I'm not usually one to ask for this, but I really need some input from you guys on this:
I respect and trust many of your opinions and thoughts!
I'm essentially a smalltime producer, recording demos etc. However, I've now jumped league a bit and I'm doing a professional album, with a reasonable budget, for a major label.
You may want to look at what I've done up to now, and the gear I own - www.stakeoutstudios.com
This is my own studio, although I have worked in others.
I have a £20,000 to spend on studio gear to do this album. I'm in the UK, but looking at ordering most stuff from the states.
I'm recording a rock act so the gear's targetted towards that.
here's what I've come up with so far - sensible choices for the cash?
1. 3x Universal Audio UAD1 Plugin Processing Cards
http://www.mackie.com/uad1
I have one of these in my system already. You can run up to four of these cards in your system, the more cards you have, the more plugins you can run. This means we’re not limited by the machine and can do whatever we want with the sound.
2. 1x M-Audio Delta 1010
http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/delt1010.php
I have one of these already. Adding a second card doubles my inputs into the computer and leaves more options open for recording additional microphone sources etc. (I had two at one point, but one got involved in an accident recently!)
3. Manley VoxBox Valve Mic Preamp/Compressor/EQ
http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/D466F4007E5AFC8A86256634006FB1FD
Absolute top of the range, best possible quality microphone preamp. We could use this on almost everything it’s so versatile. The sound quality from this box will be pretty much unbeatable by any mixer. The only issue is that it is only one channel.
4. Manley 16:2 16 Channel Mic Preamp/Mixer
http://www.manleylabs.com/reviews/AM_Manley_16x2_Mixer_review.html
16 channels of amazing noiseless mic pre-amps without valves. Neutral and completely crystal clear sound. Shortest possible signal path means best audio quality.
This will be useful when tracking drums, strings, etc.
5. Universal Audio 2-610 Valve Mic Preamps
http://industryclick.com/magazinearticle.asp?magazineid=141&releaseid=9652&magazinearticleid=135207&siteid=15
http://www.uaudio.com/pdf/1656-PAR-Universal-Audio.pdf
Another mic preamp. This time with two channels and a more obvious valve sound. This would be especially fat sounding on Drum overhead microphones guitars, snare drums. Anything you want to sound big.
6. Mackie HR 824 Powered Speakers
http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/1F51E9BEC181E26F86256AE100131216
http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/1997_articles/nov97/mackiehr824.html
My speakers are cool, and they work (most the time) but having a second pair, especially a professional set of monitors such as these will help me to get the mix sounding perfect on any stereo system.
7. 3x Sennheiser MD421 Microphones
Great microphone for toms, also brilliant for snare drums and all sorts.
8. Korby Convertible (four capsules - C12, C251, U47, U67 + two bases)
http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/B930EC06096B4FC186256C190079B5B6
These microphones take some explaining. Essentially it’s one base with four microphone capsules. Each capsule has a totally different, completely usable sound. Each is hand made, ear tuned, and amazing quality. The best microphones you can buy. If you have one base you can use one microphone at a time. With two bases, you can use two at a time. Each capsule is essentially an emulation of vintage Neumann and AKG microphones, which can no longer be bought, except at auction for thousands each.
9. Rode NTK
http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/60D13B8C0E0AFA5986256A1D005425AB
I have one of these microphones. They may be fairly cheap, but are a fantastic all rounder, and a pair would be outstanding for drum overheads and more. They sound huge, and this microphone is a main component of my setup at the moment.
10. AMD Athlon XP 3200+ CPU
The UAD1 cards upgrade one side of my processing and plugins, a new CPU upgrades the other. This means the whole machine will respond faster, we’ll have more options for effects and have more creative options.
11. Eizo L565 17" Flat Panel TFT Screen
Having a flat screen is more of a working luxury – it can go behind the mixer and gives me a much more centralized working area. It’ll make longs days at the studio much easier.
12. Acoustic Treatments
This means buying acoustic foam and sticking it to panels that can be suspended and removed in the live room. Changing the acoustics will give us the ability to dramatically change the drum and string sounds from track to track.
