[Repeats previous advice from other threads]

Do not underestimate the power of the force.
Also, budget for mic stands, cables, a pop shield or two.

Acoustic treatment, even to the smallest degree, will probably help a bit at improving your sound. Bass trapping should improve clarity a lot.

If you're going the hardware route, you'll need a better mixer.
If you're going the software route, to hell with processors: get plugins.

I had looked into stands,cables, acoustics, and pop shields just didn't really include them here :).

Do you have an recommendations for a mixer? I don't know a great deal about the differences in the brands.

I only use a mixer for a live band. It's a cheapo Phonic.
But I live by the way of the software.

If you want to go for hardware, then I personally think $5-800 is a little low for a mixer, unless you're only after a few channels. In which case, an interface or even a control surface with integrated preamps, will do you.

Ya I'm just really interested in mixers it just feels natural to me cause thats how i learned.

Also i was curious what are the pros and cons of different software. I was looking into Logic and it seems good but I've heard its a hassle since its only one window. Of course there's Pro Tools but I've heard nothing good about LE on a personal level and dishing out the 8+grand for HD just isn't an option.

What kind of audio interface did you say you have?

As of right now nothing. Building from the ground up and doing a lot of research in the process. Trying to get some information from people who have been doing this for a while. I've messed with friends equipment and I have a general know how of the process and really wanna expand further. I have a buddy who has been going to school about 2 years for engineering and classical guitar who is gonna be starting it up with me.

When you say "professional home studio" do you mean that you intend to make a living at recording other people, or just that you want your projects to "sound professional"?

I wish to eventually be able to live off of it yes. I know a lot of people in the area as far as the "scene" goes. I'd love to be able to set up a full Pro Tools HD rig with all the equipment to boot but sadly I gotta start somewhere. The house is just a start I guess you could say.

Might want to scratch the mixer off the list no matter how natural it seems:). You are going to need a quality audio interface far more then any kind of board.

Any suggestions? I don't know much about the other options, I scratched some surfaces in the area but nothing that really intrigued me. The only thing I found that was mildly intriguing was Digidesign's 003 Rack but that seems to limit me to Pro Tools LE.

James,

Do yourself a favor... take a $100 bill and burn it... seriously.

If it makes you cringe, or you can't afford to burn it, you might be getting into something that is a bit more than you bargained for.

A studio is NOT something that will ever be complete. Nor is it something that will likely EVER be profitable. As has been said MANY times...

Q.) How do you make a million dollars with a recording studio?
A.) Start with two million dollars!

Start with your acoustics and your room. Get that squared away and it will make your gear selection a LOT easier, simplified and straight forward.

To get to a point of running a home/project studio on a part-time basis is quite a bit less of a daunting task than taking a home/project studio up to the professional full-time status.

Personally, your mic selection is not one I'd agree with. I own most of those mic's, and the only one's I'd keep on the list are the 57's.

The Beta 52 makes for a nice basketball sound, and the C1000's are great ear daggers to make your ears bleed from harshness.

I look at mic's as your primary investment... after your room. After that, gear is almost pretty much gear. (Almost) You should be able to find some pretty decent mic pre's in the $500-$800/channel range.

Your mac is pretty light on RAM. I'd suggest 4Gb of RAM... minimum. Also, look at some external firewire 800 external drives. Personally, I like the Glyph drives.

I/O is the real challenge. I'd look into Lynx Aurora-16's. A good bang for the bucks box... Their street price is just under $3k each. Then I'd look at something like the Lynx AES card to get all that I/O processing up and running...

But above all else, get your room happening first. Unless you have a good sounding room, you'll spend more time, money and energy trying to get decent sounding drums, than you would on getting your tracking room straight.

It's not that I don't mind spending the money, it's just I don't have it at the moment. I have a real passion for recording it's something I enjoy that's why I'm looking into this.

Thanks for the suggestions though I honestly looked more into equipment than acoustics though I didn't forget all together.

The mic choices were mostly comprised from other places on the web I guess it's true what they say about not everything being reliable.

I was looking into getting a small personal lone to help alleviate the issue of starting funds but I wasn't sure if it was worth the hassle.

"I was looking into getting a small personal lone to help alleviate the issue of starting funds but I wasn't sure if it was worth the hassle."

Here's a tip, it's spelled "loan".

Not that I think you should go and get one unless you know you can repay it without having to resort to getting a job in the mines.

Otherwise it's better to go work in the hole now and save. Whilst saving you can do some research into what you want to spend your money on. That way hopefully you make better decisions.

But then again, depression looming. Who am I to hand out financial advice? No one, literally. I don't think it's allowed by law. So do not listen to me, or anyone else not qualified.

