Vital equipment for a studio.

JordanDelap · #1 04-10-2008, 07:41 AM

I have just purchased a mixer, and i have Cubase SX 3.
What other basic equipment should i get?

Dave Muscato · #2 04-10-2008, 07:51 AM

What do you want to record?

JordanDelap · #3 04-10-2008, 07:55 AM

Bass, Guitar and i'll get like some virtual drums or something,
Oh and vocals. I also have a mic BTW

Dave Muscato · #4 04-10-2008, 07:57 AM

A good preamp for the mic is pretty important. There are lots of options. Get the best one you can afford. For bass & guitar, you can do it all with plug-ins. Line6 makes great stuff. Do you have an A/D converter (like a Presonus Firepod) or just a regular mixer?

You will also need some way to monitor what you're doing. A good set of monitors will set you back a lot. What's your budget?

Personally, for home recording, I just mix with in-ears, considering I don't have any decent soundproofing anyway. In my experience, the point of home recording is not to get optimal audio quality but to get ideas down and help you prepare for time in a pro studio to track with real instruments, etc. You can definitely lay down bass & guitar work at home, though.

JordanDelap · #5 04-10-2008, 08:01 AM

yeah i'm thinking of buying a line 6 pod X3

Dave Muscato · #6 04-10-2008, 08:05 AM

Good choice. My band is looking at one of those for our singer/guitarist, as well. You can get all your effects, amp models, cab models, mic models, and preamps (for vocals, guitar, and bass) in one box, and it easily connects to you computer. I'm personally looking at the X3 Live - the nice thing about these is that you can really play guitar with it (as far as using the expression pedals, turning on & off effects with footswitches, etc). And they sound great!

Will you be recording just yourself playing each instrument track, one at a time? If so, you don't even really need the mixer.

mothmonsterman · #7 04-10-2008, 08:08 AM

Good mics are well worth the investment.

JordanDelap · #8 04-10-2008, 08:12 AM

Yeah, one at a time, but i already bought the mixer LOL
This is what i got.
http://www.dv247.com/invt/38101/

Dave Muscato · #9 04-10-2008, 08:12 AM

Can't tell if something is a good investment or not unless you know the exit strategy. Really, very little music equipment is a good "investment" unless you are a record label, haha. A good mic will give you better tone, yes - whether that's a good value or not depends on what you plan to do with the finished recordings.

In my experience, a good preamp is just as important (or more important) than a good mic. A very good mic can be had for under a grand; a very good preamp can cost several times that. I'd rather have a $300 mic and a $3000 preamp than a $3000 mic and a $300 preamp.

**SoComSurfing** · #10 04-10-2008, 06:03 PM

I'll vote for a quality tuner. I've seen several bands go in insistent that they use their standard tuners they use before a show. If one of those tuners happens to be calibrated just slightly differently, it can create a total train wreck. Any time I record with friends or a band, I make sure everyone uses the same tuner. This may not be as much of a concern since you're planning on doing one track at a time by yourself, though.

Dave Muscato · #11 04-12-2008, 09:23 AM

If you're doing recording through a computer, anyway, this is much less important. There are plenty of extremely accurate software tuners out there, and if he's looking at a Line6 POD x3 anyway, they have a pretty good one built in.

In any case, you are not going to get broadcast quality from a home-studio setup like this, regardless. As I said before, home studios (at least in the sub-$10k price range) should really be more for getting ideas down and preparing for time at a real studio, or for low-bitrate recordings to be posted on MySpace, etc. If you really want to make good-quality recordings to sell, on CD for example, go to a real studio. There is no need to replicate equipment yourself that you can hire for much less, and the real value of a studio is working with a good producer, anyway.

santucci218 · #12 04-12-2008, 09:28 AM

i got sx3. i suggest you get the how to dvd for it, because its confusing as heck!

santucci218 · #13 04-12-2008, 09:29 AM

also, if you manage to find a really good easy to use virtual drummer, please post the name, i need to find one.

Questor · #14 04-12-2008, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mothmonsterman

Good mics are well worth the investment.

+1,000,000

I took the plunge several years ago and bought a Neumann TLM103. Haven't looked back since. It was well worth the $900 I spent on it. (In fact, I've since bought two AKG C1000S pencil condensers for acoustic instrument mic'ing and an AKG C414 for uncolored vocals.)

In my opinion, you need the following for a bare bones project studio:

1. A mixer with the highest signal to noise ratio you can afford
2. A good preamp, preferably tube-based
3. Studio monitors
4. A power conditioner
5. Mic's suited to what you're recording

I prefer Mackie mixers but was told to avoid the CFX models. Get the VLZ models instead because they are much better quality.

For my studio monitors, I own a pair of Yamaha SM-3's. They do the job, but I'd really like to get some quality monitors.

Mixers frequently have preamps built in, but they aren't as good as a standalone unit. These can be used for your bass as well, if you want to go DI. I don't even own a bass amp and yet I've been told I get phenomenal bass tone on my recordings due to my liberal use of this, compression and some EQ done in Cubase.

Power conditioners get rid of the line noise on the electrical signal and keep it at a consistent 120V rating. This has a huge effect on the quality of the recording and is often overlooked.