Thinking of starting over

  • Thread starter Thread starter chris-from-ky
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chris-from-ky

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Hi,
I am thinking of liquidating my current setup and taking the plunge into pro quality studio and gear. I plan to buy (or build) my first house this spring and once I have the studio area ready the following equipment will make the cut.

Midas Venice 320
Adam Nearfiled monitors
Alesis HD24
(1) Pendulum Audio Quartet
(1) Great River MP2-NV
(8) FMR RNC
(1) Cranesong STC-8
(1) Soundelux U195
(1) Beyer M160
(2) AEA R84
(2) Audio Technica 4033
(3) Sennhiser MD421
(1) Shure Beta 52
(1) Lexicon MPX550

Look good? Pricing is below $20K, but that doesn't include the room. I'm thinking of starting a small business and getting a small business loan for teh cash. Purchasing gear is tax deductible, I think. I'll have to talk to a CPA or something. What do you think of my gear list? Would you add, axe, or substitute anything?
 
No SDC's listed

8 FMR's??? Seems you might want something with a little different flavor in the comp department. Maybe a couple dbx 160's
 
SDC? Would that mean A/D/A Converters? I figured if the signal chain was good enough everywhere else, I could use the stock HD24 converters being as I think they are pretty good. However, I suppose I could spend the money on 8 channels of A/D and D/A. Mytek would be my choice.

What's wrong with the RNC? I read rave reviews on it all the time. If I upgraded from that why wouldn't I go with something like a Manley compressor or a Distressor? I'll have to read more about the dbx compressor you mentioned.
 
chris-from-ky said:
SDC? Would that mean A/D/A Converters? I figured if the signal chain was good enough everywhere else, I could use the stock HD24 converters being as I think they are pretty good. However, I suppose I could spend the money on 8 channels of A/D and D/A. Mytek would be my choice.
Click to expand...

No, it means small diaphragm condenser.
 
Aren't the Midas's live production boards? May not have enough routing options for multitrack recording...

I also agree that you wouldn't want to get 8 RNCs - you'll want different flavours. An Empirical Labs Distressor or 2 wouldn't hurt...

Also - consider picking up a Kurzweil KSP-8 instead of the Lexi -- 4 extremely high-quality stereo effect units in one box.
 
You should get a better ribbon also, Royer AEA etc. Then you can sell me your M160:)
 
Small Diaphram Condenser. Makes sense. How about a matched pair of Josepheson C42's or a couple of Microtech Gefell M300s'. Why would I need these? Overheads? I planned the AT 4033's for that. I'll add them anyway.

Yes, the Venice is a live board but, I have been reading a ton of posts both here and at gearslutz and they are all very positive about the quality of the pres and eq. It has direct outs and inserts. That's all you need to interface with the HD24, right? I'd rather have it to mixdown on than a Mackie 24X8 who's pres and eq are said to be sort of sub pro quality. I would like to have a Sony like yours, bruce, but I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet. BTW, is it installed yet? I'll bet you can't wait!

So I'll change from 8 RNC's to 4 RNC's and 2 Distressors.

Keep it coming.
 
Tonio said:
You should get a better ribbon also, Royer AEA
Click to expand...

I thought the AEA R84 was a ribbon mic. I'll look into that.

I really liked the way that m160 sounded at the listening sessions website. It was really cool sounding on electric guitars when paired with a GR pre.
 
chris-from-ky said:
Small Diaphram Condenser. Makes sense. How about a matched pair of Josepheson C42's or a couple of Microtech Gefell M300s'. Why would I need these? Overheads? I planned the AT 4033's for that. I'll add them anyway.

Yes, the Venice is a live board but, I have been reading a ton of posts both here and at gearslutz and they are all very positive about the quality of the pres and eq. It has direct outs and inserts. That's all you need to interface with the HD24, right?
Click to expand...

Yes. But that may require repatching cables as you track. The HD24 can internally switch its inputs to different tracks, depending on how many busses you tell it you have. If you use direct outs to the HD24, then each channel is mapped to a track. Such that if you do a take with say 5 tracks, and then you want to overdub with the mic on channel 3, you have change the cable to channel 6. If you are clever enough, you can work around that with minimal repatching, but it requires some forethought.

Another approach is to use a mixer with a large number of busses, and then just switch the bus so the appropriate channel(s) go to the appropriate track. Note the plural channels; using busses allows you to send a submix to a single track, which direct outs don't.

I have set up my mobile HD24 rig using direct outs, but I'm looking at mostly projects with low track counts, few mics, and no submixing, so if I skip over a few tracks in the process I don't mind. There aren't a whole lot of rackmount 8 bus mixers so that's life :o
 
mshilarious said:
There aren't a whole lot of rackmount 8 bus mixers so that's life :o
Click to expand...

Speck Xtramix. I don't see an advantage for my situation but, you may find it appealing. i don't know.
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Also - consider picking up a Kurzweil KSP-8 instead of the Lexi -- 4 extremely high-quality stereo effect units in one box.
Click to expand...

Well, given that the KSP-8 is many times more expensive than the lexi he quoted, he might want to look into a Rumour, which is the same quality, but near to the mpx550's price point.

And yes, the AEA R84 is a ribbon mic.
 
Here's a question...

Which is more necessary... good A/D to tape or good D/A from tape to analog 2-buss?
 
chris-from-ky said:
I thought the AEA R84 was a ribbon mic. I'll look into that.

I really liked the way that m160 sounded at the listening sessions website. It was really cool sounding on electric guitars when paired with a GR pre.
Click to expand...

Yeah the AEA's are ribbon-just messin with ya since I be wanting a ribbon to try out:D

Now you're ad/da question is good one mate!! May not be direct to your question but me thinks a DA is prolly more important. If ya can' hear it you can't discriminate what the AD is doing. The Adams do help though.

T
 
OK. Midas Venice + Mytek A/D & D/A Converters = $13,000 est.

What digital console would have the quality of pres, eq, and conversion in the same price range?
 
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