Outfitting a rehearsal/minor recording studio

[Iamthesky]

 

I wasn't sure whether this belonged in the Studio Trenches or Live Sound, since it has elements of both. Feel free to call me an idiot if this would be better posted in the other place!

I'm going to be setting up a new rehearsal/minor recording studio over the next month or two, and am starting almost from scratch for the gear. Ideally it will be organized so that multi-track recordings of at least demo quality can be made. For rehearsal, the setup should mimic a live sound stage. I'm also going to be hosting occasional jams. We are only likely to be playing venues with house sound, so taking it on the road is not a consideration.

 

Band is six members: drums, bass, synth, two guitars, lead singer. At least a couple of those will do backing vocals. So assume about 7 drum channels, and one each for everything except the synth rig; the latter would be two DI channels in rehearsal mode, at least 8 channels in multi-track recording. That suggests I need about 24 channels input to the main mixer.

 

I want to be able to run individual headphone mixes for each of the six members, and in addition have monitor wedges for stage performance rehearsals. That means six monitor (aux) outs, plus whatever kind of headphone distribution system is needed.

 

What kind of headphone distribution system (amps? distribution boxes? snakes?) would I need? I've used JamHub, but not run individual headphone mixes off a

[witesol]

sounds like a fun venture. 

any particular reason why you wouldnt want to record to a laptop or small desktop? Computer probably less hassles and expense, depending on how you choose

in a small rehearsal/recording room, why the subwoofer? A single Ksub is an anemic choice for a band..and fairly expensive

Actually seems like a 16 channel mix to me, especially if it's demos. 

obviously you need a headphone amp for each send, and a way to switch/patch the sends into the wedge monitors...oh, and headphones.

passive wedges with amp can be just as cool as active. Active will cost more but have the amp built in obviously. Active can be a bit messy with AC and mic cord going to each wedge. You may not need 6 monitor mixes, 4 would work just fine for the wedges. Best bang for the buck in my opinion; Yamaha Club series at $250-300 per but easy to find used for less. Two stereo power amps and speakons $1000

most of the 24 ch analog consoles have direct outs. Inserts can be used but are you not considering any dynamics processing? If you patch a comp into a kick drum for instance, the insert is no longer available.

57s and 58s are still viable choices. There are different mics available and some may yeild a better sound but 58s and 57s will never suck. You'll need DI boxes too. I don't understand why you need 8 for recording vs live playing? 

Stand alone Recorder choices are few. The Allen & Heath rack USB stick recorder comes to mind.

http://www.allen-heath.com/ahproducts/ice-16/ Alesis.

Acostics in the space should be considered.

a soundcraft GB4-24 comes to mind for the analog mixer as it has 6 mon sends. a Crest too. Allen heath  would have to be the 2800 series, not the 2400. If you eat up all the sends for monitors, there are none left for a reverb unit.

If it were me, i'd consider a Presonus SL2442 and a laptop running Capture software. You get 10 monitor sends, effects, comps, gates, recallable snapshot mixes. The recording could not be easier, FW cable right into the computer. The software comes in the box. $2k. Macbook or PC $1k, done. 

To me it sort of depends on whether you are doing regular type sessions and overdubbing/punching anything as opposed to live recordings only in terms of what may be needed. 

 

 

[Iamthesky]

Lots of very good stuff for me to think about and research there, thanks! That'll keep me busy for a while.

 

My main concern for recording hardware vs PC is that the PC I use for mixing won't live in the studio. I'd need a separate new PC for that task, and I'm concerned about the specifications needed to record a large number of tracks simultaneously without buffer issues. A $1000 laptop probably wouldn't be up to the task, and at the price point involved it might be better spent on a piece that does just one thing well. Dedicated hardware only has to run the recorder, not all the assorted overhead that a PC has going on, and so can be designed to handle the data inflow more appropriately. The ICE-16 looks very much like what I had in mind, under the price I was expecting too.

 

(The reason for the 8 channels for the synth rig recording vs. live is because for stage, I run my 8 synth channels through a submixer to just two channels, left and right. I prefer to record all 8 channels separately so the five instruments can be processed separately in the mix as opposed to being stuck with the submixer levels. Experience indicates that a good live balance between the instruments isn't always good in a recording.)