Ok Brothas and Sistas,
Let me know what yo guys would do. I'm now sitting on $3,500 for my studio, Now I have an idea what I wanna get, but some of you might have a better suggestion, Now I can get away with out a Keyboard 'cause I have two already (Korg N5ex, Yamaha 650, and a Korg Triton (coming as a gift).)
So what would some of you get with $3,500?
Let me know.
Alright. First you have to figure out which way you want to go as far as your studio. Do you wanna go with a pc based or hardware based. Look at the advantages and disadvantages of both.
PC Based: Advantages: You can get a lot of processing power and storage capacity for a cheap price. You can get a great sound card for a realativly cheap price also. Most programs that are out now are starting to rival the processing power Protools but have a non Protools price. You can have an all-in-one place system to do your beat making with programs like Reason, Fruity Loops and your mixing and editing with programs like Sonar, Cubase, Wave Lab(expensive) and you can just burn it to a cd. Plus having a monitor to look at while you do your editing/mixdown is better on the eyes. So basically you can build your self a super system for a cheaper price than hardware based. Also I would suggest that if you go PC based try to have it as a stand alone computer and not dual usage. Use it for your studio only. Also expandabilty is a plus here.
Disadvantages: It's not portable. Any recording you have to do has to be done where the computer is, unless you like pluging and unpluging everything when you have to go to a gig. Also your inputs with be limited to the size of your audio interface. During recording, if you computer is not quiet you will hear it if you record inside the same room, (epecially if you have a condencer mic). So you will need space. That's all I can think of right now.
Take into consideration that if you are already familiar with recording the PC way that you may just want to stay with what your used to unless your willing to put the time into learning a hardware based system.
Hardware System:Advantages: Portable. You can buy an all-in-one DAW like the Korg D3200 and have everything you need to record a whole band. (Personally I am partial to the Roland VS 2480 since I have one.) Also depending upon what equipment you buy, you can get specialized pieces, i.e. 48 band stand alone eq, standalone compressor, ect. These will be a little more expensive, but they will work better than a lot of the program plug-ins for computer sequencers meaning cleaner signal\better sounding recording. As you learn the dynamics of working in a hardware environment it is easier to walk into a mixer board based studio and recognize what you wanna do and how to do it. You can also get a mixer with more inputs so that you can mixdown a larger group at one time.
Disadvantages Can be expensive. Once you buy a piece of gear your are stuck with the capabilities of that gear until you upgrade. Not as expandable as the PC way in most cases. Learning curve is big depending on which equipment you purchase. If the DAW that you choose to purchase doesn't have a VGA output source then you will be stuck editing on a very, very small screen which can be a hasssle. Also you won't have the ability to point and click using your mouse for editing on most DAW's.
To put my personal spin on things, I started strictly with computer recording then moved to hardware with the 2480. I like the processing power that it has plus it has a VGA output also keyboard and mouse inputs which makes me feel more at home on it. Also I can use it in conjunction with my computer so that I have a hybrid system. You will find that a lot of studio's are now having a mix of the two (hardware and software).
Here is my must have list for your studio no matter which way you decide to go.
Good Mics'.... Shure is always a top seller
Good Monitors..... Powered monitors should be your choice here. Do some DD and figure which ones fit your budget and get the most performance for your money.
Good Cables... Cables are often overlooked when it comes to a studio, but bad cabling can mess up recordings on the greatest of equipment.
A Good Ear.... This is the most important part of any studio. Study your craft and put your knowledge to work.
Hope this helps as far as the recording side. Any questions feel free to email me:
Annon896@yahoo.com
