I need some help, and some info!

[Gex]

Ok.

I am 18 years old (limited budget), and I want a recording studio set up. Nothing extremely complex, just some basics for a pretty nice, warm analog sound. Ever heard Steve Vai's Flexable album? He recorded that in a little studio he made from a shed. Im hoping to do the same thing. Have a little shed studio where I can waste alot of time and record some albums for fun.

Ok, I have a shed behind my mom's house she said I could have. Its 15'x12', and the celing is barn-shaped to a peak of about 13' high. It will be a bit small, but It should work. (Its all I got, I gotta make it work)

I bought an older mixer, 16 channels, its BIG!, and I paid $35 for it at a Garage sale from a musician who was moving to Washington and had to clear alot of gear for the move. The brand is Audio Centuron. I cant find any info about it. I'll get some pictures later today.

I dont like amp modeling, I want to do this the old fashioned way, by plugging my guitars into my tube halfstacks and putting a mic or 2 in front of the speaker cones, even though its harder and more expensive (potentially, of course)

I have a Radio Shack Dynamic mic (laugh if you want to, but its actually a very nice mic, metal construction, XLR output, has good, usable sound) I'll be getting some more mics in the future, so dont worry about that, I need help elsewhere...

For a while, Ive been running just the mic infront of my amp, into the mixer, which goes into the microphone input on my computer, into Cool Edit Pro.

It sounds surprisingly nice, for what it is.

Im trying to figure out what I need, for a better sound. Mic preamps? Compressors? Firewire Interface? These are words I hear alot, and I kind of know what they mean, but why do I need these things?

I also guess Ill need some acoustical foam too, after I get my drywall up.

[Gex]

http://photobucket.com/albums/v39/no...tron%20AC-116/

Thats the Mixer.

http://photobucket.com/albums/v39/no...reen%20Studio/

Thats the shed. Im calling it, the Little Green Studio (its gotta have a name right? its painted green on the outside, so it fits nicely)

[David McCarroll]

I would strongly recommend the Digidesign 002 rack and a decent Mac - the plug-ins that come with Pro-Tools LE will basically provide you with a total studio.

Failing that a good tube pre-amp and a condenser microphone would help!

Cheers

David McCarroll,
Sydney, Australia

[Gex]

Digidesign 002 rack + Macintosh = $2000+

[Gex]

since the Digidesign is out of the question, I went searching and found these:

Behringer FCA202 F-Control Audio FireWire Interface
http://www.audiomidi.com/FCA202-F-Co...PID=392&AFID=3


And a M-AUDIO - 4-IN/10-OUT FIREWIRE INTERFACE

http://www.nextdaypc.com/main/produc...inid=ND0130014

I dont need that many features, I just need a good way to get the sound from my mixer into my computer.

Would either of these work good? Im leaning towards the Behringer right now, because I dont need alot of features, just some way of getting the sounds to my computer other than the microphone input, and its cheap.

Thanks!

[J Todd Beachler]

stay away from Behringer.

check out the M-Audio line of PCI cards. If you're just going to be recording one instrument at a time, by yourself, then you won't need a fancy card with multiple inputs and outputs. I'd pick up an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI card.

Also, save about 3 bucks for a canister of baby wipes, because it looks like someone took a squat on that mixer!! j/k

[Gex]

lol, I havent gotten a chance to spruce up the mixer yet.

M-Audio, eh?

Cool. I'll look into them.

[Gresh]

Howdy Gex...hehehehe

I've got a M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card that I'm not using anymore. I went the mac route so the Dell got relegated to family duty. (The mac rocks for audio though, so start saving your pennies for one for later). At any rate, I'll give you a killer deal on the card...if I can find it. We just moved and everything is packed away, getting sorted little by little. I know it's somewhere and it works great.

I'll look for it this weekend and give you a shout if I find it.

[Gex]

Well, all I have is a laptop (PC - Microsoft Winbook)

Ive heard about Macs being popular for music, what makes them better?

Thanks for the offer man.

I was thinking about getting a desktop PC, for about $500 I can get a Hewlett Packard with an AMD processor, 200 GB harddrive, 1Gig of Ram, DVD/CD burner, and other goodies. But. . .I may be influenced in my decision if you can explain to me some benefits of the Mac, and I'll go check them out.

Thanks Gresh.

[Gresh]

People have success with what they are familiar with, so the Mac vs. Windows PC debate can get pretty heated. I think the general perception is that Mac user interfaces are rock solid, and more importantly the operating system is bulletproof for high intensity graphics and audio processing work. Go to any recording studio or graphic arts/ad agency on the planet and they'll have a bunch of macs hard at work, that sort of tells me something. But you can be just as effective with a windows system too, it's all about what you're familiar with and what your budget can take. Mac's aren't cheap at all.

If you do wind up with a Windows based desktop, let me know...I did find the soundcard, it was still in my computer, ...derrrrrrr!

Later and good luck.

[Gex]

Thanks man, Its likely to be a while before I get a new computer.