Home recording

[Dan UCF]

I'm interested in learning more about home recording hardware/software so I can make an informed purchase of equipment. Does anyone know of some good sites to get my feet wet?

Also I have a $200-800 budget to get an audio card and/or box for audio capture to a computer. Any suggestions on hardware?

 

[UnknownSouljer]

With recording and audio gear it always varies, and the price can always go up.
You're VERY vague with just simply "recording" at your home, I'm not sure if you're trying to do guitar work, vocal stuff, keyboard/midi, full recording of drums (or will be using samples, or using a set of drum fills,) etc.

Since your budget is low, I'll assume that the amount going into this project is probably going to be a 3 piece setup.

A audio device that is good for inputting audio and midi.
Keyboard for midi and other general applications.
A Microphone.

I would recommend then:
Digidesign MBox 2. It comes with Protools which will be your app to edit and import audio (the industry standard!) Keep in mind Protools IS NOT an easy program to learn the ins and outs of. But none of the good audio programs are. If you can spring for the Mbox 2 Pro it might be worth it if you need more inputs rather than just the barebones minimum.

As for a keyboard I'll assume it isn't your primary instrument and will just be used for samples, midi, and other general stuff, as such I would recommend a M-Audio Axiom 25 or 49. If you don't like the semi-weighted keys I would go for the M-Audio Ozonic series. If M-Audio isn't your thing the new Akai MPK49 is pleasant. Keep in mind all of these keyboards are just controllers, THEY DON'T ACTUALLY PRODUCE SOUND. You'll need soft synths for that. Luckily the MBox being a nice budget setup allows for you midi devices to be plugged right in, and you could start with a basic inexpensive soft synth like Cakewalk or Rebirth and move all the way up to something like Native Instruments.

Finally for a Mic I would recommend the Rode NT2000 for a good all-rounder. If that seems too expensive then perhaps an M-Audio Solaris. Still too much? Then you could go for some Mics made by Shure. I can't think of the model names off the top of my head though...

Keep in mind this setup didn't cover things like studio headphones or monitors (I would recommend monitors as a purchase FIRST before headphones unless you're going to be doing A LOT of overdubbing, but both are usually necessary for recording work.)

Inexpensive monitors are the Yamaha HS 50M, or KRK Rokit RP5. These are usually sold in seperate boxes so make sure you're getting two (if you're ordering online ESPECIALLY ON eBAY. A lot of times you'll have to be paying attention to whether or not the auction is for one or two monitors.) I'm not sure exactly why all monitors are sold in singles rather than in pairs... but anyway.

For studio headphones I would recommend AKG (in general.) The K240s have been used a long time, and if you want their top of the line K271 mk2, those are nice as well. Studio headphones are mostly used for overdubbing not mixing, so keep that in mind. The studio monitors will always give you more transparent sound and that is what you need while doing mixing so keep that in mind.

I hope these suggestions help you out a bit. I realize that they are on the upper end of your budget, but you do get what you pay for and the things I recommended will be able to expand and grow with you a little bit and not necessarily need to be upgraded immediately (unless you want to go into full-blown recording studio mode and then cost and hardware go nuts.) Also the nice thing about recording gear is that generally the resale value is good, so when it's time to upgrade the Mbox 2, MPK49, or Yamaha HS 50M's you'll get a decent chunk back.

If you have any more questions or decide to get more specific about what you need, I'll try to give a more tailored answer, although I think this general setup is quite good for starting out.

 

[phide]

Digidesign MBox 2. It comes with Protools which will be your app to edit and import audio (the industry standard!)

Seconded. You get what you pay for (you pay a lot for Digidesign/Focusrite gear -- always)

Still too much? Then you could go for some Mics made by Shure. I can't think of the model names off the top of my head though...

Their SM57 (instrument) and SM58 (shielded vocal) dynamic mics are popular and inexpensive, though be prepared for a little noise and a generally sterile sound. At ~$100, I don't recommend condenser mics, however. Those really start "taking shape" at around $300 if you ask me.

 

[Dan UCF]

Thank you for all the information, it will all be considered and should be very helpful.

I'm going to be building a PC and helping a friend who wants to record a band. He does not want to pay $500 an hour to record three songs in a studio when he could potentially own his own equipment. From my understanding we would be recording tracks and then putting them all together, so eventually we would cover Vocals, guitar(s), drums, and anything else they need.

