Members jazzman1990 Posted December 20, 2009 Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 I need to know what all I need to get for a studio on a very low budget but yet has radio quality. I f you guys could help me out that would be great!! Thanks! Noah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 What are you going to be recording? Bands? Solo acoustic guitar or piano? Vocals? I'd love to offer you suggestions, but I'll need to know a bit more before I can have any hope of offering you appropriate suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nice keetee Posted December 20, 2009 Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 What exactly is radio quality? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members offramp Posted December 20, 2009 Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 Yeah, that's what I was wondering. I'd start with worrying if the songs were radio quality to begin with. Then I'd remember that no matter how nice the mix, it's gonna be squashed under a 20:1 ratio at the transmitter. Maybe he means he needs a good compressor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Timmylikedthing Posted December 20, 2009 Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 First, a good band, then a good room, then a good engineer, then good gear. That simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Majoria Posted December 20, 2009 Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 I thought radio stations played CD's, thus it radio quality = CD quality. Or is it AM radio quality? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TimOBrien Posted December 20, 2009 Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 My obligatory standard reply-for-newbies that I keep in Wordpad so this is just a paste (I don't want to re-type this all the time): First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio: Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470385421?ie=UTF8&tag=myjescom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0470385421 (Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief) You can also pick up this book in most any Borders or Barnes&Noble in the Music Books section! Another good one is: Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Guitar-Bass-Getting-Record/dp/0879307307/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215734124&sr=1-1 (I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6!!) And you can get a FREE subscription to TapeOp magazine at www.tapeop.com Barnes&Noble or Borders are great places to start --- they have recording books and you can go get a snack or coffee and read them for FREE! Don't pass by a good recording book --- this is a VERY technical hobby and you REALLY want to start a reference library!!! Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics and have good tips: http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/ http://www.gearslutz.com/board/tips-techniques/168409-tips-techniques.html 21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig: http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm Also Good Info: http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm Other recording books: http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) and NOT quality music production. #1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard. Here's a good guide and tested suggestions that WORK: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm (you'll want to bookmark and read through all of Tweak's Guide while you're there...) Plenty of software around to record for FREE to start out on: Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (multi-track with VST support) Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/ (a stereo audio file editor with VST support)\nKristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/ Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com/smm Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ (It's $50 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...) I use Reaper and highly reccomend it... Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($25) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com Demo you can try on the website. And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full FREE studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (November 2006 they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150, November 2007-on the racks Dec in the US- they gave away SamplitudeV9SE and July 2009 issue they put out Samplitude10SE. FREE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jazzman1990 Posted December 21, 2009 Author Members Share Posted December 21, 2009 What I meant by radio quality was that the recording of the track sounds good enough for the radio. And to be more specific about what I want to record is pretty much everything. But I already have studio mics and other mics and cords and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get Cubase for my software. So I just really need know about what interface to get and so forth and on a pretty cheap budget but yet radio quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IsildursBane Posted December 21, 2009 Members Share Posted December 21, 2009 What I meant by radio quality was that the recording of the track sounds good enough for the radio. And to be more specific about what I want to record is pretty much everything. But I already have studio mics and other mics and cords and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get Cubase for my software. So I just really need know about what interface to get and so forth and on a pretty cheap budget but yet radio quality. It's not going to happen. The #1 biggest factor in making something "radio quality" is skill, and if you're inexperienced enough to actually ask this question, you don't have the skill to pull it off. Forget about "radio quality," buy something decent, and practice. -Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Dan brings up a very good point. A skilled engineer with modest gear trumps a unskilled one with great gear every time. How many simultaneous inputs and outputs do you need for your interface to have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted December 21, 2009 Members Share Posted December 21, 2009 I need to know what all I need to get for a studio on a very low budget but yet has radio quality. I f you guys could help me out that would be great!! Thanks! Noah. Noah, I would agree with Dan's last post, as "brutal" as it might sound to you. Get the best equipment you can afford. This also largely depends on what kind of music you intend on recording and how many inputs you need. But assuming that you are sticking mics in front of things, an Apogee Duet or an Apogee Rosetta 800 if you need eight tracks simultaneously or something similar and some sort of DAW can get you going. But as far as "radio quality", if that is to mean "high quality", that's more about good songs that are well arranged and then played by skilled, practiced players in a good sounding room (again, assuming that you are micing things) which is tracked by a good engineer and then mixed by someone who knows what they are doing....tracking the equipment on well-chosen good quality gear in a room that sounds good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted December 21, 2009 Members Share Posted December 21, 2009 I forgot that you said "cheap". Apogee is not cheap. Get something like a PreSonus or RME or whatever and some cheap but decent mics (Audio-Technica, Marshall, Shure, Heil, etc. make decent cheap mics)...but more importantly, learn a lot first. Check out Tim's post and check those things out first before going out and blowing a bunch of cash on stuff that may not even be appropriate for your needs, whatever those may be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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