Setting up home recording studio: advice?

[indravayu]

Hey folks,
I hope someone might be able to lend this newbie a bit of advice.

I am slowly piecing together a home recording studio - right now I have a pretty fast PC with an 8-channel Aardvark Direct Pro Q-10 sound card/breakout box hooked up to it, and I am using Sonar for my recording software.

I assume that in order to liven up my recordings I need to either get a mic preamp (though the Q-10 does have its own preamp) or a compressor-limiter - perhaps even both (or some sort of combo unit). Do I need to buy a stereo preamp/compressor-limiter for each pair of tracks that I plan to record live (for example, if I want to record four drum tracks, do I need two stereo preamps/compressor-limiters), or can I just get one and use it as an efefct insert for all 8-channels?

I am sorry if this is a stupid question, but this is all fairly new to me, and I am having trouble wrapping my brain around some of it.

Thanks,
- Chris

 

[Phyl]

I am slowly piecing together a home recording studio - right now I have a pretty fast PC with an 8-channel Aardvark Direct Pro Q-10 sound card/breakout box hooked up to it, and I am using Sonar for my recording software.

I assume that in order to liven up my recordings I need to either get a mic preamp (though the Q-10 does have its own preamp) or a compressor-limiter - perhaps even both (or some sort of combo unit). Do I need to buy a stereo preamp/compressor-limiter for each pair of tracks that I plan to record live (for example, if I want to record four drum tracks, do I need two stereo preamps/compressor-limiters), or can I just get one and use it as an efefct insert for all 8-channels?

I've been using a Q10 with SONAR for years.

You can use the Q10 pre-amps with no problem. Some time in the future you may decide that you want something more esoteric (colorful) but for now, while you're learning your craft, they are fine.

The Q10 will allow you to insert a hardware compressor on channels 1-4. Be aware that channels 1-4 are also the only channels that have phantom power. To use compression on channels 5-8 you will either need to use a software plugin (SONAR comes with some), use an external pre-amp with a separate compressor, or a pre-amp/compressor combo unit like you suggested. You could also use software compression on channels 1-8 and forget the external compressors, it's up to you.

A stereo compressor would only be useful if you were recording an instrument in stereo and wanted to insure that both microphones received exactly the same treatment from the compressor. Sometimes acoustic guitar is recorded this way. Some stereo compressors have the ability to "unlink" the two compressor channels so they can be used as separate compressors.

I don't have much experience with a live setting, but I think to be safe you would want compression/limiting on every channel to avoid clipping. Putting a single compressor across all channels in a live setting is probbaly not a good idea. This is typically only done during the final mix or mastering stage.

 

[indravayu]

Thanks Phyl - that clarifies things for me a good deal!