Setting up New Studio "Finally"

J

JimJoe

New member
Well, after much construction, homosote, sound sealant, lead tape, sheetrock and mess, my home studio is finally constructed. It is a basement studio: 15 X 30 live room, 15 X 8 control room and three smaller isolation booths. I've been recording my own band and others for a while on a computer using cakewalk, layla, mackie 1604, etc, etc.
So I'm about to take a large leap into buying a new setup to go with the new space in hopes of recording more bands, mostly 4 or 5 piece rock bands. The following is my initial plan on new gear followed by the questions that I still have lingering. (some questions my be stupid so bear with me.
My plan right now is to go with the Mackie D8B, loaded with cards and plug-ins and 24/96 hard disk recorder.

I'm hoping to keep the process simple but not lose any benefits I currently have with various plug ins with cakewalk, ie; sound forge, antares, waves, etc etc. Although I hate the fact that although I have a great computer in terms of speed ram etc., you do hit your glitches, computer freezes and limitations for multiple real time effects. I hope to do my mixing on the d8b with limited outboard gear.
Questions:
Will I lose any ability to get the sounds I'm used to with the various programs listed above? I noticed owners of D8B's will still use a protools system, is that necessary?, can't the D8B loaded be sufficient for mixdown and mastering?

I noticed the D8B has only 12 actual XLR inputs. My drum mics alone are 12 (large kit with factory installed mics in each drum and I like to use 3 on the bass drum (one inside, one in front and one 5 feet away) I know its overkill but it gives an awesome bass drum sound mix. Is there any problem with xlr mic cable to 1/4" trs into the board?

My plan is to purchase a snake box with the snake going through the wall into the control room, xlr to 1/4" trs. Any other ways of doing this? Most snake boxes I see are 100' long and seem to be more for live sound than recording. I thought about getting an xlr patchbay attached to the outside wall of the control room but that seems like overkill not to mention the sound isolation issues it presents.

Because I record myself and don't like to "erase" anything I've done, from an ongoing cost standpoint, for tape or backup drives, should I be looking at a tape based recorder instead?

My final question, in hopes not to open up a huge can of worms: Should I be looking seriously at other mixers that would be better for my purposes? ie; ramsa, spirit etc. or should I just expand on my analog system being that I already have a 1604?

Thanks Jim
 
This is just my opinion. I've not used the D8B though I know it's a fine piece of gear. At just under $10,000 it should be. For that much cash personally I'd be looking for a cool used cosole and something like ADATs or a ,HDR of some discription. The HDR24 from Alesis has a street price of about $2000 and in the $5k range you could get a kick ass analog board with a shit load of channels and better on board preamps that would sound way better than a D8B, and have money left over for outboard goodies that you would want even if you had a D8B sysytem (mics, pre's, compressors, etc..). Like I said, just my humble opinion, YMMV.
 
I'd go with track rat on that one.

Sounds like you already have a pretty good setup. Unless you are selling all your current gear you could probably get the best value by adding some really sweet preamps and compressors.

Use your mackie for drums and the new pre's for vocals and guitars. You could get a good HDD system or for less than 5k you could probably put together a pretty sweet Pro Tools system.

A cd burner is your best storage medium. You can backup the individual tracks and mixes as .wav files.
 
Thanks for the responses so far, I'm definately thinking the suggestions through.
I should add that one of the reasons I was thinking of going digital is that the studio is also used as my bands rehearsal space, I figured if we were practicing and wanted to quickly record something on the fly, the presets on a digital mixer would be great. Any thoughts?
CD burning would be a great backup method, but doesnt all tracks have to be mixed down to a stereo file (WAV file) and as such, I could no longer use the CD if I wanted to master, mix or add something later?
Thanks again Jim
 
Jim, I transfer the stuff I record on ADAT into the computer for editing and tweaking and can store the individual tracks as waves on CD-R. I then have the option of transfering them back to ADAT if I like to mix through my analog console or mix them in the computer via software multi track (read Cakewalk or Vegas). I do my long term storage on both ADAT tape AND CD-R. I know what you mean with the digital mixers having snapshot memory which is cool and shouldn't be discounted.
My only point on a used analog console is you can get one that not too long ago would cost $20,000+ for $3000 to $5000 and STILL be able to edit in the digital domain.
 
When you back up a recording session on CD you save it as Data not audio. It wont play back on a cd player but a computer can read the files. It is data backup not 'burning' an audio CD.

Is your Mackie a VLZ?
 
For the cost of that D8B console alone, you have several other options that would give you tons of flexibility, excellent sound quality, and still have money for high quality extras (GOOD mic pre's, GOOD mics, etc.).

For instance, say you picked up a Mackie 24x8 mixer (new: $2800, used $2000 or so), and a Mackie MDR24/96 ($2700). Use the direct outs on the mixer to feed the recorder, or use the sub-groups for submixes, etc. For about $100 you can add a removeable hard drive bay to your PC and buy a 20 M drive that could act as a backup on the MDR, then be plugged into the PC where you can download your song tracks as WAV files into any audio program for mixing, editing, and mastering. Total outlay (minus outboard effects) is less than $6000.

Or, use your existing 1604 and add another for $1000. Use an Alesis HD24 for tracking, and buy an extra hard drive for backup. Mixing 16 tracks analog is straight forward, using outboard effects, or play around with combining the 2 mixers for all 24 tracks. If you want to work on the PC, dump everything into the PC via the HD24's ethernet port. Total outlay (minus outboard effects) is about $3000.

Either of those setups can be always configured to record that fresh idea with minimal effort (name a new song, arm the tracks, press 'record').

And I could probably list 10 other possible scenarios, each of which will give you incredible flexibility, lots of backup and mixing options, etc. Making a decision is tough, mainly because there are so many options out there. Personally, I'm a cheapskate, so I try to think in terms of the most bang for the buck. The D8B is an excellent mixer, but for a project studio I personally think you can give yourself more capability and flexibility for much less $$$.

DDev.....
 
If you're spending that much money, look at a second-hand ProTools MixPlus system. There should be some great deals going with the big studios upgrading to the new HD units.

Mark
 
i would stick with track rats frame of mind. analog 32 channel board. one of the 24 channel hard disk recorders, a computer to edit on and/or mix and outboard gear will matter depending on where you will mix.

Mixing is a touchy subject for me now in a home studio level. Mackie mixers are great at home, especially for tracking. But i've come to realise how BAD their summing amps are on the main stereo channel. Its really sad how much life gets sucked out of the mixes. I had to make a rush mix of my current project for a demo and used my 1604vlz to mix. And while it sounds OK, I've been dumping the tracks onto my hard drive, and they already sound more lively without mixing. The mackie just can't hold together on everything. So if you go with an analog board and intent to mix on it, i would get one with a great summing amp, as thats important. You can always do all the editing on your computer, then you wont have to worry about mute automation on your board. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top