Help me choose components for my first home studio

  • Thread starter Thread starter Econ
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Many records were tracked with a Mackie and then mixed with high dollar stuff
 
My 2 cents is amps are hard to both track and monitor using mics if you don’t have the space and isolation. If the monitors and amp share common air it is going to be hard to get consistent results that beat a commercial IR for a variety of reasons. If the setup were different maybe not but here it seems to be the cheapest, simplest, quickest.

People can disagree but I think it makes sense to use the waza and start there and expand more if needed. If you get the Apollo you always have the option to mic guitars (acoustic or electric) and then you can use the onboard preamps to juice the mics. Grab an SM57 and an MD421 for electrics and a good condenser for acoustics and you’re gold.

Regardless check out the pimped out Mac Pro from OWC grab some monitors you like to listen to, grab a UA and have fun.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Im always intrigued by the Mac draw...but my wife just dropped a ton of cash on an iMac and said i could use it for " some music stuff" so maybe we will see what the hype is all about
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It's definitely a "personal" thing. I can't say with "certainty" the Apple line up is "better" for music than the PC lineup; although there does seem to a be a lot of Apple within the music world - production, engineering, everything.

In my case?? It's "my ecosystem" - everything I do I do with Apple products; and when T-Bolt came out years ago I was like "fkn rights!!" for latency and whatnot. Apple caters more to the music demographic, likely because they're "one" company over many "PC-platform based companies" - ever since GarageBand was rolled out as part of their OS, and hey, they were the first to have mobile MP3 players - the "original" iPod - Apple just "knew" music was a definite niche to home in on. Does it make 'em better?? Can't say - to each their own. But for me?? I can't imagine using anything but Apple to run my shit.
 
If you go the closet route, you are going to need much MUCH more than just rockwool panels inside of it . Isolation costs money, and it’s the only way to do it right. You need to build basically a room within a room. Frame out the interior room with a 6 inch air gap on all 6 sides of the room, and then float the floor. You will absolutely need to do this, especially with amps that have low end like yours. This is what I am doing in my new place, and during construction I had a chase put in that goes out of main control room into the closet through the ceiling, to run all my cables etc. get yourself the Dynamount robot mic system, and you will be in guitar recording heaven.

Do not skimp on conversion, it absolutely matters despite what YouTube idiots say.


Plan for more than you think for everything: number of channels, the size of your desk/rack space, cpu power etc. if you get the recording bug bad you’ll end up changing your mind 47 times on exactly what you wanna build and how etc , trust me. So plan for more of everything.


Get a good loadbox: skip the two notes, go with st rock, or the driftwood loadbox, my favorite. The two notes stuff is just not as good period, the impedence curves are completely wrong.

Good headphones are a good idea: try the shure SRH 940 series, they are the best under 1500 bucks by a mile in my opinion.

Treat the room appropriately as said earlier.
 
Ventura said:
aw c'mon man...that's just too "blanket" a statement.
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I’ve shown tons of clips comparing them. It’s not even close. Same DI tracks, same cab IR, same volume. The driftwood destroyed it. This has been talked about numerous times lately. Sure, it’s all opinion, I’m just saying no one I’ve shown the clips to ever prefers the two notes, not even close.
 
Ah the Two Notes argument once again. I won't partake, but will offer a 'solution' that somewhat gets around the cab miking situation for tracking - just record a DI of all your parts whilst using an amp sim. Once they're all done, mic up your cab as loud as you want, then run the DI tracks through them. You're making neighbour/wife annoying noise for 20mins rather than hours of looking for that great take.
 
Studio gear is worse money pit then guitars & amps. It really comes down to budget and what you want to achieve.

I’m more of a PC - RME guy, but otherwise some great great recommendations for gear here already.

If I could do it all over again I would start with the most unglamorous recommendation here, Room Treatment.
After fighting with my room for 5 years , hanging blankets and using a reflection filter for vocals ,
Truly, room treatment made a much bigger difference in the sound quality than any of the $$$$$ gear, night & day.

Plan for 2” rock wool wall panels hung around the room , it’ll work wonders, even if you just want to enjoy music through your monitors.
The smaller the room the more you’ll need.

If you want to do more than guitars ,
I’d also recommend the below , so you can begin to work on your skills.
Start with the 57 then get the others as budget allows.

