Home Studio Setup - what is needed?

[Paul S]

I'm reposting this here - was in midi section, but seems like this area is covering this kind of topic

Hi All

I'm a complete newbie to this .... so please bear with me

I'm keen to set up a little studio at home - I want to be able to do the following:
- compose
- make arrangements and play back those arrangements with decent quaility
- record myself playing sax, either in isolation or as a track(s) on top of my arrangement
- burn CD for backing or demo purposes.

More amibtious ideas are include:
- recording entire bands - all together or as separate tracks and mixing/editing this to produce a professional quailty recording
- composing and producing music for commercial use (i.e. adverts, etc)

I am very computer literate, but ignorant on sequencers, samplers, midi, recording, mastering, mic's, synths, etc...

I would love to find a way to make music a career (just performing isn't viable here in South Africa) and suspect that I could be good at the above given a little direction. Right now, I am head of technology for the R&D unit of a mobile phone operator, but my hearts just not in it anymore - I need to start exploring my passion.....music.....don't mind if it takes me 5 years to get there, but gotta start somewhere right?

If anyone could suggest some good reading material on these subjects, I'd be most grateful

All i have at the moment is some saxes and a laptop? I figure I need the following:

- Studio software, like Cakewalk or Cubase?
- A PC with a good sound card (can i use the laptop?) with midi in and out?
- a decent mic - like a Shure?
- Midi keyboard - or do I need a workstation?

- do I need a external synth? or does cubase have its own software synth?

I know I'm biting off a lot here, but appreciate any help

cheers
Paul

[Rordog]

I've never tried recording with a laptop...well I've done some editing and simple mastering, but i've never done a full recording from start to finish on a laptop. I would suggest having a reall keyboard as opposed to a software synthe, mostly because it is my opinion that you can be far more expressive and realistic with touch sensetive keys rather than entering notes in via computer and trying to adjust velocities for realism. That approach works fine for electronic/techno-type music.

What about studeo monitors? surely you'll want to hear your music through something more than laptop speakers or ordinary PC speakers.
A mixer? You can do all level adjusting, equalization, effects, on the computer with the right software, but for me there is still something about turning knobs and pushing faders that give me much more realtime abilities. An effects unit is also important, as software effects are typically not all that good (especially reverbs) and use up a lot of computer processor; and the computer will have enough to do playing all the tracks, handling the midi, etc.

[Media Lint]

Suggest:

http://www.homerecording.com/ - Read the articles (they are typically simple but that's what you're looking for) and check out their forums.

If I start discussing the subject, I'm afraid I'll be accused of overkill! ;)

[bruce]

I have a very simple set up with my PC at home that let's me make demo CD's; CD's for gifts and also some play-along CD's for duets. I spent <$400 to get this working well (already had the PC).

I use a standard PC with a turtle beach soundcard. I use an inexpensive tube pre-amp from (ART? i think) and Shure SM-58 microphone on a floor stand.

For software I use PG Music's band-in-a-box and powertracks pro. For demo CD's, I enter the chords into biab and get the backing tracks sounding good. This backing track can then be imported into powertracks as a stereo wav file. I can then record my playing on a second track, do punch-ins, make duets with myself, etc. I monitor the backing tracks through headphones during the recording. These tracks can then be mixed down and recorded onto a CD-R.

I'm a beginner sax player but this has been a lot of fun to record myself and take note of both my progress and areas to work on.

[Bloo Dog]

Tascam makes a digital ministudio which will allow you to record, overdub, pingpong--- all to a CDRW. You will need a stereo for playback through speakers. These things are incredibly inexpensive, lightweight and highly portable high- quality machines. They are quite capable outfits for making demos. There are inputs for all types of microphones and they will accommodate probably any effects peripherals you'd want to use.

There are several models from four track to thirty-two track outfits. I have an eight channel unit which uses old technology-- the cassette.
I bought mine used on ebay last year, and when I got it, I thought "whoa. This is a toy!"

