Well, I think you've come to the right place for advice.

Let's see....$20k to burn on a whole new studio, from the ground up. First of all, what do you want to record, and who's going to record it? (You? Clients? Friends? Family?) Will you be commerical or not-for-profit (Hobby)? Will you run it, or will you hire a helper?

Once you've got that all sorted out, it'll be time to decide on what kind of gear - mics, preamps, mixers, processors, analog to digital interfaces, storage devices, software applications, etc.

If you can answer the above, and give a bit more information, I'll bet the folks here will be chiming in on what to invest in. Fortunately, there are a lot of options out there (esp mic's) so the hardest part is probably going to be WHAT to get.

Take your time (if you can avoid the gear-lust) and consider ALL of your options; ask a lot of questions, check with those who are already working at it.

Let the games begin.... :lol:

Ok,this will be a small project studio,mainly myself and a couple of buddies working on our own stuff.Mainly doing song demos,and not in need of a bunch of inputs at a time.I have the computers,a 9ft grand,a roland fantom 88,much better than my old Sequencial Circuits stuff I bought new,and acouple decent mics.
I can get a good price on a couple of Alesis HD24xrs with only a few hours on them,but just not certain how to proceed.Quality before quanity.

Well we have had some success with HD24's They sound good and are easy to use. Maybe pick up the HD24's clock them to big ben record 24/96 pick you up some good mics U87 and a good pre (neve clone Chandler or great river) a good compressor 21176 and some kind of console and powered monitors. Pick up the masterlink to dump two tracks toTune your room. Man you could make some stellar recordings one track at a time. If you are going to record drums you will need more pres and mics and more importantly a good room. Get nice cables like mogami.

For drums some sm81's are ok some sm57's and 421's for toms and kicks. The API 3124's are nice for drums.

Oh and maybe pick you up a used TC reverb off of ebay to throw in the mix. If you are used to analog I would stay there with the gear and console. I started all digital with Nuendo and the computer but now I am incorporating the analog console and gear in and I love it.

I wish I had 20K right now!!!! Man 20K can go quick I hope it is cash and not credit good luck!!!!

I would probably focus on quality instead of quantity. It will make a huge difference in your sound to have a few great channels/mics than to have a ton of mediocre gear.

That is my goal,I was thinking of buying some Manley gear,a Vox Box and perhaps one of their compressors,also looked at their 16-2 mixer with the mic pres.I had been thinking to incorporate the computers since I have them,but dont have any experiance with DAWs.I do have a nice mic,akg c12vr,and a Masterlink but need everthing else.I will also be using a Roland Fantom 88 with whatever I get together.Main thing I need is advice.
Harry