Need help for my very first home studio

[Nilo Santos]

I am looking to purchase my very first home studio, and I don’t even know where to begin. - Please recommend a complete set-up.

From the posts, the new i-Mac (with OSX Leopard) seems to be the choice. - If so, then kindly suggest everything to complete this set-up.
Please specify everything from the computer to all paraphernalia, other accessories & plug-ins (Eleven, Reason, Amplitude, ReDrum, Digimax, Waves, Firewire, Clock, etc.) - In other words, please give me a shopping list for a good but affordable home studio.

What about the new 003 Factory Console? - or should I get a separate mixing board (so I can use it for live purposes as well). - If so, please suggest one with the complete set-up.

Thanks for your help. -NILO

[Slim Shady]

What kind of music are you planning/hoping to make with your home studio? That dictates a lot of what you should be looking at purchasing. What instruments do you play? What style? What kind of sounds do you need?

[SV.P ROMO]

For Vocal Recording:

DIGIDESIGN 003 RACK
PRO TOOLS LE 7.4.2
MACKIE UNIVERSAL HUI MIXER
M-AUDIO BX8A'S PAIR
WAVES MERCURY BUNDLE
ANTARES AUTOTUNE V5
MAC G5 "MAC OS X 10.5 LEOPARD"
RODE NT2A MICROPHONE
RTA CREATION STUDIO DESK
OWC MERCURY HARD DRIVE ELITE PRO 500GB
AKG HEADPHONES

Thats A Great Set Up For Recording....

Making Beats:

AKAI MPC 2500
ROLAND FANTOM X6 "GREAT WITH MPC"
KORG TR 61 KEY "GOOD AFTER TOUCH EFFECT"
YAMAHA MOTIF XS6 "GREAT SOUNDS"
REASONS 4
NUMARK USB TURNTABLE
ALESIS MULTIMIX 16
EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE "FOR YOUR SAMPLES
PIONEER HEADPHONES

Thats A Great Set Up For Making Beats....

[lcressy]

The fact that you are saying "home studio", lends me to think you are going to be recording only a few tracks at a time, not big sessions with large bands. With that assumption....

The FIRST thing on your shopping list, and it won't be what you will want to hear - is to evaluate your room. Plan out where everything should be ( mixing position, monitors) and then purchase the right type and amount of acoustic treatment for your room. I honestly believe this should be first. Everything about recording is about what you hear and if what you are hearing is not true, due to your room not being tuned, you will never be happy with your projects. It took me a long time before I figured this out, and a lot of money on gear I didn't need.
$1200.00

After that is done:
DAW Software - Protools and Logic are the main players - protools for mostly audio, logic for mostly virtual inst. and loops, with some audio. Logic is less expensive and you can use whatever interface you want, protools is more expesive and you most use a digi interface. There are loads of aritcles on this, just do a little research. www.gearslutz.com is a great website for what you are asking by the way.
$500 logic - protools comes with the interface

An interface - RME, Apogee, Digidesign, etc. - depends on which software you get and what your needs are.
$1500.00

A computer - the imacs are great, since you can run them as a mac or pc, and are very fast.

$1500.00 - 2500.00
Monitors - Dynaudio, Adams, Genelec - Do some research again here, but plan on a minimum of $1200.00 per pair and up.
$1200.00 - $4000.00
Cables - don't skimp - they make a big difference - use monster, mogami or another really good cable to connect your monitors to your computer. $300.00

Headphones, microphones, Hardware Preamp/Comp ( before the interface, plugins only comp after the actual recording and won't keep from clipping) , headphone mixers, MIc stands, ect......
$5,000.00


I think that if you tune your room, buy really good monitors, get a good mic, good preamp - you will not need as many plugins as you think, i.e. Waves Mercury for $3,000.00 give or take, you will record a good sound and mix a good sound, not much needed after that, and the ones that come with most DAW software are good, yes, there are better, but they will get you started. If you add too much too fast, you won't learn what you already have. If you have 10 compressors, and you can't hear the difference between them, what's the point.
So, start with a really good foundation, and then build slowly from there, adding plugins as you need them. For a budget, I would line up around $15,000. I am a serious hobbyist, but this has been my experience. Hope it helps.

[A2D D2A]

M-AUDIO BX8A'S PAIR
WAVES MERCURY BUNDLE

MAC G5 "MAC OS X 10.5 LEOPARD"
RODE NT2A MICROPHONE
RTA CREATION STUDIO DESK

Seems strange to recommend an old computer, cheap mic, cheap monitors to go with the Waves Mercury Bundle

AKAI MPC 2500
ROLAND FANTOM X6 "GREAT WITH MPC"
KORG TR 61 KEY "GOOD AFTER TOUCH EFFECT"
YAMAHA MOTIF XS6 "GREAT SOUNDS"
REASONS 4
NUMARK USB TURNTABLE
ALESIS MULTIMIX 16

The 3 major workstation families' (Motif/Triton/Fantom), Reason and a MPC to be used with a cheap Alesis mixer.
Once again a strange recommendation.

[dubaifox]

I am looking to purchase my very first home studio, and I don’t even know where to begin. - Please recommend a complete set-up.

If you want a lot of info on this, and it sounds like you need it before you spend your cash, check out www.gearslutz.com for all manner of topics related to gear, set-up, acoustics and politics.

[Nilo Santos]

What kind of music are you planning/hoping to make with your home studio? That dictates a lot of what you should be looking at purchasing. What instruments do you play? What style? What kind of sounds do you need?

