Beginner Studio

[Dylan Giles]

Hi, I'm new to these forums and I would like your input on a beginner instrument studio for my basement. I'm fifteen years old right now, and i have a budget of around US$200. I play the flute, clarinet and alto saxophone, along with some acoustic guitar and bass guitar and piano, of which I'd like to record. My school offered a year long sound engineering course which I took last school year, and I am quite proficient with analog and digital mixers. I knew the ins and outs of my school's recording studio, which used a Roland M-400 (which I know very well) that fed into a nearby Mac with Logic Pro. I am familiar with Logic and a few other DAW's, notably LMMS, the one I use now. I know that for a studio I would need a condenser mic, an interface/soundcard, a mic stand and a computer. I already have a computer (Windows with LMMS). I didn't think I would need a pop filter seeing as I probably won't be doing any singing. Are there any particular pieces of equipment that you would recommend for my situation?

Thanks a lot


- Dylan


P.S I'm new here so I'm sorry if I posted this thread in the wrong place

 

[Don J Davis]

Re: Beginner Studio

Hi Dylan,
Welcome to the forum! I can't help you with studio type info since I do live sound reinforcement but maybe some of the guys that have that experience will jump in.
Your budget wont get you much in the way of a condenser mic and you may end up buying used but beware of knock offs. Hang around the forums, post your questions and learn as much as you can. There are some extremely knowledgable people on here that work at the highest levels of the audio industry and share their knowledge freely.

Don

 

[Rob Timmerman]

Re: Beginner Studio

On your budget, I'd start with a decent pair of monitoring headphones. Plenty of decent options within your budget that will serve you well for many years.

For inputs, while you can get something servicable within your budget (certainly good enough to start learning about the importance of microphone placement), industry standard condensor microphones and USB preamps are all more expensive.

Personally, for (slightly over) a $200 budget, I'd pick up a pair of Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones, a Shure SM57, an inexpensive mic stand, and an ART XConnect. You'll outgrow the ART XConnect, and wear out the mic stand, but the headphones and SM57 will serve you well for many years.

 

[Steve Kirby]

Re: Beginner Studio

Going to be tough to put anything together for that budget but I'll 2nd the SM57. The universal mic. I would avoid cheap USB condenser mics. Large diaphragm condensers tend to pick up everything in sight. And room treatment will be more critical, which is a huge subject in itself. A 57 will be more forgiving and a pro recordist can make a salable recording with one. And it gives a beginner a good education in placement both relative to the room and the instrument.

From there you will need an interface. Lots of things there from M-Audio, Focusrite and others.

You can start out with cheap headphones but will eventually want to get a pair of Sony MDR7506 which are $99. Not the most accurate in the world, they sound somewhat forward. But they are an industry standard and reference with any studio in the world.

You can adapt to less than optimum monitors, either headphones or low cost speakers in an untreated room, by using reference recordings. Which you should always do anyway. Get a couple commercial releases in the genre you like and that you like the sound of. Listen back and forth between this and the recording you are making to compare how the balance of things is. If your bass or midrange is off compared to a high end studio reference you will hear the same thing in both recordings. You want to try and get something that sounds like your reference recording through your system, not something that sounds impressive to you on your system.

You can spend a ton of money on good stuff but putting a 57 in the right place and arranging the music well can result in a perfectly respectable recording. Which is where the art is.

I have a dedicated, doubled walled room with treatments and some decent gear. Few different LDCs and SDCs, various dynamics, trick outboard preamps and processing, ProTools 11 and lots of plugins. But it comes down to the music and getting the arrangement and mix in a similar vein to what you're shooting for.