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Author Topic: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask  (Read 7339 times)

Offline diverse379

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I have been very slowly building a project studio

it is amzaing how much can be done with so little money these days

it is also amazing how much you could spend

sounds contradictory but it's true you can get a very usable working studio for little money
and you can also spend tons


this is what you need and in this order


you will need something to record on

this could be a digital tape or computer based recording software

the computer based is really where you can get a lot more bang for your bucks

protools Mbox 2 or the digi 003 allow you to
have nearly unlimited recording tracks
plus all the outboard gear you need


outboard gear
are things like compressors limiters gates
reverbs pre amps equalizers

the outboard gear is what will make the difference between a so-so sounding track and  a great track

if you buy protools they have bundled software that will allow you to have some of this gear free


here is what I have set up

I had a custom built computer
this is the way to go they are simple to build
its just about connecting parts
the hard part is installing all the software from a dos environment you can get a pro to do that
or follow the instructions that came with  the mother board


how much can you save?

about 2,000 dollars

my computer which was built 2 years ago is still current
with pentium dual core processor
186 sata hard drive
asus mother board
and 3 gigs of ram cost me 900 dollars it had all the bells and whistles cd/dvd rw
two of them
disc drive for floppys some of us still used them
and it had a state of the art video card and came with sound blaster sound card which isnt really what I needed but hey who knew

I am still running with most up to date platforms

two years ago I was ahead of all but the most dedicated computer players

you will need a software to run your studio


cubase
logic and protools seem to be the most popular

I personally have protools
but I understand a lot of people have moved to logic

I think that is because pro tools limits what you can use with them

how ever their products are kicking (that means good)

you will need monitors to survey your recording status

with a computer based recording system itis not uncommon to have several windows open at one time


you dont want all these windows on top of one another

you want to be able to spread them out
there fore a square monitor is not ideal

I am looking to upgrade to a 26 inch wide screen monitor as opposed to getting two or three 17 or 19 inch monitors

if you took two 24 inch monitors and put them side be side you get 48 inches accross
which is a lot of space

all you need to do is have another video card to run the second monitor

I  personally like the look of one big monitor

however that choice is personal


getting things to tape or to hard drive

if you want to record guitars you must record in one of two ways

either mic up an amplifier

or go direct meaning plug into the mixer or the back of your interface such as mbox2

if you go direct you will need a pre amp

because guitars and basses sound lousy when the go direct unless you have a direct box
which is an interface that boosts your guitar signal

the pre amp gives you warmth somthing that is missing from a digital environment

what is warmth
I cant exoplain it but it is an ambience that is present in the track and it comes from using analog or tube based amplifiers

although many digital amplifiers simulate tube

now that you have the software and the computer and the monitor
you need to listen to what you are doing

head phones are a must
get a good pair of head phones something that will give you an accurate portrayal of what you are doing

you dont want to use head phones that boosts the bass or trim the highs look for phones that deal with a wide frequency response

reference monitors

I only know that you need them you want flat monitors meaning they dont have any highs or mids or eq controls
because you want them to just give exactly what is there you add all the highs and lows from your eq
so that your mix should sound good in a car stereo a boom box or a hig quality stereo and an ipod
get it:?

ok now you are ready to make music plug in your keyboard
wait you dont have a  great one not to worry

protools gives a free plug in keyboard called expand it sounds pretty good too
the electric pianos are superb
the acoustic pianos are decent

but the strings and horns are really top shelf

if you want more you can buy any of the many many software keyboards out there

I dont recommend any because I dont have any well i do have m audio key rig
which is nice

but there are several out there like sample tank
and ivory
but I have never played these to give a review

one program I can recommend is reason

this is a program that gives you a drum machine keyboards and a sampler plus reverbs digital delays
you can build up your musical arrangement and then export them to protools pro tools will trigger the reason and will play it along with all the other things you have  done




next you should have an equalizer
parametric if you can get it

many software programs have equalizers built in to them '

they are called plug ins
which is like having the real thing only it is a software programbut it behaves and does the job of the real thing



after you get an equalizer

you should have a compressor

then get a pre amp
this is probably the thing that will really take your recording to another level

pre amps are a very important part of your studio

I recommend the tech21 sans amp psa

it is great for the money

but there are cheaper ones and more expensive ones


finally you will need microphones

start off with a dynamic mic like the shure sm 87

and a decent condensor mic like the rode

expect to pay about 400 for microphones

you should have a few so you can do different kinds of stereo placement

unless you never want to record a bass amp live or a guitar amp live

but what if you have saxophone player you need to have mics to record live instruments

and trust me there is nothing like recording a guitar amp using two microphones

it is great sound


finally you will need a vocal booth

really you dont need a vocal booth but it is helpful

I use egg cartons on the wall placed in front of the microphone

the egg cartons absorb the sound


if you have a large closet you can sing in there the clothes absorb the sound

this is what you need an environment that wont give too much reverb


oh i almost forgot you will need a good reverb

how good ?