Compared to what recording equipment looked like fifteen years ago, the Tascam stuff looks more like what you might expect from Fisher-Price! Until I learned how to use it, I couldn't believe that it could do all the things which the specs said it could do. I love my Tascam. I'll probably move up to the digital when I get the pennies saved up. Digital is so much better than tape.

Do a search on Google for Tascam and check out what's out there. The specs are easily found on the machine that appeals to you. For new recording equipment, I have found that B&H Photo and Video in NYC has the best realistic prices and charges actual cost on shipping.

[Morry]

A friend of mine has Digidesign's Digi 001 PC/hard drived based studio, and it is very cool. It is a subset of ProTools, which is being used in major studios all over the world.

Here is a link:

http://www.digidesign.com/products/digi001/

[alsdiego]

If you want to start off with a very small investment, here's what I did, and the results in terms of audio quality are excellent:

- Tascam 404 cassette 4 track recorder (about $150 on ebay)

- adapter cables to go from portable cd player to Tascam (to input Aebersold playalong background tracks, etc.) - $10.

- Audio Technica "karaoke" mike (about $20.00) at Fry's or Circuit City) for recording your sax.

- "Cool Edit" Software for your PC ($70.00).

With the above equipment/software you can record yourself over a stereo background track (use studio quality cassette tape). Then you can output the cassette to "mixdown" software, Cooledit, by connecting the Tascam to the "line in" jack on a cheapo sound card (I use a Soundblaster AWE 64). The Cooledit software can save the resulting digital file as an mp3, wav, or other file type. AND THE QUALITY ISN'T BAD AT ALL!

Garage bands have been doing this for a long time.

Just some more ideas.

Al

[alsdiego]

One more thing, if you want to upgrade the above cheapo setup, the first thing I would invest in is a quality microphone appropriate for instrument pickup... I use a Shure 57 (about $100), and the difference in audio quality from the karaoke mike is astounding :lol:

Al

[Paul S]

Hi All :)

I'm getting there .....my setup now looks like this

PIII 700 512 MB Ram
M-Audio Delta 44 soundcard (4-in,4-out)
Alto 8 channel mixer (with 5 mic pre-amps)
Shure Sm57 mic
Evolution Midi keyboard (usb or midi to PC)

Software:
-BIAB
- Sonar 2.2 demo (need to get a full version - maybe even homestudio? Can one record multiple concurrent tracks with this version?)
-Fruity loops 3.0

I'm still a little confused by how to work with the mixer - at the moment I just have my mic into one of the pre-amps and the main output or phones output of the mixer into the soundcard. This works fine.. but means that the signal coming out of the mixer is "set". Is it possible to have individual outputs from each channel of the mixer go into individual In's of the soundcard - I could then keep them as separate tracks inside sonar?

I hope to share the results with you soon :)

[Giganova]

hey Paul,

your setup looks good so far. Check out Ntracks if you need a free recording software. Also, if you are serious that you want to record demos, you need a decent mic and a mic pre-amp! Your sax will sound ultra-tinny on the SM57. Its not suited for sax! Also, a decent mic pre-amp will further improve your sound significantly.

You might also need a mixer that has direct outputs for each track, so you can record individual tracks seperately on your sequencer. Right now you are only recording the merged stereo output.

I know it sounds tough, but you need to invest more buxx so you can seriously record. You're almost there, though!

[Paul S]

giganova - thanks for the feedback and encouragement :)

I will check out ntracks - thanks. I've been using sonar 2.2 demo and like it - just don't want to shell out the $$'s (especially when converted into South African Rands!)

I bought the SM57 so that i'd have a "decent" mic for performance and could get started in the studio. I am keeping my eyes open for a decent used condenser mic and will look at getting a good pre-amp when i have some more cash. Any suggestions? is the Audio buddy ok or do i need to take a step up to a dmp3 or even a tube?

I used a rode nt1 on a session the other day - i thought that was pretty great, but then my experience is limited.

The mixer i have is a real cheapo - Alto s-8, but it does work. I can get 4 outputs by using the main output and aux output .... and panning hard left/right on the channels. Just figured this out last night - is this practice sound? or am i looking for problems?

take care 8)