JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Recording Studio and Gear Forum Update on my home studio

Finally the insurance have come up with some partial settlement over three months after the burglary. I have purchased some studio stuff. Still a long way to go but here is what I have to use for now.


Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop. Intel (R) dual core processor (4GB RAM MEMORY) 32 bit. 250GB hard drive. Presently running Vista but will see how it goes probably install XP pro. (laptop allows portable recording)



Tascam US122 interface

Presonus Tube preamp

I have a few different size mixing desks including Beheringer, Mackie, and Soundcraft plus an old Heath and Allen Wizard.

For now I will use my Mackies as active monitors and my active Creative speakers (very old but still sound great) I am looking at buying a decent pair of active studio monitors (suggestions welcome) So many to choose from and so expensive I want to get it right.

TC Helicon XL pro dual fx processor

SE220a Studio condenser Mic.

Rode K2 Studio Mic.

Various Shure, Senheisser and Audio Technica dynamic mics. Will be buying a Neumann or equiv when I get things properly up and running.

Software Cubase SX3 plus tons of plugins, PSP audioware. Gigastudio came with Tascam (never used it before so looking forward to experimenting)

Finally last and most important

LAVA LAMP
(Thanks Calvin for reminding me)

Big Jim, my man, I remember you giving me the benefit of your wisdom many times so I'll try and return the favour.

First, ditch Vista, I say this from bitter experience and had to bite the bullet eventually and get a separate PC for music production with a copy of XP. It's not just the compatibility issues, but to do with the way Vista processes sound. If you bring the task manager up, you'll see a process called audio.exe and, without going into the technicalities of it, that is a big pain in the rear, believe me.

I'd have concerns about the laptop thing as well, as there's always a large loss in performance compared to a laptop and PC with pretty much the same on paper specs. So I'd see how it goes and think about getting a PC when the money comes through. I'd be interested to hear you get on, as I'd be astonished if you were able to record at all in 24/96 with this set up, and not astonished if you had some problems at low latency with pops and crackles even at 16/44.1

If your insurance money comes through and you want to get a new PC, I'm delighted with one I got from here for under GBP500.

http://www.powerc.com/uk/ps/At%20Home%20Intel%20Base%20Unit/1/code/cs-home-hli/act/gpage


Stick a belkin firewire card in there and you've got pretty much every box ticked for a very good music production PC. I think it's a general consensus that the firewire route is the better route than the USB one and I'm delighted with my Focusrite Saffire LE.

Regarding Mics, I also got the Rode K2 a while back, I saw your post on it too late to give any advice on whether to get it or not. I'd say at the price it's a great buy, but I think you need a better Pre-Amp as I don't think the tubepre cuts it really, and not sure a tube mic to tube pre-amp is the best option. Depends on the budget you have of course, but I was thinking a transformer based pre-amp like the Focusrite ISA One might produce better results if you decide to use the K2 as your stock mic.

But I see you've also got the "Neumann urge" - That condition which means sooner or later you gonna succumb to the desire to spend a lot dosh - which I've just done. I won't say what model and how much because it would be too painful. Anyway, if you do go down that route, I think a tube pre-amp like a UA Solo 610 - which I also just got - is a better way to go.

Guess it all depends how much dosh you have to spend, or in my case, how much dosh you're able to wangle in credit cards and banks loans that the paying back of condemn you to live off bread and 99p ready meals for the next five years! You only live once though!

Lucian

Thanks Lucian. I am well aware of Vista (NASTY PIECE OF CRAP) I have spoken about it on other threads in the past and as I stated will probably ditch it. Most stuff I use seems to go belly up the minute Vista is even mentioned.
I will have a dedicated music PC when the claim is finally settled. However the laptop will allow me the ability to do mobile recordings. Do not fancy lugging a PC about. I agree about latency and that similar spec laptops do not perform the same as PCs. It is all about compromise. So far on some test recordings the results are OK considering that this is just a home studio with cheap temp stuff I have aquired and I have the luxury of being able to go to a pro studio anytime I need. Dave is pretty good at tidying up my amateur offerings.

