Setting up a Home Studio

[Mike3354]

Hello everyone,
I'm relatively new to home recording (and brand new to the forum). I've been doing some recording on my computer with just an SM57, but I've decided to expand and to start creating my own home studio. I have been doing some research on my own, but I feel I need people with more knowledge to clear a few questions up for me. I'm not sure if this is where I should post, but it seems like the best place since I am a newbie to recording.

First off, I will mostly be recording folky music (acoustic guitar, vocals, piano, trumpet, banjo, percussion like shakers and tambourines, maybe some electric guitars and drums) and am looking for "warm" sounding recordings (think Devendra Banhart, Iron & Wine, M. Ward). Also, I am almost always a solo recording musician, so I don't need a large number of simultaneously recordable tracks, but recording with a second person might happen, and I need enough for everything I'm doing at once (for example, recording vocals and guitar at the same time. I'm sure I could have described this in a more easily understandable way, sorry)

So, here is the gear I have been looking at - please give me any advice that you can.

Phonic Helix 12 channel mixer/firewire interface
ART MPA Gold dual channel tube mic preamp
MXL V69 Mogami Edition (tube, large-diaphragm condenser mic)
Studio Projects C1 Microphone
Steinberg Cubase SX3

So, this is what seems like it will start me off in the right direction (supposedly warm sounding mics through a tube preamp?). And, in the future I plan to add more microphones and tube mic pre's. The one problem I think I have with that setup is the Phonic Helix 12 channel mixer/firewire interface. I don't think I will be doing much (if any) mixing/eq'ing pre-recording, and I want to get tube mic-pre's, so this gear seems a bit pointless to me. I like the fact that is firewire (which, according to what I know has discreet channel recording), but it seems like there is a better interface out there. Maybe something without a built in mixer or mic-pre's, with the addition of discreet channels out (allowing me, again as far as I understand, to send each channel through a mixer (and thus, outboard gear like EQ's and compressors, as opposed to the plugins in Cubase that take their place) to do post-recording mixing and production).

I've done my best to describe what I am looking for, and I hope someone can help me. Please, ask me any questions about what I am looking for and I will do my best to answer them, and please give me what knowledge you have on better gear/ways of recording. Thanks in advance.

Oh, I almost forgot to put this question, but if I can't find something with discreet outs, is it possible to get around that for outboard gear (EQ's, compression, effects processors, etc.) by just using the outs that have all the channels playing (sorry, I'm not sure the correct name for them), but muting every channel that I don't want to process, and re-recording the processed track(s) as a different track? Thanks.

-Mike

 

[SRR]

Phonic Helix 12 channel mixer/firewire interface
ART MPA Gold dual channel tube mic preamp
MXL V69 Mogami Edition (tube, large-diaphragm condenser mic)
Studio Projects C1 Microphone
Steinberg Cubase SX3

For what you are doing and wanting, maybe the presonus firepod or even the firebox instead of a mixer, although the firpod would allow for enough mics to mic a drumset. ART MPA is probably a good choice at its price range, not sure if it would be a whole lot better then what is built into the firepod as I have used niether of the two. But atleast it might be able to give you a different flavor. V69 is nice and "warm" from my understanding (my wife got one for my birthday, which isn't till next week so I can't have/use it till then), from the clips I have heard its great on vocals. C1 is bright very bright, might be a nice contrast from the v69, but then I am not sure you need two LDCs. Maybe a pair of studio projects C4s or MXL 603/604 would be better addtion to your studio. Small diameter condensers usally work better on intrusments like acoustic guitar, and if there isn't many other stereo instruments in the mix, recording acoustic guitar in stereo with two mics is almost always the way to go. For trumpet, I hear ribbons are a nice way to go, frontend audio has a apex ribbon mic for $99~, or shinybox.com has some nice choices, I have the shinybox 23 (stock version), but almost wish I went with the 23 with cinemag transformer as that sounds a little smoother in the clips provided but it does cost quite a bit more. And as far as SX3, you might be able to get away with SE instead. Hope this helped a little.

 

[Mike3354]

Thank you. I had previously been looking at the firepod, but I'm not sure if it is what I want or not. It is actually twice as much as the Phonic mixer, but actually has less inputs (I believe, my memory of the specs. of both might be a little off). So, the question is, is it really better suited for my needs? I think it might be, but I'm not sure. The specs say:

8 analog mic/line inputs, 2 instrument inputs
8 analog line outputs

Does this mean that each track, once recorded on the computer, can be sent out to a mixer still as their own respectively seperate tracks (discrete outs)? If this is correct, am I right about the way that post-recording mixing/production would be done (sending each track out to a mixer, through outboard gear, and then back into the firepod from the mixer)?

On the subject of the ART MPA, if it isn't going to really do much then I don't want to spend the money on it. Can you suggest a tube preamp that will give me that warm, tubey sound without breaking the bank?

Now, onto the matter of microphones. The MXL V69 looked really nice to me, and it supposedly has a nice vintage tube sound (sounds like what I'm looking for to me). Now, with the C1, I've heard it is the "poor man's U87". Now, in all honesty, I couldn't tell you what a Neumann U87 sounds like, but I've heard Neumanns talked about as the 'holy-grail' of mics, with the U87 being a good vocal mic. I was planning on using both of these mics for acoustic instruments and vocals. I am probably wrong, but I though for folky, non-rock type music, that it was a good idea to use LDC as opposed to dynamic mics (especially with that warmth factor from the MXL). Am I completely wrong, there? Thanks, and let me know how that V69 sounds when you get to try it out.

-Mike

Edit:
To give you a better idea what I'm going for, if you go to
http://www.cripplecrow.com/
and click "listen", and listen to (anything, but mostly) Santa Maria De La Feira, or Heard Somebody Say, that is close to the sound I'm going for. They have this warm, reverby sound to them. I hope that helps.

 

[SRR]

Oh I also forgot, the firepod comes with Cubase LE, might be to limiting, but still its cubase. I don't see a need to send stuff back out of the box to a mixer. You can get great results using plugins that come with cubase and free ones that you can download.

Yes I agree condensers are better then dynamics for most of what you are doing, but the C4's and the 603's are small diameter condensers and they work much better most of the time then large diameter condensers on instruments, like AG and piano.

If you went with something like the firepod, I would just use the built in pres for now, see how you like them, and find what they are lacking in sound to you. Then you can make a better deceision on what you really need in preamp land. You can always bypass the pres on the firepod and use the line ins. Oh and I would have no doubt that the firepod pres are of better design then whats in the phonic mixer.