Studio purchase critique

[chaeridley]

I'm looking to record vocals, guitars, bass, acoustic guitars, and midi at home. I have studio experience as I've worked as an intern for 2 years in a decent studio across town. I've come up with some basic items to record 1 track at a time. Give me some feedback on this chain.

 

PC - 2.2ghz Core 2 Duo with 2 gigs ddr2 ram

Sound card - M-Audio Audiophile 192 (6 in's and out's total)

Monitors - KRK 5's with a 10 inch sub possibly

Preamp - Studio Projects VTB1 (DI, tube saturation, insert)

Compressor - RNC1773 (use as insert to VTB1 when needed)

Software - Cubase 3, Waves, Antares

Headphones - Sennheiser HD 280 Pro (tracking and mixing)

Monitor station - Behringer MON800 MiniMON (monitors level, headphones level, talk back)

Microphone - Studio Projects C1, SM57, SM58 (C1 for everything but guitar cabs)

 

 

Preamp into the card. Monitor station out of the card.

Monitors and headphones into the monitor station.

Compressor into the preamp.

Mic and Instruments into the preamp.

Midi keyboard into the card.

 

 

I think with something like this I should be able to have extreme flexibility with 1 track recording. Mainly for songwriting and arrangements before heading into the studio I work in, or doing mixing or overdubs. Give me some feedback on the items I've listed as I have done extensive research to come to these items for there huge performance to price ratios.

[Lee Knight]

Try to get more neutral sounding gear since your pieces will have to multitask.

 

I would swap that C1 out for something more neutral since you're going to use it for almost everything. I speak from experience here. My C1 still gets used when it clicks with a source. When it does click it's great. But mostly, it's just too bright and harsh. It's not nice on acoustic instruments or even as a room mic. It does sound great on one singer I work with.

 

One of the Shure LDC mics would be nice. Natural sounding and seem to work well on everything. I'm spacing on the line name and model... KSM 32?

 

I'd swap out the SP pre for a Rane MS-1 with the Burr Brown. Neutral and inexpensive.

 

I'd skip the Waves stuff. I have $2500 worth of their plugs and now-a-days I only use 2. Those are the Phase Linear mastering stuff. Great, but hardly essential for your described situation. You need good quality bread an butter plugs. Verb, EQ, comps. McDSP has a very nice looking bundle for under $500.

 

I've also moved from AutoTune to Melodyne. I still use AT for quick background part when I can get away with auto settings. But with Melodyne and some time, I can get a very nice sounding final lead vocal without and discernible artifacts.

[D Charles]

For software I'd get Sonar Producer as it comes with all the plugs you'll need. I'd also swap out the C1 and the pre.

 

Maybe with the money you save on plugs you could get an RNP which mates perfectly with the RNC and stacks well. All those cheap toob jobs build up crud if you run a bunch of sources through them.

 

For the same price you could pick up an AT 3035 which is much flatter and more useful than the C1 (I own both and like Lee said, the C1 works occasionally, but usually it's too nasty bright).

 

Everything else looks okay except that Behringer. A friend of mine had one of their headphone amps and he said it ran really hot and then quit after just a few months. You could do the same thing with an older Mackie 1202 which are bulletproof and dirt cheap on ebay these days.

[Lee Knight]

Since you work in another studio, why not bite the bullet and just go Digidesign? And M-Box would be perfect for your situation. PTLE comes with some very nice freebies. The pres are in the new M-Box are good.

 

Then you're living large when you need to bring your session cross town. Burn the actual session and open it intact in a proessional facilty.

[chaeridley]

The studio is a Nuendo based studio.

I don't mind changing the mic out for something better.

Plugs are not an issue, software is not an issue.

RNP is like 500 dollars compared to the VTB which is 100.

VTB can be used as DI and has the tube blend an insert and roll off.

I think it would handle more for me.

Rane MS-1 has no DI.

I'll look at the KSM32 and AT3035.

Any other suggestions?