Jim

WEll congrats!!!! Me I havent purchase the Tascam US1641. Im waiting the shipment of local distributor here. If not I will order thru my brother in US.

So far simple vocal recording at the moment using my old M audio fast track pro and midi midi and more midi.

I hope your desktop system is already fix. Just purchase my 320gig external hardrive for more memory juice. My parody productions are eating up all of my old harddrive. Lucky for us today memory price is indirectly proportional to time.

My advice.

Stick with the cubase forever. Dont attempt to use the Gigastudio.

And hurry with the Lava lamp.

Lynman

Nice system. It is interesting to see what you decided on.

Tom

Great news, Big Jim!

I've been a busy bee and haven't been keeping up these days, but it's good to see you back in business.

Hey, one plus on a laptop is they're much quieter than a PC. Since I got some good mics and a better pre-amp, my new enemy is noise...and the worst offender is my PC, even though it is a fairly quiet one. But it's difficult to get proper room treatment when your room is the family living room.

A friend of mine swears by the Electro-Voice RE20 dynamic microphone, as it gives both excellent sound and also eliminates any sound that isn't directly in front of it.

But I'm sure you'll make great recordings with what you have, and when you need better, you've also got a proper pro studio handy.

By the way, thanks for the tip on the PSP Vintage Warmer...I did get that. Nice plug! Here's another great deal in the works for the summer: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/4337410-post1.html

Cheers!

-Mark

Thanks Mark but I just bought a pretty good studio mic (Neumann M149) my wife will kill me if she finds out how much it cost. I have plenty dynamic mics already. I have tried Electrovoice mics but none REALLY rock my boat so far. My keyboard player Bob has always used EV and swears by them. I swear at them. LOL

Woah! Big Jim, you didn't mess around there! Staight in for the big one! Respect to you. Now you need to make sure you put it through a good pre-amp.

Here's an update on my mic situation. My Neumann U87AI and UA S610 was a pretty terrible match up - mainly the fault of the pre-amp - good on bass lousy and muddy on vocals. I learnt an important lesson, no point getting a great mic and putting it through an average pre-amp. So after a lot of research I decided to return my U87 and S610 and get a better pre-amp and less expensive mic. I went for the a Great River ME-1NV for the pre-amp and an AKG C414 B-XLII for the mic. Just been setting them up tonight and will test them out tomorrow.

Something else I had to upgrade was my audio interface, as there's no point haveing the great mic, great pre amp, then having it all messed up by the average internal preamps on my LE Saffire, so had to get one that allowed the internal pre-amps to be by-passed, and that's about me pretty skinted out now till the next ebay clearout. Doubt I'll ever be able to get a Neumann again, but if I could ever afford it I might try out a Peluso 2247 - Chinese clone of the Neumann U47 - apparantly they're pretty darn good clones!

Lucian

Hi Big Jim,

Have fun with your new toys.

Calvin


http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/calvinstewart

Holy Smokes! You can't do much better than that one, Big Jim.

Lucian, that Great River ought to do ya...I've never heard a bad word about it. As for mics...they always depend on the voice...the C414 is a great one, and I assume you've tried it and found it to be a good match for you.

You two are really annoying me now.

Mark, you're not gonna hear a bad word about the Great River from me either, I'm delighted with it, it's the upped the level on everything, acoustics, vocals and bass as well. Seems to work great with the C414, gives it the colouration I want without taking the clarity away. Got to really test it out some more but it's trouncing the Rode K2 I have so looks like that's off to ebay.

The Great River/Shure Sm7 was a combo a suggested that me that I might try out if I can pick one up cheap, that might suit your rocker vocals I was thinking, and sort your noise problems out as it's dynamic.

Jim, from my experience with he K2, I'd guess you're best of going with a nice clean pre-amp, a good all in one solution might be the Steinberg MR816, as it's got very good Yamaha preamps apparently, and you get the Cubase integration as well. I was close to getting one, but not being able to bypass the internal preamps was a deal breaker for me, so I went for the RME 400 Fireface.

Lucian