~£500 budget for audio setup (for uni in Sept)

Maccy

Maccy

Maccy

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With some of my inheritance money, I would like to purchase some good quality kit for recording and producing. I'm doing a music and sound technology course (3 years) and would like some kit that will be future proof and last me a long time.

I've looked into some M-Audio products but they seem too cheap and don't look like they'll last for a long time.

I definitely require a decent sound card and an external interface for connecting multiple inputs. If the external device could take up to 10 inputs that would be ideal, otherwise a smaller device and I'll purchase a separate mixer to use with it.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions :)
 
What do you mean by M-Audio won't last a long time? I thought they were well regarded as some of the best quality sound cards around?

Perhaps look into EMU stuff too, they compare pretty well with the M-Audios for sound quality.
 
Yeh but I can only find sound cards for about £50 and I'm sure there's something better out there.
 
Do you know aspects/requirements to look for in a soundcard?

When i first started my college course a few years ago, i went out and bought some cheap M-Audio hardware to get me started, and looking back now, i wish i hadn't as it was all crap. :o:p

Depends really on what you want to be recording. If you want to record traditional stuff like guitars (using mic) then you want to look for soundcards that have a couple of XLR's, preferably with phantom power for condenser microphones, and that use decent pre-amps. Sapphire, Emu, and expensive M-audio hardware will give you this, but you'll be looking at around £200-300 for the soundcard. Unless you want the feel of a real mixer, you dont need one really with a good soundcard, unless you fancy expanding you I/O's with 8-channel ADAT and a digital mixer.

Then you also need to decide whether you want PCI, FireWire or USB. Personally, i would say forget USB2 as it really isnt that great for this purpose. FireWire 800 is pretty decent, but the king is PCI. Will it be used on a laptop or desktop etc.

Choice of microphones is all up to you, but again budget around £175 for a pair of two half decent condenser mic's, or £150 for a pair of dynamics. Make sure you get what you want, because the choice of mic's is massively important if you want to capture a great sound.

MIDI keyboards. - How many key's do you need? Do you need assignable encoders/pots? Do you need it to have it's own synth module? These things all add up the cost so see what's most important to you and go from there. M-Audio is pretty much king of this area.

My honest advice would be to wait a little while as you do your course. Then as you gain more and more knowledge about the aspects of digital production, then you will feel more comfortable about buying equipment. I really REALLY wish i hadnt wasted £300 on equipment that doesnt actually do what i paid for. ;(

:)
 
I agree with ozzie, thats more or less what i'd have said. I hope you're a Sound On Sound subscriber, also join their forums as you will get very focussed answers to your questions.

Personally, on a real tight budget i'd have got an M-Audio Delta 1010 (not the LT) with a mixer which has at least 8 mic pre's and pre-fade outs (via send/return loops would be fine) - Yamaha MG16/4 is ok here, you'd be able to get those two for less than £400 which sets you up for simultaneous 8 channel recording - enough for a drum kit.

Mic wise, the sky is the limit, a usable budget condensor will start at around £80 or so. Don't forget you will probably need lots of cables and DI boxes too.

Don't skimp on monitors either, in fact, for you i'd say those are the most important as any analog recording you can use the university studios - they will have at least a reasonable selection of mics, good rooms and recording kit - you can record then take the multi's away and mix/play with at home in which case all you'd need is a decent pair of monitors and a good stereo out soundcard.

EDIT: sounds like you've been searching computer stores for soundcards, you need to be looking at specialist retailers for music and recording, there are several big online companies which just about everyone uses, but forum rules prevents me from mentioning....nothing that google can't find though...
 
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Ozzie and Dave - thanks very much for those detailed replies, I really value and appreciate the input :)

Have either of you got msn so I can have a chat to get a better idea?

Back on topic, I looked into midi keyboards and have seen a simple M-Audio 49 key one for roughly £55 from online retailers which should be fine to begin with. With regards to sound cards I think I'd like to keep the inputs mainly for an external device rather than PCI, and yes I'm looking to use this for a desktop PC - although it would be great if I could use an external device with my MacBook also. For condensor microphones, I really like the AKG condensor mic's which go for like £90, I can't remember the exact model. I currently have an SM-58, so not too bothered with dynamic mic's for now.

I'd completely overlooked monitors - at the moment I'm using a set of Logitech 5.1 X-530s but it seems that I'd be best to sell these and get some proper monitors for about £150 a pair?

Ozzie - with regards to the mixer, I would prefer a hardware based one as I prefer using this than clicking and using a software based (I hate using the built in ones in Cubase etc)

Thanks so far :)
 
My emails in my profile. I've not got msn installed right now, but i am in the process of doing so now. :)
 
Email is in sig, that's my msn address.

