Starting/Upgrading My Home Studio

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truth_lyricist

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Im a young rap artist thats trying to take his career to the next level. Im about tired of spending half my checks on studio time!! And most of the times I be wanting be booked so I hafta end up goin at akward times I dont be wanting to go at. Theres tons of benefits of having a studio in your house. You can wake up and record and mixdown tracks in your boxers! Work late as you want to in the studio. Do as many tracks as you want to with no time limit...ect ect. Im currently getting into the mixtape game so I also dont want to spend money on studio time when im spitting like 40 bars straight over somebody elses beat! So what im making this thread for is I need to know what I need to get Proffessional quality tracks or as close to it as possible. This is my current setup.

Mic Stand & Pop Filter
Studio Projects C1 Condenser
Peavey PV8 Mixer

Emu 1212m Soundcard

And I use Adobe Audition 2.0 to record vocals and mix tracks down.

Im on a $5,000 budget...I will upgrade as the year progresses but I dont wanna spend no more then $5,000 at the moment. So if yall can recommend some preamps & mics and soundcards that sound real good and clear together i'd greatly apprechiate it.
 
What SPECIFICALLY are you not getting at the moment that you want to from your setup?

Aside from a decent preamp you don't need to change anything on the recording chain.

I'd get some decent monitors and spend the rest on setting yourself up with a good-sounding space ... a vocal booth if that's what you need or a nice live room if you need that instead or as well. After that it's just practice, practice, practice.

Have a read around, there are loads of quality monitors around for not huge amounts of money, same goes for preamps which you can get quality for peanuts nowadays. And yes, I'm being serious, spend the rest on acoustic treatment because that will be what makes the difference.

After that you just start saving for a million and one different plugins. :D

Nik
 
noisedude said:
What SPECIFICALLY are you not getting at the moment that you want to from your setup?

Aside from a decent preamp you don't need to change anything on the recording chain.

I'd get some decent monitors and spend the rest on setting yourself up with a good-sounding space ... a vocal booth if that's what you need or a nice live room if you need that instead or as well. After that it's just practice, practice, practice.

Have a read around, there are loads of quality monitors around for not huge amounts of money, same goes for preamps which you can get quality for peanuts nowadays. And yes, I'm being serious, spend the rest on acoustic treatment because that will be what makes the difference.

After that you just start saving for a million and one different plugins. :D

Nik
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peep www.myspace.com/trapboirecords the "running" track the 2nd and 3rd verses was used with my equipment...and on boss hoggin the 1st n 3rd. and represent the entire track was recorded with my equipment...It just dont sound good enough to me I cant put my hand on what it is...i just dont know
 
yay for having more than $200 to work with !!!

yeah, nice pre would be splendid. the SP mic is pretty good, but that could be upgraded too.

monitors. get nice monitors.

treat your room a bit.

sounds like theres plenty of cash, so i would get a vocal booth.
 
TragikRemix said:
yay for having more than $200 to work with !!!

yeah, nice pre would be splendid. the SP mic is pretty good, but that could be upgraded too.

monitors. get nice monitors.

treat your room a bit.

sounds like theres plenty of cash, so i would get a vocal booth.
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any top of the line micpreamps and monitors in mind cuz i dont kno nothin bout em
 
What mic stand can hold the C1 Mic too because the one I had didn't fit the C1.
 
So basically whats the best top of the line Preamp that'll bring the best out the C1 and I need a good top of the line mic stand to go along with that. And im finna buy this vocal booth for $500 :cool:. And yall tell me whats some good monitors too.
 
hmm

mackie 624's (i think thats them) monitors

since you are doing rap, an Avalon 737 would be appropriate.

get a real studio boom stand, with a counterwieght.

get a new mic if you are feeling rich.

are you a troll or are you serious, i'm kinda in disbelief.
 
TragikRemix said:
hmm

mackie 624's (i think thats them) monitors

since you are doing rap, an Avalon 737 would be appropriate.

get a real studio boom stand, with a counterwieght.

get a new mic if you are feeling rich.

are you a troll or are you serious, i'm kinda in disbelief.
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nah man im for real bout this I need to get my studio on the way and I need some good equipment! So the c1 isn't a good enough mic for pro quality...then can you give me some names of some thats good for rap vocals
 
truth_lyricist said:
nah man im for real bout this I need to get my studio on the way and I need some good equipment! So the c1 isn't a good enough mic for pro quality...then can you give me some names of some thats good for rap vocals
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Mics don't sound good right off the box. YOU make it sound good.
 
hey my favorite mic is my oktava mk319, i got it for $70 so im not saying the C1 isnt good.

its not considered pro. in 'pro' commercial studios they use neumans, manleys, hi end AKG, senn. and all sortsa stuff.

rappers particularly stick by neumann's, because part of rap production is using names that people will know. tlm103 or something is around 1k. never used it but it cant be bad for that much money!

if i were in your shoes, i would get a Avalon 737, (2k new), Neumann TLM103, (1k new), a vocal booth, (you said 500,) Pair Mackie HR624 (900 new), and then use the rest to treat your mixing space. done, 5k.

of course, some plugins, maybe better converters etc would be splendid.
 
