Thanks everyone. I suppose my biggest problem is that I WANT ALL THESE GOODIES NOW. I guess that makes me a nympho slut. And I suppose I should have more patience with it, especially considering the price tag. I really appreciate everyone's advice. I think the best advice I've ever gotten on this topic is right here, and that's "wait! cool your head! put the studio together piece by piece."
Here's more of the back story. My wife and I are purchasing our first home, and we've been living in a cramped and miserable basement for quite some time. But luckily for us (and no one else apparently), the housing market fell, and now we're able to afford a 4 bedroom single family home. We haven't begun moving in yet, but since it's just going to be us, and with no kids to worry about, we'll have lots of room for us both to play. She's an avid reader, so she's getting a library. I'm a musician, so I'm getting a functional recording studio.
But since I haven't moved in yet, I'm not entirely sure of the acoustic properties of the room yet. All I know is that it's standard height ceilings, which I'll have to deal with for the time being. That's part of the reason why mobility sounds like it might be a good option, for remote drum recording purposes, at least until I can figure out a way to build an addition onto the house to work as a drum room with 16 feet high ceilings....but the good thing beyond the ceiling height is that the room should be plenty big enough for all the gear, and then some.
When it comes to getting the stuff I'll need, I'm going to try to save every penny. In this economy Ebay is a godsend.
Warhead, currently I have a uber ghetto set up. It's really depressing. I literally have no room for anything better until the move. It consists of a Lexicon Omega, Cubase LE software, My old "I think I can" PC, a Studio Projects VTB-1 (which judging from the noise I've been getting, needs a new preamp tube) a Behringer Composer Pro-XL that I regret buying, a Lexicon MPX 100, and a really lousy DOD graphic EQ. The good news is that the Lexicon and the DOD were free. For monitors I'm using a 2.1 Logitech laptop system. Yeh, I know. Like I said, I got no room for anything else for the time being. Mics ain't nothing special. Nothing more than a Beta 52, a few SM57s, a Sennheiser e609, and an AKG perception P.O.S. In short, no gems here, just a few standards, and an AKG disappointment.
Ibvee, no offense taken. I'm not exactly a noob, but I'm not exactly experienced either. I've done live sound for about 10 years. Done an album or two in a real studio with my band. The albums I've done on my own are my solo projects, and a few friends that no one's ever heard of, and I wouldn't call any of that work any good. Some of it, looking back, is downright scary. Oh well, live and learn. Given the junk I'm using, I'm getting significantly better results with each new project. But to get any better at this, I need better junk. I suppose you could say I've been doing this for 15 years, but that would count about 10 years of screwing with those Tascam cassette 4 tracks.
Speaking of better junk, does anyone have any experience with those highly expensive Universal Audio and Avalon mic pre's? Are they worth the cash? Anyone have an opinion on some of the pre's ART is putting out?