Members nickname Posted May 26, 2006 Members Share Posted May 26, 2006 I would like recommendations on how I shall begin to built my studio. I obviously don't have thousands of dollars to spend right away, so I would like to do it over time. Lets say 12+ months I'd like to have it running decent. obviously the room will have to be acoustically treated but thats down the road as well. I'm going to be doing all the recording through a computer... probably a Mac. What are your takes? Don't worry too much about pricing, but keep in mind I'm not a millionaire. ideally i want it to be based around the idea of recording a rock/electronica band. Think Muse. Regards,Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted May 26, 2006 Members Share Posted May 26, 2006 Muse is cool. But they are still micing a lot of their stuff, so you're definitely going to need a good sounding room and some great mics. You should have some sort of budget in mind even if you cannot buy everything right away. That should give people more of an idea of what you're going for. I can recommend stuff like Neve Portico mic preamps and Lawson L251 microphones from my own experience. Dunno how much that helps you. Get the room sounding really good, though, and get a great pair of monitors, like ADAMs, if you're gonna want professional results. And be prepared to do a lot of experimenting and learning and listening. And more listening. And reading. And learning. And listening. And did I mention listening? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members toddlans Posted May 26, 2006 Members Share Posted May 26, 2006 Originally posted by UstadKhanAli And be prepared to do a lot of experimenting and learning and listening. And more listening. And reading. And learning. And listening. And did I mention listening? what did you say? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MASSIVE Master Posted May 26, 2006 Members Share Posted May 26, 2006 Originally posted by nickname obviously the room will have to be acoustically treated but thats down the road as well. That should be the absolute *FIRST* thing you take care of - That's the MOST IMPORTANT part! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members myfipie Posted May 26, 2006 Members Share Posted May 26, 2006 I think I now understand why John is pushing room acoustics so much. He is just trying to make his job easier!!!! ha ha ha All kidding aside listen to what John is telling you. It would be so nice to see a picture of someone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ethan Winer Posted May 26, 2006 Members Share Posted May 26, 2006 Glenn, Hah, I see much worse. Like $10,000 each loudspeakers and not even blankets on the walls. --Ethan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nickname Posted May 26, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 26, 2006 well the thing is, i will be moving into a new place in about 2 months, with an unfinished basement. so.. should i just not buy anything for now and start saving for acoustic treatment. or can i start buying peices of equipment now.. (mics, pre's, etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members offramp Posted May 26, 2006 Members Share Posted May 26, 2006 How does ones' basement get to professional status, anyway? I've never had a basement that made it past amateur... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members seaneldon Posted May 26, 2006 Members Share Posted May 26, 2006 Originally posted by offramp How does ones' basement get to professional status, anyway? I've never had a basement that made it past amateur... up until 2006 i worked 6 days a week out of the basement of a strip mall. two live rooms, one iso room, one control room. we had tons of insane equipment and everything we did sounded great. of course we dumped tons of dough into room treatment, but still. it's possible. i know from experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted May 26, 2006 Members Share Posted May 26, 2006 Originally posted by offramp How does ones' basement get to professional status, anyway? I've never had a basement that made it past amateur... Have a great sounding room with a great sounding engineer using great sounding gear. Work really hard, take pride in your work, and get along really well with people and make them happy. Do a great job promoting the studio tirelessly. Meet lots of people, pass out business cards, go to shows, and that kind of thing. Network. BTW, it's this paragraph that I particularly suck at. And a little bit of luck never hurts either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Badside Posted May 26, 2006 Members Share Posted May 26, 2006 Originally posted by seaneldon up until 2006 i worked 6 days a week out of the basement of a strip mall. two live rooms, one iso room, one control room. we had tons of insane equipment and everything we did sounded great. of course we dumped tons of dough into room treatment, but still.it's possible. i know from experience. How high was the roof? How big was the room? My basement is 7.5' high unfinished! Trying to get a good sound from drum OHs would be quite hard since they would be right up there against the ceiling. A lot of diffusion and absorption is required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted May 27, 2006 Members Share Posted May 27, 2006 You're gonna hafta dig a lot to lower the floor then!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members offramp Posted May 27, 2006 Members Share Posted May 27, 2006 'kay, folks...this was a JOKE. Re-read the thread title, and read it as "Professional Basement". Versus "Amateur Basement". As if the basement itself were amateur and I was seeking to make it pro. Like, say...a pronoun is a noun that lost it's amateur status. m'kay? JOKE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators MarkGifford-1 Posted May 27, 2006 Moderators Share Posted May 27, 2006 Make sure to put in a functional bathroom and separate entrance. You will NOT want clients tramping thru your living areas. MG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alcohol Posted May 27, 2006 Members Share Posted May 27, 2006 Originally posted by Hardtailed How high was the roof? How big was the room?My basement is 7.5' high unfinished! Trying to get a good sound from drum OHs would be quite hard since they would be right up there against the ceiling. A lot of diffusion and absorption is required. I got a 7' ceiling in the basement. I'm getting great sounding drums from my overheads. There's a couple of tactics that you can take. There's placing the overheads at chest level in front of the drums in coincindent or near coincident position. You could do the triangle techniqe, which I find best of locating a mic directly over the snare around 35'' and getting a string from the bass drum to the mic and then to the snare; then pull the top of the string over to your left so