Good engineer and advice needed!

[dpdavis]

Hello again,

As I asked in an earlier post, at 2AM, does your head sound anything like this:
“Did Mr. salesman really say a Rumor or MPX1 produce better reverb than my IR1 plugins…or did he say that Monster power conditioning thingy makes the difference? And if so, will it help more than a good preamp? How about a not so good one? What’s that Mr. sales person? What about monitoring? I see, if I have a good preamp, but my D/A chain sucks . . . uh huh . . . but what about the clean power? And what is up with every time I say Onyx, you keep showing me the Yamaha 01x anyway . . . and if all these home studio ads and magazine reviews are true, why don’t the pro quality studios save a ton of money and just use this stuff?"

Aaaagh!

Here is my dilemma. I’m a composer whose business is growing, and I would really appreciate some expert help. I just bought a new Mac G5 PCIe, and now I’m redesigning my entire setup (shaking fist: "damn you, PCIe!"). Now, after venturing out into the home studio recording market, I wish I’d spent a little more time with you guys in production & engineering when I was at Berklee!

So here is my situation. I deliver music for a lot of low to medium budget film and television projects. In addition to samples (Vienna, Sonic Implants, etc.), I always include a few good acoustic players in my productions to add soul, originality, and keep that generic ‘sample haze’ from creeping in. Ideally what I want to do is warm up my samples and capture good quality acoustic performances (usually strings, winds and/or voice). I’m open to analogue, digital or a mixture of both. I have an eye on developing a mid budget system that I can add to as I go, however, the ultra high end stuff I won’t need since projects who need this can afford to include a pro studio in their budgets. Although I’d like to develop a base system of quality that can serve as a front end to a pro studio as well.

Here is where I am starting from:
* Apple G5 dual core 2.3 GHz (PCIe - currently with no interface - damn you Apple),
* PC 2.8 GHz, also with the RME, running Gigastudio 3.
* Lucid Genx6 96 WC, and Mackie’s HR824s.
* DP 4.6, Logic 7, Peak 4, Waves NPP, and MACH 5.
* Treated studio with small recording booth.

And I will probably sell:
* DM24 (w/ 2 ADAT cards)
* MOTU MTP AV & Micro Express
* G4 dual 1Ghz with RME HDSP 9652, (or keep it to run the new MACH 5 as a standalone, as I do need more horsepower to run more of the bigger samples).
*EMU E4XT

This time around, I’m looking at spending around $3000. on additional tools, although that is flexible. I’m willing to invest most of this budget on one or two quality pieces, if that works better than a few more inexpensive ones, or vice-versa.

As you probably know, magazines, salespeople and well intentioned but equally clueless composers are only complicating the issue. They can’t replace the knowledge and experience of a good engineer. In fact, although I haven’t mentioned it yet, the most important piece of this upgrade is to cultivate a long term, working relationship with a smart, creative engineer!

By the way, I am in the LA Area (Santa Monica), and am looking for a few good people. So, what do you think, what would you do with this situation?

[mrbobb]

dpdavis,

I sent you an e-mail.

Mrbobb

[dpdavis]

Got it. I'll reply in the next day or two. Thank you.