Home studio advice

[croninburg]

Hello everybody.

I want to put together a home studio so that I can continue to be involved in music independently of my band. I'm lucky enough to be getting a Macbook as a belated birthday present ( )

Initially, I just want a set up that will allow me to track instruments individually to some level of quality. The problem is, my knowledge of the products on the market is completely minimal - I've just made up a google shopping list that I reckon will be enough for reasonable drum recording, as well as any other normal small instrument. It looks like this :

Focusrite Saffire Pro 10 I/O firewire card: £295/$550
SM57: £75/$140
SM58: £75/$140
Shure Beta 52A: £150/$280
2 Sennheiser E614: £235/$440
Stands, leads and shit: £100/$185

Grand total: £930 / about $1700

If anyone has any advice in terms of items that you'd consider to be missing or unnecessary, or particuarly cheaper/significantly better value, or any general advice, I'd very much appreciate it.

[croninburg]

Add a couple of pairs of headphones and possibly a condensor to that..

[Lord of This World]

I use a Zoom Handy Recorder. It's fantastic. I've never needed any other kind of microphone or recorder since I got it. I didn't like it at first because I used to layout/mix the tracks on my comp while recording. I've gotten used to doing it after recording now.

[croninburg]

That looks like a good gadget, but I'm looking for somthing with at least 4 xlr inputs so that I could at least mic a drum kit at the kick and snare with two overheads. I posted this on another forum and somone who works for a music hardware store has already offered to price match on the gear

Edit: is any of your music online? I'd be interested to hear

[long4theblur]

Not counting my 24" iMac, and the new "producer" computer desk, I think I've put about $3,000 - $3,500 into my studio. My next purchases are going to be some new studio mics and this:



To answer your question, M-Audio is a brand that hasn't done me wrong as far as recording interfaces go. Also, get a BBE Sonic Maximizer. I've got the 882i, but you don't need to go that high to get good results. Get a mic pre-amp, and a compressor with an expander/gate.

FIRST and foremost though, is if you're really dead set on starting a project that you want to build upon, invest in a good power conditioner, with more inputs than you think you'll need. I've got this:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=182650

and it's been a godsend, although to be honest with you, I kinda wish I had gone with a bigger one. Now I don't currently have the rackspace to upgrade it, but I'm running out of inputs, and quickly.

I'm sure PFloyd can write a book on this topic as well.

[croninburg]

The focusrite soundcard has eight WLR inputs with allegedly decent preamps. The other guitarist in Efflux used one to track most of the instruments for our album, as well as some stuff for other bands, I'm definitely happy to take that as a starting point (I might even appeal to his GAS and try to get him to sell me his and upgrade himself..) I think the BBE maximiser is probably a bit of an extravagane at this stage, I'll definitely look into power conditioners though

[basstard]

Check cascade microphones, "cheap" and very nice. Look for the fatheads, their best selling mic

[Wrona]

SM57: £75/$140
SM58: £75/$140

i paid 90 dollars for them mics in america... what the hell? i hope the conversion is wrong, or else your taking it up the ass without lube croninbuddy!

[PABassPlayer]

SM57: £75/$140
SM58: £75/$140

i paid 90 dollars for them mics in america... what the hell? i hope the conversion is wrong, or else your taking it up the ass without lube croninbuddy!

depends which 58 you get.
SM58 - $99.00
SM58 beta - $130.00

[BabyKiller]

dear god i didn't know mics were so expensive overseas.