Brian, I wish you luck in the building of your studio. I would like to make a few suggestions. If you want to make the leap to a semi pro/pro studio you are gonna need to bulk up your mics, your pre's and your recorder. You may need to spend more than 13,000 canadien to get everything up to semi pro/pro level.

These are just suggestions but....

I would dump the Tascam Digital mixer and sell it. You can mix inside your PC with NUendo, Sonar, or pro tools.

Recorder- IZ corp. Radar 24 - Nyquist version. I use one, I am partial to it. They are rock solid and have some of the best converters in them.

Outboard mic pre's - maybe 4 to 8 channels of pre's ?
All pre's out there sound unique in their own way.

For rock stuff - API 3124 - 4channels
Also other people praise the Great river stuff- the list goes on and on -Vintech, Sebratron, etc...

Mic's -

get at least 1 high end mic for vocals.

couple of sm57's
couple of 421' s
Akg d112 for kick drums.
Pair of nice mics for overheads for drums? I like the Royer stuff 121, -122's

I am unpretty much using the DM24 only as AD/DA through the firewire option, and as a control surface for nuendo, is this a bad set-up?

Good or bad, I dont know, but I would have to think that the AD DA converters in the unit are probibly not what you would call Pro quality.

Again, I dont know. I would ask around the forum about that one.

Converters are pretty much the most important point in any Daw setup. Nuendo, pro tools , etc... They all have great front end features as far as the software, but at the end of the day when you are left with a subpar mix, this may be a limitation of Converters.

As far as pro tools users go. Most of the higher end "pro" shops dont use the hardware AD DA converters that come stock with 001, 002 etc ... They use an external Clock source ( Prism, Apogee)

Heck, you even see Big studios going out and buying a full blown pro tools rig and then going out and getting a RADAR 24, whcih is not cheap BTW, just for External Clock!!

Anyone, I am kind of looking for someone to help point out the necessities or a good studio, mic and pre amp wise. I have the pre amps in the DM24, but I would much rather use external pres, with a better sound. And mics, I am looking for a full set-up for everything from drums to piano.

First, I have to respectfully disagree that converters are the most important part of a DAW set up .... I think good mic pres have a lot more to do with getting great sound ... first, front end (eq's, compressors, mics, pres) then converters .... without great front end, all you have is well converted garbage .... so I would stick with the Tascam and forget the RADAR. Without some type of mixer, how will you monitor inputs without latency while tracking? The RADAR is killer but expensive and you need a mixer to use it. How would you monitor the RADAR while you record without some type of mixer? You gotta have some type of mixer IMO.

In your case I would recommend the TMP8 from JLM Audio .. a transformer balanced preamp type 8 channel mic pre very similar to API / Focusrite Red pres .... then depending on how many channels you will need to be able to record at once (for pop production 16 is usually common) I would say perhaps a couple of Sebatron VMP-4000e's, a 4 channel transformer balanced tube pre. If you would like to hear either of these pres in action, you can check out the audio snips I posted in the [="http://recording.org/forum-35.html"]Reviews[/]="http://recording.or…"]Reviews[/] section here at RO.

I would pick up a Manley ELOP compressor and perhaps that new stereo version of the UA1176 ... at least 3 channels or more of compression is needed in my opinion ... a couple channels of nice EQs would be good too! I recommend the Amek system 9098s if you can still get them .... a bonus is the the 9098s have very decent pres in them as well ...

I started a thread here called [[url=http://="http://recording.or…"]KF's mic closet recommendations[/]="http://recording.or…"]KF's mic closet recommendations[/], check it out for what mics you will need ... .... this one is exactly what you're asking about.

That should spend just about all of your budget..

i'm with kurt!!!

talent and performance, mic, pre, inserts and then a/d...

list mics
kick - D112
snare - SM57
toms - MD421
overheads and hi-hats - C414 and C451B
at least one more sm57, maybe take a look at a d2 and d4...

pres kurt gave you some good ones
i'd buy something like a sebatron for tube pre...
and for a/d you could take a look at the rme fireface 800

and other thing i think may be worth the money is the new focusrite liquid channel pre...
it's getting people excited...

but mainly don't forget your rooms... do they have good acoustics??? you can spend a lot of money just on that...

Good luck with your new venture.

Instead of answering specific gear needs, I would have to caution you about accruing too much/if any debt-load.

The "pro" studio business is a very difficult game to play, so you'll need to run lean and mean. I'm not trying to give you an economics lesson, just some sage advice from someone who has owned 4 large studios over 21 years.