13. Beyer M81 1950's microphone
This microphone has a big warm sound, but is much more lo-fi than the other microphones I own. It would be great for specific vocal tracks, backing vocals, strings and a whole variety of things. It’s simply another sonic texture.
14. Shure Beta 52 kick drum mic
I already own a 1952 AKG D12 microphone which is great for the most part, big fat and warm. However, this mic would be immensely useful for the heavier parts of the album. The sound is much more modern, present and in your face. I’ve used them before.
15. Telefunken TD25 old vintage mic
A real old lo-fi mic for little parts of the album – thinner guitar parts, backing vocals… quite retro sounding. Another texture that could be used.
16. Microphone Mounts
Clip on holders, to hold mics near drums and some low stands to get to places I couldn’t get mics to otherwise.
17. Cables
Pretty essential – to hook up all the new gear!
18. Rackmounts
A customized cabinet will be built to hold all of this gear in sensible workable positions.
19. Shipping Costs
total: Total £ 19,546.00 (some second hand, mostly ordered from the states.)
---------------------------------
Now I haven't had experience with a lot of this gear, so I'd like advice from people who have especially!
I also have another issue - my present studio lacks decent mic pres. Crikey - I'm still using a Behringer MX8000.
While I appreciate it's not the best sound, monitoring etc is easy. I'm concerned about how I will be able to work without Auto-Input, and use mic-pres to their best ability.
The key point is - this stuff all has to be integrated into a workable environment, using Vegas 4.
I'm also curious as to the best ideas for monitoring using what I've chosen.
For example - The Manley Voxbox has a pre-EQ and a post-EQ out. Should I send the preEQ to the MX8000 for monitoring, and the post EQ straight to the soundcard?
I don't even know if that's a stupid thing to say.
What about using a patchbay to split outputs - one to soundcard, one to the desk? I've seen this done before, I just don't know if it's the best option.
Or should I attempt to use some kind of digital monitoring - I.E. set the M-Audio delta 1010's to mirror it's inputs to outputs, and monitor the outputs throught the MX8000.
basically the MX8000 would be a big headphone mixer, and I want to avoid running any signals through it's circuitry for anything other than that.
I'm in over my head here... and I could really do with some advice.
thanks guys,
Jason
I respect and trust many of your opinions and thoughts!
I'm essentially a smalltime producer, recording demos etc. However, I've now jumped league a bit and I'm doing a professional album, with a reasonable budget, for a major label.
You may want to look at what I've done up to now, and the gear I own - www.stakeoutstudios.com
This is my own studio, although I have worked in others.
I have a £20,000 to spend on studio gear to do this album. I'm in the UK, but looking at ordering most stuff from the states.
I'm recording a rock act so the gear's targetted towards that.
here's what I've come up with so far - sensible choices for the cash?
1. 3x Universal Audio UAD1 Plugin Processing Cards
http://www.mackie.com/uad1
I have one of these in my system already. You can run up to four of these cards in your system, the more cards you have, the more plugins you can run. This means we’re not limited by the machine and can do whatever we want with the sound.
2. 1x M-Audio Delta 1010
http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/delt1010.php
I have one of these already. Adding a second card doubles my inputs into the computer and leaves more options open for recording additional microphone sources etc. (I had two at one point, but one got involved in an accident recently!)
3. Manley VoxBox Valve Mic Preamp/Compressor/EQ
http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/D466F4007E5AFC8A86256634006FB1FD
Absolute top of the range, best possible quality microphone preamp. We could use this on almost everything it’s so versatile. The sound quality from this box will be pretty much unbeatable by any mixer. The only issue is that it is only one channel.
4. Manley 16:2 16 Channel Mic Preamp/Mixer
http://www.manleylabs.com/reviews/AM_Manley_16x2_Mixer_review.html
16 channels of amazing noiseless mic pre-amps without valves. Neutral and completely crystal clear sound. Shortest possible signal path means best audio quality.
This will be useful when tracking drums, strings, etc.
5. Universal Audio 2-610 Valve Mic Preamps
http://industryclick.com/magazinearticle.asp?magazineid=141&releaseid=9652&magazinearticleid=135207&siteid=15
http://www.uaudio.com/pdf/1656-PAR-Universal-Audio.pdf
Another mic preamp. This time with two channels and a more obvious valve sound. This would be especially fat sounding on Drum overhead microphones guitars, snare drums. Anything you want to sound big.
