Project studio at home

006

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Jan 10, 2005
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Alrighty, somebody help, heh. I currently am using a DigiDesign MBox with PTLE 6.7, I have the Waves Gold 4.0 plugs and the Sony Oxford (version?) stuff. I'm running on two Shure SM57s, a Sennheiser e609, and a Shure SM58. I don't have any monitors, but I have been able to adapt to the stereo system I use and do some really remarkable mixes. It's a 1600watt Sony home theater system, two 15" 900w subs, two 12" 550w subs, and 4 - 7" "tweeters". Although it's impressive for movies, I feel I need to move up in the world.

My band consists of 3 acoustic guitarists, one sings, a cello, two violins, and an upright bass. We might have a keyboardist come in later, but thats irrelevant at this point. I want to be able to record our stuff, and well as a bunch of other bands that do acoustic stuff here at the house. So far the e609 and Sm57 are turning out pretty damn good with the pre's on the MBox for the acoustic guitars, but I haven't tried vocals or mic'ing up the other stringed instruments with them yet...and I'm sort of afraid to for fear of the sound, hehe. I have put together a simple list of things I think I will need to do this stuff, please add-on ideas if you have any...preferably money saving ideas, lol. I don't want to be stingy with my equipment, but I also don't want to spend too much for a simple home project studio for this kind of application. Anyway, here's the list:

DigiDesign 002
(2)Mackie HR824a
Rode NT2000 (since it's supposedly the "same" as a TLM103)
Shure KSM27 or 32
(*maybe*)Avalon vt737sp (or something "as good" for less $$$)
more cables
more stands
acoustic foam/soundproofing or whatever for the "iso booth"
headphone amp/mixer


I think thats all I can think of really. If I don't get the Avalon mic pre, then I'll want a "cheap" compressor/limiter for vocals and guitars. I can get a great sound for distorted guitars by blending the e609 and the SM57 together, so I'm fine for that area. I use Drumkit From Hell for my little metal projects, so no worries about drums...yet :p. Thats it I think. Please comment and throw in stuff. Thanks. Latah.

~006
 
Sounds to me like you covered it all, then its just plain hard work to make it sound as good as you want. I'm using the Focusrite penta (pre-amp&comp), which make both guitars and vocals sound good.

I think you can make the iso-booth a bit cheaper if you don't put your money on expensive foamwalls, if you are just after a "dry-room" use foam-rubber mattresses or blankets etc.

It can be a bit tricky to record the string-instruments but all you have to do is try to record them in different rooms, changing the mic-positions etc, you just work a lot...and remember "no sleep!" o_O
 
Cool, thanks. Any ideas on headphone amps/mixers? I want to be able to send a headphone mix into the "iso booth" or into the other big room. I will also need a snake, but I found one by ProCo which I think will suit my needs perfectly...it's 20 feet long, has 8 XLR I/O and two 1/4" out...so those could be used for headphones I assume? Anyway...thanks for the responses, and keep 'em coming. Hehe. Latah.

~006
 
006 said:
Cool, thanks. Any ideas on headphone amps/mixers? I want to be able to send a headphone mix into the "iso booth" or into the other big room. I will also need a snake, but I found one by ProCo which I think will suit my needs perfectly...it's 20 feet long, has 8 XLR I/O and two 1/4" out...so those could be used for headphones I assume? Anyway...thanks for the responses, and keep 'em coming. Hehe. Latah.

~006
the PreSonus HP4 is cheap and works well. i've used it on my recent sessions with Dino Cazares, Nick Barker, and Roy Miorga and it sounds fine.. it's also small... very portable.
 
Ok here's a thought I just had...

I really am impressed with the Focusrite pres on the MBox, so I was thinking of getting a Focusrite TwinTrak Pro, and an OctoPre, instead of an Avalon. I would use the TwinTrak for acoustics and vocals, and the Octopre for distorted guitars and DI bass...etc. since I use plug-ins to compress on those, mainly because I seldom ever have to use a compressor/limiter on them with the way I record them. So revised list idea:

Digi002
(2)Mackie HR824a
Rode NT2000
Shure KSM32
Focusrite TwinTrak Pro
Focusrite OctoPre
ProCo 20' 8x2 snake

So now what? :p Latah.

~006