Edit to add: And with the state of the Banks, I wouldn't listen to anyone qualified either.

The time of day is really reflecting on my spelling haha

Well I see that a studio is never really "finished" but for a good start with all the necessary and some not so necessary odds and ends, what would be a good start up price. 20k....60k? I know there are a lot of different factors but a ballpark estimate what could I be looking at.

Zimbabwean dollars? 40k ohm Resistors?

Seriously.

I have some suggestions for you.

1. Do as much as you can to find out who you can record and what they are willing to pay you for the recording before you decide to open a studio for hire. Don't just ask friends. Ask musicians at club dates and other live gigs. Many times people will say "sure I will use your studio" but in reality they will not or think that since they are your buds they can use if for free.

2. Do a business plan and ask all the hard questions of yourself.

3. Try and get together with other studio owners in your area and find out how they are doing. Find out where their clients are coming from.

4. Do a search here on recording.org for similar questions that have been answered.

5. After you have all the information about who, what, where, when and how figure out if opening a studio in your area is possible and profitable. Going out and buying equipment before you have some type of plan and have answered all the hard questions is really putting the cart before the horse.

This is not to discourage you but simply to have you face the ultimate possibility that what you want to do may not be fiscally profitable in your area. Today many studios, big and small, are closing down due to loss of income since everyone seems to have their own in house studio and don't really need "professional" studios to do their recording for them. If you are going to go ahead with this idea then at least you have thought it through before spending a lot of money and having things not as you imagined them.

I commend your desire to open a studio but do your homework first. And if is what you want to do then GO FOR IT but be prepared for the reality check at the end of the day.

Ditto what Thomas said!!

PLUS, I would sincerely encourage you to learn a lot more about business finance... A LOT more!

IMHO, going into debt in this economy is not exactly the smart way to play your cards for a SOHO operation... IF you could even get the money.

Better to develop a plan of slow, steady build/growth and survive the economic downturn, than go into just enough debt to send you over the edge of loosing your home.

Greener: Not really sure what your getting at there but k is another way to say thousand sorry.

Thomas: I have looked into some of that, there are quite a few profitable studios in my "area". Some not so close compared to others but still not far. I know a lot of bands in the area (I live in St. Pete, FL) who end up driving up to ocala and orlando because there isn't really anything right here in town.

I have a good source of income I just wasn't sure if it would be wise to go ahead and set it all up at once or take it piece by piece. Get that basic set up then just upgrade as I go and see fit.

Thank you guys for your words though I am somewhat getting caught up in the idea of this and it helps to have someone show you something you skipped over or looked at but just not deeply looked at.

I get what I call "passable" recordings using £40 of equipment to record what comes out of around £2k of PA gear.

I want to spend maybe £200 on real equipment. Then organise furniture and treatment as best I can. Or learn to mix on headphones, which is completely out of the question but will happen anyway.

I don't make money off this, and the only real critique I get is from people who wouldn't know preamp distortion from highpass filtering.

For you, I'd recommend a decent interface, some reliable monitors, then acoustic treatment is your biggest concern.

What sort of space have you got to work with?

Well I'm moving out into a new place in about a month, just gotta wait for a few conditions. Most the places I've looked at have the average sized room as an office nothing ridiculously big but its not tiny. I'd probably used the front rooms more for drum tracking and the two places both have average sized living rooms with about 12 ft ceilings. I forgot the exact measurements, but I'm sure you can get a better understanding at least.

Crawl before ya' walk... walk be before ya' run.....

I'd start with the room acoustics... once you get gear in there... It's gonna be 3-5 times harder to take it up a notch... I mean, you gotta shut down your operation, take everything out, do the work, test it, make any changes, reload the gear in the room, hook it all up and then get back into operation. Everything takes twice as long as you plan and costs 4 times as much... which can actually cost you your operation if you loose too much business.

Start with good mic's, then a good DAW package, good patching system, and start workin' on your pre collection.

If you're gonna hope to move up to "Professional Studio" status... that's a HUGE step.

I'm not braggin'... more bitchin' than anything.. I'm WELL over the stoopid dollar amount.. In this up to my butt to the tune of multiple 6 digits... and EASILY have $20k to $60k more to spend before I'm open!!! And this is a very MODEST "pro" studio...

Make a very serious plan towards what you wanna be... and plan on it taking longer and costing you more than double your budget.

Buy smart... but buy good stuff once.

Remember... Good shit ain't cheap, and cheap shit ain't always good.

You invest in mic's and mic pre's. You invest in your room... and in some respects, you invest in your power scheme and cables.

Everything else is disposable.

I've been warned about that by other studio owners. I've been contacting some places that are well known around my area and they've all warned me you'll spend more than you expected.

