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Old 01-16-2002, 07:28 AM
GTLee GTLee is offline
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Question Suggestions for a home studio, please?

I'm thinking about putting together a studio in my home, just for foolin' around - the main use would be to playback music for me to play along with, plus recording my playing for learning purposes. Well, if anyone wants to purchase my recordings, I'll sell 'em! . A computer with CD burner would be the main heart of the system - what software would you recommend? What about a mixing board and amp? I've already got an excellent quality pair of EAW speakers (MS30s - not really designed for live performances, but certainly adequate for messin' around in my basement). Yeah, and I'll probably need a mic for vocals (not mine!!) and another one for the harp....

What suggestions do y'all have? Thanks!
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Old 01-16-2002, 04:38 PM
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trpullen trpullen is offline
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With the prices of digital multitrack machines these days, I would shy away from the Computer unless you REALLY want that. The Boss BR-8 or BR-532 give great performance and include mixer and effects. Get that and a decent mic (Audio Tech ATM-63HE or SM-57 or Beta57) and you are ready to roll.

Just my humble opinion.
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Old 01-17-2002, 09:23 AM
ihs ihs is offline
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Check out the Home Recording forums. These guys are very knowledgeable and helpful about any home recording issues you might have. One word of advice-make sure you understand every piece of your recording chain, from cables to mixer to soundcard to whatever-you-use. This will save you a lot of headaches trying to get everything to work together (speaking from experience).

FWIW, I have a 1.7 GHZ, Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, 80 GB hard drive, running Vegas Audio 2.0. I also have a Delta Omni Studio soundcard/breakout box installed, and use a Rode NT1000 mic. The Omni has an internal mixer that you access via the computer, so you don't need an external mixer. The mic preamps (you get 2 on the box) seem pretty transparent, but then I've never tried an ultra high-end preamp. I'm still getting used to it all, but I've gotten some spectacular-sounding recordings with it so far. That doesn't say anything about my playing, just that this equipment captures what I'm playing extremely well-which may or may not be a good thing!

Feel free to ask any other questions you have. Enjoy the search and good luck!
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Last edited by ihs; 01-17-2002 at 09:27 AM.
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Old 01-22-2002, 02:45 PM
The berkshire The berkshire is offline
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One word of caution, don't buy stuff you don't need or that is redundent with other stuff. Its easy to get caught up in some of the manufacturer hype. I did and it got expensive. At one point owned a lot of stuff that was duplicated and wasn't really improving the sound. i could get into a long talk on this but here is how it shook out for me. I was using the computer for recording using cakewalk which was good if you are doing both midi and audio. I bought the waves software bundle for editing and mastering. To get the sound into the computer I was using a Layla 24 interface this gave me 8 I/O plus MIDI I/O, 24 bit 96 hz. I had a SANS AMP PS-1 and a ADA MP-1 preamps for recording direct. An ART dual MP pre amp for the mics, a small Mackie mixer for mixing and mic preamps. For outboard processors I was using an Aesis MIDVERB for ambiance effect an Alesis compressor and an Alesis synth module for the drums and keyboard via MIDI. Round it out with Event monitors. For Mics I used a Rode NT-1, Rode NTK, a Shure sm-81, and a Shure sm-58. It really was a great setup and very versatile. I could record almost anything and it would sound great. But, I realized that all I was recording was myself playng the guitar. This setup would have been great for a band situation or multiple inputs at once. I didn't need multiple pre amps I didn't need a lot of the equipment it was a lot of money invested in stuff that probably was going to be obsolete in a few years. I thinned it out . What I ended up with is an outbaord compressor an outboard effects unit and a small mixer with mic pres. this gives a lot of versatility to get the sound into the computer. A two channel 24 bit sound card (don't need 96 hz) 44.1 is fine. If you are looking for a clean sound that is unprocessed loose the out board processors. 24 bit is good because it gives you a lot more head room to work with especially if you are going to do some processing in the computer. After mastering you can knock it down to 16 bit if you are going to burn it to CD. The Waves Native Power Pack software is good for processing in the computer. You can spend a lot on mics as well but in general a small diameter condenser (SM-81 or AKG1000) works well for acoustic instrumenrts an sm-57 works great for guitar cabs and a large diam condenser works great for vocals (Rode NT-1, NT-1000). Its alittle extra money but a tube condenser like a Rode NTK will work great for vocals that you want to add color to. This is all adding up but if you aquire it as you learn it will be a versatile system that will last for a while. Of coarse the other road is the portastudios. They work great but I found working with the audio on the computer is great. You get all the power and versatility of a computer and you can work on a large screen. Load any software etc.....
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