wildsponge said:
After much research, here's what I'm thinking about:
Digi 002 with Pro Tools LE - $2100
Drum Mics:
Shure DMK57-52 - $450 (3 sm 57's, 1 beta 52, mounting hw)
2 Shure SM94 - $300 or Rode NT5s (set of 2) $300
On Stage Sound mic stands (6 qty) - $100
Sure SM58 vocal mic - $100
10-pack 20 mic cables - $40
SM pro audio 4-channel mic preamp - $80
Grand Total - $3170
I have a couple questions:
For drum overheads, would the shures or the rodes be better for the money?
Is this a pretty good value for the money?
Can the Digi 002 (with the mic preamp) record 8 XLRs at a time?
Will I be able to (with enough patience, skill, and practice) be able to make professional sounding recordings?
What are the main differnces between protools LE and HD and will LE be enough?
Will an apple emac 1.25ghz with 1gb of ram run protools well?
Anything else I should know?
Sorry for the long post and the basic questions. I have more experience than it sounds. I've recorded on my friends yamaha deck for several years, but the quality isn't that good and I'm looking for something that will be pretty professional (granted not perfect). I want to stay as budget as possible but I know I need to spend a fair amount to begin with. I don't want to have to upgrade everything in a couple of years. THX for the help
Looks like you got a good starting place. One thing you might think about, is going with the Digi 002 Rack instead of the one with the control surface, the money you save you could put into a better vocal mic. I definately agree that a better vocal mic than a 58 is highly recomendable. Unless of coarse you are planing on tracking everything all at once, then you may want a dynamic mic for vox, but if you are going to over dub the vocals save yourself a lot of head ache and get decent large diaphram condensor (or an SM7, I lov that mic).
No the 002 will not do 8 XLR's. Only 4, as it only has four mic pre-amps. You will need some other sourse for the other 4 mics.
I would not be as conserned with your OH mics as much as the space in which you plan on recording the drums. My experiance is that with a crappy room, you can really only do so much, not that its an excuse for bad engineering, but it does limit you. If you could spring for SM81's you would be definately be in good shape.
Are you going to make Professional recordings? Thats a tough question. I am going to say no, but with an explanation. Most "Pro" recordings are done at multi-million dollar facilities, with experianced and taltented engineers. You have neither. It also really depends on the music and your talent as musicians. A lot of great soudning records have been done with similiar setups. The difference in gear is good mics and preams, and plug ins once its digital. Do the best you can with what you got, concentrate on good performances. Bad recordings are excusable, sloppy playing is not.
Your computer should be adaquate for what you want to do. The problem with the emac is that upgrading the hardware is limitting, but if you do everything firewire you will be in good shape.
There is quite abit of difference between LE and HD, for one HD is HD. Also the processing is set up differently. LE rely's on the host computers recourses, while HD has its own, Farm cards, excell cards or whatever. You are not limited by any track count with HD, also Time Code is better supported, and the TDM plug ins (which are too spendy) tend to be better in my opinion.
What kind of music are you doing and what do you expect to do with the recordings you make? What is your plan of attack when it comes to recording/producing a song?