as good as you can get

well that is all I hope i didnt forget anything


finally you need to start making music

what I do now and I have been recording off and on for a bout 20 years more off than on

I got a book called funk masters

which had the master scores from 30 of james browns hit songs

I proceeded to re do these songs
playing all the parts myself

what this allows you to do is practice programming drum beats

playing guitar parts whether you use a real guitar or a clav
it teaches you how to effectively arrange and produce a good piece of music

once you have done a few songs like this

you can even take your favorite song and try to re do that by ear

it will take a while to make it sound anywhere near the quality of the record which is why I ask that you do this step

it will take years off your learning curve

you will learn many many things about production engineering and arranging that i couldnt tell you in a thousand pages


have fun
 
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Offline themidiroom

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2008, 10:58:56 AM »
There's a lot of useful information here.  I notice you didn't mention much about the room that you would mix in.  It's really important to have a room that is as neutral as you can get it.  Generally speaking, home studios suffer from having too much high frequency absorbtion from carpet and too much bass reinforcement from hard walls and speakers placed near walls or corners.  These issues will tend to make your mixes sound thin and may even lack high end.  As far as egg cartons, they really don't absorb sound.  At best, they may act as diffusors but only on very high frequencies.  Anything in the midrange and below is going to go right through the egg cartons.
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Offline diverse379

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #2 on: August 05, 2008, 11:42:09 AM »
There's a lot of useful information here.  I notice you didn't mention much about the room that you would mix in.  It's really important to have a room that is as neutral as you can get it.  Generally speaking, home studios suffer from having too much high frequency absorbtion from carpet and too much bass reinforcement from hard walls and speakers placed near walls or corners.  These issues will tend to make your mixes sound thin and may even lack high end.  As far as egg cartons, they really don't absorb sound.  At best, they may act as diffusors but only on very high frequencies.  Anything in the midrange and below is going to go right through the egg cartons.

i didnt mention another room because I  didnt know that was important
thanks

as far as the egg cartons
I read that in one of my studio books their explanation was that it prevents some of the sound from bouncing off the walls coming from the vocalist

if he or he sings into a mic that is placed in front of egg cartons

it works as a sound deadener
so you wont get the quality of  a vocal booth but you will be better than just singing in a room with nothing


a neutral room?

I never new about that I do know that you arent supposed to mix with headphones

I have a question for you I have to get a new dedicated computer for my protools

I know mac has always been the boss for studio apps

but what about one of those triple core four gigabyte machines

I saw one for 600 at best buy

it is twice as powerful as what I have now

I was hoping I could get this instead of laying out all the big money for  a G5
To be or not to be that is the question you anwer when you pray practice and read your word

Offline drebeatz

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2008, 11:57:41 AM »
Actually, if you are running pro tools......The AMD processors handle pro tools better than Pentium and even Macs!!!!!! go to the digidesign users forum and look at the post about the best systems for pro tools. Good info!

http://duc.digidesign.com/
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Offline diverse379

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #4 on: August 05, 2008, 12:02:33 PM »
Actually, if you are running pro tools......The AMD processors handle pro tools better than Pentium and even Macs!!!!!! go to the digidesign users forum and look at the post about the best systems for pro tools. Good info!

http://duc.digidesign.com/


I have seen that page

several times

back when when Atholon first came out
they were a little sketchy

I guess they worked that out

so you say those are the recommended application

thats good to know I can afford that

thanks I will be back on to look again
To be or not to be that is the question you anwer when you pray practice and read your word

Offline diverse379

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #5 on: August 05, 2008, 01:08:03 PM »
Actually, if you are running pro tools......The AMD processors handle pro tools better than Pentium and even Macs!!!!!! go to the digidesign users forum and look at the post about the best systems for pro tools. Good info!

http://duc.digidesign.com/


protools and this page is as frustrating as it is helpful

the Amd page of compatibiliy is a joke

only 32 bit systems are compatable not 64 bit systems

but all the good systems are 64 bit

service pack two is not supported but service pack one is

if you are using le 7.0 then you have to use xp home
but if you are using 7.4 you can use vista but only if its...........

it is very confusing because when you go to a store to buy your computer chances are the chipset is not compatible and if it then the operating system isnt

and if these are compatible
then you need to check to make sure you are running the right protools version because
7.0 is different from 7.3 and 7.4

me I still have 7.0

I fell asleep and they upgraded all the way up to 7.4

I will check to see if I can find a good Amd
3 bit processor

but this  is not easy

the ones I like the ones that come with 6 gigs of ram
and ddram
and all that come equipped with 64 bit processors

I may just have to go back to a pentium and be done with it are you sure Amd handle prottools information better than pentiums
To be or not to be that is the question you anwer when you pray practice and read your word

