What's the next step?

[stride000]

Hi all,

I'm just starting building a home recording rig. Got a couple things bought and installed and wanted to know what piece of equipment should be added next.

Right now the gear i have is:

M-Audio Delta-44 sound card
Alesis Multimix FX6 mixing board
M-Audio Oxygen 49 MIDI controller

I don't want to record a full band yet. For now, I need to record my bass, some guitars and the drums will most probably be programming within reason or cubase. Eventually though, i will maybe be adding a v-drum and a microphone for vocals.

I was considering to add a compressor (probably avalon) next but is there anything i should look at before that?

Thanks!

Mark

 

[DonF]

Monitors?
...

 

[stride000]

Lol

Well that is so obvious I didn't even mention it, but yes I will add monitors of course. But right now i'm focusing on equipment for recording not playback.

 

[DonF]

You'd be surprised how many people forget about this "obvious" part of the studio until after they've spent their equipment budget.

How about a DI for the bass? A mic for the guitar amp?

 

[gema]

Maybe a preamp ?

 

[stride000]

Right now i'm plugging my bass directly into the board and have really good results. Didn't think i'd need a DI on top of that. I have a bassbone i sometimes use as a DI during shows or I can always use my bass amp.

As for the preamp, what should I get exactly?

 

[daav]

preamp- depends on your budget and needs. If your mixer gives you enough inputs, than a preamp is only needed to add color (if that is what you are looking for) or cleaner gain (if you have a problem). Just getting started, you probably don't need it unless you are running out of mic preamp inputs on your board.


What is your room like? Almost anyone building a new recording setup will get a much better return on each dollar and hour invested in treating your room than on equipment.
If that is not familair, take a look int he studio building forum and read up on the threads in there. You will get a lot of benefits from adding lots of bass absorbtion and taming reflections. The thing about this is that the better your equipment gets, the more you will be recording the ambient noise in your space- fans, bad reflections, people walking around you. Getting a handle on what you have to contend with and what your plan for that is will help all your future investments. For instance, if your room really blows and there is not much you can do to it (say in an apartment where all you have is a bedroom) you may decide to buy some nice dynamics more than condensors to avoid picking up as much room noise.

Daav

 

[stride000]

Thanks Daav,

The place where i'll set everything is indeed a room in an appartment. Nothing else than the studio / music gear will be in there. It has carpet everywhere but I'll need to treat the walls for sound absorbtion and reflection as well as soundproofing.

It's fairly small (10' x 8') so at best I'll ultimately be recording not more than guitars and vocal, one at a time.

 

[scrouch]

For what you're recording you could probably get away without the compressor. For the price of an avalon you could get some good plugins. Unless you really want the sound of the avalon. There are some pretty cheap solutions for handling reflections using semi-rigid insulation. You can use this to take care of the corners and hang some curtains on the walls for a start. Since you're recording direct with the bass you might not need to do too much for treatment for recording, depending on what your requirements are. For mixing you'll need good control of the room sound.

A good mic is probably your best bet for now, next to that the monitors will probably be the most important. Hard to tell if you're getting a good recording without a good playback system. I don't know how the preamp is on the Alesis but a nice preamp or channel strip is always a good bet.

 

[stride000]

Thanks Scrouch,

Like I said, monitors are on the way. As for the preamp, I haven't had a chance to compare any so couldn't tell you how good the one in my board is compared to other standalones. But if i'm to buy one, what would be a good one?

Budget for everything I need to add on top of what I have now is about 5000$.