Hi, visit my website http://selfbuildnewhomes.com/Buildyourownstudio.aspx

for info on studio's

Regards Trev

BuildaRecordingStudio,

In stead of trying to pick up lose change here, maybe you could work on that website, get it at least up to this Century.

All text centered?

Not even if you paid me....

The idea is good, the spam sux, and a few days doing a facelift might improve your, how can I say this, viability?

Good luck,

Brien

Ugh, I smell spam.
Advertising is something you normally pay or trade for, geddit?

To the OP:
You should be able to find a good solid wealth of info, the subject of "how to build a home studio" gets covered twice an hour on slow days.
The search function, you may find, is useful like a hammer with no handle. As in, it's a search function, but is awkward at times.

Could you also provide a little insight as to what you record and where?

The way forward if you want to record pianos in concert halls is different than the way forward if you want to record guitars in bedrooms.

For a generic studio, the advice littered around here still sticks but some mic recommendations etc. are based on "I will be recording a lot of [genre here]".

What am I trying to record is full bands really...drums, bass, vocals, guitars, maybe pianos and keys. I've been recording at home and at my band's practice space...and the results have been as good as the can be. I'm not expecting a miracle from a Tascam DP-01.

I'm in the process of renting a CHEAP commercial space to set up a studio/rehearsal space. Here's some of the equipment I have now:

-x2 Shure SM57
-x1 Shure KM44
-x1 MXL 770 Condenser Mic
-X1 MXL 604 Condenser Mic
-Cheap Ass AUDIO BUDDY pre amp
-Stripped down Dell Computer with a bunch of external hard space.

Like I said, not much. I'm looking to replace the digital unit completely. I'm also looking for any affordable rec's on mixers, interfaces, and programs to use that I shouldn't be ashamed taking money to record anyone with. I'm going to hear about the Neumann mic aren't I? hehe

Mixers are only needed to sum inputs to a single output.

An interface with enough inputs will eliminate the need for a mixer - however your interface must have preamps. Units like the FP10 (Presonus) do have preamps.
(FWIW, mixers like the Onyx 1640 act as interfaces if you get the Firewire expansion card, and has preamps).

The key is to work out how many inputs you expect to need - which is related to the way you'll record things.

Codemonkey wrote: Mixers are only needed to sum inputs to a single output.

An interface with enough inputs will eliminate the need for a mixer - however your interface must have preamps. Units like the FP10 (Presonus) do have preamps.
(FWIW, mixers like the Onyx 1640 act as interfaces if you get the Firewire expansion card, and has preamps).

The key is to work out how many inputs you expect to need - which is related to the way you'll record things.

Well...I like to have as much of my/other people's drums mic'd as possible. I don't want to use the one/two mic treatment. I play a 7 piece Yamaha Stage Custom and a 6 piece Ddrum Diablo kit...with 2 crashes, a ride, china, 2 splash, and a hi-hat...so I don't know how effective a mic or two can be for a "professional" effort. I want to use our space to record other bands, and I want it to show that I am serious and want to continue building. I suppose that's where the idea for the mixing board came in.

Your drumkit has china!?!?
Do you have to restock those after every fill? :lol:

An Onyx 1640 with the firewire card would give you the capacity to record, errr, 16 channels.

However it can't be used as a control surface and if you don't want to do any live shows then IMO you'd be cheaper buying, for example, a pair of FP10's (which provide 8 inputs each, the 10 is a misnomer common to all audio gear). All you'd need is a Firewire card and it's strongly recommended to get one with a Texas Instruments chipset as they are the best, and are compatible. Some cheaper FW cards cause dropouts, which are wanted like a winter breeze in an outhouse.

I have an Onyx 1640 and like the pre's on it. It was pretty much the only thing in it's class at the time I bought it as far as computer interface/mixer. It still might be the right option but you can't bring tracks back into the board-except for a stereo pair through the mains.

I recently read something about the Allen & Heath ZED R16 being more flexible. I think it will send and return channels in various combinations which would make it a possible better solution as a "studio" board. Caveat: I have not had any hands on time with one of these so I'm only going on what I think I read.

Thanks a lot. I just ordered the Presonus FP10. I read great things about it. I'm actually going to buy another one here in the near future as well.

That is a good choice, you can daisy chain them get 16, 24 channels if your 'puter is up to it. Remember however that mixing requires much more processor/RAM than recording esp when dealing with a bunch of plugins on 8,12,16 channels.
Let see now you just need more mics, monitors, cables, headphone amps, and on and on...LOL welcome to the insanity.

1. the FP10 is a safe buy. I don't own it, but I do own the FS26/26, and am very happy w/ it. It has more I/O options than the FP, but as far as I can tell, that's the main departure.

2. Four mics for drums should be sufficient: Kick, Snare, 2 OHs. That leaves 4 channels for everything else (bass direct, scratch gui/keys/vox)

I used to mic toms, but have gotten away from that. The more mics you add, the more issues you have w/ (unwanted) bleed and phasing. Everything may sound great solo'd, but you'll notice problems when you put it all together.

Finally, by Shure KM44, I assume you mean KSM 44? That's a nice mic. I'd get another to use for your OH pair, or use the single one in fig8 or omni pattern.
Looks like you've got enough to do a pretty good job now!

jg49 wrote: That is a good choice, you can daisy chain them get 16, 24 channels if your 'puter is up to it. Remember however that mixing requires much more processor/RAM than recording esp when dealing with a bunch of plugins on 8,12,16 channels.
Let see now you just need more mics, monitors, cables, headphone amps, and on and on...LOL welcome to the insanity.

Can anyone recommend some good, affordable mics, headphone amps, and monitors? I've got more cables than I know what to do with. I'm also in the market to beef up my computer. What would be a good set up to handle 16-24 channels of mixing?

I use KRK 8's for monitors I like em but there was another thread today that had some beefs with them. I found that I can get mixes to translate pretty well but if you do a search on monitors there must be at least a half dozen threads.
Hard to know what to tell you re: the computer all you said was it was a DEll. No specs. One thing is you should really have two hard drives one with your OS and software and one to record on.

Mics you got some standards there in the Shures. You might want to get something for a bass drum mic, {old-link-removed}

Maybe a pair of small condensers to use as overheads {old-link-removed}
When you said affordable you mean what, less than $1000,$500, $150 ?
Presonus makes a nice headphone amp, but there are quite few others. I would stay away from Behr%$#$. Noisy as all get out.

"but if you do a search on monitors there must be at least a half dozen threads."

Per week.