Starting up a studio! Need help with Equipment.

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DrGleason

Member
Apr 9, 2008
62
0
6
Near Chicago, IL. USA
Hey there. I'm working with a building in my area that has an awesome studio in the basement and I am going to be getting a 6 month lease for a really good price. SO! I have to get buying... I am hoping to start low and buildup to what I find I will use. I have borrowed a whole bunch of different drum mics in my recordings so I am a little bit more familiar with those than other mics. Here is the list...

What I own now...

Truth Monitors
Digi 002 (not in good shape)
2 SM57s
2 Behringer B-2 Compressors
Sennheiser e609
Shure SM58
Shure KSM Overheads
CAD drum mics
2 Rack EQs
Rack Autotune
2 Rack BBEs

What I plan to get in my not so huge budget...

Custom built computer with biggie monitor $1,400 or so
A new Digi 002 $899.99
Digidesign ProTools LE Music Production Toolkit 495.00
iLok key for the above program package 40.00
Shure sm7 $349 (singing vocals)
Audix D6 199.95 (kick)
2 e604 Sennheiser Drum mics (toms. maybe Audix mics instead?) 276.00
Sennheiser MD421II 379.00 (floor tom)
Sub monitor?
More cables...
More stands...


Any advice for me? I am trying to keep the costs down as much as I can. Starting this up is a little bit of a risk for me. Either way, I have bands waiting to record with me and I want to be able to record them in the really nice sound rooms in the studio. Thanks. :headbang:
 
Instead of the D6, e604s and 421, which is like $800, you could get the Audix DP5a kit which comes with a D6, two D2s (better than the 604s according to pretty much everyone), a D4 for the floor tom, and you get an i5 too which is fantastic on snare and guitar cabs. You can find that kit brand new on eBay for like $500-600 as well so it'll save ya some cash. I love my Audix stuff!

Other than that, if Pro Tools is your bag then that seems pretty reasonable! You can find a nice used Digi002 for lot less than $899 these days though.
 
Get Audix D2's instead of 604's, get rid of the Truths and buy some decent monitors (Adam, Dynaudio, etc.), even if it means not getting a sub.
 
Used PowerMac G5 with Dual 2.0gHz CPUs and 2GB of RAM on eBay are frequently on eBay for $999 plus $40-50 shipping, or free shipping sometimes. Thats how much mine was. Would be better than the PC for PT, IMO. And cost less. Then you can go to BestBuy and get a 22" widescreen Westinghouse HD LCD display for $250...still not at $1400 that you were projecting. You could skip the tool kit and get Metric Halo's Channel Strip for $350. You could get a Beta58 for the vocals and save some money for now, and get the SM7 later. Or a good condensor, such as the NT-2a for $300...still saving some cash. Plus the condensor would be a little better for those intimate singers. If you are going to just do metal, I would say Beta58. Or...you already have KSMs...those are good on vox too, if it is at least the 32 or 44, the 27 is crap for vox IMO.

There are a lot of ways you can save money. Don't try to get all the shit right away. Figure out what you can live with for now and use that to bring some money in and then get the stuff you really want. You don't have to have a shit-ton of amazing gear to start off. Also...I would sell the BBE's and look into an 8-channel pre to hook into the 002, such as the DigiMax FS, or OctoPre...or even an M-Audio Octane. Otherwise you will be limited to 8 channels instead of 16. I don't know about you, but I haven't encountered a drumset yet that I didn't use at least 12 mics on.

~006
 
@forbidden: Sweet, great idea. I've used those Audix mics before and wasn't sure if they were the best. I liked them but I thought I would get some opinions on it. Is the D-4 any good for floor toms?

@Shadow Walker: Any specific monitors you would suggest that aren't tons of cash?

Do you guys think the B-2 will suffice for singing vocals right now? I've used them quite a bit and I think they sound pretty good. Actually, I also have one of those cheap MXL condensers as well. I like the B-2 more than that one though. That way, I may not have to get a Shure SM7 right away. Any thoughts on that?

I forgot to mention! I am thinking of getting a Focusrite Octo as well for the extra tracks.
 
006, I am worried about having enough tracks on Pro Tools. The package allows you to have more tracks. I did forget to mention that I am going to get a Focusrite Octo pre in my list.

Hmm... Are 57s good for screaming singers? A friend of mine recommended it.

Also, the KSMs are 109s
 
M-Audio BX8a's for monitoring, probably one of the best $500/pair on the market. Yamaha HS50 or HS80. There are always Event TR8's for the same price as well, those are also great. KRK RP-8's are great too. Also $500. Dynaudio BM-5a's, but IMO 8" would be best to go for.

