just setting up my studio..help!

[brentm]

Hey guys,
Alright, well I will start this off with saying my experience recording is pretty much non existent. I'm in a band and figure we're in and out of the studio enough working on demos we might as well set something up at home and i'll figure it out as I go.

This is what i've purchased so far.

Pentium 4 2.5 ghz
512 MB ram
80 GB HD
Mackie 1404 VLZ

This is what I'm looking into buying for mics:
1 Rode NT1-A
3 Sure SM57s
2 condenser mics (not sure which ones yet)

We're trying to stay in a budget of about $500 for mics, let me know what you would do with that.

I'm also going to purchase the Digi001, guitar center is selling it for $700 now so it seems like a decent deal.

Do you think I would get a better guitar sound using the Mesa Boogie Rectifier recording PreAmp then just micing one of our rectifiers with a 57?

We don't plan on ever really using anything from this studio to release onto CD, however it would be cool to be able to throw decent sounding stuff online.

With the system I'm planning on buying how do you think the sound quality will be? I'm looking for a really ballsy guitar sound. My friend has his own studio and the biggest problem we have when we go over there and drop a few tracks is the guitar just doesn't have that in your face ballsy sound, any recommendations there?

Alright I know that was long, but thanks a lot in advance.

Brent

[storm-01]

It sounds like your heading in the right direction. Make sure that your specs for the motherboard and chipset are compatable with the digi 001. Check out the "Best system for under $1000" thread in this forum. Half way down the first post is a P4 system.
The Mackie 1402 VLZ pro is a great little mixer for the price and will also eliminate latency.

Sme good condenser mics to check out would be the Rode NT 1000, Audio Technica 3000 series, or I've heard that the Behringer B-2 Pro has a great sound for the money. It has a different polar patterns and a freq. cut. You can find them on ebay for around $150. For a good ballsy guitar sound, try getting an external compressor. If your looking for something cheap, but is reputable, I would check out the dbx 166XL or the 266XL. I work with both everyday and again, for the price they are excellent compressors for many applications. Then again, you'll have to do some research on compressor/limiting/gating because it would take a while to explain.
Hope this helps.

Stormy [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[brentm]

Hey Stormy, thanks a lot.

Brent

[Brad Ferguson]

Another solid mic for the money is the Studio Projects C1.

Great for vocals and acoustic instruments.. I've used it on pianos, acoustic guitars, violins.. It's a nice mic. The price is right too.

[6969]

In my humble opinion learned from cool people on the DUC.

A second 7200 rpm hard drive for "Audio only" will be helpful. Your original hard drive set as Master and your second hard drive as Slave. You will have to look at the pin settings on the drives themselves. I believe that the original hard drive that came with the computer is already set as Master. The new hard drive you will purchase should have some sort of illustration on it that will let you know where the pins should be for Slave.Make sure the Hard drive with your operating system on it is master.

If I'm off on this one let me know peoples of the DUC.As I'm am a novice student myself.

DJ