Home recording studio queries

Alexrose1uk

Alexrose1uk

Alexrose1uk

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26 Apr 2004
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Milton Keynes
Home recording studio queries - what do I need, and how, read inside for more...

At my house, the garage is unused, and me and my dad eventually plan to put a floor into the room (at the moment its concrete), and I'm thinking of turning it into a sound studio, as I study Music Tech, and while not particularly amazing at playing, I LOVE to tinker with equipment, equalisers etc to get the best sound, even if my musical skills and design arent good.

I already have CubaseSX 3, and have come up with the following other things I'd need to make this a reality, but my knowledge is somewhat limited, so I'd really like to learn and for you guys to tell me what else I'd need.
The PC I'd be using is my current one, which Im replacing soon (so I could use my current one as a music editing job).

List of equipment I came up with was:

2x Monitor Speakers for PC/Mixing Desk (NEED RECOMMENDATIONS)
Mixing desk 8 Mono Channel Minimum (8 mic input), 16 channel maximum, pref with eq, phantom power, panning and FX if possible (NEED RECOMMENDATIONS) - Thinking Behringer Eurorack
Professional Looking Desk designed to hold Mixing Desk, Monitor and Keyboard and Mouse
3x Shure SM58 vocal mics
3x Shure SM57 instrumental mics
PC (AthlonXP2800+,1GB RAM, 160GB HD, Soundstorm, 9200 gfx, CD Burner when I strip it down for better cooling)
New sound card (to recieve info from mixing desk) (NEED RECOMMENDATIONS) - M-Audio or X-Fi Fatality likely
Cables (NEED RECOMMENDATIONS)
Microphone stands/clamps (NEED RECOMMENDATIONS)
Headphones so artists and I can hear exactly what is being played, like from the monitors (NEED RECOMMENDATIONS)
Phantom Power Condensor Mic?
Drum Kit Mics (NEED SUGGESTIONS)

Also thinking of getting a remote Network Storage device for audial backup.

Obviously the players bring thier own Amps for me to mic up, and I already have a drum kit within the household.

Can you guys please give me suggestions, ie sound card, and can you tell me what I'd need to do to connect the seperate channels on the mixer to a seperate channel on Cubase?
Is there a sound card etc with 6 inputs, or do you just record each input seperately, or DI into the mixer, play all at once, and that outputs in stereo (over a phono/phono lead to the sound card)?
Also, do you recommend a dual monitor setup for the computer?
Also, what mics do you recommend for rigging a drum set?
Does anyone have a good website with a good layout of how they believe one should be mic'ed, and what cables do you lot recommend?


As you can see, on the fine details I'm completely out of my depth so far, so please give me all the knowledge you've got, I love to learn about this stuff, and I wanna make sure when this project happens, its done ok, not badly.

My overall budget for this project will probably be about £1000 max, and ebay will be my friend (can get new Shure mics on there for about £40-50 each!)
For referance, the garage we'd be using as a studio if this project is ever completed is about 10m x 10m.

Also, obviously, HAVE I MISSED ANYTHING?
 
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Thats the thing, I'm not sure, I need recommendations on a lot of equipment, do you have any suggestions? If you've fully read the above, you'll see the technical aspects of what I'll need are currently a bit beyond me.

I was wondering if the Creative X-FI Fatality with its front box with inputs would be any good (upto about £150-200 max I think), I dont intend to use the creative software, just the drivers to get the inputs to register in CubaseSX3.
My other thoughts on sound card were M-Audio, have heard they're excellent for sound fidelity.

Just remembered I'd require headphones as well, as OcUK isn't an audio specialists, any companies named here wouldnt be competitors, so anyone recommend any good headphones for recording/listening to recordings that will do the same job as a monitor (ie they wont boost frequency spectrums like normal listening speakers), and where you can get them, preferably for a reasonable price.
 
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Heheh, I cant really afford to spend £600 on a pair of monitor speakers, or build a new PC, the pc used is my old one, as I'm getting a new gaming rig soon (ironically with a 3800+), my budget is really £1000 to £1500 max with as little spent as possible, as Im a student and this will take a while to save for.

Do like the idea of digital output on the PA12, does this output all channels, so i could say output 8 channels at once, digitally via one cable, or would it still be one cable per sound output?

TBH, the cracked copy of CubaseSX I find runs pretty well anyway, apparently cutting out and emulating a lot of the hardware dongle calls, and security increased speed somewhat.


Might check out the equipment my school recording studio has for some ideas, think they use Sennheiser headphones there though.
 
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Was looking at around 200-400 rrp for a desk, so not completely cheap, especially if I can get a nice deal on one on ebay, besides, I can get a nicer one, just with fewer channels :) and no, the £1400 condensor made my lmfao...

How much were those more expensive models of M-Audio cards with the multiple inputs, I'm interested now...

