Setting up a basic home studio (1 Viewer)

[Pantone247]

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.

no better or worse then a Mackie I imagine...

If I had the $$$ I'd get one fruity pre (probably the Electro Harmonix one http://www.harmony-central.com/Newp/2005/12AY7-Mic-Pre-lg.jpg ) for vocals and acoustic guitars... but then I remember my main mics are a Studio Projects B1 and a SM57... not exactly great mics (though none too shabby for the $$$) so I'd quicker put the money there... if I had it...

 

[Lord Damian]

no better or worse then a Mackie I imagine...

If I had the $$$ I'd get one fruity pre (probably the Electro Harmonix one http://www.harmony-central.com/Newp/2005/12AY7-Mic-Pre-lg.jpg ) for vocals and acoustic guitars... but then I remember my main mics are a Studio Projects B1 and a SM57... not exactly great mics (though none too shabby for the $$$) so I'd quicker put the money there... if I had it...

aye...first things first, i'll be buying some quality mics. a couple of large diaphragm condensers for vox, acoustic guit and drum overheads, then in the next year or so i hope to assemble a load of preamps, compression gear and some quality monitors (right now i record and mix using a pair of Sennheisers)....ah well, it's either that or i spend all my dough on boozin'.

 

[Pantone247]

aye...first things first, i'll be buying some quality mics. a couple of large diaphragm condensers for vox, acoustic guit and drum overheads, then in the next year or so i hope to assemble a load of preamps, compression gear and some quality monitors (right now i record and mix using a pair of Sennheisers)....ah well, it's either that or i spend all my dough on boozin'.

I'd get monitors a bit quicker then that, even a budget set or something... I used to use an old set of huge old Sonys that I thought were fine, but they had no trebble on them and HUGE bass, which made them fun to listen too... but.... I ended up with tracks where I cranked the treeble too much and left no bass on (cause the speakers naturally boosted the bass)... I listen back to them now and laugh it's so obvious what was happening, but I just didn't cop it

I use a set of 'monitors' now, and while they're not as nice to listen too CDs on (sorta "crispy sounding over a long period of time, I still have the sonys for rocking out on) they're much better at letting you know what's going on, especially in the hi end and mid range...

if I had known the difference it'd make I would have gotten them years ago, I used headphones a lot too, great for checking your performaces and stuff, but you can be tricked just as easily with them too...

 

[Flux]

Cheers for the answer Pantone. You are right of course.

I'm just not a tech head at all. I enjoy the process of recording but was never too hung up on equipment.

There's a lot you can buy for the price of 3 days in a studio! I was reading the musicstore catalogue when I first asked the question, and was imagining myself locked away for months with shitloads of recording gear, but i have resigned myself to the pro option for now.

I was surprised how well our rough demos sounded using just a Shure 57 and Cubase though.

Aaaargh! Fuckit! I'm torn again.

 

[Lord Damian]

I was surprised how well our rough demos sounded using just a Shure 57 and Cubase though.


i find as long as you know your gear and take your time, even the most basic of setups can yield surprisingly good results. i guess this applies to folks who have LOADS of gear as well...it don't mean a thing unless they take the time to get to know how to use it.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Sooo hungover today.
I will reply properly later.

I do have a couple of external preamps, the one that gets the most use is my Dan Alexander 1272, it's a neve clone. Google Neve if that means nothing to you.
Mostly I just use the desk, either the one in whatever studio I'm using or my one at home.
I'll tend to choose a studio with a decent desk whenever I'm freestylin'.

Do a search for the FMR RNP preamp.
There's also a bunch of cool canadian companies like KEL Audio that you should scope out.

More later.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Damian, I'd just buy a desk with good preamps if I were you.
How much you wanna spend?

There's the Trident ATB.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

http://www.kelaudio.com/

http://www.fmraudio.com/

http://www.oktavamod.com/

http://www.shinybox.com/

 

[Pantone247]

http://www.fmraudio.com/

do you have any FMR stuff Pete?

about last year folks on Tape Op were all over the RNC, I was tempted but then a friend sold me this bad boy for shit all cash...

oh yeah...

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Yeah, I've got an RNC.
It's cool, although I haven't used it as much as I'd like.
I've been mostly doing stuff in the box recently (shudder).

Hence, I had to buy these guys, which I can't speak highly enough of :

 

[Pantone247]

Yeah, I've got an RNC.
It's cool, although I haven't used it as much as I'd like.
I've been mostly doing stuff in the box recently (shudder).

ha, I'm in pretty much the same boat, I've set the nanocomp (even the name sounds shit) as a limiter to catch anything that might clip my 'puters inputs and use the Blockfish compressor for anything in the box...

 

[snakybus]

Hey Pantone, you get my message?

 

[Pantone247]

Hey Pantone, you get my message?

oh yeah, I'll message you now

 

[snakybus]

yeah like, if you can tear yourself away from talking about yer toys,for like two minutes! P

 

[trensmat]

the fmr compressor is real nice!