PLEASE help me with my studio

[eyehaveavision]

first of all, thanks for reading and takin your time to help a relative newbie out. ill start off with my setup+gearlist

currently I use half of my apartment as a studio and have been doing audio recording & forum lurking for about two years
I have a live/writing room(still a work in progress)
a control room w/vocal booth(have taken the doors off in the pictures to show better angle)
and a bathroom

my setup is a custom windows 8(just upgraded and I DO actually like 8 better)
I use Cubase 5 for tracking/mixing/mastering, fl studio for sequencing, and drum programming(when not recording real drums I trigger my own samples in fl studio), and goldwave 5 for post processing clean up before sending it back to Cubase for mixing and mastering.

I currently use a ux1 for recording guitar/bass/vocals but have ordered a liquid saffire 56 last week. I was really happy with how much of a clean recording I could get with this small little ux1, definitely recommended.
I use a sterling fet condenser mic, a sure sm7b, a ribbon cad, and an adk thor for my main vocal mics.
I amp sim all my guitars with podfarm and amplitude 3.
For midi I use a korg k49 and a korg nanokey
for vst processing/effects I mainly use waves diamond edition, kjaerhus, fabfilter, sugarbytes, a few plugin alliance effects, and a few Antares things.
I have dozens of midi synth/instrument vsts
I made my own vocal booth and im pretty happy with it, and can get very clean recordings out of it.

I feel as if im very musically talented and have been in dozens of bands but ive found that I really just like producing music period, and that I really want to focus on recording and producing.
that being said, I also feel like im missing key elements sometimes, and I get stuck on things and spend days of research and never come out too much happier than when I was in the heat of the search

my problems are as listed

I hardly EVER hear latency, except for using Antares autotune. lots of bands want that t pain effect but I cant add it til after I record due to the lag. how can I fix this? ive heard mixers fix the problem but I don't understand how a mixer can reduce vst latency?



I don't have any rack gear except for my focusrite saffire. do I really need rack compressors, preamps, and eqs to make my mixes and recordings sound better, like are there really some good compressors ect you shouldn't go without? or are they just up to opinion?

I hear a lot about reamping and di boxes, but are they really necessary? I get good guitar tones, but im always willing to make them better, so would a di box make my sound "crisper"?

I have one pair of crappy monitors, and a lot of reference speakers, I use alongside ik multimedias arc software. do I really need expensive monitors to make my mixes better?

and lastly why do I need patchbays and power centers? cant I just unplug since im using the saffire 56, and use a surge protector?

thanks for EVERYTHING! and if you hate me after reading that, it might make you feel better that I had to retype this 5 times before I realized I needed to copy it to notepad since I kept deleting it accidentally.

ive added a metal track I mixed below for reference

 

[Seidy]

1) I hardly EVER hear latency, except for using Antares autotune. lots of bands want that t pain effect but I cant add it til after I record due to the lag. how can I fix this? ive heard mixers fix the problem but I don't understand how a mixer can reduce vst latency?

2) I don't have any rack gear except for my focusrite saffire. do I really need rack compressors, preamps, and eqs to make my mixes and recordings sound better, like are there really some good compressors ect you shouldn't go without? or are they just up to opinion?

3) I hear a lot about reamping and di boxes, but are they really necessary? I get good guitar tones, but im always willing to make them better, so would a di box make my sound "crisper"?

4) I have one pair of crappy monitors, and a lot of reference speakers, I use alongside ik multimedias arc software. do I really need expensive monitors to make my mixes better?

5) and lastly why do I need patchbays and power centers? cant I just unplug since im using the saffire 56, and use a surge protector?

1) Unless you want to buy the rack version of autotune you have to stick with plugins. If you are getting too much latency you will have to turn down the buffer size to acceptable level. If it starts to making crackling sounds, then your computer is probably too slow to handle it.
Really, does it need to be autotuned when recording?

2) I'm convinced that you don't need outboard compressors, eq's unless you have a ton of money. You will get close sound using UAD plugins.
Now preamps are different story.

3) Since I see you are using amp simulators you are playing straight to the interface. Saffire has instrument inputs so no DI boxes or anything required. Reamping however needs a good sounding room with good amp. Reamp boxes are your smallest concern here.

4) Looking at these little speakers on the pictures... Will better speakers will your mixes sound better? I'm pretty sure, yes. Will you be able to make a good sounding mix quicker? Yes.

5) Patchbays allow you to reconnect your equipment without going in the back of you rack/desk. It just makes life easier.


I'm listening your mix and it is pretty distorted (in a bad way). :/

 

[Steenamaroo]

I hardly EVER hear latency, except for using Antares autotune. ive heard mixers fix the problem but I don't understand how a mixer can reduce vst latency?

Some plugs introduce a small amount of delay; Some introduce long delays.
The delay is the time necessary for the plug to do its work.

Take a delay plugin as a stupid example.
If your setup's latency is barely noticeable but then you introduce a 1024ms delay plug on every track, your latency effectively just went up by 1024ms. (It didn't technically, but you get the idea)
Pitch correction plugs pretty much do that. In protools I can click to see what delay any given plug ads.

Long story short, track, edit and mix without it.
At some point take the time to tune your vocal. Bounce that tuned track down, disable the tuner (or remove it) and carry on as before.
That's probably the simplest way unless your DAW has freeze built in.

I'm not sure you'll ever hear the autotuned effect in real time whilst recording.

With a mixer (and some interfaces) you can take advantage of the routing to allow real time monitoring.
The singer hears his voice before it hits the computer. This, of course, means he won't hear any effects.

I don't have any rack gear except for my focusrite saffire. do I really need rack compressors, preamps, and eqs to make my mixes and recordings sound better.

Nope. You don't need these things, with the exception of preamps.
You already have a preamp.
Rack tools are (arguably) the same as plugins. Unless you have some particular need for them, you don't need them.
It's all about preference and workflow. If you're working around a big analog mixer, or tracking live to tape, then maybe hardware is the thing for you?

I hear a lot about reamping and di boxes, but are they really necessary?

Not necessarily. If your interface has a DI input then you already have have a DI box, pretty much.
Whether another sounds better or worse is a different question.
If you're plugging guitars into a line input then yes, you could really use a DI box.

I have one pair of crappy monitors, and a lot of reference speakers. Do I really need expensive monitors to make my mixes better?

Nope. It might be nice but I always feel that any half decent full range speaker will do as long as you know it very well.
The better you know your speakers, the better your mixes will be.
Reference commercial material regularly so you know what you should be hearing in your own mixes.
For serious mixing room treatment and good monitors are certainly recommended.
I'm just saying it's possible to make good mixes without.

and lastly why do I need patchbays and power centers? cant I just unplug since im using the saffire 56, and use a surge protector?

Nope. Patch bays are very handy if you have racks of outboard gear. They allow you to patch this and that in and out of the chain seamlessly.
If you just have mic-interface-computer, then you're golden.
Power centres? I duno, I guess you're talking about some kind of distrubution unit/surge protector.
It's never a bad idea. I've had a 12 way mains distribution unit from day one because I happened to have one, so I can't really comment on the problems that might arise without one.
I guess the main one would be ground loops issues. You'd know if you had one of those.