1 large diaphragm condenser (many choices - perhaps rode NT1 to start… skys the limit)
1 stereo pair of small diaphragm condensers (many choices- Beyer MC930’s are very good for the $)
2 K&M 210/9 mic stands
2 dynamics 57 and 421 or 441
As recommended above, 1 decent mic pre (many choices - Aurora Audio or Great River are killer)

Remember, talent, time and skill are the biggest factors.
 
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It really depends on what your going to do with it. If your just doing guitar stuff versus complete songs/ band mix.
 
I do my own recordings and use Reaper, direct recording technique, and use EZDrummer, etc. I say that to just emphasize that you can go as cheap or expensive and still have success. Just have fun with your project!
 
ZEN Amps said:
Ah the Two Notes argument once again. I won't partake, but will offer a 'solution' that somewhat gets around the cab miking situation for tracking - just record a DI of all your parts whilst using an amp sim. Once they're all done, mic up your cab as loud as you want, then run the DI tracks through them. You're making neighbour/wife annoying noise for 20mins rather than hours of looking for that great take.
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So funny, i didnt even think of this. Im obsessed with wanting to mic but the noise is a huge factor. Di through a sim or even using torpedo with a di box for clean signal in is a fantastic idea. When wife takes the kids somewhere boom! Hit it hard. Also bennefits the tone in a more open room with moving blankets around the cab so some aur can escape..
 
Yep if you get your reamp setup working well the amp won't respond any differently to that of the guitar signal. I mean it could be 5% hotter or cooler but like that matters, you can tweak things as you please. It's kinda nice, it separates the performance from the engineering.
 
ZEN Amps said:
Yep if you get your reamp setup working well the amp won't respond any differently to that of the guitar signal. I mean it could be 5% hotter or cooler but like that matters, you can tweak things as you please. It's kinda nice, it separates the performance from the engineering.
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When I have A/B d an original take with a reamp later it is as youn described, maybe a tad cooler but so close and with the advantage of cranking the amp more later that it doesn't even matter. You need to be organized though. Get everything done and have edits/ punch ins done so that you arent constantly reamping for the same song.
 
panhead said:
Many records were tracked with a Mackie and then mixed with high dollar stuff
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What records would those be? I was eyeing one of these older 24 channel analog mackies that go for 300 bucks. I would imagine there being far too much noise in the cheaper analog mixers for it to have been a reliable source for pro recordings.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
What records would those be? I was eyeing one of these older 24 channel analog mackies that go for 300 bucks. I would imagine there being far too much noise in the cheaper analog mixers for it to have been a reliable source for pro recordings.
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Failure did Fantasic Planet on a mackie which is one of my favorite sounding albums ever
 
Cry of Love and COC I personally know but that was the go to mixer at one time to two inch tape. Then it would get mixed on Neve or APi or Trident etc. Only bands that had stupid budgets would go high dollar from the get go.
 
Mackie made a high dollar automated board you couldnt just buy it anywhere and it seems AC DC tracked Stiff upper lip with it. I read about it in a mackie article years ago.
 
if i was completely new to recording i wouldnt go off buying a ton of stuff, id buy a 2i2 or some $50 cheap interface, a 57 and download reaper for free and just start learning, then once you get the gist of whats going on youll have more an idea of what you want gear wise, and honestly for just guitars any decent interface and a 57 is all you need. check out this video at 34 minutes, if this dosent prove you dont need a bunch of expensive bullshit i dont know what does

 
Worth noting that external preamps get used a hell of a lot on records when only budget mixers are available. So everything important could go through Neves and API's whilst the accordion and kazoo go through the Mackie.... take what you read with an entire sack of salt.
 
Agreee with zen above once again. Spend some cash on a few quality preamps. That was the best thing I ever did for my recording chain, was buy 2 BAE 1073 clones. It’s only the last 20 percent of creating an amazing tone, but that last 20 percent weighs just as heavily as the first 80 percent, if that makes any sense. 100 percent worth it, zero buyers remorse unlike anything else I’ve ever purchased with that one. If you go 1073 style, don’t buy one with the eq, you simply don’t need it on the way in for guitars or bass. It’s far too broad. It sounds amazing yes, but not needed at all. If you have to do such broad strokes with a neve style eq on the way in on guitars, something is wrong with the setup upstream of the preamp. The BAE 1073 without EQ is about a grand new, the eq version is 3k… you don’t need it.
 
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