Will this work for me and can you give me pointers?

[imontell]

Hello. I am new to this website and more importantly, new to home studio recording. I purchased a complete setup from a ebay and wanted to know if I did well or if I should kick myself in the ass. This is what I purchased for close to two thousand.

Compaq Presario AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual-Core 200GB hard drive 1024MB Mem

KRK VXT 6 Monitors
Firepod 24bit 8-channel Interface
Joe Meek VC6Q British Channel Preamp
Aphex 107 Tubessence 2 channel Thermonic Preamp
TC Electronics C300 Dual Stereo Gate/Compressor
Symetrix SX208 Stereo Compressor/Limiter
Lexicon MX200 Effects
Roland SPD-20 Total percussion pad with snare and kick/foot pedal
Microphones: Studio Projects C-1 Condenser. Rode NT3 Condenser, Marshall MXL condenser, Electrovoice MC100 dynamic
Mackie 1402-VLZ 14 channel mixer

I teach music as a profession and have been wanting to get started recording at home. What would the veterans of home studio recording give to me as advice.
I look forward and thank you for honest input.

 

[suprstar]

Looks like a nice setup to me, good deal! I'd spend a little more on extra memory for your PC, 1gb is pretty minimum. And a big external hard drive. 200gb goes quick, plus it'll work better if your OS is installed on a separate drive. You can get a 1TB drive for like $200-250.

 

[gecko zzed]

That set up will do you nicely as you ease your way into the world of recording. Maybe a higher performing computer . . . sure . . . but don't sweat on it that much, because you have more than enough memory and capacity in the short to medium term.

However, partitioning your current hard drive, or getting an extra hard drive is highly worthwhile, because, as suprstar alludes, you can keep your song files completely separate from your operating system, and saves their loss should you have a crash and need to re-install from the start.

You didn't mention any software . . . so you will need to look into that. The Firepod (often) comes bundled with Cubase, so with luck you got that as well. There are others that you can get, with packages such as Reaper freely available on the web.

You might like to think about getting a matched pair of mikes (e.g. Rode NT5s or similar) for fine stereo work (such as drum overheads) at some stage.

 

[Ripthorn]

I would also have to suggest an sm-57. Yes, there are debates about them, but in the end it is hard to go wrong with one when doing anything like drums or electric guitars.

 

[suprstar]

However, partitioning your current hard drive, or getting an extra hard drive is highly worthwhile, because, as suprstar alludes, you can keep your song files completely separate from your operating system, and saves their loss should you have a crash and need to re-install from the start.

Partitioning will help with recovery, true. A second drive will do that, AND increase performance. The drive heads won't physically have to move back and forth betw. partitions then - grabbing OS files, then quick fly back to the wav partition to write what youre recording, then back, repeat ad nauseum..

 

[imontell]

Thanks guys for the input. It did come with Sonar 6XL so I should have something to start with. I have never done this before so plan on seeing more of me in the future. I like the matched mic idea and the second hard drive. Makes alot of sense.
If you guys think of anything else just let me know.
One other question: What (if possible) would it take to convert the MIDI based files I have written on Finale to a more live sound? Can it be done or do I need to record them instrument by instrument?

 

[Dani Pace]

I started out with a pretty similar computer and the only problem I had was some latency problems. A bigger RAM card (at least 1 gig) made a world of difference, especialy when adding tracks.

 

[Ripthorn]

If by "more live" you mean "sound more like the real thing", a good sample library can work wonders. Put the midi file in your program, load up a good sample set and away you go.