TragikRemix said:
hey my favorite mic is my oktava mk319, i got it for $70 so im not saying the C1 isnt good.

its not considered pro. in 'pro' commercial studios they use neumans, manleys, hi end AKG, senn. and all sortsa stuff.

rappers particularly stick by neumann's, because part of rap production is using names that people will know. tlm103 or something is around 1k. never used it but it cant be bad for that much money!

if i were in your shoes, i would get a Avalon 737, (2k new), Neumann TLM103, (1k new), a vocal booth, (you said 500,) Pair Mackie HR624 (900 new), and then use the rest to treat your mixing space. done, 5k.

of course, some plugins, maybe better converters etc would be splendid.
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thnx for da help
 
I wouldn't bother blowing any money on a more expensive mic when you haven't got a pair of monitors or a pre worth a crap.

But I wouldn't bother with anything expensive till you've worked out exactly what you're lacking ... it sounds like you're unhappy but you don't know what with. That usually means it's YOUR skills that are lacking mate!!! Get some good monitors (Event ALP 5s are exceptional for the money) so you can hear what's going on and take it from there.
 
truth_lyricist, why don't you visit www.tweakheadz.com and see the things for yourself? Everyone has differences and opinions. Just cause I say a Radioshack mic sounds awesome;it doesn't mean it'll sound awesome to you too. So it's better not to have biased opinions or choices.
 
noisedude said:
I wouldn't bother blowing any money on a more expensive mic when you haven't got a pair of monitors or a pre worth a crap.

But I wouldn't bother with anything expensive till you've worked out exactly what you're lacking ... it sounds like you're unhappy but you don't know what with. That usually means it's YOUR skills that are lacking mate!!! Get some good monitors (Event ALP 5s are exceptional for the money) so you can hear what's going on and take it from there.
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Well said, mate. It's his skills that's lacking really. If you can find the source of weakness in your recording chain, means that you know what you're dealing with. But in this case, that's not the occurance.
 
studiomaster said:
Well said, mate. It's his skills that's lacking really. If you can find the source of weakness in your recording chain, means that you know what you're dealing with. But in this case, that's not the occurance.
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Believe me, I've done the buying things to make it better routine, this forum is great for instigating gear lust ... but now I haven't bought a new piece of gear in two years and I'm finally starting to improve a little. I'm getting some new monitors next and have a new interface here to expand my i/o count, and then I'm going to sit on it until I absolutely can't get anything more from what I have ... because there's no point in bands giving me a few quid to hang in my house if I blow more than they pay me on extra mics, plugins and rack boxes that I simply don't need!!!!! :D :D

Nik
 
studiomaster said:
Well said, mate. It's his skills that's lacking really. If you can find the source of weakness in your recording chain, means that you know what you're dealing with. But in this case, that's not the occurance.
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My recording skills? Aint shit wrong with my delivery it be on point at the studio i been doin this for years so i aint new to it. But as far as mixing it could be because onlything I do is record on adobe audition and i add lil reverb effects and get the vocals on beat make sure its not too loud or low and mixdown the track.
 
noisedude said:
Believe me, I've done the buying things to make it better routine, this forum is great for instigating gear lust ... but now I haven't bought a new piece of gear in two years and I'm finally starting to improve a little. I'm getting some new monitors next and have a new interface here to expand my i/o count, and then I'm going to sit on it until I absolutely can't get anything more from what I have ... because there's no point in bands giving me a few quid to hang in my house if I blow more than they pay me on extra mics, plugins and rack boxes that I simply don't need!!!!! :D :D

Nik
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Yup, exactly. It's best to learn from each and every piece of gear we own and then pass on.
 
truth_lyricist said:
My recording skills? Aint shit wrong with my delivery it be on point at the studio i been doin this for years so i aint new to it. But as far as mixing it could be because onlything I do is record on adobe audition and i add lil reverb effects and get the vocals on beat make sure its not too loud or low and mixdown the track.
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Not your rapping skills, your actual skills as a tracking and mixing engineer. It's hard doing it all by yourself, it means you will end up neglecting your rapping whilst you work on your engineering. But get the acoustic space right, some half-decent monitors and one decent recording channel (none of which you have right now) and you'll be there.

Any pre that costs more than a coupla hundred quid will be fine. Any monitors that cost more than about $500 will be fine. Read around if you like so you can have extra confidence in your purchases, but really what you need to do is practice, practice and practice some more!! Sorry!!
 
truth_lyricist said:
My recording skills? Aint shit wrong with my delivery it be on point at the studio i been doin this for years so i aint new to it. But as far as mixing it could be because onlything I do is record on adobe audition and i add lil reverb effects and get the vocals on beat make sure its not too loud or low and mixdown the track.
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Well, you know, there's much more to recording and mixing than just add "a lil reverb effect" on a vocal track and make sure it's not too loud or low. That's a baby work. Any creature on earth with ears can encounter dynamics in sound.
 
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