6. Mackie HR 824 Powered Speakers
http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/1F51E9BEC181E26F86256AE100131216
http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/1997_articles/nov97/mackiehr824.html
My speakers are cool, and they work (most the time) but having a second pair, especially a professional set of monitors such as these will help me to get the mix sounding perfect on any stereo system.
7. 3x Sennheiser MD421 Microphones
Great microphone for toms, also brilliant for snare drums and all sorts.
8. Korby Convertible (four capsules - C12, C251, U47, U67 + two bases)
http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/B930EC06096B4FC186256C190079B5B6
These microphones take some explaining. Essentially it’s one base with four microphone capsules. Each capsule has a totally different, completely usable sound. Each is hand made, ear tuned, and amazing quality. The best microphones you can buy. If you have one base you can use one microphone at a time. With two bases, you can use two at a time. Each capsule is essentially an emulation of vintage Neumann and AKG microphones, which can no longer be bought, except at auction for thousands each.
9. Rode NTK
http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/60D13B8C0E0AFA5986256A1D005425AB
I have one of these microphones. They may be fairly cheap, but are a fantastic all rounder, and a pair would be outstanding for drum overheads and more. They sound huge, and this microphone is a main component of my setup at the moment.
10. AMD Athlon XP 3200+ CPU
The UAD1 cards upgrade one side of my processing and plugins, a new CPU upgrades the other. This means the whole machine will respond faster, we’ll have more options for effects and have more creative options.
11. Eizo L565 17" Flat Panel TFT Screen
Having a flat screen is more of a working luxury – it can go behind the mixer and gives me a much more centralized working area. It’ll make longs days at the studio much easier.
12. Acoustic Treatments
This means buying acoustic foam and sticking it to panels that can be suspended and removed in the live room. Changing the acoustics will give us the ability to dramatically change the drum and string sounds from track to track.
13. Beyer M81 1950's microphone
This microphone has a big warm sound, but is much more lo-fi than the other microphones I own. It would be great for specific vocal tracks, backing vocals, strings and a whole variety of things. It’s simply another sonic texture.
14. Shure Beta 52 kick drum mic
I already own a 1952 AKG D12 microphone which is great for the most part, big fat and warm. However, this mic would be immensely useful for the heavier parts of the album. The sound is much more modern, present and in your face. I’ve used them before.
15. Telefunken TD25 old vintage mic
A real old lo-fi mic for little parts of the album – thinner guitar parts, backing vocals… quite retro sounding. Another texture that could be used.
16. Microphone Mounts
Clip on holders, to hold mics near drums and some low stands to get to places I couldn’t get mics to otherwise.
17. Cables
Pretty essential – to hook up all the new gear!
18. Rackmounts
A customized cabinet will be built to hold all of this gear in sensible workable positions.
19. Shipping Costs
total: Total £ 19,546.00 (some second hand, mostly ordered from the states.)
---------------------------------
Now I haven't had experience with a lot of this gear, so I'd like advice from people who have especially!
I also have another issue - my present studio lacks decent mic pres. Crikey - I'm still using a Behringer MX8000.
While I appreciate it's not the best sound, monitoring etc is easy. I'm concerned about how I will be able to work without Auto-Input, and use mic-pres to their best ability.
The key point is - this stuff all has to be integrated into a workable environment, using Vegas 4.
I'm also curious as to the best ideas for monitoring using what I've chosen.
For example - The Manley Voxbox has a pre-EQ and a post-EQ out. Should I send the preEQ to the MX8000 for monitoring, and the post EQ straight to the soundcard?
I don't even know if that's a stupid thing to say.
What about using a patchbay to split outputs - one to soundcard, one to the desk? I've seen this done before, I just don't know if it's the best option.
Or should I attempt to use some kind of digital monitoring - I.E. set the M-Audio delta 1010's to mirror it's inputs to outputs, and monitor the outputs throught the MX8000.
basically the MX8000 would be a big headphone mixer, and I want to avoid running any signals through it's circuitry for anything other than that.
I'm in over my head here... and I could really do with some advice.
thanks guys,
Jason