Setting up a basic home studio (1 Viewer)

[Flux]

My band is about to spend a whackload going into the studio, and I have a nagging feeling that I'd prefer to buy some recording equipment instead.

On a budget of €3000, €4000, what's the best way to spend it?

I have a laptop with Cubase and a Shure 57 so far. I'd like to still use Cubase, but I doubt my laptop would be able to handle a full band recording set-up (80gb, 512MB of ram).

 

[Charlie Bucket]

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Well, you could spend 2k in the studio and get a thoroughly decent record out of it, then spend the other 2k on enough gear to do an adequate job of demo'ing stuff and getting ideas down.

Remeber, you're paying for the time that someone else has spent learning to record and mix.
There ain't no shortcuts - you can drop a bunch of cash on gear, but you'll still have to stumble around for a year or two learning how to use it properly.
Or you can get someone else who knows what they're doing to record it for ya now.

Peace.
Hic.

 

[Flux]

I hear ya, but it's always a gamble. We've already spent over a grand on aborted/useless recordings. There's too much pressure, and time constraints trying to get everything right in the studio on a low budget.

Home recording is the only way to go. But then you have the problem of "who gets to keep the gear at their house?", when the band bought it...

 

[Beanstalk]

I agree with Red Tape...if you need the recordings anytime soon (which I presume is a yes) then put some of the cash towards paying an experienced sound engineer to record your band, and some of the cash towards your own setup...get some half decent mics for, upgrade the RAM in your laptop, and get a decent soundcard....but its still gonna take you AT LEAST a year before you can get anything that even resembles demo quality...you can't expect to just plug in your mics and make your band sound good...gonna take time.

At least if you have a home recording setup for a few months you can do rough demos of your tunes...then head into the studio and lay down the tracks with no messing, using top notch equipment and expertise.

 

[Flux]

Yizzer probably right....just been burned before.

Might get one of those 24 track Tascam portastudio 2488 yokes in the summer. They're less than a grand. Anyone used one?

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Nope.
I think maybe one of the guys in Groom has or had something similar.

You can always do drums in a studio, overdubs at home, mix in a studio or some mix and match of the three.

 

[snakybus]

nope, not us

we did our stuff on protools

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Didn't one of your number have some kinda tascam multitrack thing knocking around in Frederick lane at one stage?
I remember it was there when we were jamming one time.

 

[snakybus]

oh that

it took our drum tracks and then didn't give them back

it was selfish machine

 

[Flux]

Anyway, to get this thread back on track...

Any of you musos know how best to get a demo studio scenario together with say €3000?

 

[the departed]

all i can say about the drums is GOOD OVERHEADS>..>>>>...

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Flux.
Do you have a PC/Mac of any description, and if so, describe it.

G-stereo..
You gotta put them in the right place first

 

[the departed]

but of course..
im going to have a sample of drums i recorded in my newly completed studio shortly..

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Make it so.

 

[Flux]

Flux.
Do you have a PC/Mac of any description, and if so, describe it.

Nope, just a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop, 512mb RAM/ 80 gig hard drive. I know for any kind of studio-type set up I'd need something else. What would you recommend?

 

[Pantone247]

that's not an awful spec for recording, I work on a mac with a lot less... granted I record track by track and am limited in so far as I can't put efx on everything all at once...

Your question is insansely general here, I hope you apprecite it that. The best thing you can is sit down and Google and Google and Google... buy Sound On Sound, read borchures and trawl company websites, hang out on messageboards (tape op, gearslutz, etc, etc... seach the archieves!!!) only you know what you really want and what's going to suit your sound/space/expertiese

Things to consider are where you will record, will it be a permanent set up or do you want to travel (computer versus all in one recorders), how many tracks you will ever need to record at once, a full band or a drum kit (how many in's do you need on your interface/recoreder... how many mics you need to buy), how heavily you plan on processing these tracks (VSTs and various other computery music programs), if you are looking for a pro result at the end set aside at least 500 - 1000 for a really good vocal mic, or, if it's demo concern, 200 - 500 euro....

the list goes on and on and on and on and on and... It would be silly to think that someone can come give you one stock answer, AND that it'd reasonable to entrust the investment of two or three grand to some strangers comment on the interweb

I don't mean to sound like I'm on a whinge, but I can't stress enough how much reading and research you should put into this before you even think of buying a mic stand. I'd fully encourage you to do it, as recording at home is one of the best things I can think of to do with your time... but don't expect to by popping out pro sounding tracks anytime shy of next christmas...

 

[Lord Damian]

i'm actually thinking of doing the same thing, and Pantone's answer makes a helluva lot of sense. however, this is as good a place as any to discuss what should be purchased.

anyhow....

hey redtape - i take it from reading your posts that you're an engineer of some sort? wondering - do you use external preamps for everything, or do you have a board with it's own? if the former, can you recommend a few outboard pre's, and maybe what they would best be suited to?

i'll have loads more questions, glad i found this thread.

thanks

 

[Pantone247]

i'm actually thinking of doing the same thing, and Pantone's answer makes a helluva lot of sense. however, this is as good a place as any to discuss what should be purchased.

absolutely, as I said I didn't mean to cranky, just that there are infinte ways of doing these things and every person can only tell you what works for them in their experience

also there are huge resources out there, I wouldn't put money down with reading at least three reviews on something to get the best and most rounded opinion on it

anyhow I use a yamaha desk for pre-amps, both cheap and cheerful! I'm running some cheap-ish mics to, so I don't think a shit hot pre-amp is going to do much more for them really

 

[Lord Damian]

absolutely, as I said I didn't mean to cranky, just that there are infinte ways of doing these things and every person can only tell you what works for them in their experience

also there are huge resources out there, I wouldn't put money down with reading at least three reviews on something to get the best and most rounded opinion on it

anyhow I use a yamaha desk for pre-amps, both cheap and cheerful! I'm running some cheap-ish mics to, so I don't think a shit hot pre-amp is going to do much more for them really

is your board known to have delicious preamps? i use a Mackie 1604, but i think i'd still wanna use outboard pre's for everything.