My New Studio |
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Aug 15 2010, 02:47 PM
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QUOTE (eaglesnh4 @ Aug 15 2010, 12:06 PM)  ... what i need is a top quality studio condenser mic, a good pair of monitors and also a mixer, please show me your suggestions. TBH I think you need to provide some more information before we could start to answer this. Things like: What level you are aiming at (professional, semi/project, home), what the intended use is (self, own band friends, commercial), what your needs are (solo recording/small band etc - type of music etc), what the studio's main function is (tracking, recording or both), what your studio experience is (and what type of studio. Have you used a big analogue desk or are you more used to a pc set up etc? Do you know how to and need to do things like stem mixes, sidechain analogue gear, cue mix and so on), what your expectations are, what the expectations of the users are likely to be, and what your budget is  ...
-------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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Aug 15 2010, 03:34 PM
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Some mics:
The ONE mic for studio is Neumann U87 (and/or 47), however, it will cost You some 3000 EUR. Mid-range I suggest Röde NTK, the original one with its own trafo. On a budget, I would probably bought a SE Electronics X1, which gives a lot for the money... Mixer-wise, its hard to suggest anything like Tony said - it depends on a lot of things....... //Staffay --------------------  Guitars: Ibanez AM-200, Ibanez GB-10, Fender Stratocaster Classic Player, Warmouth Custom Built, Suhr Classic Strat, Gibson Les Paul Standard 2003, Ibanez steel-string Amps: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Marshall JMP 2103, AER 60 Effects: BOSS DD-20, Danelectro Trans. Overdrive, TC-Electronics G-Major, Dunlop Wah-wah, Original SansAmp, BOSS DD-2 Music by Staffy can be found at: Staffay at MySpace |
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Aug 15 2010, 04:18 PM
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Tnx for the extra info
.I'm going to throw some comments and opinions at you along with some suggestions. Hope these help and bare with me as it's a pretty big question  ...Consoles OK to me a professional studio with a big (ie 64 or more channels) console is out of your budget I'm afraid. I'm taking a big pro console here to be something like an SSL, Trident, Audient, or AMS Neve. If you were on PT rather than Cubase maybe a HD rig with a dedicated console. You would however be looking at well over 10k - more like well over 40k just for the console, furniture and wiring. Also - something that not everyone thinks about - a big console like a SSL G Series needs a lot of juice to run and they tend to be left switched on permanetly, wired via a machine room. Also, if you have never used a big console a 64 channel plus desk can be very nerve racking. For 2 thousand or less you're more in the prosumer/project studio territory (and arguably not at the top end as some are up on PT HD/Euphonix rigs or things like a Neve Genesis; stuff that costs over 10k). At this end you may want to look at Allen and Heath, Yamaha (maybe a used 01vr), Soundcraft Ghost (used), Mackie and so on. For about 2k you should be able to get at least 16/4/2 and possibly 32/8/2 or similar including looms and other wiring. For ease of use 16 is probably the bottom end for you but you might be able to get by with 12 channel. 16 channel for a 5 piece may mean that you may have to bounce and render a bit but it should be ok for a lot of work particularly if you invest in a balanced patchbay. Patchbays are pretty cheap and well worth it for a project or pro studio.Track count and the quality of the preamps drop quickly as your budget goes down. Also cheap consoles often come with poor, short throw faders, only provide very basic metering, generally can't do anything other than a very basic cue mix, and may lack other facilities like talkback, dimming and so on. As you're on Presonus/Cubase you may also need to think about how your console gets the audio to the Presonus, or vice versa, or the computer. Do you want the console to send and receive only analogue , or digital or both? What sort of connectors XLR/AES-EBU/Toslink/SPDIF/Tascam 25 pin... Alternatively as you have the presonus and Cubase you could perhaps look towards an interface rather than a full console. Some manufacturers make interfaces that will link to Cubase and give you a means to physically move faders/turn rotary knobs and so on rather than using a mouse. These interfaces though generally either don't have preamps. You then use your Presonus to get the audio in and out of Cubase. Cubase used to make one called Houston (don't however get a Houston as they didn't work very well by all accounts). If you look around though I think there are others by