I (personally) would never buy a piece of gear unless I absolutely needed it for a specific project or if I thought that it would increase my quality instantly. You obviously need some more "start-up" gear. Just something to keep in mind down the road.

That being said, here's your priorities in order of importance.

1. Acoustics- No matter how many good mics you buy, if the rooms suck, so will the recordings. Get some pro advice on this before you start diy'ing it.

2. Mic pres- If you invest in the best,(whetever you feel that is) they will make most "modest" mics sound better then buying high-end mics and using poor pre's.

3. Mics- Simply get the best you can afford. I would go with quality over quantity. It's usually better to use less (better quality) mics on a drum-set, then to slap a boat-load of (lower quality) mics on it. Try to get a killer/versatlie vocal mic (LDC), one that can be used on many, many sources. Also buy a good pair of matched stereo condenser mics. Many things will require a good stereo set.

Sorry to sound overly general, but I've seen many people take the leap you about to take and fail miserably.

If you are a talented and hard-working engineer and above all an honest business-man, your chances are pretty good that you'll make a good run at the business. Always remember that Karma counts in business.

Hope this helps.

Chris

How do you pay for a 3 story house with 1 room worth of recording gear?

Are you guys planning to do all commercial work or will this be a music production studio catering musicians?

All the other opinions are rock solid so far.

MY view is Monitoring path is most important (after talent etc) because without it you cannot tell what you are getting from the rest of the gear. The DAC is part of the monitoring path and guys like Bob Katz and Bob Ohlsson will tell you it is critical.

So based on all the other input so far I think it would be best to have a simple but rock solid path from Mic-to-speakers. Variety can take a second seat IMO.

Good luck!
Steve

We run a pro studio in the UK. We run Tascam DM24's as our main mixer. I have used this desk for about 3 years and you can do alot more with it than you think. We clocked ours to an apogee bigben and this has made the desk sound substancially better. As far as pre's go our drum sound improved alot when we got our API pre's. Our main improvement though was when we moved to our new place with superb acoustics. Better than any piece of kit. Hope this helps

http://www.parloursound.co.uk

Hey where did you get the desk built for your mixers?

this is what I think I am going to do in the ways of pre amps

1 x API 3124 4 ch pre
1 x Sebatron 4000vu
1 x JLM 8 ch pre ( anyone know a canadian/us dealer)
1 x Drawmer 1960
1 x Focusrite Liquid Channel

Outboard compressor I will get the Vari mu from manley, and I have the UAD-1 and the powercore internally.

Let me know your thoughts on my choises.

thanks

I built it myself

Wow, that turned out very nice for a DIY project. Let me ask you this, what is the advantage of having two mixing boards? I am unsing the firewire option, and I don't believe that you can use multiple.

1 x Drawmer 1960
1 x Focusrite Liquid Channel

The 1960, I do not care for at all ... I owned one for about a month or two and I ended up trading it in on a Manley ELOP. The pre in the 1960 is noisy and compressor is heavy handed ... it has a sound all its own so I guess it's a matter of taste ... I love Drawmers gates but I don't care a lot for their dynamics processors.

Much talk regarding the Liquid Channel, some good, some bad. Negatives are that it is pretty flat and lifeless sounding, no depth of sound field ..

In place of these two, I would get a pair of Millennia STT-1's instead, probably at a price savings .... a better pre amp and a killer eq and compressor section ... the mic pre can be run in solid state or tube mode with or without a transformer in the audio path, and you can select tube or solid state mode for the the eq / compressor section as well .. The mic pre and eq comp sections may be used separately and this will satisfy the need for a couple of channels of nice EQ I was referring to earlier ... I am deep in love with the compressor on the STT-1 ... I think it's worth the price of the unit alone ... The STT-1's will complement the Sebatrons and the JLMs nicely, this is the set up I am shooting for (still waiting for the JLM) ...

The advantage of two boards is double everything, double channels, double effects sends and my main channels go straight accross both boards so I don't have to use the layers so often.

Hey, Im Kevin from Oshawa. Im a fan of Thunder3Music, I met Paul Lau at the TMX a year ago... very cool guy.

I've had a lot of luck in many situations with the Presonus Eureka. Especailly for tracking Bass Guitar and Piano. It's a versatile little box that also offers spdif digital out, and world clock in. the ADL 600 is amazing aswell. Impedance matching is a must for any preamp.

Good luck with your studio!