Receiving funding, what to buy?

[kasmira]

Acoustic treatment and new monitors gets my vote for first on the list.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Gearslutz App

[catfishmusic]

Didn't see an outboard compressor on your list....if you are doing vocals, and bass....I'd put that pretty high on the list, probably a Distressor in your case.

Also before I read your full post, when I saw you were a guitar guy, Royer was the first thing that came to mind as missing.

[bicasaur]

When people say "studio" I instantly go into versatility mode. The Royer might be a good idea, but it sounds like you're pretty set for guitar tracking. What about other stuff? Unless you want to go the Segovia route, guitars usually sound a little silly with no other instruments along for the ride. Are you interested in tracking drums in house? That could suck up your whole budget right there, but could be worth it. Vocals?

Your monitoring environment is a huge deal, of course. The Yamahas are fine speakers, but if your room isn't right then you'll never know what you are tracking. Goofy resonances in the listening room can give you that "certain notes pop out more than others" effect. Goofy resonances in the tracking room can do it too, and then they're on tape. If you're not trying to expand your studio's instrumental versatility, then acoustics are at the top of my list, followed by freakishly good monitors.

A Distressor is a great idea as well. Very versatile unit. Also consider some top notch plugins for eq, verb, and the like. Choices and quality are neat.

[jdsowa]

If you want your band to actually go somewhere, my suggestion would be to just rehearse for a few months and then find a real studio with a real engineer. Even if you spent $60k, you're going to be working in inferior conditions.

If you want to learn how to make home recordings then proceed with your setup as planned.

[SonicAlchemist]

I would stick with the guitar specialist idea rather than try to diversify. You just don't have enough budget for that. But you DO have a good budget for setting you up with a killer guitar set-up. . .

Some cool ideas:

Millennia TD-1 = $1900
EL8 Distressor = $1500
TubeTech PE1C EQ = $2590

Coles4038 ribbon mic as an alternative to the Royer R121 = $1400
Millennia HV-3C mic pre - $1850 (for the ribbon mic, and because it is a GREAT pre)
(this combo gives you more character from the mic, and none from the pre)


Chandler Limited Germanium Pedal = $350
Chandler Limited Little Devil Pedal = $350

Taylor GA3 12 string = $1300

[kerouac]

I'm going to be a Debbie Downer and say to skip the Mac Pro. Every day it looks more and more like Apple is going to phase out the line, as it hasn't been updated in nearly 2 years.

[F.M.]

You could get a pretty nice console for that kind of dough. This in turn will impress clients in a way no rack unit or microphone ever will. And they help you make music too.

[tedpenn]

Originally Posted by mfacca

Hey all, I'm a long time reader but first time poster as of today.

I've just found out that I'll be receiving funding of somewhere around $10,000-$12,000 to be used towards music. I'm thinking of sinking most of it into my studio, but I'm also a guitar player in a hard/heavy rock band, so some may go towards my live rig as well.

I'll list off as much of my current gear as I can think of, as well as some of what I've thought of putting my $$ towards so far. I should mention that I do everything except for drums in my current studio (not enough space, so I do mainly guitar, bass and vocal overdubs), but I do plan on moving to a bigger place in the future. I record anything from rock, metal, country and blues, with the occasional hip hop tune in there.

Originally Posted by mfacca

As you can see I'm very guitar oriented, so I may invest in another head of some type (Friedman, Bogner, etc... this list could go forever). I don't have anything with single coils, so I'd like some type of strat, and possibly a Jazz/Precision bass to differ from the Stingray.


Cheers,
-MF

Hi MF,

Looks like you're off to a great start gear-wise. The one thing that does seem to be missing from your post is any type of statement of your goals, both personally and for your band. We can sit here all day and come up with a hundred ways for you to blow 10 grand on gear building out a home studio and/or live rig, but unless we know what some of your goals are we may give you misguided advice.

Ted

[mfacca]

Thanks for all the replies.
A distressor has always been at the top of my list - grant money or no grant money - so I will be picking one up for sure.

I'm quite happy with the acoustics of my room, I have sufficient bass trapping and absorption, the only thing I would add is maybe a little more diffusion to my tracking room to liven it up a bit.

I'm not interested in tracking drums at my current house, though I have started plans to build a new one in the next 4-5 years that is completely designed around a studio, so at that time I'll be making major changes and tracking full bands live.

I don't really have any problems with my monitors, and I've never really found my mixes "hiding" anything from me when I listen back on different systems, but I am open to any suggestions on something superior. Unfortunately the local music store never really stocks anything better than, say, Dynaudio Bm5A's, so I'm not really able to try anything better. They're also not the biggest fans of bringing in something higher end for me to try (even though I'm an ex employee that's spent over $40k there)

I'm thinking a pair of R121's may be in order, possibly 122's if it fits into the budget.

Thanks for the post Ted, as far as the band's concerned, we're making a record the way we want to this time. Before I joined the band or even knew any of the members they recorded with a Pro and were far from satisfied with the results. They felt very rushed and that they didn't get nearly what they paid for. We've done a lot of demos and I've recorded our singer's solo projects, all of which sound better than their "professional" album, so we want to do this one our way. Mastering will be outsourced to someone else (still trying to find the right mastering engineer).

