Mobile Recording From Scratch For £20k (I know! I know!)

[rich robinson]

I hate doing this but I could use some second opinions on this one. Have some fun with it...

background:
The rig will not be my own. I'm spec'ing this for the people I work for. It will be used on a site where there are two music venues (one being a large hall due to be acoustically treated for classical music, plays and other general theatre stuff), a 5-room rehearsal facility and a load of cool empty buildings (including an old chapel) that can be used to record bands.

There are plans to convert one of the buildings into a residential studio, due to open in roughly 18 months. My superiors would like a "floating" system that can be used to record live shows, music workshops, presentations... right through to full band recordings in the mean time. The place is an engineers' wet dream. There's big wooden rooms, crazy big stair cases, right through to a frickin' chapel(!)... and a lot of them aren't getting any use as the site has only recently been acquired.

Requirements:
Must be Pro Tools based so sessions can be easily trasferred to the engineers' home systems and the studio they are planning to build on site.

Must be relatively easy to transport - I.e. In the back of your average car with the back seats down stylie.

Must have at least 16 channels mic pres & converters with enough outs to feed 5 discrete headphone mixes.

Must be expandable to 24 channels a few months down the road (or straight off the bat - not quite decided yet).

Must be new equipment. I know I could save thousands with a second hand PT rig but they aren't keen on that idea at all. (Hey, it's not my money were spending!)


Here's my initial list:


Computer: Total = £1940
1x Mac Pro Quad Core £1940
Configure - Apple Store (U.K.)

1x monitor display (they've already got some there)


PT Rig: Total = £6080
1x Pro Tools HD1 system £5430

1x Digi 96 i/o £1100 (approximately)



Front End: Total = £2817
1x Focusrite ISA 828 (8 channel mic pre) £1549
FOCUSRITE ISA 828 B STOCK MINT CONDITION FULL WARRANTY on eBay (end time 12-Apr-10 17:44:15 BST)

1x Focusrite ISA ADC card (converter for the 828) £489
Focusrite ISA 8-Channel ADC, ISA 428 and 828 - Ad Converters & Dac from Inta Audio UK

1x Audient ASP008 (8-channel mic pre feeding straight into the 96i/o line ins) £779
Audient ASP008 Mic Pre - Detailed item view - The AudioCooker - Premier Pro-Audio Equipment Store and Recording, Rehearsal Studio in Leeds, England.



Monitoring: Total = £1350
1x Presonus Central Station £477
PRESONUS CENTRAL STATION - U.K. International Cyberstore

1x Presonus HP60 (6-way headphone amp) £253
PRESONUS HP60 - U.K. International Cyberstore

4x Beyer DT-770M (quality closed-back monitoring headphones) £155 (£620)
BEYERDYNAMIC DT-770 M - U.K. International Cyberstore



Stands: Total = £429.38
6x K&M 210/2 Schwarz (tall boom stands) £31.84 (£191.04)
K&M 210/2 SCHWARZ - U.K. International Cyberstore

6x K&M 25905 (short boom stand) £25.47 (£152.82)
K&M 25905 - U.K. International Cyberstore

2x Superlux MS 200 £42.76 (£85.52)
SUPERLUX MS 200 - U.K. International Cyberstore



Cables: Total = £690
1x The Loudest multicore (24-way 30m) £184
Welcome to TheLoudest.co.uk - 24-Way Snake (30 meters)

4x Cordial CFM 10 VK (jack extension cables for headphones) £10.74
CORDIAL CFM 10 VK - U.K. International Cyberstore

or

4x 10m Van Damme Stereo jack to stereo jack socket (NP3X - NJ3FC6C) £23.02 (£92.08)

Van Damme standard XLR Cables (NC3MXX - NC3FXX): (£353.34)
• 10x 5m £12.50 (£125)
• 10x 10m £16.06 (£160.6)
• 2x 30m £33.87 (£67.74)

1x Digisnake db25 – TRS Jack 4 (4 feet, 8 channel, d-sub to stereo jack) £60
DIGIDESIGN DB25 - TRS DIGISNAKE 4 - U.K. International Cyberstore

3x 20m jack-jack speaker cables £29.79 (£89.37)
PRO SNAKE 13220/20 LAUTSPRECHERKABEL - U.K. International Cyberstore



Cases: Total = £471.85
Flight case (for the Mac Pro) £144 Computer & laptop Case for Apple Mac Pro m 4

2U Flight case (headphone amp) £58.87
GATOR GR-2L - U.K. International Cyberstore

2x 4U Flight case (Pro Tools & Monitor Controller) & (Audient ASP008 & Focusrite ISA 828) £134.49 (£268.98)



Extra Bits & Pieces: Total = £43
1x K&M 23966 Popkiller XL £23
K&M 23966 POPKILLER XL - U.K. International Cyberstore

2x K&M 215 Reduction Thread £2
K&M 215M10 - U.K. International Cyberstore

2x K&M 215M10 Reduction Thread £2
K&M 215M10 - U.K. International Cyberstore

2x K&M 217 Reduction Thread £2
K&M 217 - U.K. International Cyberstore

2x 23550 (stereo bar) £8
K&M 23550 ERGÄNZUNGSSCHIENE - U.K. International Cyberstore



Mics: Total = £3407
1x Audix PD5A set (kick, snare 2 toms, floor tom) £721.18
AUDIX DP5-A DRUMKOFFER - U.K. International Cyberstore

