***The Official Home Recording Studio Thread***

They are a very good company to deal with too.. unfortunately I had a problem with my first set, with one of them becoming very noisy after a few weeks use. I contacted Sontronics and had the founder/MD Trevor Coley contact me immediately to help resolve the issue... he was very keen to find out exactly why this happened so he could make sure it didn't happen again. I received a new set very quickly which have been perfect in the three years I've had them. Its not often an MD takes such a personal interest, and its good to support a UK company.

I would also like to recommend 'Sound on Sound' magazine to anyone with an interest in recording. They cover everything from home studio projects and trouble shooting to the worlds best studios, engineers and producers, as well as product reviews. I've learned a ton from reading it for well over a decade now... this month has the making of Muse Drones LP which is a great read.

Just need see pics off you now :)
 
Looking good easyrider.
I wish I had the space to record live drums. :(

Cheers...Just sorting the mics out now :)

I'm (more than) slightly embarrassed to post this, but here goes :D

It looks such a mess, and this is our living room :eek: luckily its quite big, and somehow does not look as bad in the flesh. The main problem is I can only do stuff when the house is empty of kids and the wife, unless I'm doing some stuff on the keyboards with headphones on. Roll on house move and a space of my own - preferably in an outbuilding, where I can lock myself away :D
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I like it...Its got a old vibe mixed with new :D
 
Whilst it doesn't show it, every single green wall is actually an acoustic panel and there are cloud absorbers in the ceiling too. If anything it's a little too dead unless you're used to it. The walls as a result are nearly 3ft thick!

Treating the space is something I need to do....Building a recording space is complicated!
 
Well, therein lies an issue. I'm guessing you have one room in which you're looking to do all of this. Ideally you need several rooms, each being treated in a slightly different way since they'll have differing tasks. I'm talking very generally here and looking at it with my multipurpose hat on...

First off the Live/recording space. Typically you'll want to be able to adjust the acoustics depending on what you're recording. Very heavy thick 'theatre' drapes/curtains are ideal, since they take out a lot of the high frequency sting (remember not to mount them flush with the wall, allow a gap of around 20cm if possible).

Second, the control room. This is where the console and monitoring live. Ideally you want this fairly dead, so that the room doesn't overly influence the sound coming from your monitors. You can either go with trying to deaden everything with lots of panels (avoid the cheap foam ones, they're next to useless really and imho look horrid) or possibly use diffusers to break up the initial reflections off the walls. How dead you go is personal choice though, after all if you learn how your monitors interact with the room it's possible to mix virtually anywhere.

Beyond that you can look to 'booth' areas which will be typically for specific jobs and treated to suit. Vocals for example are usually recorded in as dead a space as possible, same for amp rooms etc as well unless a specific 'vibe' is required. These booths are small (typically just big enough for the person required and the mics).

Another thing which I can't recommend enough is to get hold of a Radial SGI. These things are amazing.

http://www.radialeng.com/sgi.php

It lets you put your amp somewhere else, use a huge long balanced cable to connect your guitar to it, and you don't lose any tone at all. Ideal for recording because it means you can sit in the control room and play, whilst having the amps somewhere else. The other real benefit is that you hear what's actually being recorded rather than hearing the amp itself. This way your intonation etc can be modified so as to give the best sound possible. Cracking bit of kit.

Yep...Its one room roughly 6m x 5m so splitting it is not really an option...
 
I find them excellent i really do, you hear things that you didn't before say on normal hifi speakers,took a good month to run in properly, i like them that much i am going to upgrade these to the Rokit 8 Gen 3 :) i don't think you can get a better monitor bang for buck as these.

OK cheers

Are they Gen 3 you have ?
 
I'm thinking of getting the E5's. They look outstanding for the money. £200 odd for a pair is great value. Which ones are you looking at?

One thing though mate, how would I connect them to my PC? Would I have to have an audio interface?

Looking at the e5 mate...

Pretty much with anything like this it would make sense to have a decent quality USB DAC audio interface mate...


Remember they are monitors not speakers :)


What sound card you got ?
 
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I was supposed to record some vocals over the weekend but the vocalist cancelled twice (Saturday and Sunday).

I'm really struggling to find other people who want to record in a dining room for free (unsurprisingly) and because I can't play any instruments (other than drums) and I can't sing I'm stuck.

I'd be sat in front of my mac recording every weekend if I could but I end up recording 2-3 tracks a year because I have no one to work with.


It is frustrating...The key is just do what you can...and enjoy the process...

Just give singing a go...Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix did! ;)
 
I've been busy since my suspension....I've got loads done... Installed the computer workstation and bought more rugs...:D

I also bought some Adam AX5 monitors and all I can say is one word....STUNNING. So glad I didn't cheap it up in this area. :D

http://www.adam-audio.com/en/pro-audio/products/a5x/description

I've also bought a Shure DMK57-52 DRUM microphone kit. And some Moongel and some new drum heads...Evans hydraulic black....my G2 heads where too bright sounding and ringy...I'm no drum tech expert though and tuning the kit is be long and hard...I'm finally happy with the sound though now.

http://www.shure.co.uk/products/drum_microphone_sets/dmk57-52

I'm going to order 2x sontronics STC-1 as overheads at the end of the month...SM 57 I can use on my guitar amp aswell.

I'll post some pics
 
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