Studio upgrades

[planet red]

I might be upgrading some stuff at the studio and am throwing around some ideas in my head..

I run a studio that manages to be filled just about everyday.. Its mostly my own work but i plan on renting it to local engineers.

For now I'm running an hd2 setup with a control 24 and 16 channels of 192 io... i have an api 4 channel mic pre and vintech 1272. For compression i have a fatso, 2 dbx 160 vu's and a pair of rnc's. I have all the usual dynamic mics and a bunch of octava 012s and a rode ntk. For monitors its just a pair of the smaller mackies..

Ive been gradually buying gear but am thinking i might just want to take a loan and upgrade quickly because i have some bigger work starting this year. I'll have roughly 12 to 15k to work with.. I'm thinking..

2 distressors
a nice stereo eq (or 2 lil freq's.. I love EL gear, and they have to rule, but obviously id check them out beforehand)
a pair of dynaudio bm6a's ( i think is the model number)
2 soundelux i7's
and the audient sumo for summing and mixbuss comp.

Im just wondering what everyone thinks of these choices and if i'm really missing anything more important..

I only record rock music so keep that in mind. Thanks for you time..

[alphajerk]

make sure the income will provide to pay the debt. otherwise, id stay out of debt and buy as you can afford. although i would upgrade those monitors asap.

[Tim Halligan]

Red,
First get the rooms sorted. The best gear in the world will not help in a crappy enironment.
Next, sort out your monitoring, then better mics, then lastly get the toys.

Alpha's advice is also extremely good. The business seems to have a cyclical nature, and if your business has crested then getting into debt on a downswing is suicide.

Cheers,
Tim

[DirkB]

All depends on what you are about to record, although I agree with upgrading the monitors (unless you are happy with them ofcourse).

I would invest in some mic's first. Perhaps something like a R-121 and a quality LD. After that, you can't go wrong with a Distressor. Also, a 1073 type channel never hurts...

Are you going to track drums? Then some more preamps and perhaps a stereo pair of SD would be nice.

So, just to make a list :
- monitors
- Soundelux I-fet
- match pair SD's (C42's )
- R-121
- Chandler LTD-1
- more preamps?

Good luck,
Dirk

[planet red]

Debt isnt a problem since im booked 28 days out of 30 every month..

I was thinking a pair of i7's would work well for OH duties and for vox and bass cabs.. Id love to budget enough to get a royer, but am pretty happy with guitar tones im getting now... im more concerned with my drum and vocal sounds improving..

I also dont track bands live, so 6 good channels of pres seems to be enough to cover the essentials and the C24 pres can handle close miked toms and hh mics..

As for the room I think it already sounds pretty good.. I have a huge ceiling cloud over the mix position and plan on putting a ton of minitraps above it, so they're out of view.. The drum room needs a little work though.. Half my family are carpenters, so i just need to get a few days off and have some of them over and build some of john sayers plans..

Somehow I'm managing to get decent work coming in this year, so want to spend the next month getting ready for the rest of the year which is already pretty booked up..

[warhead]

If those monitors work for you, then the ditching of the monitors suggestion is not a good one. If your mixes translate there's no problem, if they don't translate there is and it might be your room and not the speakers...or both.

War

[voiceaddict]

I have to admit I really approach things different than most people, it is a simple approach, it works well. When evaluating any potential equipment, the decision is based on a 10 month cycle. For instance, a Milennia STT-1 was $2600, I had to bill $260/month using that gear for ten (10) months even though it was paid off. If I was using a new Sennheiser 416 during that same period, I had to book an additional $100/month for that. I run a voiceover studio, so booking $360 on gear I knew without a doubt would be used was pretty simple. This approach gets me set up within a payment structure to ensure the gear is paid off the same year it is purchased and forces its use in the studio. It may not work for everyone, but it is a good strategy for me.

Now, if you are booking 28 out of 30 days a month there is no need for you to take a loan unless you are not charging enough. Alpha made a good point you really should not discount. I live in Virginia and know your location very well - if you were only charging a minimum of $500 for an eight (8) or ten (10) hour block, which is peanuts, you'd be earning $10,000USD after taxes and that is only studio fees. Richmond living is fairly cheap, relative to other portions of the state, so knock off another $5000. You should be able to bank $5000 a month and avoid any type of loan and by making the purchase in April.

You mentioned you do not track live and you only record rock - Richmond, VA has a thriving jazz scene you rarely hear about and there's nothing like hearing amazing musicians you and your mics captured when you hit 'Play' on your console. Take some time and get in touch with these guys because it is more experience which will increase your knowledge and development as an engineer. If you're doing any amount of writing or producing, you'll also gain access to outstanding musicians for session work which always brings in new faces and more clients.

I purposely did not speak to what you should buy becaue you said you "might be upgrading" and were "throwing around ideas in your head." If you're taking out a loan you really do not need, that is about the only thing I believe you missed, unless you're trying to build up credit with your financial lending institution.

It sounds like you are off to a great start, whatever you decide, let us know.

Kevin

[Albert]

I couldn't agree more about avoiding the loan. If you are booking 28 days a month then a loan should not be necessary. Save up and spend the cash once you have it.

Buying incrementally helps you out in another way. You can buy something and use it for a while. Then you rnext purchase is a little better informed than if you just take out a loan and buy it all at once. Buying one or two pieces at a time allows you to tweak your purchasing plans as you go, based on experience.