Offline drebeatz

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #6 on: August 05, 2008, 02:07:05 PM »
What I do is look at the users who have the most knowledge. Most of them have their system specs listed in their signature. Then I look up what they have on www.tigerdirect.com. You come out better just building a system with what you need. Buying boxed systems is cool, but to get a system that will do what you want.......build yourself!!  Whether its pro tools or Cubase or what have you. Audio on a computer......Build it yourself! ;)
"Many Are Called....Few Are Chozen"

Offline diverse379

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #7 on: August 05, 2008, 03:06:25 PM »
What I do is look at the users who have the most knowledge. Most of them have their system specs listed in their signature. Then I look up what they have on www.tigerdirect.com. You come out better just building a system with what you need. Buying boxed systems is cool, but to get a system that will do what you want.......build yourself!!  Whether its pro tools or Cubase or what have you. Audio on a computer......Build it yourself! ;)


good idea by users you mean the users in the digidesign forum

thats cool I never thought of that.

I was talking to midi room and he mentioned that he had an hd card handling some of the sound processing

I only have one hard drive

so I know I need to get another but how many hard drives is optimum to help you computer get the most out of its hardware
To be or not to be that is the question you anwer when you pray practice and read your word

Offline drebeatz

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #8 on: August 05, 2008, 03:33:29 PM »
When recording audio on your computer you ALWAYS.......I repeat, ALWAYS want  to have at least two hard drives. One to load your applications and the other to store your recored files. Audio on your hard drive will take up space quick. use this link to determine how much space you think you'll need. To be honest, I would say get the most space you can afford. Its better to have too much space than to be recording a hott track and find out you dont have the space to save it! :'(

http://74.125.45.104/search?q=cache:qUsI2PzyCGYJ:kellysmusicandcomputers.com/detailedanswer~faq~123.htm+how+much+space+does+audio+use+on+hard+drives&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us
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Offline themidiroom

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #9 on: August 05, 2008, 04:34:20 PM »
so I know I need to get another but how many hard drives is optimum to help you computer get the most out of its hardware
On my old system, I actually had 3 drives in order to playback 72 audio tracks (and I had to trick the software)  On my Mac, it will pull 80 or so tracks from one firewire drive with no problem. 
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Offline musallio

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #10 on: August 05, 2008, 05:10:46 PM »
Wow!!!
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Offline diverse379

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #11 on: August 05, 2008, 09:18:26 PM »
On my old system, I actually had 3 drives in order to playback 72 audio tracks (and I had to trick the software)  On my Mac, it will pull 80 or so tracks from one firewire drive with no problem. 

Wow!
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Offline themidiroom

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Offline diverse379

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #13 on: August 06, 2008, 06:05:12 PM »
What's up with the Wows?    :D
you are so many levels beyond my understanding

I neede to go buy a book or something

To be or not to be that is the question you anwer when you pray practice and read your word

Offline themidiroom

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #14 on: August 07, 2008, 09:10:32 AM »
you are so many levels beyond my understanding

I neede to go buy a book or something


Most of what I learned is from experience and trial and error.  I have a few reference books but mostly use them if I need some formulas for calculating acoustics or something along those lines.  I have a book on mixing and there wasn't much in there that helped me.
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Musical beauty is in the ears of the beholder.

Offline diverse379

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #15 on: August 07, 2008, 10:05:10 AM »
I hear you.

 I learned a long time ago
that you save a lot of time by not trying to reinvent the wheel

I tend to do a majority of learning from the mistakes and discoveries of others

definitely when it comes to computers which I know very little about
I would like to copy the platfoms operatng systems and configurations
of someone who knows how to do it and do it right

evn if I send it out to be built

as far as studio applications
i have a few recording books that talk about the best ways to record vocals bass guitars etc and some of the challenges inherent

there is a lot to know and many many ways to achieve the end result

you and I are almost the same age so the trial and error you have done in the last 20 years was great for you but

I cant afford to spend twenty years stumbling I need to hit the groung runnng  if I did i would be 60 by the time I am where you are now

I have always been a book person

so for me it is the way I will start

ask a lot of questions

and imitate the pros

I guess since I have a masters in education
I am qualified to develop my own lesson plan
 :)

To be or not to be that is the question you anwer when you pray practice and read your word

Offline musallio

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #16 on: August 07, 2008, 02:35:15 PM »
^^^

When are you doing your doctorate? we need to rightfully ordain you as a Doc :)
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Offline diverse379

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Re: all you wanted to know about building a studio but were afraid to ask
« Reply #17 on: August 07, 2008, 08:14:04 PM »
^^^

When are you doing your doctorate? we need to rightfully ordain you as a Doc :)

I am reading my post it seems a little obnoxious
]
]
but that is really not my intention

i was just trying to illustrate that there are many approaches to do a thing

and I guess I was drawing validation from my educational background
giving me a proper path to follow to attain the goals set before me


but thanks musaillo

if I get a doctorate it will be in ministry

all lgm'ers are welcome to attend my graduation

To be or not to be that is the question you anwer when you pray practice and read your word
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