good preamps in them and supplement with a couple of "honey" preamps like a vtb1 or fmr. also maybe audition the new yamaha mg series that some folks seem to like or do what i do and build your own mic pre's out of
high quality low noise op amps and transistors. low noise parts
include LT1028, op37, max 427/37. HA5127/37/47, and transistors like analog devices superb mat02 used in high end electronics.
this transistor has the lowest noise. just ONE NANOVOLT.
a resistor has far more noise. other favorite low noise transistors of mine are mpsa18, mps6521 . i also like zetex e line transistors because they are rugged as all get out with nice sonic signatures.
also check out benchmarks little kit mic preamp for 99 bucks.
bit of assembly work needed. PAIA.com , rane, and jensen transformers, and epanorama.net have lots of mic pre schematics/kit ideas.
BUT A WORD OF WARNING. DONT ATTEMPT ANY MIC PRE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT UNLESS YOU TAKE A SAFE
ELECTRONICS COURSE FIRST AT A COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
you can check out some of my songs if you wish done with my diy mic pre's at soundclick.com/bmanning. "Woohoo" and many others were done using them in my 50 plus song catalog. you can compare to elite equipment by listening to "take my love" done in an elite studio with all the normal elite studer gear etc. woohoo and lots of my others were done with an amd daw.
5. software. heres the software i recommend. all under 100 bucks, all superb, and all capable of as many tracks as your PC can handle.
If configured right will get you easy 40 tracks. some folks get
up to 90. I stick to 24 rigidly because i believe any more is OVER PRODUCING.
*** powertracks V8 pgmusic.com (29 bucks) - 24 bit if you want it. 48 digital audio tracks plus a superb midi sequencer plus great notation for those into sheet music. plus a great user forum with a lot of highly knowledgeable pro's.
oh i forgot, if your into guitar and vocal effects - lots of neat
vintage style fx built in like rvb/echo etc. check out the "guitar trails" preset sometime and many others for bass etc.
*** n track fasoft.com (about 60 bucks) - 24 bit if you want it.
highly intuitive. tons of great features. plug in support. great mixer with paraeq built in etc. superb helpfull user forum with lots of pro's.
even used by some radio stations. check out the references.
*** magix audio studio 7. for 49 bucks a steal. HUGE and i mean HUGE set of features that would take me a book to write about.
huge number of fx built in. superb mixer. the editing ease is amazing.plus even pitch correction. this is a PRO piece of software imho.
and then there is the midi studio side of the house for midi zealots.
an impressive value imho.
*** traktion. just go to raw material softwares site and read about it.
a superb audio multitracker imho. plug in capable etc. good price.
huge set of features again.
*** multitrackstudio.com - this is what i would term a jewel that
many newbies are crazy to ignore. superb stability.they kept the interface simple for ease of use. DID I SAY STABILITY ? amazingly stable. once again huge set of features. handles plug ins. plus has a huge number of its own clever effects. do yourself a favor and check it out.
*** free ones. check out audacity. constantly under development.
very nice for free. sounds great. some clever built in fx. but i dont
think as far as i know if it handles multi in sound cards yet.
also muzys given away free in a british computer music mag.
have not had much chance to play with it yet.
*** Hi end software. they are all excellent imho. sonar, nuendo etc
but if you want YET ANOTHER one to look at that a lot of PRO's like check out SAWSTUDIO. this one is overlooked often for some reason i dont know why,
but PRO's like it for its legendary stability.
frankly its all good these days. frankly i opted for the under 100
dollar software because it gives me everything i need.
and lets me save up imho where it really counts - good sound card, good pre's, and good mics.
but do your own unbiased comparisonson what suits YOUR NEEDS.
hitsquad.com has all the demoes. or links to demoes.
6. MONITORS. over the years ive bought expensive and cheap
monitors. and my conclusion is you could spend a small fortune on monitors, and STILL your mixes might not translate to many different listening environments.
remember not everyone has expensive monitors in the world.
also ive seen too many mixes mixed on hi end monitors fall apart when played on lesser systems.
so do yourself a favor. a pair of yorkvilles is a fine compromise imho for value for money supplemented for checking mixes, get some car speakers, a terrible mono spkr from the junk store and some earbuds. plus one decent set of "honey" headphones like AKG K series monitors or some other honies.
7. COST. i costed the foregoing out with the under 100 dollar multitrack software and some diy mic pre's at about 2500 bucks. with the same software and commercial pre's at about 3500 bucks max as a rough guide.
either way imho , if you shop wisely, and find the deals, maybe a used 441 for example to save money,
or even build some of the diy tape op mics you should have a great sounding studio limited only by your imagination.
if you REALLY WANT TO PENNY PINCH try building your own mics with just one honey used mic,
and a stereo sound card instead like an echo or audiophile you can come in under 1800 bucks
MAYBE by shopping around.
BUT you'll still have great sound imho.
I sincerely hope this helps some newbies out with a great sounding beginners - actually pretty pro studio.
happy new year to all.
PS - if you want a great free reverb plug in based on rvb models
check out the SIR reverb and forum on the net. On the net are also some great shareware audio editors for a few bucks. all at hitsquad.com for links.
or just google to find them.
pps - i know a lot of pro's question a behringer , but i have to say
totally impartially if you really have no money to spend on a mixer.
to my ears 49 bucks is a very good value for money for the UB802.
Its way more quality than i had when i started 25 yrs ago .
if your seriously short of money i would at least audition it or
the behringer ultragain mic 100 before you consider diy preamps. anyway thats my take. let the flames begin !!
