x
Jdizzle89 29 November 2017

So I stumbled on this website to find information from pros on what studio equipment to buy for a small home studio. I plan on using it to mix and master my vocals. If someone could give me a list on what to get i'd appreciate it, My budget is $3500 max, As far as the programs,mic,anything else I need .. I just need to know what to get then i'll learn from there. Thank you and God bless.

Comments

DonnyThompson Thu, 11/30/2017 - 03:36

It would help us to know a little bit more about what you want to do, the styles you want to record, the environment you are planning on recording in, and if you are planning on recording multiple instruments or just one thing at a time, if you are planning on using drum samples or other internal midi instruments...
Are you working with a PC or a Mac...
Not trying to be evasive .... Just that we can help you more if you help us to understand a bit more about what you want to do.
;)

pcrecord Thu, 11/30/2017 - 04:55

Jdizzle89, post: 454252, member: 50965 wrote: I plan on using it to mix and master my vocals.

Do you mean mastering your vocal skills ? Audio mastering is the highest engineer achievement and it addresses mastering the songs of an album to make them sound good compared to other commercial recordings of the same style. (unless you do an acapella CD, we don't master vocals...)

Everything depends on the level of quality you expect to achieve but to get started (for high quality), you need :
Acoustic threatment
A mic that matches your voice or a selection of mics if you do customers
A preamp or channel strip
An audio interface
Computer and a DAW
Studio monitors
Wires and stands.
10 000 hours to learn the craft ;)

Before doing the common gear/name throwing, please define what you want to do and the level at which you want to work.

DonnyThompson Thu, 11/30/2017 - 05:55

"master vocals"...
Yeah, that kinda made me cock my head a little bit, too.
I'm assuming you mean that you want to master the technique of singing...

"Master" (or "mastering") is a a term that gets thrown around a lot these days, usually by beginners or novices who don't know what it means, and who have just heard it said by someone else - who also often don't know it's true meaning in audio, either.

One of the things you may want to do...and you don't need to wait for gear to do it... Is to start to familiarize yourself with audio terminology. The other thing you can do is to start researching what these terms mean, what particular processes do, how they work, how they are used. Start with Mastering and then look up Gain Reduction, EQ, Gain Staging, Tubes, Transformers, Preamps, Amplitude, Sampling Rates, Bit Resolution, Various types of Microphones, Digital Conversion, and many other things connected to the craft of audio recording.
It's going to be a bit difficult for us to talk to you and suggest certain things if you don't understand what we say. The good news is, you can start your studying now - you don't need any gear for research and learning. ;)

Boswell Thu, 11/30/2017 - 07:09

Hi Jdizzle89 - one thing I didn't get out of your original post is whether the backing tracks are all pre-recorded and you are simply adding a vocal line to them, or whether you are also recording the backing tracks live. If it is just vocals, the stereo backing track is likely to be a ready-mixed, and so the mono vocal will just sit in the centre, i.e. equal contributions of the vocal in the L and R channels.

If you want to add reverb to the vocal, that will probably be output from your vocal processor as a stereo pair, so this could just be mixed in as an L-R track.

However, if you are also recording the backing tracks live, then that's a different level of complexity.

Once we get a better idea of what you want to do and what the room acoustics are like we can give you some suggestions about what gear to consider. Yes, the room does make a big difference to the choice of suitable equipment.

JayTerrance Thu, 11/30/2017 - 18:24

pcrecord, post: 454254, member: 46460 wrote:
Everything depends on the level of quality you expect to achieve but to get started (for high quality), you need :

Acoustic treatment
A mic that matches your voice or a selection of mics if you do customers
A preamp or channel strip
An audio interface
Computer and a DAW
Studio monitors
Wires and stands.

I think this lays it out in categories pretty well you. Now, you just need to assign dollars to the 7 categories listed above. For instance on mics, you could start out very low cost with an SM58 for $90.00. Or you could spend 10X that amount on an AKG C414-XL II. Will your voice sound better with the AKG? not necessarily. Also, DAW software could run you $60.00 for Reaper or $300-400 for Samplitude.

Treating your room you'd likely want to at least get some Corner Traps for Bass trapping. So you need to save some dollars in your $3500 budget total for that. Decent Monitors might cost you close to $1000.00

Maybe you already have a Computer so that helps with your budget. Then maybe you can acquire a used Fireface 400 on ebay as your audio interface for $400.

