Home studio equipment

[Deathmetal616]

Hey there guys,
I am into recording for quite a while, but never really got serious about it.
I always just recorded demos with my band or fun projects; now I want to become more professional
so I will be able to produce my band's next album.
Therefore I need to upgrade my gear, because of having a real drummer, etc...

My current gear is:
Line 6 POD GX
Shure PG48 vocal mic
pretty decent Sennheiser headphones
computer: amd-fx-4100 4x3,3ghz, 8gb ram, 1000gb hard drive space
cubase elements 6

And that's already about it.
Now here is what I think I am going to buy:

Tascam US-1800
-> Enough Inputs for a solid drum recording.
The question is: is it possible/ good enough to record all those tracks of the drum mics separatley?
Any other suggestions or experiences?

a pair of the KRK RP5 RoKit G2 monitors
-> are they a good option?

shure sm57
-> since our guitarist has a nice stack around I will be close micing it

drum mics...
-> since I have a small budget of about 1000-1200€
I think I will need to make a compromise with the drum mics
because I need so many of them.
Is it possible to get a good drum sound with budget mics like those by FAME or t.bone?
I could also use the sm57 for snare micing.
The kick and toms would basically end up being sampled.
This is kind of the most important question ~~

Could you also recommend a cheap DI box for getting the dry guitar signal
additionally to the miced signal of the amp
for the matter of using ampsims or even reamping..?

Quick question at the end:
For demoing stuff I'd like to get a good drum machine
since I always used guitarpro drums.
EZDrummer, Steven Slate or Addictive Drums are all pretty expensive,
so I got the Studio Drummer by Native in mind.
Does anyone have experiences with that program? Tell me about it.

Thanks in advance.
Cheers!

 

[Ascendant]

I recorded a drum kit with an old Tascam US-2000 I believe it was (not my interface) with no issues whatsoever, 8 mics and via USB. Very solid interface, not a single crash or even as much as a click or pop, and I was using Windows 7. The US-1800 seems to have pretty much the same features.

As for the monitors, check out the Yamaha HS series, they're a bit more expensive but I've been hearing a lot of mixed opinions about the Rokits, the HS's seem to receive nothing but praise.

Don't think an EZ license + Metal Machine is going to cost much more than Studio Drummer, but I have never used anything but the 60s Abbey Road kit from Native so I don't know if you can get some good sounds out of the modern kits. Listen to some demos and decide which sounds you like better.

 

[electricred]

The Rokit series is just plain AWFUL.

 

[thefalloftheheretic]

In terms of the interface:

Yes, there are cleaner, quieter interfaces. But for the price, you can't beat it. I have it myself, and I've not had a hiccup with it.

In terms of the speakers:

I have the KRK Rokit 6s, and they work great for me. Isolate them with some foam though.

SHREDIT: Forgot to mention the drum software. I use SD2, but Slate seems to get a lot of praise...

 

[DanLights]

About the monitors, I have them and I can't wait to sell them really, I wouldn't say they're awful but I can't seen to get enough detail in any freq range, it always sounds somewhat clouded. My room doesn't help either, but after I read about cheap ported monitors I came to the realization that the monitors were affecting my judgement much more than I had thought. I suggest looking at the cheap Yamaha Hs ones as someone said above, or the Equator D5s of you're in the US, there's so much hype around here about them I can't wait to get my hands on a pair.

 

[Deathmetal616]

Thanks for the answers!
So the interface seems to be allright, so I think it is set.
The Yamaha HS series looks really good, so I think I will bet my money on those.
For the drum machine I will get the native one. All of the mentioned programs sound good,
but it is the cheapest one, and I already have some experience with the Kontakt Player 5.

What about the drum mics? Is it possible to get a good sound with them, or is it a waste of money?
Also DI box wise, is a cheap behringer one okay, or will the sound be horrible?

Again thanks in advance!

 

[fsgdjv]

For drum mics: If I were you I'd try to get a pair of good large diaphragm condensers, and just use some shitty mics to record the rest and replace them with samples. (Unless you have a few 57s, then they are good for close micing anything, you might want something else for kick drum though). I think you can get a pair of 414 for not super much money on ebay, or something like that. You need good mics for OH imo. But then again, if your room is shit you might be able to use some worse mics anyways. But I think it's better to just go for a good pair of mics instead, since you'll want to upgrade pretty soon if you keep sticking to it and want to make better recordings.

 

[DanLights]

About your DI box question, get a Palmer Pan01, cheap and good. Behringer ones don't seem to be very reliable, the Palmer on the other hand is great for its ridiculous price

 

[Leon--]

DI BOX:
Grab anything from Radial Engineering
http://www.radialeng.com/r2011/jdi.php
http://www.radialeng.com/r2011/j48.php

 

[DanLights]

DI BOX:
Grab anything from Radial Engineering
http://www.radialeng.com/r2011/jdi.php
http://www.radialeng.com/r2011/j48.php

Well, if it's within your budget, by all means go Radial (or countryman), but I was under the impression you were on a tight budget, cause you were asking about the behringer ones.