Regards a mixer, perhaps a cubase control surface would be more useful to you - there is a behringer motorised surface which can be had for around £150.

I guess the AKG mic you mentioned is the C2000B or possibly the C3000?

I paid £200 for my budget behringer monitors, really, you should spend as much as you can on them as ALL of your work will revolve around what you hear from them and so you want to make it the strongest link in your system.
 
have a look at the evolution UC-33 USB MIDI Controller for using with cubase and other software. used to have one and it was great for that job
 
OK, taking some advice from OzZie and reading some reviews, I'm very interested in the M-Audio ProjectMix. Can pick it up on the bay for £540 or so, may give it a go. Anyone have much experience with it?
 
Also, you might want to take a look at the Tascam FW-1082. Its very similar to the Project Mix but costs less, leaving you more to spend on other equipment. :)
 
Had a look at the Tascam - doesn't seem to be compatible with Pro Tools which I'd ideally like. The ProjectMix comes with Pro Tools so this seems to be the best bet at the mo.
 
careful with protools...as even owning a 50quid m-audio USB box allows you to use Pro Tools LE (light edition)

so assuming it gives you the correct ability to run proper versions of pro tools (beat detective and the new time sretch tools are great) then go for it!

edit, next on your list should be sound absorption (VITAL!) and monitors.

I dont have any absorption in my place, and my mixes always come out sounding shocking! :)
 
Well if I go for the ProjectMix, I imagine it should tie in quite well with Pro Tools?

I hadn't thought much about sound absorbtion to be honest - some of this kit will be moved quite a bit (especially ProjectMix), but will still bare that in mind!
 
You can always do your masters in the university studios - once the bulk of your mix is done, even if the envrionment is really bad it doesnt usually take too long to whip it into shape in a decent room.
 
Maccy said:
Had a look at the Tascam - doesn't seem to be compatible with Pro Tools which I'd ideally like. The ProjectMix comes with Pro Tools so this seems to be the best bet at the mo.
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Pro Tools M-Powered is the version you have to use, which is like LE but with a little less, so it isnt anywhere near the quality of a Pro Tools HD system. I think you also have to purchase PT M-Powered seperatly too, and it isnt exactly cheap either, despite being the lowest version. I dont believe it is compatible with any other versions of Pro Tools other than M-Powered.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, as Dave said, you'll likely do all your final work in proper studio's. If you want to just be able to do work outside of your hours then don't worry about getting the best everything, because it'll just cost an arm and a leg. Just make sure that you get a decent piece of kit of the fundamentals you'll need (such as monitors, soundcard etc) and then you wont have one particular bit of kit dragging you down.

With acoustics, there's no way of telling what your going to need before you go there and analyse the room. There are no rules to what you will need and what you will not, so just go there and listen to certain things. For example, if you are mixing in a small room (monitors facing you) and you aren't too far away from the back walls, then you get bass traps where certain frequency ranges seem to be boosted dramatically when this isnt the case, its just how low frequencies tend not to absorb that well with your standard 'brick' wall. Also, standing waves will no doubt occur which is when certain frequencies waveforms are half the length of the distance of the room, thus creating a perfect 'loop' of a waveform and so it appears that this frequency is louder than it actually is, and so you change the balance of the mix to compensate. Again, to get a customly made bass trap box tuned to the bad frequency will cost an absolute fortune, so as long as you are aware of the issues, you can use your common sense to made the right decision. I know in my studio that i have issues with 80Hz, 160Hz, 320Hz, as the fundamental note and all of its harmonics create standing waves, but to a lesser degree as you get higher up the frequencies.

Wait until you start your course and all this stuff is explained to you. Then it'll all make sense and you can start looking for treatment if you so wish. :)
 
OzZie said:
Wait until you start your course and all this stuff is explained to you.
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VERY dangerous assumption there... it depends on how good the course is and the angle they take on it, a lot of music tech courses don't cover proper acoustics at all....

I left the music tech course at my uni to do acoustics as it wasn't technical enough - too much music and not enough tech, some of them are quite good though and provide a real balance between the two.

My first year uni room was a perfect cube and i mean PERFECT - the only way this could have been worse (acoustically) was if it was a perfect sphere - even then im not sure it would have been much worse.

Don't throw good money at trying to treat a room which is bad to start with - you could always do your home mixes on headphones (ok generally not a recommended practice but if you know your phones well you can make pretty good decisions) but obviously tidy it up later in real studios which have been designed by experts (i'd hope),

The studios i now use at uni (in a completely different department to the music tech ones) were designed by the staff - some of which are considered leading experts in various acoustics' related fields. (Although i still condemn their decision to allow some idiot to put the computers directly in the control room and the way they've wired it together isn't how i'd have it) with the computers off though it's damned good in there.
 
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