Soldato
just my 2 pennies on this -
for monitors, im using a pair of active KRK RP8s - a bit bass heavy (can tweak it though), but i find them bloody brilliant especially for the money (400 quid i paid for the pair from DV birmingham, good chaps there) though you might need to look into bass traps - something which im thinking about.
People might say get NS10s (if you can find some decent ones left) - but used them for about two years and i didnt think much of them, didnt offer enough low or mid end and mixes i did on them now sound completly cack when played on macks and my krks.
However, it is worth having another set of monitors if money allows - if not, a line out to a hifi and a "boom box"/portable radio for pre-mix listening.
As for a daw card, what ever you do dont go creative - waste of money and for gamers, do what the other guys have been saying and get an m-audio card or if you can (famous auction site), hunt down a 2nd hand Digi 001 Protools based system - has your software (all industry standard) and 8 in/outs plus 24 channel ADAT, digital coxial etc Use one at home, brilliant little boxes with decent lexicon pre-amps on the two XLR/Jack inputs. Also has phatom power (+48v) for your cap/condenser mics.
mixer wise, get something cheap, spending 400 quid on a mixer is pointless tbh - rather spend 60-90 quid on something 2nd hand, just to route a few connections, and spend the rest on decent monitors and mics....stuff that is actually WORTH getting as you do 99% or your mixing on the software.
If you really want some faders to **** around on, then get a bad boy and midi link them to controllers in your software - cheaper and just as good.
Also, unless your spending serious amount of cash on a desk - eq's are limited and you will probably end up again using a software 10-30band EQ or a para eq.
Saying that though, if you do happen to have 8+ mics to lay down a decent kit, then you might need splash out on a decent outboard pre-amp(s) if you dont have a mixer with enough pre-amped channels etc.
mic wise - couldnt agree more, sm58s and 57s (if you have a kit etc)....but look at T.Bone mics - made my a german company, although there pretty cheap they are meant to sound pretty good for the price - havnt used one myself, but looking at getting one of the cheap condensers.
Otherwise, save up and get a AKG 414, can do anything and everything apart from high SPL stuff like guitar amps etc (well can but not the best for them)!
headphones - DT250, better than the industry standard DT100s and are pretty cheap.
apart from that, just load up your pc with lots of ram and seperate your recordings from your main windows/software disk - so have two harddisk. Also, get a DVD drive and back the stuff up regulary. If the pc being used is to be only for music stuff, then strip the XP/2000 install - use something like XP Lite etc and get rid of stuff you dont need like firewalls, network drivers etc etc
My music pc cant even access the net, only has a virus scanner etc boots up within 10-20secs and can handle a lot more plugins/vsts/RTAS than my faster system which is bogged down with all sorts of crud.
have fun and remember to buy to SoS or another decent mag
for monitors, im using a pair of active KRK RP8s - a bit bass heavy (can tweak it though), but i find them bloody brilliant especially for the money (400 quid i paid for the pair from DV birmingham, good chaps there) though you might need to look into bass traps - something which im thinking about.
People might say get NS10s (if you can find some decent ones left) - but used them for about two years and i didnt think much of them, didnt offer enough low or mid end and mixes i did on them now sound completly cack when played on macks and my krks.
However, it is worth having another set of monitors if money allows - if not, a line out to a hifi and a "boom box"/portable radio for pre-mix listening.
As for a daw card, what ever you do dont go creative - waste of money and for gamers, do what the other guys have been saying and get an m-audio card or if you can (famous auction site), hunt down a 2nd hand Digi 001 Protools based system - has your software (all industry standard) and 8 in/outs plus 24 channel ADAT, digital coxial etc Use one at home, brilliant little boxes with decent lexicon pre-amps on the two XLR/Jack inputs. Also has phatom power (+48v) for your cap/condenser mics.
mixer wise, get something cheap, spending 400 quid on a mixer is pointless tbh - rather spend 60-90 quid on something 2nd hand, just to route a few connections, and spend the rest on decent monitors and mics....stuff that is actually WORTH getting as you do 99% or your mixing on the software.
If you really want some faders to **** around on, then get a bad boy and midi link them to controllers in your software - cheaper and just as good.
Also, unless your spending serious amount of cash on a desk - eq's are limited and you will probably end up again using a software 10-30band EQ or a para eq.
Saying that though, if you do happen to have 8+ mics to lay down a decent kit, then you might need splash out on a decent outboard pre-amp(s) if you dont have a mixer with enough pre-amped channels etc.
mic wise - couldnt agree more, sm58s and 57s (if you have a kit etc)....but look at T.Bone mics - made my a german company, although there pretty cheap they are meant to sound pretty good for the price - havnt used one myself, but looking at getting one of the cheap condensers.
Otherwise, save up and get a AKG 414, can do anything and everything apart from high SPL stuff like guitar amps etc (well can but not the best for them)!
headphones - DT250, better than the industry standard DT100s and are pretty cheap.
apart from that, just load up your pc with lots of ram and seperate your recordings from your main windows/software disk - so have two harddisk. Also, get a DVD drive and back the stuff up regulary. If the pc being used is to be only for music stuff, then strip the XP/2000 install - use something like XP Lite etc and get rid of stuff you dont need like firewalls, network drivers etc etc
My music pc cant even access the net, only has a virus scanner etc boots up within 10-20secs and can handle a lot more plugins/vsts/RTAS than my faster system which is bogged down with all sorts of crud.
have fun and remember to buy to SoS or another decent mag
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