Home Recording and Stereo Mixing

[wintermute]

Dan,

I am and have been a huge fan since I found you 8 years ago at the ripe age of 16. I've always loved, not only the music, but also the prolificity of production.

Currently, I'm building a machine with the purpose of home recording. I have a couple of questions, and since I'm a big fan of your work as a producer, I thought that I might as well ask.

- Do you have any first-time-producer pre-amp recommendations?
- Do I really need a suped up, balanced output soundcard, or will something like a Soundblaster Audigy2 suffice?
- I'm hessitant to start with Pro Tools with the hardware restriction. Do you have any recommended alternatives? I was thinking of starting with Cubase, since I have a copy laying around, but wouldn't mind spending some money if there's a fantastic piece of software out there that's going to start me off on the right foot. Or would you highly recomment that I swallow the pill and go with Pro Tools?
- I'm buying a dual core processor to mitigate the workload on the machine. Would you also recommend a harddrive array? Also, in your experience, how critical is the speed of the HD? Will a 7200 RPM drive suffice?

 

[Evil Audio]

Hello fellow "junior member"! I thought I'd reply since no one else has helped you out yet... I am not Dan, but DO run a recording studio, FWIW...

Good luck to you! I have found audio engineering extremely enjoyable and rewarding (not financially!!).

Preamps: If you're handy with a soldering iron, I'd recommend these: http://www.seventhcirclestudios.com/SCA/SCA.htm

If money is not an option, I need to know what you want outta your preamps as far as sound goes, cuz the preamp world is enormous, and there are some seriously good units to be had. Do you want a lot of "coloration", or do you want the most "clean" pristine sound, or the option of both? What mics do you use? What will you be running through the external preamps? How do/would you interface them properly into your computer (it'll be more than just a cheap soundcard, man, to really benefit from using outboard preamps.).

If you don't really care about the sound on the front-end, you could get a firewire or USB interface for cheap. I can recommend some if that's the route you want.... more details, please...

Don't sweat ProTools. You can get equally good results from Cubase, Logic, Nuendo (Flatline Audio, <Cephalic Carnage>, uses this!!), Samplitude, Digital Performer, etc... although, some of those are MAC only... (you should get a mac, heh heh heH!!). You could get into ProToolsLE with an MBox, MBox2, or Digi002 unit. But, you're stuck with LE, and there are draw-backs to that. If you want a full-blown PT system, you're looking at 10 grand, AT LEAST, no kidding, so consider that. (I know, I see them sold everyday). So, in other words, don't buy into the myth that you need PT to do anything "real"... hell, check out Dan's old studio and listen to his results!! I am dying to ask him some questions about that era myself here really soon, so look out!!

I would recommend a dedicated audio hard drive, AT LEAST 7200 RPM (faster would be better, especially with a heavy load, a lot of tracks, a lot of plug ins, or all at once), as big as you can afford, and with Firewire and USB ports, if you can.

Let me know if I can help out more!
-EA

 

[Rainwound]

I want to know how to record drums... The whole "only one microphone jack" thing with computers and needing several microphones on a drumkit is a very confusing concept to me. Thanks!

 

[Lefthander]

Recommend ypu all to visit Andy Sneap forum....
hm.....many persons wanna know setup of great Swanoooooooouuuuuu....

 

[mattcira]

I want to know how to record drums... The whole "only one microphone jack" thing with computers and needing several microphones on a drumkit is a very confusing concept to me. Thanks!

If you use a PC, try using an EZ-8 or an EZ-Bus or BOTH.... You can run your board bus outs into it (looks/works kinda like the bus pods on a mixer) and it interfaces with whatever software you are using. It's USB, really easy to use and it sounds alright, too. You can usually grab one on eBay for around $350 - 400.