Getting started need help putting together a complete music production setup

[e8ghtshotspatron]

What's up guys


Completely new to avid, I've never worked with protools before ever.
I'm very interested in investing in a new music production package for my next house that I will be moving into within the next few months. I have some experience working with the free version of fl studio on a vista pc a few years back with no external instruments/or equipment so I do understand some what of how a music software program operates.

I have no computer system as of right now but definitely shopping around. My goal is to have the hardware/software needed to complete music production from scratch to finish (on a reasonable budget, but with the best quality possible) and be ready for submission to recording artists for business.

My financial goal for this project is to stay under $3000 total, including computer system, all software requirements, external hardrive(s), external speakers & or headphones, wires/cables, soundboard, external drum kit, external keyboard, and anything else that I will need in order to complete this project.

My ruff idea of the studio I'm looking for is, possibly a
mac or pc computer
with a great but affordable version of protools
an external drum machine, and mixer with a external keyboard/piano
external hard drive to handle the load of play back etc...
Headphones, and/or external studio speakers
all wires/cables required to tie everything together

I'm open to all suggestions, and hope to hear from somebody that can share their knowledge and expertise with me so that I can put together the best music production studio for my dollar and resources.

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Consider MacOfAllTrades.com for a re-furbed mac.
I got my iMac there a couple of months ago, just watched the AVID Customer Care Hot To Videos link above to optimize it for PT, and am looking forward to getting PT installed on it.

[albee1952]

That's a tough dollar figure to hit!

Although you CAN build a powerful PC(and I would) for around a grand(more info if this is of interest), I also would look at refurb Macs. Either an i7 quad MacBook Pro 15" or i7 quad Mac Mini(you would need keyboard, mouse and monitor). Any 24-32" LED TV that does 1080P will make a great screen without breaking the bank. In any case, i7 quad is a must, for me

A modest interface like some of the Focusrite models(which model is up to how many IO you need). Something with 4 ins and 4 outs plus midi can cover a lot of ground if you get creative.

Skip the external drum machine and get Addictive Drums(or EZdrummer). The sounds will be way better.

Plenty of adequate headphones for under $100. Powered monitors; JBL LSR305 are a bargain and sound better(to me anyway) than most "cheap" monitors.

OWC and G-Tech are my recommendation for recording drives(best price vs quality).

You will need a mic at some point and while a fresh SM57 is never a bad choice, the MXL CR-89(around $229 on eBay, new) is a killer mic on a budget.

At this stage of the game, I would see what you have left of your $3k and buy the best cables you can, but don't feel you need to buy extremely big-dollar stuff(but try to avoid the crap at the bottom of the price range)

[JFreak]

I strongly recommend Mac because it is easier to avoid system incompatibilities. Just follow the guideline Avid has documented in the compatibility documentation and you should be fine. Assuming you want PT11, here's the page you're looking for.

Whatever the documentation says, PT11 really loves i7 CPU and at least 8GB memory. Don't save your money there or you're really going to consider downgrading to PT10.

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I got my iMac for about $1600 coming with 8gb's of RAM, I spent another $200 for 16 more which beefed it up to 20gb, and it's very noticieable.

[e8ghtshotspatron]

Hmmm...the refurb macs sound like a good idea.
Amazon seems to have some pretty decent deals on refurbs right now..

[Bill Denton]

Originally Posted by TonyFlyingSquirrel

I got my iMac for about $1600 coming with 8gb's of RAM, I spent another $200 for 16 more which beefed it up to 20gb, and it's very noticieable.

Do you possibly have a typo here and in your sig?

I'm no math whiz, but last time I looked, 8 GB + 16 GB = 24 GB, not 20 GB.

If your machine is only showing 20 GB, some of your memory may not be properly inserted.

It may be too late to do anything about it now (or the problem may not even exist), but should you experience any "odd" errors somewhere down the line, they may be the result of your memory strips not being the same size, from the same manufacturer, or in any other way not being exactly the same.

Of course, if your memory is all "in spec", you should be okay...

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Bill Denton

I'm no math whiz, but last time I looked, 8 GB + 16 GB = 24 GB, not 20 GB.

Probably had 4GB + 4GB before and had to remove 4GB to get another 16GB fitted in. So the guy likely has 4GB + 16GB = 20GB installed.