1x AKG 451 (matched pair) £585
AKG C 451 B STEREO - U.K. International Cyberstore

2x Shure SM57 £94 (£188)
SHURE SM57LC - U.K. International Cyberstore

1x Oktava MK012 MSP6 (stereo pair) £378
OKTAVA MK 012 MSP6 MATCHED PAIR - U.K. International Cyberstore

1x Shure SM7B £342
SHURE SM 7 B STUDIOMIKRO - U.K. International Cyberstore

1x Beyer M201 £157
BEYERDYNAMIC M201TG - U.K. International Cyberstore

2x Sennheiser md421 £290 (£580)
SENNHEISER MD421U-2 - U.K. International Cyberstore

2x Beyer m260.80 £228 (£456)
BEYERDYNAMIC M 260.80 - U.K. International Cyberstore

This all comes to about £17,500 so I got some room to maneuver.

I'm aware that some of this stuff could be found cheaper elsewhere but I mainly used Thomann to get a quick ballpark figure at this stage.

I'm missing a pair of powered monitors and could possibly use another digi 96 i/o & 8 more pres sooner rather than later. I thought I'd throw it out there and see what you guys had to say about this spec. Alternative i/o options? Apogee? Lynx? Different choice of mics? Maybe a nicer set of condensers for recording classical stuff? I can't get too silly. I've got £20k to spend and I intend to stick to it. It's so easy to go over budget!

What would you change?

[audionut1d]

Rich,

I have some Mic suggestions for you, It will raise the price of your mic rig slightly but I think the trade off in the Classical realm will be pretty well worth it.

I suggest trading out the 451's or the Octavas for a matched pair of Earthworks SR30s. You should be able to find recordings on the Earthworks site to show you the difference between the two mics. I have 12 of the Earthworks (large live choir and orchestra recordings/reinforcement) and these mic are amazing when you need uncolored, accurate reproductions. They are great up close for spot micing most acoustic instruments and they also make for a wonderful sounding X/Y array. I have used them to mic Choirs and Orchestras with only two in X/Y they also sound great as overheads for a trap set (Also in X/Y) I would take these any day over vintage Neuman KM84s (Yes i have A/Bed the two). Overall I would say these are the most well rounded SDCs I have ever heard.

The other thing that I don't see in your setup is a LDC. If you are looking to record vocals you will probably want a good and versatile LDC. This also makes for a great room mic coupled with the Earthworks for classical so you can add in room to taste in the mix rather than having to struggle against it if you get a room that isn't tasty. I would look at ADK as they are tough mics that sound amazing. I own several and they all sound much better than the $s suggest. You might consider doing the Earthworks for a fixed pattern SDC and then a set of variable patter LDCs in place of the Octavas so you have a larger mic palate to choose from.

Your mic choices look good but with the classical aspect of what you are doing i really think you would benefit greatly from having the option to do either LDC or SDC and having at least one very high quality stereo pair for your main array. (The stereo pair over the conductors head will probably make up more than 60% of your mix even if you can close mic everything) I would really not skimp on this particular part of the setup and I think you will find these mics will be you Go To mics for stereo/unamplified mono sources on the more modern side as well)

Another suggestion on mics would be to re-examine your drum mic kit. Right now you are looking a a very specialized solution for drums mics (the audix setup). If you build your drum mic kit a mic at a time you can make it much more versatile as well. First off take a look at the Shure 98Betas for toms. They are condensers rather than a dynamic solution but will sound better for Jazz and classical trap and will also sound great for big modern drum sounds. You also get the added benifit of these mics being great on horns and low strings as close mics. (to supplement your great stereo pair). This is something you could never consider with the audix. At this point you have your choice of Kick mics, an RE20 for flexibility (it sounds great on Guitar amps, Bass amps as well as Voice over recording in addition to Kick) D112 which is also a great Bass amp mic the Shure Beta 52 (never used it) or the Audix that you had originally. Once again this may not be conventional but for a rig you want to do both classical and modern music with I think it is the best way to go. Last throw in an extra 57 or your choice for snare.

One other thing i noticed you where missing is a few good DIs. My personal choice here is passive Radials (any model will be awesome). Go passive in this department because passive boxes are problem solvers. You can abuse them in ways active boxes could never even dream of. (re-amping a guitar for instance - output you guitar tone from protools and run it backward, XLR in and 1/4 out, with the pad in line and then into an amp to have the correct impedance on the amps front end) among other things. These are also great on Bass, Keys, Acoustic (if you can't mic it) etc. All in all you NEED at least two solid direct boxes.

Anyways best of luck, hope this helps and I wasn't too long winded. Also let me know if you want more suggestions or more reasioning behind my choices. This might eat up your excess budget but I think it is well worth the money.

David

[rich robinson]

thumbsupthumbsupthumbsup

I did wonder about DI boxes. I was looking into the radial re-amping kit. I do like to re-amp bass guitar a fair bit so I hear what your saying about running them backwards. Maybe a pair of passive DI boxes may be the better option.

100% agree with you on the LDC front. I threw that list up off the top of my head and didn't look into it properly. I did leave a bit of cash spare for one high quality condenser. I'll probably shuffle the SDCs around to make room for a nicer pair of LDCs. I have my own set of Audix mics anyways, so maybe it would be a good idea to build up a drum mic set with seperate mics. Total hear you on the Earthworks too - good call.

Now I gotta juggle all of this around without going over budget. Wish me luck, I'm gunna need it!

Thanks for your suggestions. They are greatly appreciated.