companies like Euphonix, Cubase, Tascam Fronier Design and a few others. One other possibility is to have a console as a summing mixer but it looks like this is beyond your budget at the moment. Tracking Tracking is pretty much another term for recording. It involves being able to mic up the vocals/instrument/s/group as best as you can and so provide as good a signal for each relevant track prior to mixing. Ultimately good tracking gives you a good basis for a good mix which in turn gives you a good base for a final master and commercial release. Training IMHO training courses can be very helpful but often don't do much beyond tell you what's in the manual. What can be good though is that you may make some good industry contacts. What you might also find useful is to find a friendly studio (or book some time in a pro one) and talk to and watch the engineer and see what s/he does and and ask why. TBH most of us started by doing an intern at a pro studio as an initial experience and then went on to learn more 'on the job' over many years. IMO tracking/Recording, mixing and particularly mastering require a bit of technical knowledge and skills learnt over time and through experience. Mics Get the best condensor mic that you can (and try to match it with a good mic pre-amp). As a minimum you should be looking at a Rode NT1000 or SE2200 (about 200 UK pounds), or something very similar. If you can though try and stretch the budget and go for something like a AKG214/NT2000 . If you can find the cash then up the budget a lot and look at Neumann/Manley/Crowley and Tripp etc. For a good mic preamp look at SSL, Focusright. AMS Neve, Rupert Neve... Also, you may need to get sufficient mic stands, pop shields, cradles and may be even a reflection screen. Monitors First you need to decide if you want passive or active monitors. Passive need to be connected to an amp, active have built in amps. A lot/most project go for active. Next you need to think about how and where you will put your monitors and how far away you will sit. Most recording/mixing studios put them on, or close to, the meter bridge on the console with the engineer seated quite close. For this you need near field monitors. Prices here start at under 100UK and go up to over 1000. At the lower end KRK are ok. Mid range (3-600), Genelec, Adam, Tannoy. High end - Adam, Dyna, B&W... If you intend to do any mastering then I'd have to say that near field monitors aren't up to it. You need mid or far field and here the absolute minimum you can expect to pay is 2000UK. Monitors here include B&W, PMC, ATC, Sonus, Quested, K&H. You would also need to invest quite heavily in improving the AD/DA offered by your Presonus and change from Cubase to a mastering DAW. AD/DA for mastering is stuff like Lavry, Cranesong, Burl, Forsell, Prism. Mastering daws include Sequoia, SADiE, Soundblade and Pyramix. If you can you should also budget for dedicated stands for your monitors. Lots of people put them on the bridge but that is not a good solution  .Outboard Not mentioned yet but at some point you're likely to need external hardware EQ, compressors, reverb and so on. Prices start from below 100UK and rise to over 1000 for mixing grade. Prices for mastering is usually a minimum of 2k rising to over 10k. Quality Have to say that generally you get what you pay for both in terms of audio quality and build quality. The cheapest solution is not necessarily the best in the long term as often you find that you have to replace cheap gear with more expensive stuff quite quickly. Cheap gear generally doesn't hold its value so if you do have to replace it you will get very little back for it. ------- The Industry Over the last few years there has been a big shake out in the industry and quite a few studios went bust. Many are still struggling to break even. It's a very competitive industry and it's changing. TBH what has worked for us here is to have a clear business plan and in particular to have focused how and why we differentiate ourselves as a mastering studio from the service that many others deliver. Anyway as competitive as the industry is it can also be very rewarding. Best of luck. -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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Aug 15 2010, 04:51 PM
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Menat to also say this:
the monthly running cost of a big pro console is something like 1000+ UK pounds for electricity if it's left permanently on. You also have to factor in air con as they can generate a huge amount of residual heat. -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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Aug 15 2010, 05:16 PM
