HELP me setup my small home studio please.

[RomanVail]

I have a G5, 002 rack, Aural Exciter with Big Bottom, Grace Design 101, and a DAT recorder (Tascam DA-30MkII).

I am new to all this and wanted to get some pointers of how I can set this up so that I can master on to the DAT with the Exciter's effect...but if I work on stuff in pro-tools and add plug-ins and all that how will it effect the DAT recording... give me soem basic setup options and some pro's and con's.

Thanks

[alance]

Your exciter could be used as an insert on a particular track if desired, but you would lose some of your hardware i/o if you didn't have a mixer. (Please..please look at the yamamha 01v96, you owe it to yourself) You'll probablybe using it betweenthe 002 and the dat for mastering. The other gear doesn't have that many options, you hook it together. Just don't put any ext. hard disks in a firewire chain after the 002, because it's easy to forget and turn off the 002 before you eject your disk, thus blowing it hard!

[albee1952]

Just my 2 cents worth....DAT is dead. Save it for transfering your old DAT tapes to PT. Save the Aphex for special occasions as its not something to use often. Plugins work great so mix "in the box" and burn to CD. This will save a lot of wiring and headaches.

[martian]

I hate tape!!!!

[Infa]

I have to agree with albee1952 here. DAT is actually inferior to burning a "HDCD" meaning, sell your DAT player and get a Stand Alone Sony CD Recorder that can do that SBM (stands for Super Bit Mapping) , which allows you to record a 20bit 44.1 CD that can play on ALL CD players at 16bit 44.1... It can aslo get mastered by the mastering lab you take it to if you want.

Now DAT can ONLY, and is only 16 bit, sure you can do up to 48k with them,, but you will notice bit difference before you notice sample rate difference....

Also combine what alance said about getting a cool mixer, and mix all your stuff out PT to the board then to the CD Recorder. Now that would be the best you could do in YOUR situation for a little bit of money...

But if the mixer is a no go, just either sell the DAT and record to a stand alone CD recorder that does HDCD. OR sell your Dat player and just do everything in the box, including bounce to disk, then burn a CD with Toast or something....

Either damn way ,,,,,,, get rid of the DAT player.....

Everything else like alance said is just hook it up, and go...

Hope That helps--