Getting Started

[ryangobie]

hey, i know ya'll prolly get this a lot, but i've been tinkering around with an old tascam portastudio for a few years and with some other stuff i've borrowed along the line. anyway, i basically wanna step it up. i've done some reading and tried to find some reviews on equipment (any links would be appreciated). all in all though, i'm basically starting from scratch. a lot of the mics i use(d) have been destroyed at shows or were just loaned to me.

anyway, i was wondering what gear you guys might suggest on a budget of around 10,000$. thanks!

[dgochenour]

The things I could buy with 10K...

Moving from a portastudio to ten thousand dollars worth of gear is a huge, huge step. It should be a really fun one, if you spend wisely.

Now we know what your budget is. How do you plan to use the studio? How must space do you have? Lay out the details, ryangobie.

[ryangobie]

it would probably reside on the ground floor, which is a room about 15ft x 23ft. i'd generally use it to record bands who would fall into the hardcore/emo/indie realm of the spectrum. so you're looking at drums, bass, a guitar or two, a vocal track or two and an occasional synth. i'd also use it to lay down my own stuff. i write a lot.

[Professor]

Stop now...
Run away before it is too late and you can't get out.

Use the 10k as a downpayment on a house or something.

-J

[I'm Painting Again]

search the board for "$10,000"..there is a thread about this..i would have pasted the link but cant figure it out right now..just research and dont be hastey..a lot of options exist..

[Professor]

Oh, I had to.

You're talking about a pretty big leap and the largest problem will be squeezing everything you might need into that small of a budget. It is not just getting a couple mics, a mixer and a recorder that we are talking about. You'll need cables and stands and speakers and a headphone system for overdubs and more cables, and the further you go the more you realize you need to spend and it all caves in and you just want to run away from it all.

But if you are really still interested, I will give you this one piece of advice right off the bat. Don't listen to anybody's recommendation for a specific brand and model of equipment - until you are ready to ask about an exact brand and model. People will spout off endlessly about this microphone or that preamp or some other compressor, and until you are ready to consider some specific type of microphone, preamp or compressor, you should not be thinking of specifics. Keep things general.

Let's start with the gear you already have. Let us know. And I mean everything, cables, stands, mics, speakers, computers, whatever you might already have.

Then let us know how you would like to record. Analog tape? digital tape? stand-alone hard disk? computer-based hard-disk? wax cylinder?

Then how do you want to track the bands. All live to multi-track? live to CD? overdub? etc.

There's a lot to consider before dropping 10k so you should step away from your wallet and give yourself some time. I just assembled a new recording studio at the University where I work - I didn't have to worry about the room as that was there, but I needed to pull cable through conduits, buy racks, rack screws, mics, stands, cables, recorders, consoles, speakers, headphones, everything from top to bottom. $250k later, I am just about finished and have left aside about $100k for anything that might come up over this next school year as I start running the place. Obviously this is a bit larger in scope than your place, but thinking things through will be your best way to start.

-Jeremy

[Jay]

Wow. You could sure have fun with $10,000. I'd get fewer, higher-quality things. If you're down with minimalism (by modern standards at least), you could get some really top-notch stuff. Like for preamps- 4 channels of API and 4 channels of Sytek and you're all set. For microphones- a nice ribbon mic, a nice large condenser, a couple small condensers and the rest 421s and/or RE20s. And so on.

Keep the Portastudio as your format though. That'd be HARDCORE.

[Professor]

See what I mean?

[ryangobie]

in no way did i mean i was going to go drop 10k tomorrow. i was just looking for some input. as for what i have, i'll assume your talking about fully functional, it's really sparse. like i said, a lot of the times, when i would do a little project, like record my old bands demo, i'd borrow some stuff from friends. as for things that i could go pick up right now, i have the tascam porta, a few mic cables, an SM58 and some shitty fender mic that appeared. i have a pretty good computer, could use some more RAM though i suppose. a few mic stands. when i say i borrowed stuff, i really mean it. i had more stuff, which has since been destroyed. i help out bands running the DIY circuit on tour, and those shows can be pretty rough for any piece of equipment, and it always had to be mine, cause i couldn't afford to rent stuff. now that i have money, i've just grown accoustomed to bad sound, so i don't bother renting or borrowing anything. but back to the subject, i'm not looking for a "business" studio per say. just something i can use myself, and hook up friends, and i have a bunch of em, with some recordings for relatively cheap.

i guess what i was trying to achieve from starting this thread, was a lot of suggestions on setups. so i could do research on stuff myself. you all seem to have a pretty good base of knowledge on specifics, so i figured i could ask when need be. but i'm not really looking for specifics i suppose. i dunno, i must be rambling by now.

[dwelle]

six months ago, 10k got me:

tascam ms-16, 1" 16 track
otari mtr-10 1/4" 2 track
tascam m520 console
2x brent averill 1272 pres
4x sytek pres
2x rnp pres
2x distressors
a few pairs of good headphones
15 or so good mic's, a good variety
enough patchbays and patchcables to patch everything, everywhere
enough cableing and connectors to wire the whole place and make about 20 mic cables
assorted tools, soldering station, alignment stuff


no monitors or sound treatment in there. i was adding to my already existing studio.

i am definitely of the opinion that good money goes to a few, very high quality pieces of gear that are researched to provide you the tools you are looking for to get the sounds you want.


for whatever its worth...

[tiger vomitt]

it's good that you already have some experience with this stuff. i would say it is absolutely true that heavy duty research into the gear you are thinking of buying will pay off in the end. make sure you're getting the kind of equipment that is going to serve you because you will be using it all the time. do lots of google searches and ask opinions on message boards like this one.

also, there are a lot of people who think that it is better to spend the money on fewer pieces that are each of a higher quality than the cheap stuff. to a degree this is true, as long as you have what you need to get the job done. that's a big issue tho, maybe i shouldnt have said anything...?

be careful of credit cards. they dont always turn out to be terrible things but it can get ugly real fast, before you even know it.