it's just near the right ear of the drummer and aim that mic at the snare. I have floating ceilings with 3" sound batt insulation in the joist cavities and two panels of sound aborption board glued to the ceiling over where the drums are. I'm using Josephson C42 mics for the overheads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Badside Posted May 27, 2006 Members Share Posted May 27, 2006 Originally posted by UstadKhanAli You're gonna hafta dig a lot to lower the floor then!! I moved to my garage instead 8.5' high roof finished, that's basically a whole 18" additionnal. Plus it's already isolated from the house. However, I have no idea how the thread starter's basement is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nickname Posted May 28, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 28, 2006 like i said, the basement is non existant yet. I am still looking at houses. what i really want to know is a guide of what to build up to. what do i start with. obviously first room acoustics, then what? do i start getting pre's next? or mic's next?hardware ? that kinda thing. lemme know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The_Idiom Posted May 30, 2006 Members Share Posted May 30, 2006 Originally posted by nickname like i said, the basement is non existant yet. I am still looking at houses. what i really want to know is a guide of what to build up to. what do i start with. obviously first room acoustics, then what? do i start getting pre's next? or mic's next?hardware ? that kinda thing. lemme know. not to sound rude, but have you ever done any type of recording? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nickname Posted May 30, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 30, 2006 yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Badside Posted May 30, 2006 Members Share Posted May 30, 2006 Originally posted by nickname like i said, the basement is non existant yet. I am still looking at houses. what i really want to know is a guide of what to build up to. what do i start with. obviously first room acoustics, then what? do i start getting pre's next? or mic's next?hardware ? that kinda thing. lemme know. I want to build a car, what should I buy first? Wheels, body, engine? You get my point? Unless you have a major pile of cash to start up, building/tooling a studio can be a long process and there is no specific place to start with. For example, if you do electronic music, you can just buy a computer, a pair of good monitors, do some basic acoustic treatment to get a good image of your sound and you are good to go. If you want to start recording full bands right away, then it's a bit more complicated, you'll need more mics, more simultaneous inputs, a bigger and better room. You can't start with a 5000$ investment and call yourself a professionnal studio, unless your are so skilled that equipment is secondary. You will have to work your way up, recording for cheap at first, working your way up as you buy more stuff, get more experience, get the "word out". But only you can determine what you need most. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members myfipie Posted May 30, 2006 Members Share Posted May 30, 2006 I think you are on the right track now with knowing that the room sound is job one. So for equipment you have to decide what kind of music you will be doing. If I was you I would decide this first then get with someone like Warren from Front End Audio to help you maximize your gear. What I mean by that is there are great pres and mics out there that can be used for multiple things.What ever you do though, do not fall into the trap of thinking that a $100.00 pre or a $60.00 mic is going to some how sound pro. You don't need to drop $2000 into a pre or mic at first but be realistic about what you need. Glenn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nickname Posted May 30, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 30, 2006 I will be doing rock/electronica type of music. I understand that there is no specific order, but what I was really getting at was that i want to have some kind of structure and order of the way i buy things so that they arent just sitting there completely useless. i want to be able to record stuff when i'm half way through investing everything. thanks for all the help guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted May 30, 2006 Members Share Posted May 30, 2006 Originally posted by nickname I will be doing rock/electronica type of music. I understand that there is no specific order, but what I was really getting at was that i want to have some kind of structure and order of the way i buy things so that they arent just sitting there completely useless. This depends on what is a priority for you. It could be something like: - room/acoustics- computer- DAW- really great monitors- one or two high-quality mics- one or two high quality mic preamps- high-quality A/D and D/A converters But I don't know. Maybe it differs for you. But you need at least the first four to get going, and then you can add the other stuff as you go. Don't forget budgeting for cables, furniture, mic stands, controllers or Mackie Big Knob type devices, and other peripheral equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The_Idiom Posted May 31, 2006 Members Share Posted May 31, 2006 Originally posted by nickname yes Ok just when you asked about what to buy first... it wasn;t what I expected.. I think you need to buy quality, but spread it out ... don;t go and buy 8 awesome pre-amps... and then be stuck with 3-4 so so mics... start with some basics... some good dynamics, sm57, E609... Look at some drum mics and kick drum ... don;t buy any drum mic packages... unless maybe the audix d series.... Grab a couple good middle of the road pre-amps.. and start getting the word out that you can do recordng and build that resume and contacts.. I would think that the only the you really need to buy high quality up front would be your interface, cause theres no point in buying that twice... and as long as you buy solid mics and good pre's you can always continue to use them down the road ok.. so that was long and wordy... summary (other than room treatment) -great interface to start- some good multi use mics- at least 4 channels of solid mic pre's completely expandable Brandon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Picker Posted May 31, 2006 Members Share Posted May 31, 2006 Originally posted by seaneldon up until 2006 i worked 6 days a week out of the basement of a strip mall. two live rooms, one iso room, one control room. we had tons of insane equipment and everything we did sounded great. of course we dumped tons of dough into room treatment, but still. it's possible. i know from experience. I didn't even know strip malls had basements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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