Should I Cop?

D

divineaspex

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Me and one of my good friends are planning on starting a studio up in our hometown within the next few months, and I'm pretty much gonna be the person planning the budget and gear. So I have a question that may or my not have been answered before.

I plan on using to protools and a high powered PC to do all my recording. The question I have is, since I'm gonna be running software, is it really a good idea for me to invest money into a top of the line mixer? I'm gonna get one anyway just for the look (maybe a decent sized cheap one that prolly doesnt even work). Or should I just put all of my money into a top of the line audio interface.

Can i even get a professionally comparable mix from an analog mixer nowadays?

I plan on recording all types of music: bands, rappers, country, church choirs etc.
 
Formant024

Formant024

Digital Smokerings
ill o.g.
if you plan on keeping your signalpath up to par with the quality of your soundcard then dont get a budget mixer but get a soundcard with more inputs.

analogue is always part of process in any topnotch studio, only the transport of signal, ad/da and recording are digital but, but blending/summing is done on ssl etc. considering you might not need a 16track mixer you could get a good 8 channel mixer with tape ins/out
 
God

God

Creator of the Universe
ill o.g.
What type of ProTools are you getting? Please don't say "Mbox."

Main components of studio:

1. Mic (get a good one)
2. Monitors (you need high quality monitors to get a good reference.)
3. Soundcard

If you are on a budget, these are probably the most important for you. Remember when you buy into ProTools, you are buying into expensive upgrades if you own a decent quality system. Count that in your budget. I recommend PT though, because if you're doing shit with other producers, you're going to share files. Most cats that know their shit have a glyph drive. It's costly.

A "mixer" for the look is whack. Digidesign and other companies make PT compatible "mixers". Depends on where you're doing your AD/DA conversion. On the board (Apogee converters recommended)? With the soundcard (Digidesign will only give you x amount of inputs). Where.

You're running this on an Apple, right? If not-- are there cheaper alternatives? Buying into the Digidesign "family" is expensive for the normal cat, especially if you're only going to be Apple based. But, that's what the pros have - except they have the real shit - with farmcards, TDM, etc.
 
Fury

Fury

W.W.F.D
ill o.g.
W.e U Do Stay Away From The Mbox!!!
 
D

divineaspex

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
not sure how many mics im gonna have, enough for a basic drum kits, and about 2-4 good condensers. im probably gonna get a 4 channel preamp for guitars and vocals.
 
Fury

Fury

W.W.F.D
ill o.g.
divineaspex said:
not sure how many mics im gonna have, enough for a basic drum kits, and about 2-4 good condensers. im probably gonna get a 4 channel preamp for guitars and vocals.
Click to expand...

ull need at least 5 mics for a full kit including snare mic kick tom high hat and overheads..overheads is what really makes it come alive..
 
Kontents

Kontents

I like Gearslutz
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 5
divineaspex said:
yea, thats what the preamps are for.
Click to expand...

What about the actual mixer? If you have a Mic that is an XLR output it has to be XLR to the pre-amp and from the Pre-Amp to the mixer.

The three prongs is what gives the ground to the mic. It has to be there to work.

edit: I may be wrong, I haven't fucked with my mics and pre-amps for a while, but if I recall right the XLR input is needed.
 
Relic

Relic

Voice of Illmuzik Radio
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 83
bthis!
I dont think your going to be happy running this with M-Box, just my 2 cents..

If your going to do this right you need to get the digidesign actual board and go apple.
Thats what actual studios are using.
Otherwise you have a home studio in a building. Good luck with it all though, its expensive as hell running a studio!
 
D

divineaspex

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
well, i think we can pull it off with what we have planned for right now, and at the end of the day, its all about results.
 
MarkN

MarkN

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 55
to be honest with your budget you would probably be better off getting logic 8 rather than pro tools you will only be able to afford basic pro tools mpowered or Le which has a limited track count etc of 32 tracks iirc which isn't a great deal when you start recording bands etc. you can upgrade to 48 but still! without a lot of nice plug ins and the dsp you get from the pro tools HD system pro tools isn't ideal in a pro studio environment! i'd go for logic 8 maybe an apogee ensemble audio interface! nice mics and preamps and maybe an ssl duende or liquid mix to give you some tidy effects without needing loads of dsp! and then a control surface tascam used to do one which was like 24 channel so looked pretty impressive but was pretty cheap to buy! mic wise you will need a mixture one decent vocal mic some cheap 57s and 58s, and a few condensors should cover you for most recordings! monitor wise id go for some genelecs and then maybe auratones or ns10s for reference!
 
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