i'm about to have about 4000 for new toys. i can't decide whethor to get the tascam dm-3200 or a couple mics and preamps. the mics and pres would give me more options, but the tascam will give non slutty people a good first impression when they walk into the studio. and it seems like non slutty people care more about the studio'd appearance than they care about slutty things like mic selections and preamp options. i currently have a projectmix, which works fine, but i would like to have the extra inputs i'd get from the dm-3200. i heard a lot of bad things about the dm-24, though and i'm a little concerned about the 3200 being impressive looking crap. anyone have any experience with it, love it, or should i go with some new mics?

$4000 is nothing in pro audio terms ... spend it very, very wisely.

I wouldn't buy anything purely to impress clients. Let them be impressed with your demo CD's. If they question your choice of tools, refer them to your demo CD's, and ask if they want to sound like that or not.

Your question can't be answered if we don't know what mic's or stuff you already have.

Choice of recording platform is almost the last thing to worry about.

Assume you already have:

excellent acoustics
excellent monitors
excellent mic selection
excellent preamps
excellent compressors
excellent eq
excellent reverb/delays

And all the instruments and amps you need?

This is the low budget place, right?
I currently have: Good acoustics, LSR4328P monitors, as far as mics I have an akg c414xlII ,blue baby bottle, a 57, a pair of sm81's, and a d12. Pres ISA 428 w/ digital card, comp/eq/reverb/delay: it's all covered. I have a bunch of plug ins. All I play is keyboards and I have a nord lead 2x, motif 5, and a juno 60.

So I don't have anything "excellent" but it's pretty good for lower budget and I know how to use the stuff I have, which is important. I've pretty much talked myself out of the tascam mixer.
When you start buying toys it's easy to make decisions, because you need everything. After you're kind of set up those purchases take a lot more thought.

At this point I'm thinking:
melodyne 3 studio edition
shure sm7b
royer r-122
Vintech X73i

Good choices? I think so.

I think that would help me out a lot more than a pretty mixer/control surface that may or may not be a piece of doo doo. I wasn't taking into account that my new recording space will be MUCH smaller than what I've been using here, and I won't be able to record much more than single instruments and vocals.

Hell, I probably won't even have any clients for a year or so when I can get a bigger place.

Why would you need Melodyne?

Cool for when working with vocals and some real instruments a lot, but a bit overkill mostly (unless working with real bad singers ;-) ).

A hardware compressor might be nicer to have instead

I don't know about melodyne, but yeah... everything else looks like a good choice.

Melodyne would mostly be for my own personal amusement. I'm probably the worst singer I know. My voice sounds like dfegad

heh

I'm going against the grain here.... I started recording myself 20 years ago for fun.... It became a passion..even went to school for it (don't ask) But when I started recording other people (maybe 8 or 9 years ago) I realized one thing.... It seems that MOST of the clients that I have dealt with find the "look" of your studio to be extremely important.... I know, I know... trust me I KNOW!!!!! Looks aren't everything.... But for some reason when they walk into a "studio" they "expect" to see a console...they expect for you to have Pro-Tools... They expect for you to have a vocal booth.... They expect these things because these things are synonymous with the word "studio." So if you are recording yourself and are only concerned about the results get good quality gear.... If you are intending on opening the studio up for clientelle you might want to invest in a couple of cosmetic pieces.... Nothing too expensive... maybe a cheap mixer... Hey, get a Behringer MX9000!!!! (LOL)... Pretty darn cheap for a 24 channel board... But again, I know I will get flamed for this...but this has been my experience...I wrote a thread once on smoke and mirror studios.... mine is one of them...I have all this old gear (ADATs, analog consoles, etc.) and I use none of it...everything I do is ITB.... my 2 cents....

That's exactly why I was considering getting the tascam board. A lot of people are more interested in what the studio looks like than they are hearing what's come out of it. Maybe I'll go buy a big behringer board and paint NEVE in big bold letters across the top of it. If anyone calls me on it, I'll just say it was a joke.

well ok, it's low end theory.
but if it's smoke and mirrors, what do you have them for? to lure clients?

bit like stuffing your pants with cleenex before a date IMO

Before you buy the Tascam have a good demo with one and make sure you will like it. I have a friend that bought one and he's not really loving it. He's thinking of selling it and getting a d8b.

Hey, I put it out there for both sides... again, if it's just your studio then get quality equipment that produces results...however, if you are trying to get business "some" people...actually ALOT of people care about the look of the studio... call me crazy.
And responding to your analogy: Imagine crusing the strip looking at all the fine ladies.... Do you think you would get more attention if you were driving a Ford Focus with a kick ass engine under the hood or driving a Bentley with some nice shiny rims....

It's not always true...but in most cases, Image is very important...

yes it is, in fact I need to shape this place up a bit, you know; lick of paint, pro nametag outside, stuff like that. And, yes battered discrete pres look less attactive to a nitwit than an all lights on christmas tree cheap POS

The Chemical Brothers some time ago took 4 Doepfer Schaltwerk with them, just to show off the lights... (the whole show came from a DAT )
But the audience, except for one or two nerds like me, were mesmerised.. (they didn't even bother to sync the machines...)

as far as the gear: musicians are a funny breed. sometimes wowed by lights, sometimes new and shiney futuristic helps, often nothing at all, and the art of recording and mixing is seen as a hmm necessary stop towards getting a cd done.
bit like checking out in a supermarket...
I think however, it's cool to get cheap stuff that actually works miracles..




---- back to the bentley or the souped up focus---

I'd prefer a maserati quattroporte. heh (looks a bit like a family car)

IMO,

Forget the Tascam - it's virtually impossible to get tech support from them if something goes wrong, and they seem to have ditched any support/upgrades for most of their digital mixers - if the DM3200 isn't on their list of unsupported items, it soon might be!

FWIW - take the money and invest it in something that won't be worthless in a couple of months or years: digital consoles are the worst (next to converters) for losing value, and within a couple of years, it'll be a boat anchor.

Invest in good mics and pre's - they'll hold their value, and make for great recordings.

Not to mention, if you find you're not getting the clientele, you can at worst case sell them for little to no loss - can't say that will happen with a digital board/converters...

YMMV,

Apparantly not, if you can afford a studio full of useless boat anchors for purely bling factor ...

It's my view that low budget guys like me can't afford to buy anything less than excellent high quality gear. That doesn't mean silly money items, just solid quality items that will not be the cheapest.

I think a budget studio should have a least two channels of pure quality. What seperates the high end from the low end is the number of channels, and the number of redundant choices.

Very true.

Well it is beneath many apparently, but I have a DM24 mixer (version before DM32) and it is capable of some amazing mixes - IT will certainly beat itb mixes imo. I bought it when they were introduced along with the meter bridge, firewire 24 i/o card for the DAW and analog card for my MS16. I has a steep learning curve though and you will be sadly disappointed if you need much help from Tascam.