This sounds like a big project. Before you build, think about using the same room for drums and guitars. The way it is usually done is basic rhythm tracks are first recorded. This could be drums bass and one guitar. After your basics are done you can strike the drums and set up guitars in the large room. Finish the guitars and use the large room to do your vocals. This way you only have to think about trapping and treating a couple of rooms. Have you thought about your control room? This is the most important area. Get back to me on this and we will try to see you through. Once we get into the acoustics area I will probably move the whole thread over to the Acoustics forum where our resident acoustics genius Ethan Winer can take good care of you. You have come to the right place, I have set up numerous studios in private homes. Don’t be afraid to ask any question. There are no dumb ones. :D , Genelec, Hafler, KRK, and PMC
Those are good. …………………….. Pick one.
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thankyou Mr Fats :)

I guess i have alot of questions but i,ll take it slow and try and keep it as descriptive as possible.

I guess i like many have seen all those beautifull studios with racks full of gear and thought gee how am i going to do similar well reality has sunk in "i cant" not on my budget.

I do like outboard equipment and ive been collecting as pieces have presented themselves for the right money

I have a good understanding for the outboard gear i now need after a long and winding quest on another recording site so this is what ive got so far in outboard gear

lexicon pcm 70
lexicon lxp15
alesis quadraverb q2

two rnc compressors
one behringer quad gate got this for free
a small alesis studio 32 board this board has alot of direct outs so it seemed a good thing to connect up to the hd24? its also pretty compact unlike my old tascam m3500 32x8 board which was going to take a good 8000 dollars to get it into sonic heaven essp in the eq and mic pre dept.

mics i own
4 sm57,s
2 mxl603,s
1 mxl v67m
1 beyer m88
1 akg d112
1 atm 25
2 Behringer ecm 8000,s
1 beyer 260nc
would like to have two studioprojects c3,s and one t3
along with the long awaited Stephen Paul Masterwork Microphone being built by Mr Hyatt

for multitrack i was going to purchace an alesis hd 24 and for mixdown it was eiter going to be dat or an hhb cd recorder but not sure as yet along with cabling and all the other misc items thats the general idea of what equipment i will want to use

sorry if i got onto the gear list and not the studio space as mentioned but i,ll ask another question before i do

Your post to me gave me alot of hope for recording i was off the opionion id have to isolate alot of the instruments in the recording process to get pro results geez it must get kinda hectic guiding another misguided soul anyway Mr Fats i do thank you you must be the first pro who really cared to take the time out to assist me and for this i thankyou :) ) look forward to reading more of your wonderfull advice

Kind regards Wayne :) )))

Mr Fats i was thinking of mixing outside the house in a portable kind of way ive heard of one other guy doing this any comments on this approach would be well valued :) )

Cool Wayne,
As far as your gear, every thing is cool except the Behringer (good you got it for free, you get what you pay for :D ) and the Alesis mixer. These mixers have a horrible reputation. The PCM 70 is a great reverb but the Alesis is ehhh.. but that's the guitar one right? It's ok. All the mics are ok. Could be better but they are fine to start with. Are you ready to spend all your cash and time on this? It's addictive. I will be doing some sessions on a HD24 in the next few weeks so I will give you an opinion on that after the recording dates. If I were you I would consider getting into a DAW rather than all that stand alone gear. Check out the thread here in small steps called What's better, Stand alone or DAW? Almost all the replies come down on the side of DAW. It is a bit of a learning curve, I know I just went through it myself but it is truly worth it. For a little more than what you spend on the HR24 you can have a nice powerful PC running Cubase and a sound card with 18 in/outs and Alesis converters. You will have total recall of settings, automated mixing and midi capability. There are experts here at RO that can help you get on the right track with this also. You've come to the right place. Well, it's bedtime now (almost 3 am here between the Dessert and the Left Coast) so I won't be back until morning. See ya then ...... (Just call me) .... Fats

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the Alesis is ehhh.. but that's the guitar one right? It's ok.

Mr Fats its the Studio 32

the pc i currently have is an intel p3 650 7200rpm 40 gig seagate hd
512 ram has cd burner and cd rom dated sound card live 128 and an asus v3800 video card as you can see not breathtaking technology but its been real reliable mb is a soyo s17a something like that

i may consider pc,s a little later on i may spend some time in the forums learning on what is right to get for my pc always found it a problem to find a sound card with multiple i'o options wanted a lynx 1 or 2 card but the i'o options just dont seem enough the cards quality is not in question but again the i'o options fall short of what i feel would be required.

In relation to outboard gear other then what ive got what would be good to add to my list that is in your experience Mr Fats what works and what is worth giving a miss essp in the line of compressors etc i realise the urei,s etc are real good but stretching that far at this stage when i have not got at least enough gear to commence does not seem to make good sense to me at this stage

anyway thanks again

regards wayne

Fats is right on in his appraisal..the only thing i dont get is the choice of the alesis mixer over the tascam...m-3500's have much much better mic pres and though large in scope have a miriad of ways to patch and lots and lots of inputs for mixdown.and a deeper more complete eq range..just my $.03(inflationary rate)

Davedoggie; Harrumph!!!

Trebles, When I said the Alesis, I was speaking of your Quadraverb... (once again, just call me) ... Fats

the quadreverb is a q2 not the earlier quadreverbs those earlier ones were a bit of a pain but yes i do understand the alesis is getting on a little as well i guess its just having a variety of fx units

the 3500 was indeed mint condition but i wanted to go down the path of the fixing all the eq stage and mic pres i guess i didnt think the dollars were worth the investment maybe a small rack of pres suited to various applications would be in order at some stage anyway its a while before any of that happens

I will post some photos soon of these rooms ive been talking about then maybe it will be easier to discuss my ideas :) thanks again guys

i just moved the stuff back into my project studio. (YEAH!!!) I too realized that it was going to be a pretty large undertaking (for me anyway). as far as the building goes i went with a "room within a room". So, I have a 6'X 8' room with 9' ceiling...inside of a 18' X 26' room with 10' cielings.

I did the work myself and i scarfed alot of throw away stuff and put it to use (thanks Walmart!)

i have about $600 invested in the actual construction of the place and most of that is insulation and sheet rock...and some lumber.

the 8 X 6 "vocal isoulation room" is built entirely out of palletts (except the ceiling...its sheetrock)..the double glass window is 2 sliding glass doors that i got for $10 at a junk salvage place (they are both double glass so i guess my window is quadruple glass)...Walmart redid their floor in the entrance and all the old indoor/outdoor carpet tiles and 5 gallons of adheisive were going to be thrown away (i don't think so!) i loaded my truck up with them and steamed cleaned them. I had enough to do the entire floor of the main room and all 4 walls plus the floor the isolation room.

my neighbors sold their house and had just installed carpet last year...the buyers ripped out that carpet and installed new carpet. As you probably can already guess i picked it up off the side of the road and threw it in the back of my truck (thanks new nieghbors). that carpeted the floor and walls of the isolation booth and i still have a shitload of it left.

my biggest expense on the isolation room is the input and output plates that i loaded with switchcraft jacks (damn they are high!)

my studio is on a major highway and the isolation room is pretty damn sound proof...so i guess i did something right.

now i can FINALLY start recording again!!

How did the session go with the hd24 Mr Fats :)

Due to family obligations, I wasn't able to make those sessions. But the plan is to load the sessions into my workstation and then I will mix them down here. The last I heard, the tracking was going well. That would be Davedog doing the tracking and producing the sessions. I am looking forward to mixing it. We will keep you posted. Thanks for asking ... Kurt