Studio equipment advice

[diveclavis]

Hey everyone!

I just joined home recording yesterday (woo hoo!) and have spent a lot of the past 24 hours reading posts. Everyone seems to knowledgeable here - I'm looking forward to getting some great advice!

So.. with that said.. I've decided to set up a studio in my home. I managed to get a deal on the new Digi 003 factory through a buddy, which comes with Pro Tools LE 7.3. I plan on recording vocals, drums, acoustic guitars, and keys mainly. I purchased an iMac 1.83 Intel Duo recently, and a LaCie external HD.

The equipment I've got so far:
Mics
Beta 57
Beta 58
Senn e602
Senn e604 (4)
Senn e614 (2)

... I am currently working on a good condenser vocal mic as well as monitors.

I have read a lot of talk surrounding Pre-amps, compressors, etc. I am on somewhat of a budget; I will say I have a rough budget of $500 - $1000. At first I wanted to get an 8 channel pre but wondered whether that would compromise other things like having a compressor and eq built into the pre. Realistically I can live with simultaneously recording 4 tracks at a time (for drums), ideally 6 would be perfect. Would anyone be able to provide me with some feedback/advice on necessary additions? Is a preamp what I should be going for, or is something else going to be more beneficial?

Thanks for your time and advice.

Adrian

 

[eeb]

You can always try going the mixer route.. i'm not familiar with the digi stuff.. how many channels can you record with it? does it come with any pre amps built on it?

 

[Mr. Antrobus]

What you've got should do you fine for now.

As far as preamps go, I wouldn't jump in and get one without a lot of consideration. Do you want something that sounds clean (might want a dav-bg-1) or something with a little color (brick? great river) or do you plan to become a pre-slut? In which case you need to by a 500 series rack and get going...

Maybe its best to hold off and just get your feet wet right now.

 

[Nick98338]

Well, the Digi 003 Factory looks like it has 4 preamps in it. So, if 4 preamps , that is, 4 simultaneous microphone inputs is enough, then OK. If not, you could buy more preamps 1, or 2 at a time. Can't say that I know anything about the quality of the Digi preamps. If the Digi preamps turn out to be junk... THEN you could get a nice 8 pre box.

 

[Kevin Deschwazi]

The digi 003 has 8 analog ins and four mic pres so you can only use a maximum of four more pres. (unless you're adding more channels of A-D via ADAT).

For now I would forget about hardware compressors, eqs etc. and spend as much as you can afford on a couple of channels of decent preamps. You can do all of your processing in the box with plug ins for now.

If you later decide you want some hardware to play with you'll be better placed to decide for yourself what you need/want. I think getting a nice clean signal into the comp should be a priority for starters.

I've never used any dual mic pres in that price range so I'll chuck a couple of names at you that people speak highly of so you can do a bit of research on them:

RNP
Symetrix SX202
Rane MS1B
DAV BG1

I believe they're all within your budget.

And if you want a couple more channels for not much money I'd recommend the M Audio DMP-3.

 

[Minion]

My recording setup was only a few hundred Bucks and I can do 4 simutainus Tracks....
I use a Delta 44 ($150) and I use a cheap 8 Track mixer ($100) to mix the Toms and Cymbols into a stereo Track and have a couple good Mic preamps for micing the Bass drum and Snare and recording them to seperate Tracks, I use 8 mics for my drums and get a good rock sound.....

After recording the Drums I Mic up my Guitar/Bass amp and put on the headphones and record the Guitar/Bass tracks and when I am done I do my Mixing and add any effects like EQ,Compression,reverb ect useing Plugins (Mostly freeware plugins) and monitor through a Pair or Yorkville actives ($250)......

I get an OK sound for haveing a under $1000 setup and if I need any more inputs I can just throw in another Delta 44 or a 66 or even a 1010.....


Cheers