Need help on chosing equiptment for at home recording

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 5:02 pm

if i were to buy new, i need help on choosing once again.

-dynamic mic
-MCP2000 drum machine

actually on second thought. maybe i should just get help in the right direction... what would be the most vital equiptment for me to get? i hate to ask this, because after surfing the forums, seeing that every hiphop artist trying to get in the right direction gets flamed.

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 5:33 pm

Well, I think most people do everything pretty much in the computer now. And if you want to do that, you could definatly get some nice gear for under $3000. I'm not going to recommend gear, because I don't really know what is good and isn't, but I will say if you want to do everything in the computer, you'd need a nice mic, mic preamp and a soundcard or interface with preamp, a MIDI keyboard controller, and some studio monitors (probably a 2.1 system with a sub).

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:39 am

I dont know if you have purchased anything yet or not but hopefully I can shed some light on this subject. One of the most important things to consider when building a project studo is how you are going to get your signal to your recording software. With the explosion of digital recording one of the primary advancements is the ability to work almost entirely "inside the box." A program like pro tools can give you all the editing ability that you will need, and a plugin budle will allow you to manipulate that sound.

For the application you are describing I would recommend the M-box 2. It features two XLR inputs (microphon ins) with a must have phantom power switch. This simply supplies the extra voltage needed to power condenser mics. If price is an issue you could check out the Audio Technica 2020. Its a medium diaphragm condenser mic which you will find is better suited to vocal applications than a dynamic mic. I have used this mic before and was quite pleased with the performance/price relationship.

Also,the mbox features a MIDI in/out port, which will allow you to utilize a midi controller. This will allow you a lot of flexibility whether it is choosing or creating your own sounds with software plugins.

The 1/4" line level input will allow you connect devices such as your MPC or other such beat boxes. And the DI allows for the direct input of a guitar or bass if you even mess with this sort of thing.

All things considered this device provides a lot of bang for the buck. Many of those just starting out choose to follow this route. It is good for personal use when you create your sessions 1 track at a time. It is extremely limiting if you have a need to record more than one thing at a time. However it should be sufficient for recording rap/hip-hop.

Based on the things you have said here, I dont think you would have a need for much else (other than monitors of course). Hope this helps you out. Let me know if you have any more questions.

EZ

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:38 pm

Oh yeah BTW you are going to want to get an external hard drive minimum 2400 rpm to record to. You dont want to record to your internal hard drive as they have a tendency to burn up on you if you are constantly recording to it.

EZ

Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 10:41 pm

If you do go for the more software based hiphop production studio, you might lke to check out the Akai MPD24 MIDI pad controller - which basically brings the MPC style 16 pads (and a bunch of knobs/sliders) to control your software sampler.

You can use a MIDI pad controller to do the hands-on drum programming that the MPC is famous for.

This topic sponsored by: