Solid foundation?

[jelloyacket]

Our church built a new worship center, and part of that was a recording suite (control room, iso booth, larger recording space). It doesn't have any gear in it yet. We'd like to be able to record up to 48 channels simultaneously, then mix it down later for TV broadcast or to put on DVD. (Our video editing area is adjacent, so we've got data ties and video feed.) In addition, we want to be able to record interviews for radio. Last, we want to have a quality studio environment. Our total budget is about $40k.

Another guy and I have worked on putting together a shopping list to get us to a basic functionality point (versatile, expandable gear). Then we want to start demoing the higher-end gear before we buy it. Here's the list; please let me know if you think any of it would be holding us back from having a decent studio:

Core System:
Sweetwater CS Rack XT computer
Nuendo
Waves Gold plug-in bundle
Mackie Control Universal Pro + Extender (maybe 2)
SSL Mixpander 5
SSL Alpha-Link AX
Antelope OCX-V (so we can clock with the video)

Mics:
Mojave MA-200
AKG C414 BXL II
(2) EV RE20
a pair of SDCs (thinking about KM184s, right now)
SM57's, SM58's, and a D112 from our main auditorium

Preamps:
(3) Presonus Digimax LT (24 pres, over ADAT to the Alpha-Link)
(1) nicer 8-ch pre (thinking ISA828 or Precision 8)

Monitoring:
(2) JBL LSR4328
JBL LSR4312SP
HD280Pro 'phones and Presonus HP4 amps for the musicians

Other Stuff:
Radial JDI Duplex and JDV
iLok
Monster AVS2000 voltage stabilizer
Monster PRO3500 power conditioner
Monster and Apogee digital cables
Mogami analog cables

With our budget, this will give us about $7k remaining to spend on:
a ribbon mic (looking at Woodpecker, R-121, and R84)
preamps (interested in Pacifica, MP-2A, ADL-600, 2-610, or a 1073 remake)
compressor (interested in Portico 5043, AD2044, 2-1176)
cables for more connections

Any thoughts on this list would be much appreciated. I'm a relative newbie to all this, so I wanted to pick your brains before we go spending a big chunk of money. Thanks!

Forgot to mention: the three rooms have decent acoustic treatment. They're not anechoic chambers, but they don't do too bad either.

[The Byre]

If you go down the Nuendo route, you will always have to have a person who understands DAWs running the system. Churches, by their very nature, are run by volunteers and they will not always be DAW savvy, so I would spend the DAW money on Radar, which can be run by absolutely anybody.

My experience with churches, youth centres and the like, has been that if one enthusiast goes out and buys a shed load of stuff that only he or she understands, when he or she leaves, all that gear just gathers dust until it is no longer of any use and gets junked and thousands of Dollars / Pounds / Euros wasted!

Add a used desk and a couple of outboard units and perhaps a PC for simple mastering tasks, using sonic foundry and you are home and dry for less money and more use for everybody.

[jelloyacket]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not really familiar with the Radar systems, though it looks like 24 channels is the max if we wanted to keep it relatively affordable (without an external mixer we couldn't do services). I'll run your concerns by the other guy working on it (he's got more experience with this stuff than I do, anyway). Looks like the Radar would work pretty slick for recording podcasts and interviews, though, as well as music that doesn't require a lot of tracks. We were planning on putting together some macros or scripts or something for the uninitiated, if we go with a DAW system.

We do have a 40-channel Allen & Heath desk that we could use for outboard mixing; we normally run about 32 channels during services. Right now, the sound tech mixes both the live service and a separate bus to CD to go with the video feeds. As you might guess, the CD mixes end up being pretty sub-par. I guess the problem is manpower. We're planning on hiring a sound engineer to take care of the studio and also make sure our other sound systems are in tip-top shape. Even with that, trying to get two decent sound techs there every Sunday would be a tall order, but that's what we'd have to do without a large track count.

A couple other considerations we've had that steered us in the direction we've been going: we want to have a studio that could be used by people other than just us. We have plenty of bands that come for concerts; if we had a recording facility they could do live recordings. It could be made available to local bands needing a studio; there isn't a lot of selection around here.

Thanks again for your input. Usage by non-technical people is one of our concerns.

[The Byre]

I must say that I looked at the latest prices for Radar and "Ouch!"

Cheap and good is Soundscape and a complete system should set you back just $6k inc. two monitors and the PC. It has 32 IOs (16 at 96kHz) and uses a mixfarm card similar to ProTools.

The use of Nuendo means that some others that would otherwise have used the studio will not like it, but that is true for all systems, excpet perhaps Radar and ProTools HD. Soundscape is easy to learn and quick to use and is the core of the SSL Alpha Link you are looking at.

For $6k the new Tascam 48-track recorder might fit the bill, though I have not tried it yet - I shall soon!

I wouldn't wory about esoteric name-brand cable like Monster, just good quality audio cable is every bit as good. The same goes for power conditiuoners and voltage stabilisers. Unless you life in an area where you get black-outs and brown-outs freaquently, the regular mains is good enough if everything is earthed (grounded) properly. If you do have problems, these Mickey Mouse boxes from Monster and the like do not help and you will need an on-line UPS.

I would keep my powder dry on mics and pre-amps until you have had a chance to actually hear them and use them in anger. Ebay is full of wonderful old mics like the AKG D202 which are lightyears better than the SM57s and 8s of this World!

There is further, general advice about the nuts and bolts of running a studio at audiotalk.org - though nothing specific about doing so for a church.

[Snatchman]

I definately agree about not getting too of a sophisicated Daw system and the volunteers comment. I've done many consultation installs for churches and there was always problems in the long run. People are in/out of churches( for whatever reason...) and as soon as someone becomes familiar with the system, they are up and gone! The church now has the struggle of trying to operate until someone else " steps-up" and learn the system. Radar is a good choice. For ease of use, maybe (2) Alesis HD24-XRs ( 48 tracks)..As far as your choice of pre-amps ( LTs), maybe consider a Lunchbox ( or two...).. route instead to compliment your Allen and Heath which in my opinion will do the job as well as the LTs...(YMMV).. I think it will serve you better in the long run.. Just me tho'.. Good luck....