Originally Posted by jdsowa

If you want your band to actually go somewhere, my suggestion would be to just rehearse for a few months and then find a real studio with a real engineer. Even if you spent $60k, you're going to be working in inferior conditions.

If you want to learn how to make home recordings then proceed with your setup as planned.

I didn't mention in my original post that I'm an educated and experienced freelance engineer who works out of a few different studios. I'm not just doing "home" recordings, my space is mostly used for mixing and overdubs when a budget won't allow for everything to be done in a studio.
I make my living as an engineer, and I'm looking to expand and go completely on my own in the next few years.

cheers,
-MF

[AllBread]

If your looking to go solo, I'd grab an hd native card and an avid 16x16 (or an hdx card if you want to bow the whole wad).

I think that, besides your own reputation, a pro tools hd system is the most important draw to get people out of larger studios and into yours. Even now, an HD system allows you to be a great "B" room for vocal and guitar overdubs where people don't have to pay for a large tacking room and tons of mics.

[mfacca]

Good point AllBread. I will look into this as well.
If what I decide to go for ends up being over the amount of the grant money, I do always have a "gear fund" going which I have about $2300 in at the moment, just to keep things flexible.

As for F.M.'s post about a console, I think if I ever were to go for a console I would likely do the "go big or go home" route. Something like a C24 would eventually be nice for hands on mixing and quicker control over Pro Tools, but nearly $10k for a "big mouse" doesn't seem necessary at the moment.

An idea I came up with today was inspired from an ad I saw on the forums here (so GS, they really do work!) is the 1073LB 500 series module from Neve. I've always been a big fan of Neve on guitars, and with my usual setup setup of 2 heads -> 2 cabs -> 2 mics on each cab i could get 4 of the 1073LB modules (which then gets me a free API lunchbox from VintageKing) and have 2 slots left for something else. I thought about the 1073LBEQ, but with something like the UAD plugins I'd have a hard time justifying $2400 for 2 of them, when $250 at the UA online store gets me far more than 2 instances of the EQ.

I've heard good things about Chandler's 500 series modules, and I know there are far more 500 modules out there that i haven't even heard of.
There's also Vintech's 573 module, where 4 x ~$700 + $500 for the lunchbox = $3300, whereas 4 x ~$1100 = $4400 for the Neve 1073LB, so I'll have to do some research on the Vintech and some other similar modules to see if it's worth the ~$1100 difference.

To this thread (1073LB vs 573 vs MA5 vs MP-500nv vs 517) I go...

[MickeyMassacre]

ditch the central station and get the dangerous d-box.

[thepilgrimsdream]

Bassssss traapsss!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[UncleBubba]

Originally Posted by MickeyMassacre

ditch the central station and get the dangerous d-box.

+1


I would encourage spending the 16K that will get you a 32 channel HD rig...it'll last you a decade...and you will bypass all the BS you are about to find yourself in.

[MoffChumley]

Far as preamps go, I've always thought Chandler stuff was killer on guitars, especially for more distorted material. Maybe pick up a pair of Germ 500s and a pair of 512cs? Would give you some flexibility.

The R121's awesome, of course, but I've always found the Coles a little more versatile on cabs. The Beyerdynamic M160s are also kickass on cabs, and if you've got both of your cabs in the same room, they'd give you more separation, being hypercardiod.

Could definitely stand to pick up another head or three. Older Sunns, Ampegs, Traynors, and Laneys show up appallingly cheap on craigslist and ebay if you wait around for a week or two, and some of those things sound incredible.

[jasonwagner]

When I started getting into recording myself and band, my guitar playing took a back seat. Just saying. Audio engineering skills that produce great results are not something you just pick up.

Unless you are 100% sure you want to be an audio engineer I would spend that time with your guitar and song writing. Prepare properly and go to a professional studio to track. Maybe try mixing ITB on you own with the professionally recorded tracks. If those don't come out like you want you still have great raw tracks for someone else to mix.

You can't get the same quality recorded tracks for 10k that you could in a pro studio.

[muziekschuur]

Spend 2 K on a recordingsession. And put 8k on the bank. And hustle your gear secondhand. So much deals out there at the moment. And any studio where you will spend that 2K will give you their best....

[Cjoe707]

as far as the interface goes i would no doubt reccomend getting some sort of pro tools hd set up if your going to drop the doe on a mac pro otherwise the $$ spent on that beast of a computer is wasted. now if you want to get an apollo which in my opinion is a great sounding unit (i had one but decided to get a pt hd rig) downgrade from the mac pro.. why?? bc first off the mac pro doesnt have a thunderbolt port, second you can get a maxxed out imac with 16 gb of ram that does have a thunderbolt port and will run very fast not to mention the i7 processor you can upgrade to that makes the imac just a few steps below a 12 core mac pro. an if you even want to save a little more money just get a 21.5" maxxed out (w/apple care $2,468) imac bc that 10k-15k will go fasssssst.. like someone else said as well get that distressor its amazing i own one myself and is a great compressor for anything. good luck