Looking to do some computer recordings, maybe a home studio.

[Buddah999]

Ok, I will attempt to be as descriptive as possible.

Seeing as I have had problems with musicians in the past, I was thinking about setting up my own personal recording studio in my appartment. I will play all the parts, and sing. I realy need to have a way if nothing else to get my ideas down. I was hoping to get some advice on the best way to do this.

As far as the music I play, I play a dark and progressive type of rock. Similar to maybe TOOL/APC, coheed and Cambria (thier darker stuff) Mastodon (without the screaming) and other stuff without parts.

As for gear, I have a GK rig (1001RB=II, and a pair of GK 1x12neo cabs), a Warwick corvette, and some fender p-bass knockoffs, a decent guitar (its a les paul knockoff) with a roland cube x30 practice amp (with some decent on board effects too). I was considering getting a drum machine to do all the percussion parts. I was a drummer first, so I think I can make it work well and sound like live drums, I'm just concerned with the effects on it.

My computer is pretty good for last generation pre vista. I got 2 gigs of ram and a slave harddrive with about 150gigs on it. I've got a stock soundcard witch I'm sure will need to get upgraded (you dont need a sound card for World of Warcraft) which I will have no problem of doing.

So what else will I need to make this happen? Any recommended gear? Programs? Will I need a Mixer considering I am the only musician? Also my day job is a Teacher, so I only have a teachers sallery to work with.. meaning its aint much.

Thank you for any advice you can give in advance

[bluestarbass]

Before you can start gear shopping you have to determine a couple things

First, how many inputs are you gonna need simultaneously? If all your gonna use is a drum machine and guitars an vox then you can probably get away with a 2 channel unit, if you ever wanna track real drums your gonna need at least 8.

Whats your room like? This will depend how much acoustic treatment youll need and what kind of monitors

A mixing board is probably not ideal for what you wanna do. A single good channel strip will probably get you farther.

What exactly is your budget. I know you said low, but you need some sort of an exact budget. Ive seen people who thought $500 was low, ive seen peopl who thought 5 grand was low.

I would think realistically your looking at:

$500 for monitors
$300 for room treatment, totally depending on alot
$500 for a couple decent mics
$500 for a decent interface
$300 for cables, DIs, other accessories
$300-500 for a half decent channel strip

Recording studios are expensive. A good compressor or mic can cost more than all of that stuff combined. You can do things much cheaper, but in my experience, you will be dissapointed. I have a little digital 4 track that I use for ideas. Its half decent, but nothing id ever play for anyone else.

[Funky 1]

I make home recordings with a stereo drum machine (Boss DR5 I think), a Tascam USB428 interface ($300) - came with Cubase LE on my pc. I also use an AKG Perception 200 mic ($160 + a $20 phantom power supply) and ADS hi-fi speakers for monitors. Instead of room treatments I pull all of the couch cushions from around the house to surround my guitar amp and would probably do something similar if I ever recorded a vocal track. This set up produces pretty decent demos for me. The only problem is that Cubase LE only allows one to record 1 stereo track at a time and the interace only has 2 mic inputs so forget doing any kind of a band thing.

[Buddah999]

Originally Posted by bluestarbass

$500 for monitors
$300 for room treatment, totally depending on alot
$500 for a couple decent mics
$500 for a decent interface
$300 for cables, DIs, other accessories
$300-500 for a half decent channel strip

As far as my room goes, its just my one single room of a three bedroom apartment. But I'm not realy concerned about voice right now. Mainly Drum guitar and bass. And not even live drums, just a drum machine will do for right now. I am talking with someone else about getting a proper stuido built, however this is a MAJOR investment that will involve me purchacing equipment that I currently do not have or know what it is (i.e. what is a compressor? What does it do?)

Also in terms of programs, I'm sure that wont be a problem (yarrrrg! I be havin' no problem plunderin' booty!!)

Its the other stuff I dont know about. Like, What is room treatment? What will it do? Will it affect the dound of instruments that go dirrectly into the computer? And what hardware will I need to plug dirrectly into the computer? I have a mic that I use for live application. Will that suffice to put my ideas down or create a demo? With the right application you can turn a hummingbird into a bass guitar. Please let me know what other information you will need so I can make this happen? I was trying to spend somewhere in the ball park of $500 if possible.

[bluestarbass]

What your trying to do can be done for $500, especially used. I think your looking at a 2 channel unit. Acoustic treatment is more important for mixing. Its usually advised against to use headphones to mix and record, but for a small budget its alot better than getting terrible monitors with no room treatment.

Acoustic treatment will help your room sound "real". Bass builds up in the corners, you get early reflections that will throw your ears off, all kinds of things. If you get a set of good headphones you wont have to worry about it for the time being.

For $500 id get a deceant 2 channel interface with built in mic pres, a set of headphones, a decent condensor mic, and maybe one of those reflection filters. That will get you pretty decent results. You can track guitars and bass straight into the computer using an amp program and not have to worry about micing and amp.