I'm not a great musician, as it says in the first post, but I LOVE to tweak for sound, so not a purist, or a perfectionist, but I do like to get the best I can get before I get hacked off or bored lol

You reckon 2800+AthlonXP, 1GB DDR, 160GB HD would be ok for music work?
Would timings make any diffence, as I can get about 8-4-42.5 dual channel guaranteed, and perhaps more if I tweak the machine, or 6-3-3 at single channel, not sure of CAS, as my old mobos vdimm was messed and I dont know the true capabilities of this RAM.

Any other drum mic recommendations. My current thoughts are Rode NT3 for vocals, 2x sm58 for backing vocals, 3 sm57 for amps, and whatever I can get for a drum kit that dont cost the bomb, as I dont wanna spend half my budget on mics lol
 
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8 input/output :D

Could input my whole mixing desk to cubase if I ended up with a 8 channel mixer at once!, by the look of it, from the phono, you could output to those, and 8 stereo inputs too... I LIKE this card.
Are the drivers good?

And I cant be classed as audiophile as I'm running my cd player through 2 bass amps....effectively mono, as they're only one speaker, but as they're different sizes and good for different frequencies, it actually sounds quite nice :D
 
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Can you run 2 of the same cards? And my motherboard will be an AN7 (my old NF7 died), which is meant to be effectively NF7-S revision 3, and as it has 5 pci slots, if I ever needed too, I could run quite a few sound cards... (likes the sound of 40x sound input/output!) lol
 
Codmate said:
Lol - well you're half-way to monoblocks, which is *very* audiophile - lol ;)
Click to expand...

You know you want to tell me what monoblocks are, so i can learn :D , and yes, they sound nice, despite the lack of stereo, as both sides are coming out the one speaker, but the small practive bass amp is very nice for treble and mid, and my Trace Elliot with the midshift does the Bass and Middle elements very nicely, sounds crap on its own for singing though
 
Goddamnit, this persuit of audio playtime is going to sap my life almost as much as pcs, and having girlfriends do at this rate...dear god....my entire young life focused....god...focus....sounds abnormal...and 4 cards would be very nice. If you can use about say 6 input per card, and had 2 cards, thats still a nice 12 inputs, although I think from a small badn, and starting off, 1 would be fine, as you could record vox, 2 guitars, bass, and 2 sides off drums from the mixing desk to the card, although it'd likely be about 10 input into the mixer lol (3 singing inputs - 1 main, 2 backup, 1 each for both guitarists amps, and 1 for the bassists amps, along with 3/4 for the drum kit).

Are there any sites with a good diagram or instructions of how to mix a drum kit, and how does one inside bass drum, one inbetween smaller drums and cymbals (one on left side, and one on right), and one slightly above them drums/cymbals in the midde. Sorry about the lack of naming preciseness, my enthusiasm for music overshadows my patience or technical knowledge lol
 
cleanbluesky said:
You will want between 2 and 4 HDs in that computer and since you are using Cubase SX3 you will need OODLES of CPU, in fact dual core would be good. Dual core and RAID 0 of 2 sets of 2 HDs (one set for boot, the other for audio)
Click to expand...

A little above my budget I'm afraid...might be able to afford some new 17" monitors for it, and perhaps another harddrive, but as it was running the cracked version of cubase I ahve fine processing 8 midi channels I was hoping it would be fine...the write speed of my HD is about 30MB sec, and read speed of 50mb/sec so I was hoping that would have been fine, I dont really have room in the budget to get an uber spec pc for it, just a better sound card.
 
Thanks, and yeah, sounds like an idea, bass to mixing desk...would give a cleaner sound possibly, and if I used a pedal, I could use it to boost gain slightly :), and then gain it up on the mixer.


Anyone know if these monitors are any good?

Alesis M1 Active MK2 (pair) , not sure if active is good for monitors, as it might distort the true sound, or augment it, which you dont want.
 
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*Watches as half the last mini conversation went completely over head*... and yeah, I'd rather have a mixing desk, compared to a control surface or whatever it was, as I like having the extra options, versatility, ability to do some eq and mixing before software, and its what I'm used to, and also see used a gigs etc, and besides that, Im a student. It will take me a few months of solid saving to afford this kit, so I dont wanna spend the earth, and really cant increase my budget beyond 1500, ideally I want it to be a fair chunk less!
 
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I'm looking at spending 300-400 or less on the mixing desk. Can someone tell me what the best Behringer model for that sort of money, and any other comparable brands, also, is it best to get an amp with a mixing desk, or are active monitors and a soundcard fine? A rough break down of what Im thinking so far:

Mics - £400 - MAX if possible
Mixer - £400 - MAX
Cables - £100
Sound Card - £150
Monitors - £200 or less
AOB - £250

Of course, if I can get a decent setup for less, as a student I'll jump at the chance to save money, as to me, every £ counts.
 
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