Starting a home studio

[ShellBlast]

What would be the main necessities? Don't be afraid to get detailed about the items. I love learning what is used for what. This is more of a dedicated question. What would be better for recording vocals. A condenser mic or dynamic?

Thanks,
Joe

 

[Torniojaws]

Basically you need:

1) An acoustically controlled mixing room (bonus: acoustically sealed room, to reduce the noise spilling out of the room)
2) Good, flat frequency response monitors that you know inside out
3) A recording device (most likely a computer + firewire interface + recording program)
4) A selection of good mics for various purposes (case-by-case)
5) Lava lamp lol

That's about it, barebones. Of course you can expand upon that as much as needed. The first expansions would probably be a separate tracking room for drums/guitar/vocals, 3rd party mixing plugins, a number of high quality standalone preamps, more mics, and a second pair of lower quality monitors to represent the average lo-fi listening setup that you reference every now and then.

 

[ShellBlast]

I'd probably record the guitar by DI so I was curious as what would be a good mic for vocals. My friend also told me that monitor speakers are very sensitive and easily blow out if not handled correctly. I'm kind of scared to buy such an expensive item fearing this might happen. Whats your opinion on this?

 

[NoDestiny]

Monitor speakers are just that, speakers. Take care of them and they will last for a very long time. Use the volume level properly, don't play a ton of bass-heavy tracks at high volumes (your ears should be able to tell you when a speaker is beyond its limits), and get something that has a good reputation (not some made in china no-name ebay ones).

I ended up buying a Rode NT-1 for vox, since it was under $300. Seems to do a great job, as long as you have the right room for it.

 

[ShellBlast]

Monitor speakers are just that, speakers. Take care of them and they will last for a very long time. Use the volume level properly, don't play a ton of bass-heavy tracks at high volumes (your ears should be able to tell you when a speaker is beyond its limits), and get something that has a good reputation (not some made in china no-name ebay ones).

I ended up buying a Rode NT-1 for vox, since it was under $300. Seems to do a great job, as long as you have the right room for it.

The right room for how the vocals come out? I'm looking for a mic that picks up a good range of frequencies and has little to no audio noise. Bass heavy as in hip hop or electronica. Is their software that monitors if the speakers are clipping or not?

 

[JeffTD]

Look, you're worrying about this speaker thing way too much. Your friend is a dumbass. Monitors are just speakers... run audio through them, crank it even. As long as you aren't blowing the speaker out (you will see, feel, and hear this happening), you're fine. Aside from that just don't puncture the speaker cone itself and you're good to go.

As far as a vocal mic, what kind of vocals are you recording? Female? Male? Growled? Screamed? Clean? Operatic? Midgetic?

 

[Joematthews]

Any 6 inch plus speaker will go louder than you'd ever need to to have to worry about overloading and clipping.

Start with a stable interface, a good condenser like an at4033, an sm57 (you have no excuse not to get one), and some good speakers (tannoy reveals, yamaha hs, krk rokit gen2, fostex pm1).

Joe

 

[Metaltastic]

Your friend might be thinking of NS10's, which do have a pretty high blow-out rate from what I've heard, but they're definitely the exception rather than the rule in that way! And yeah, AT4033 would be my vote for vox, 57 for instruments, a firewire interface in your budget (http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/513601-getting-audiointerface-faq.html), and some decent monitors, which more importantly should be placed properly and decoupled from your desk using Auralex MoPads (or Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizers if you can swing 'em). But yeah, get the desk away from any corners in the room, leave at least 6" of space between the backs of the monitors and the wall behind them, get them at a height where you're ears are between the tweeter and woofer (or you can have them above and get downward-angled MoPads/Recoil Stabilizers), and that oughta do ya!

 

[-Loco-]

Monitors are just speakers that have a flat response or at least flatter than your regular hi-fi speakers. Chances are if your mix sounds good on those flat response monitors then they will sound AWESOME on other ones. I reallllllllllllllllly recommend tannoy monitors for their money i LOVE mine although one of my tweeters is kind of bumped..oops

 

[ShellBlast]

haha thank you guys all very much. Sorry to be so worried about the monitors but I rather be safe then sorry. All of you know very much so I'll go with your word and knowledge. I would be doing growls, gutturals and screams mostly. Maybe even clean vocals. Would the AT4033 still be best? Can you guys also recommend a firewire interface. To be completely honest. I have no idea what firewire is actually for. and does.

 

[JeffTD]

If it's mostly screams/growls, go with an SM7 and be donnnne with it.