He did mention he needs to buy a mic(s), and probably monitors. As far as a keyboard is concerned he might already have one, or I might have a different friend that can help.

A couple more questions:
What type of hard drive space should I plan for? I was going to do a RAID-5 array of 5 640 gig hard drives so it would be fast, and if a drive went bad we replace/rebuild and no data is lost. I'm worried I don't need that many drives, or that kind of speed.

I was reading about a pre-amp for guitars before plugging into my capture equipment. Do I need this if I have a sound board I can plug everything into first?

I was looking at the M-AUDIO 1010LT for sale at newegg because it is PCI. I am kind of leery of USB or Firewire capture devices because of the "slower" medium for transfer. I am somewhat familiar with video capture and have actual experience with it in the past. I also want something that is 64bit OS compatible (XP or Vista) because I want to use 4-8 gigs of memory.

Thanks in advance

 

[UnknownSouljer]

A couple more questions:
What type of hard drive space should I plan for? I was going to do a RAID-5 array of 5 640 gig hard drives so it would be fast, and if a drive went bad we replace/rebuild and no data is lost. I'm worried I don't need that many drives, or that kind of speed.

I was reading about a pre-amp for guitars before plugging into my capture equipment. Do I need this if I have a sound board I can plug everything into first?

I was looking at the M-AUDIO 1010LT for sale at newegg because it is PCI. I am kind of leery of USB or Firewire capture devices because of the "slower" medium for transfer. I am somewhat familiar with video capture and have actual experience with it in the past. I also want something that is 64bit OS compatible (XP or Vista) because I want to use 4-8 gigs of memory.

Thanks in advance

Space: Obviously having plenty is important. Make sure that if you're going to be in the same room as the PC while recording that all the gear inside it is as quiet as possible, if not silent. If you can afford the raid-5 array go for it, but unless you have a freak accident, HD failure should be a non-issue so long as you back everything up on a different medium like DVD's. If you want to go that route, a single 7200RPM SATA drive should be fine.

Your soundboard for the most part is the preamp, so with that setup you should be fine... provided the sound board itself is fine of course.

As far as transfer speeds for audio, I would highly recommend going external and using firewire. It is going to be the medium that gives you the most access to the ports, and the MBox is superior to the 1010. If you're really concerned about speed (which I am a fan of as well) make sure you get a mobo with a PCI-X slot and get a Firewire 800 card (they also are making PCI-E Firewire 800 cards as well, so make good use of those unused slots!)

Just as an aside, generally speaking all high end audio gear is rackmounted, and therefore external and not PCI interfaced. Examples are the RME Fireface, and the MOTU 896HD. Firewire 800 is definitely the way to go.

 

[phide]

What type of hard drive space should I plan for? I was going to do a RAID-5 array of 5 640 gig hard drives so it would be fast, and if a drive went bad we replace/rebuild and no data is lost.

If you're interested in going the Pro Tools route, then you'll want to avoid any type of RAID array. Digidesign specifically recommends against them (stating that it can cause catastrophic issues).

The Mbox 2 only supports recording up to 24-bit/48kHz, and you'd want to record at 24-bit/44.1kHz, so you don't need incredible amounts of disk space. A typical one song session probably won't end up ballooning to a gig unless you're doing many takes and not doing any cleaning of the audio bin. I use 250 gig drives in Firewire enclosures -- plenty of space.

Drive speed isn't a critical factor, but you'll need at least a 7200rpm drive connected via IDE/SATA or Firewire (FW400 is fine; FW800 is recommended). Most any 7200rpm drive is capable of recording multiple tracks at 24-bit/192kHz, and you'll have no issue at 24-bit/48kHz.

I am kind of leery of USB or Firewire capture devices because of the "slower" medium for transfer.

No need for worry. The Mbox 2 is actually only a USB 1.1 device, and it's perfectly adequate for audio transfer at 24/44.1. I do like the Mbox 2 Pro a little better because it supports FW800, but that's only really advantageous when using 24-bit/96kHz (which only the Mbox 2 Pro or Digi 002/003 support [and Pro Tools HD obviously]), and you can push the latency somewhat lower.

I also want something that is 64bit OS compatible (XP or Vista) because I want to use 4-8 gigs of memory.

I'll have to check on that, but I will say that that much memory (8GB anyway) isn't really necessary for what you'll be doing.