My biggest debate is still the software, I can't decide Logic Studio or getting like an 003 rack with Pro Tools LE, I don't know. I've researched more into acoustics of rooms, sound dampening, and the like.

Any suggestions for Pre's?

check out Reaper... best 40 bucks you can spend, to get started.

Pre's... oh man... what a can of worms.... but in no particular order.

API 512c
Neve 1073
Millennia Audio
A Designs
Daking
Chandler
Langevin
Telefunken V72
Quad Eight
calrec
Sebatron
Grace
Trident
Fearn
Cranesong
Drawmer
Great River
Lavry
GML
Pendulum Audio

That's quite a list any particular models that are a must haves? One's that will really bring the sound quality up a few notches.

Okay. Now I gotta chime in.

Your're getting some very very good advice, and I'm really glad you have all this passion for this undertaking.

Simply thinking that a piece of gear is going to "take it up a notch" is going to be an eyeopening experience for you unless you have a LOT of hours under your belt and have spent a lot of time comparing the sometimes miniscule differences in medium level gear and high end crap...........

By your responses, I'm thinking you dont....but thats okay, if you're willing to learn and you're willing to lose your hair over some bad decisions in the next few years. One of the good things about great gear is it holds its value well, and you can usually find a buyer or at least if you dont mind accumulating things, you can always find a use for any decent piece.

One thing you absolutely MUST factor into any decisions about gear is your own method of work-flow and your own estimate of how many tracks you'll want to arm at the same time.

If this count goes over eight, then you may want to consider a console as the centerpiece with some specialty pres as different colors for the pallette.

None of this will make a bit of difference if you dont do the room first.

Visit the studio construction threads here at RO and read read read..........

ha that obvious am I? I was checking out that area I have some good ideas but until i really have the room I don't believe there is much I can do on the subject. Ya I was thinking about schooling to help me learn as I'm still pretty young at this point, but after some reason I feel learning in the field with a watchful eye over my should seems the better route.

There is one digital mixer for 1000$(on ebay) that will never went "out of date" and thats mackie D8B...

Even when you go to the pool to skinny dip you are wearing some sort of clothing, or covering with a towel. Maybe you should get your feet wet before you loose your pants...you know what Im saying?!?!?!

Jeremy wrote: Even when you go to the pool to skinny dip you are wearing some sort of clothing, or covering with a towel. Maybe you should get your feet wet before you loose your pants...you know what Im saying?!?!?!

I doubt it.

I reckon you mean that you should try a bit of audio, before throwing $x,000s at it.

Let's get nakey nakey, that's what he means.

I know when I was first starting out I was looking at Neotek consoles and Ampex multitrack tape decks and thinking that in 5 years that is what I wanted to own. But then the cold light of reality set in and I had to settle for a Tascam mixer and a Tascam mulittrack recorder. I had a good day job and was doing recording at night and on weekends but the people who came to me for recording were poor or did not have the money to go in the the larger cities and get recorded. I was just starting out so it was OK and I learned a lot. By the time I was ready to move up to the Neotek and the Ampex multitrack I could find them used and finally got them for a really low price. I had a good solid house with lots of places to put acoustical musicians if their was more than one. I could not do rock since I was in a close proximity to my neighbors and my town has some fairly strict laws about noise.

I finally got out of the home recording gig and sold off all of my equipment except my microphones which I now use for remote recordings. My day job was taking more and more of my time and since I was doing audio at work I really did not want to do more of it when I was home. It also was not financially rewarding and if the facts be known I probably broke even meaning I spent as much for equipment as I brought in from doing the recordings. I learned a lot and had some really good memories but...looking back I probably could have made more money putting the money in the bank and letting it earn interest. Now all of this was going on in the 70's and 80's and by the 90's recording had changed and everything was moving into the computer or dedicated recording hardware.

I wish you luck but I think you need to do some serious looking at where you are and where you want to go. I see an awful lot of people in GC and Sam Ash buying equipment so they can record themselves. I also see more and more studios around this area either shutting down or cutting their rates in order to stay in business. With the recession NOW is not a great time to start up a studio. I agree with others who have told you to put your money in the bank for the time being and wait a couple of months or a year and see how the economy is doing before spending a great deal of money. I also would say to you again, DO A BUSINESS PLAN and ask all the hard questions. If you can honestly answer that it will be a good risk then go for it.

By the way all your friends that are telling you that they would use you instead of going somewhere else....yes they probably will use you BUT they will probably want you to cut them some really good deals or seeing that you are just starting up have you do their recording for free. So the income will not be what you are expecting.

If this is your dream then go for it...but do some serious soul searching before deciding what to do.

Have a GREAT HOLIDAY!