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QUOTE (tonymiro @ Aug 15 2010, 05:18 PM) Tnx for the extra info .I'm going to throw some comments and opinions at you along with some suggestions. Hope these help and bare with me as it's a pretty big question ...+11 Tony. Awesome reply. You really put the finger on the important things here. In the studio where Im recording right now - which is truly professional - there is like three racks with just outboard stuff, compressors, reverbs, gates, analog EQ's etc. Also the engineer finds Pro-Tools HD too bad(!) so he uses an Otari digital device which shall have a better clock and hence a better sound. (he has Pro Tools HD as well...) I cant really image what all that stuff costs, but a wild guess would be some 500.000-1.000.000 EUR including speakers, mixers, instruments and mics. The question here is really: Do I need all those fancy stuff to make a decent recording? Of course not, since the general public cannot differ a home-recording from a professional product anyway, due to several reasons. On the other side of the coin - if You want to sound the possible, then its worth the money. I also liked the comment bout the fact that a lot of studios goes down the drain - thats reality, since most people cannot afford to make a professional recording and the "pro-sumer" devices has become available to everyone thanks to digital technique. I ran a semi-professional studio back in the 80'ths, and we never made any serious money out of that. I think its very hard to make a living out of this, unless You have very good contacts and some labels You are working with. By that said, I dont think its impossible and as Tony I wish You best luck!!! //Staffay -------------------- Guitars: Ibanez AM-200, Ibanez GB-10, Fender Stratocaster Classic Player, Warmouth Custom Built, Suhr Classic Strat, Gibson Les Paul Standard 2003, Ibanez steel-string Amps: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Marshall JMP 2103, AER 60 Effects: BOSS DD-20, Danelectro Trans. Overdrive, TC-Electronics G-Major, Dunlop Wah-wah, Original SansAmp, BOSS DD-2 Music by Staffy can be found at: Staffay at MySpace |
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Aug 15 2010, 05:48 PM
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QUOTE (Staffy @ Aug 15 2010, 04:16 PM) ... Also the engineer finds Pro-Tools HD too bad(!) so he uses an Otari digital device which shall have a better clock and hence a better sound. (he has Pro Tools HD as well...) ... I'd agree with him Staffay. the AD/DA on PT-HD was good when it first came out but is nothing like best in class nowadays both in terms of jitter and resolution. QUOTE The question here is really: Do I need all those fancy stuff to make a decent recording? Of course not, since the general public cannot differ a home-recording from a professional product anyway, due to several reasons. On the other side of the coin - if You want to sound the possible, then its worth the money. Absolutely. It's kind of worth remembering that a lot of classic records pre 1980 were made on what we might see as basic kit, particularly wrt track count. QUOTE ...I also liked the comment bout the fact that a lot of studios goes down the drain - thats reality, since most people cannot afford to make a professional recording and the "pro-sumer" devices has become available to everyone thanks to digital technique. I ran a semi-professional studio back in the 80'ths, and we never made any serious money out of that. I think its very hard to make a living out of this, unless You have very good contacts and some labels You are working with. ... //Staffay Again agree Staffay. It's possible to make a living but it really helps if you're already established and have return clients. Too many expect us to work for very little, or for free, and don't seem aware of how much it costs to set up and run a studio (of any type). On the other side of the coin though our experience is that the big labels are a pain to work for in terms of paying their bills. Small independent labels and individuals nearly always pay up on time, big labels need a lot of chasing. -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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Aug 16 2010, 09:40 AM
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Just quickly (got to go and talk to someone about his recording)...
If you're setting yourself up in the UK as an indie label and producer you need to register yourself . Go here, the PRS are the UK ones who can both help you and who also will register you. give you an ISRC and help with performance rights management.
-------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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Aug 16 2010, 11:06 AM
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Awesome
 Can't wait to see some more pictures! Good luck man
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Aug 16 2010, 12:24 PM
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 Theres another pic of the vocal booth -------------------- Mexican Fender Stractocaster
Vox VT100 Line 6 Flextone iii Vox VFS5 Footswitch Boss Tu-3 |
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