~006
 
32 tracks should be enough, IMO. I used PTLE for a few years and never felt restricted as far as track count. But that's your call. If you would feel more comfortable getting the toolkit, go for it.

~006
 
Well I usually have a bunch of drum tracks, a whole bunch of guitar tracks, some vocal tracks, bass track, sometimes keys, sometimes subdrops. I would say about half the time, I am struggling to find tracks to merge and stuff like that. Any advice?
 
My typical track count is like...hmm, I'll break down the tracks:

Drums: KD, SD, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, HH, OH 1-4, Ride
GTR: 1 L, 2 L, 1 R, 2 R, bus for GTR 1, bus for GTR 2, bus for GTR 1+2 bus
Tom Bus
Overhead Bus
Drum Bus
Bass: 2 tracks, 1 bus
Vocals: 2 tracks

and if necessary I'll have a lead guitar track if they do leads

So...16 for drums (including drum/OH/tom busses), 7 total for guitars (including the 3 busses), 3 for bass (including bus), 3 for vocals (including bus). So we're talking 29, 30 if you include a lead track and I still have 2 tracks left IF I were limited to 32. I use Cubase so no limitation :D

~006
 
And hell...you could even just get a Saffire Pro 26i/o and Behringer ADA8000 and Cubase Studio 4 Competitive Upgrade and spend the same as you would on the 002...only you'd have unlimited tracks.

~006
 
I can have up to 12 guitar tracks, with 2 tracks for each part because of 2 mics, I have 2 rhythm (4 tracks), up to 3 leads (6 tracks), and sometimes guitar effects/solo (2 tracks). Maybe I am just not using busses the way I should.

Can you tell me a little about the 3 bass tracks? I usually just have one.

Is Cubase a lot like PT? I'm worried about trying other programs because I am so used to PT.
 
Cubase is a LOT more resource efficient than PT. It doesn't put nearly as much of a load on your CPU.

Cubase is more intuitive than PT, in my opinion. In PT a lot of things are tucked away in drop down menus n shit. True, once you get use to PT and learn everything it's easy to use, but Cubase is easy from the start. Everything is right there. All DAWs have a similar setup. You have a timeline view with all of your tracks and all of the audio files. You have a mixer view with all the faders and R/S/M etc.

I use two bass track, and a bus for the 2 tracks to go into. On one bass track I'll have a clean DI of the bass, and the other is a copy of that track, but with distortion added, with an amp sim or similar. I blend the two together so that I have a fat track and a distorted track on top to give it some grit and the distortion helps the guitars out a bit as well. Both go into a single bus so I can compress them together and EQ the two tracks overall and set a "master" level for the two. 12 guitar tracks sounds a little excessive, but if thats how you roll, cool.

I used ProTools for several years professionally and PTLE as well. My switch to Cubase was easy and literally probably took me about 30 minutes to learn all the shortcuts n shit for it. Man, I don't want to sound like I'm trying to sway you away from everything. You just asked for ways to save money, etc...so I'm just throwing ideas out. There is no right or wrong way of doing anything really.

~006
 
Thanks for the bass advice! Maybe I will checkout Cubase sometime soon. And no, I know you aren't trying to sway me. I need the advice. Here is the new list...

What I have is in the above post...

What I plan to get in my not so huge budget...

Really super nice custom uber computer with biggie monitor $1,400 or so (maybe something else)
A new Digi 002 $899.99
Focusrite OctoPre LE 8-Channel Microphone Preamp 599.95
Shure sm7 $349 (singing vocals)
another SM57
Audix DP 5A 5-Piece Drum Mic Kit
More cables...
More stands...


Stuff to get later...
Digidesign ProTools LE Music Production Toolkit 495.00
iLok Key 40.00
Sennheiser 421 379.00
Other monitors.

What do you think about getting a sub for my monitor system? I seem to have a hard time working with the bass without a sub. Plus, are 2 57s alright for now? Also, has anyone tried the Behringer B-2 Condenser?
 
behringer..... unless your in a $250,000+ dollar studio..... you can't go wrong with it.

I got the headphones amp, truth monitors, and some other odds and ends and they been pretty good to me. And really good to my wallet!:kickass:


its better than ya think! trust me!
 
Apollospeed, I tend to feel the same way about Behringer stuff for the most part. I have had some stuff I am not fond of but most things I really like. I have used the B-2 for a little while now and I really like it.

Actually, now that you mention it, I need to get some headphones and a headphone preamp. I will get the Behringer headphone preamp but not sure which headphones. Any thoughts on some decent ones?
 
I don't think I will need tons of submixes so the Behringer should be fine. Honestly, I am trying to keep the money down as much as I can. I will be alright without that many headphone mixes hopefully. I can get one later on if I need.
 
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