 

[-Loco-]

Firewire is a data transfer method/protocol/interface/myface introduced by apple. The current firewire standard is faster than USB (another data transfer interface.. duh haha) its highly desirable by audio engineers and others. The interface depends on the scale of the project but for what you're doing im assuming you'll want something with a reasonable number of inputs and outputs so that you wont really feel restricted. I recommend the profire2626 by m-audio mainly because i'm getting one very soon and it actually fucking WORKS in xp under bootcamp - word of warning though if you plan on recording with a mac using xp (im one of the rare pricks that does) then THIS is probably one of you're only options as there is an ongoing issue with firewire in xp under boot camp on a mac..Otherwise windowswindowswindows so you can take advantage of alot of the really good freeware like boogex/kefir/nick crows amp sims etc etc for your projects! Another interface i recommend although now discontinued is the focusrite saffire pro 26 i/o this ran like a DREAM for me but only under mac (my computer was retarded and this relates back to the firewire drivers issue i just mentioned) Although focusrite tech support were seriously shit helping me out i had to go ask their competition for a solution to my problem. It all depends on what you're willing to spend man...hit us up with a budget and i'll link you to some cool pieces of gear you might be interested in but dont blast out 1000k on gear you have no idea how to use and is 'gud cuz the price is hye' otherwise you wont be getting the most out of it..start with a few basic essentials then build it up!

*edit*

btw both of the interfaces i mentioned above have 26 recording inputs and 26 outputs which should be more than enough for most projects! make sure you HAVE a firewire card installed in your pc otherwise you'll need to buy one

 

[Metaltastic]

haha thank you guys all very much. Sorry to be so worried about the monitors but I rather be safe then sorry. All of you know very much so I'll go with your word and knowledge. I would be doing growls, gutturals and screams mostly. Maybe even clean vocals. Would the AT4033 still be best? Can you guys also recommend a firewire interface. To be completely honest. I have no idea what firewire is actually for. and does.

Mostly growls - SM7
Mostly cleans - 4033

However, either will be great for both, it's just a matter of the extra 5% in either direction (and even then, nothing's ever consistent/universal IMO, I'm sure there are clean voices where the SM7 would be better or vice versa) And click on the FAQ link I posted above for all the info you need on interfaces! (and if you have any more questions after reading it all, ask there!

 

[ShellBlast]

Firewire is a data transfer method/protocol/interface/myface introduced by apple. The current firewire standard is faster than USB (another data transfer interface.. duh haha) its highly desirable by audio engineers and others. The interface depends on the scale of the project but for what you're doing im assuming you'll want something with a reasonable number of inputs and outputs so that you wont really feel restricted. I recommend the profire2626 by m-audio mainly because i'm getting one very soon and it actually fucking WORKS in xp under bootcamp - word of warning though if you plan on recording with a mac using xp (im one of the rare pricks that does) then THIS is probably one of you're only options as there is an ongoing issue with firewire in xp under boot camp on a mac..Otherwise windowswindowswindows so you can take advantage of alot of the really good freeware like boogex/kefir/nick crows amp sims etc etc for your projects! Another interface i recommend although now discontinued is the focusrite saffire pro 26 i/o this ran like a DREAM for me but only under mac (my computer was retarded and this relates back to the firewire drivers issue i just mentioned) Although focusrite tech support were seriously shit helping me out i had to go ask their competition for a solution to my problem. It all depends on what you're willing to spend man...hit us up with a budget and i'll link you to some cool pieces of gear you might be interested in but dont blast out 1000k on gear you have no idea how to use and is 'gud cuz the price is hye' otherwise you wont be getting the most out of it..start with a few basic essentials then build it up!

*edit*

btw both of the interfaces i mentioned above have 26 recording inputs and 26 outputs which should be more than enough for most projects! make sure you HAVE a firewire card installed in your pc otherwise you'll need to buy one

I am running XP on a PC soon to be running Windows 7. Can you recommended another firewire interface? The Profire 2626 is most likely way more then I need. Is it possible to plug a guitar into firewire for DI?

 

[Skyweaver]

Dont do it !!! take up Crack its cheaper !!!

 

[Erlend_]

If you're doing alot of metal stuff I suggest you look at the Shure SM7b.
You can get it pretty cheap on eBay and it is just about the best affordable mic out there.
Been involved in tracking vocals for a rock band these past few days and Im amazed at just how good this mic is.
Amazing on grim/growl vocals and amazing on some clean vocalists.

But treat your room and get some good monitors first. Thats the most critical parts.
Then comes mics, then preamps..