Ok, after reading a lot of posts about people asking "should I buy this?" or "what should I get next?", the firsts responses are usually asking what do YOU want to record? What do YOU want to do with this.. so, I'm going to get that out of the way right now:
I am a singer/songwriter/finger-style guitarist. I've recorded a few past albums/Ep's with some in more pimped out studios, some in lower-budget studios. Last year I did my own EP in my own equipment:
HP Pavillion zd7000 laptop
Ediroal 2-channel USB interface
2 AT4033's (mic stands, cables, etc)
Sennheiser HD 280 Pro Headphones
Cubase SX
Reason
Midi Keyboard (88-weighted key from the early 90's)
You can see I was on a budget. But, to this day I don't regret that I did it and I still like the recording. But now I'm ready for the next recording. This recording will have me (12-string acoustic guitar, 6-string acoustic guiar, 6-baritone acoustic guitar), a fretless bass player (possibly mic his amp, or go direct, whichever sounds better), a flute/sax player and a violin player. That's basically it. Mostly acoustic and no drums.
I wanted to "up" it a bit. I've got a friend that is visiting and who is going to engineer the record. He's going to bring some of his equipment and we're also going to borrow a nice mic-kit from a friend (don't know all of the mics in there yet).
So this year I'm going to buy a couple new things. With my friend bringing in an Digidesign M Box Pro 2, we are going to track it here (my apartment) in Pro-Tools, and he's going to mix/master it in a much larger studio that he has access to. From what he says, with the mic-kit we are getting from our OTHER friend, the mics for this recording should NOT be an issue.
So here's the gear:
1) What I currently Own:
HP Pavillion zd7000 laptop
Ediroal 2-channel USB interface
2 AT4033's (mic stands, cables, etc)
Sennheiser HD 280 Pro Headphones
Cubase SX
Reason
Midi Keyboard (88-weighted key from the early 90's)
2) What will be borrowed:
Digidesign MBox Pro 2
A mic kit with some really good mics (assumption being these will suffice)
3) What I plan to buy:
A Pair of the Mackie 824 Studio Monitors (around $1000)
Peavey VMP-2 2-Channel Preamp (for $650)
Keep in mind, I want to make purchases that are wise every year and not buy junk that I will need to replace a year later. Every year I want to slowly build on this. And I have no intentions of recording other people with this, this is just for me and my very acoustic-heavy recordings.
So... any thoughts on what I'm thinking of buying? Suggestions? That's about my price-range ($1500-$2000).
Sorry for the super long post. I wanted to answer any questions before they came up as first replies.
Thanks!
Pete