My music would just be the basics (Pop, Rock, New Age). Soundtrack type.
I play just basic Guitar, Bass, Keyboard. Friends will be joining to jam & session.
Live Drums would be optional. So I would also need a good program to do percussion.

[Nilo Santos]

Do you want Protools, Logic, or other? - I prefer Logic.
Lets say you already have the Imac. - I would go for:
Apogee Ensemble
Presonus Digimax LT (8 channel ADAT preamp)
API 3124 (4 channel analog preamp)

The Ensemble has 4 onboard mic preamps + 4 analog ins + 1 ADAT in

If you don't want to track real drums, then I would suggest getting EZ Drummer.

With that gear you will have 16 mic preamps which is enough to track a jam session.

Another option is get a Mackie Onyx mixer with firewire. It will work for live and studio use.

You could go even higher by getting something like the Apogee Symphony system or Protools HD converters.
Then you could invest in a analog mixer or buy individual preamps.

Everything you suggested sounds good,
as evidenced by all the other posts that I have been researching in this Forum.

I don't have any equipt at all yet. So I am starting from scratch.
I just noticed a lot of people talking about the i-Mac.
Also, a lot prefer Logic, as you do.

Yes, I think that a Mackie Onyx mixer will do fine. But when you say that this would be "another option" -
Would this replace the Apogee, Presonus, & API instead? - all of them?
And would the Mackie Onyx be as good quality?

Pls clarify what you mean:
"go even higher with Protools HD converters & invest in an analog mixer or buy individual preamps" -
And wouldn't the Mackie Onyx be that mixer?

You said that you prefer Logic. However, you also mention Protools.
What about Protools LE that comes with the Digidesign 003 Factory Rack?

Also, what about the Digidesign 003 Factory console mixer? Would this be a “good all-in-one-do-everything” set-up
that would be recommeded and user-friendly for a beginner like me? (It comes with Protools LE).

[flommer]

Also, what about the Digidesign 003 Factory console mixer? Would this be a “good all-in-one-do-everything” set-up
that would be recommeded and user-friendly for a beginner like me? (It comes with Protools LE).

Yes, that would be a very good starting point. "User friendly" is dependant on your willingness to learn and read the manual and ask good pointed questions here on the DUC. Even ProTools LE is a huge program with lots of options and there is a learning curve. It really is worth RTFM..

Some of the info you seem to be taking in is conflicting (Mackie mixer would not be in the same class as apogee converters, API preamps etc.. but it would only cost 20-25% as much)

If you say what your budget is you might get some more specific, useful information. I think this is the only way to get usable info from a question like yours so try to pin your $ range down..

You are still a little vague about the type of music you are doing:

My music would just be the basics (Pop, Rock, New Age). Soundtrack type.
I play just basic Guitar, Bass, Keyboard. Friends will be joining to jam & session.
Live Drums would be optional. So I would also need a good program to do percussion.

That covers about 80% of all the music being made these days (just my guess don't shoot me..lol)

Live drums optional is actually a huge difference in the gear you might need. If you need to have the option to record live drums then you will need more mics and micpres etc so how realistic is this need?

There are plenty of good choices for drum programs so figure that into your budget right away. Mostly, that choice of software comes down to personal opinion.. BFD and/or Strike would be good starting points..

I would never recommend a G5 mac as per another poster. They are quickly becomming dinosaurs. The iMac will do fine, but don't skimp. Get the 24" and load it up with RAM and the fastest processor. It will last longer for you (in terms of computing power) if you invest in it now. Get 2 external hard drives, 1 for recording and another for samples. If you decide on BFD then it likes to have it's very own drive as well

[Nilo Santos]

BUDGET is $10k to $15k – ($10k for the main recording stuff + $5k for all the other add-ons and paraphernalia, including mics, headphones, cables, etc.)
I can shop eBay for good deals. – Is used stuff advisable?

MAC – Pls help me decide between : iMac, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro. (standard models are 2.4Ghz dual core, 2G memory, etc.)
and suggest any upgrades (3.0Ghz, 4GB, etc.) if the above standard specs are not advisable.

The Mac Pro would be the best, if the budget permits (I wish..) – Although I could probably get a used one for $3k on Ebay.

As you suggest, I will try to budget for the iMac 24" loaded up with 4G RAM and the fastest 3.0Ghz processor.
What should I get for my external hard drives?

SOFTWARE – The standard models come with Logic Express 8.
Is this good enough? – or should I get additional Logic Studio - (Pro 8)?

OTHER SUGGESTIONS:
Apogee Ensemble
Presonus Digimax LT (8 channel ADAT preamp)
API 3124 (4 channel analog preamp)
EZ Drummer
Mackie Onyx mixer, or Yamaha N8 mixer

Does the above suggestions match the above Mac set-up? – Are any items not needed,
or duplications? – (such as if Logic already has a mixer, drums, instruments, effects, etc.)

And as you say, the Mackie would not be in the same class as the Apogee or API,
and BFD and/or Strike would be better than EZ Drummer. – (No live drums for me).
(But what about the drums already in Logic?)

So, do I still need an interface? (Apogee Ensemble, Presonus Digimax, API) – How many?
I just need the basic, but good stuff to get started correctly. – (I don’t want to confuse myself).

In fact, I am forgetting about the Digidesign 003 Factory and ProTools.
Based on all the Posts, I want to just focus on one system.
I hope that I am correct to go with Mac and Logic.

That’s it, I guess. Pls let me know, if I missed something.