Plenty of options. And your $3500 budget will get you recording multiple takes of your voice over backing tracks with equipment that is plenty capable of giving you lots of pleasure in the future. You will learn a lot - everyday is a learning experience.

Jdizzle89 Thu, 11/30/2017 - 18:33

JayTerrance, post: 454265, member: 49019 wrote: I think this lays it out in categories pretty well you. Now, you just need to assign dollars to the 7 categories listed above. For instance on mics, you could start out very low cost with an SM58 for $90.00. Or you could spend 10X that amount on an AKG C414-XL II. Will your voice sound better with the AKG? not necessarily. Also, DAW software could run you $60.00 for Reaper or $300-400 for Samplitude.

Treating your room you'd likely want to at least get some Corner Traps for Bass trapping. So you need to save some dollars in your $3500 budget total for that. Decent Monitors might cost you close to $1000.00

Maybe you already have a Computer so that helps with your budget. Then maybe you can acquire a used Fireface 400 on ebay as your audio interface for $400.

Plenty of options. And your $3500 budget will get you recording multiple takes of your voice over backing tracks with equipment that is plenty capable of giving you lots of pleasure in the future. You will learn a lot - everyday is a learning experience.

So the AKG C414-XL II is like $900? I know it will add talent but if its a better sounding mic why not?

pcrecord Fri, 12/01/2017 - 03:06

By what I read, that's what I get :
Ok so you are starting of, you want to sing and record yourself.
No customer, no grammy award CD for now. Just get started and have fun.
Here is what I would do :
Senario 1 :
Buy a relatively cheap kit to try and confirm it's worth investing more later.
Something like that : https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AudioBx96Stu or https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SparkRecPk
Take your time to learn and get the feel of it. Then make more educated purchase when you outgrow this first small kit.

Senario 2 :
Go to a pro studio and do a recording session... 2 hours should be enough.
The goal is to find a mic that sounds good on your voice since no voice is the same. You should aim for a mic worth 2000$ max.
You'd be surprise, you may end up with a 100$ Shure sm57 !!
Buy Any focusrite or presonus interface with a digital input and a ISA One preamps with the digital option.
Then some monitors, Yamaha HS8 or something similar. Any studio headphones with closed cup (many below 100$)
With the rest of the money Take care of your room. What do you hear when you clap your hand ? Echo, ringing, reverb ?
It could be simple as having moving blankets on the wall or build your own acoustic pannels (many DiY on youtube). I did some, it's easy, fun and worth it.
Or check auralex...

DonnyThompson Fri, 12/01/2017 - 04:10

I agree with Marco; I wouldn't put a bunch of money into this until you know you want to continue doing it. There's no need to spend your entire budget right now.
You can always improve certain recording components ( mic, preamp, converters, etc) as you continue to grow in the craft.
I think that spending anymore than $500 on monitors right now is probably not the best use of your money ... yes, monitors are important if you are expecting to do Pro release stuff, but for right now, just to get your feet wet, a pair of active monitors like Presonus E's would be fine.
What Marco (pcrecord ) mentioned about your room IS important though. If you are getting lots of reflections, pinging, ringing, flutter echo, those things will definitely effect your vocal tracks. This also brings up the mic choices... you may find that a dynamic mic will serve you better right now than a large diaphragm condenser will; as dynamic mics (Shure SM57/58/SM7) are much more subdued in their sensitivity to the sound of the room, whereas condenser mics will tend to pick up more of those room factors.
Treatment doesn't have to be expensive - (although it can be if you buy pre made commercial acoustic panels), but you'd be surprised at just how much treatment you can get done yourself by getting the raw materials from a home improvement store (Rockwool for bass traps and panels, burlap to cover them, some 2" x 2" pieces of wood to hold the traps or panels together) really won't cost you all that much. And, as Marco also mentioned, even things like packing blankets hung over mic stands or suspended from your ceiling will also be effective.
I would look towards either Presonus or Focusrite for a 2 channel USB preamp/interface. I would start out with a Shure SM58 dynamic ( you'll also need an XLR mic cable and a stand).
And.. we need to talk about one very important thing, which is your DAW software... but before we do, we need to know if your current computer is a Mac or a PC...

x

User login