[ninja636]

OK, me and the wife just bought a "new" house, and I FINALLY get to have my own room for my guitar stuff(and video game stuff). I want to get into home recording, so some suggestions on gear to start with would be helpful. I prefer a ProTools based DAW, as I have an awesome gaming PC I built myself, but can build another for just music. I also have a 53" HD(DLP) tv I plug my PC's into, so seeing all the Protools on screen aint a problem. I heard you either have to have a BIG moniter, or TWO smaller ones to take advantage of all the onscreen controls. The room I'm setting up in also has hardwood floors, great acoustic guitar sounds, but I heard for recording they can be a nightmare, so some sound wave control advice would be helpful too. Thanks.

[MrSandMan]

Hi ninja,

Welcome to the boards! I'm personally far from a recording guru, but I'll try to help anyway. It sounds like you are on the right track. If you are building a budget studio you could get the Line 6 toneport. Audacity makes a nice tools software, and you'll need a wmv to mp3 converter.

In regards to your floor and walls, I think that'll all depend on the volumes and amp / mic positioning. Lower volumes is easier to record.

http://www.gear-monkey.com/forum/index.php?topic=17.0

Hope this helps.

[ninja636]

Sweet. Thanks! I know a little experimentation is needed, as far as standing, and slap back sound waves, but that's gonna be the fun part.(I hope.)

[MrSandMan]

I'm going to be shopping for a tv. How do you like yours? I love that you can hook up a PC to it. I like to visit warez sites for new movies.

[torgeot]

Hardwood floor may be alright, you will want to deaden some of the walls/ceiling.
Auralex make some great products www.auralex.com and check like mix magazine or some other recording magazine or onliine sites. I had a studio a few years back and made all the sound baffles myself, wasn't very hard to do and you can save some of that money to buy the never ending supply of outboard gear you will need.

[floydmoline]

close mic'ing more or less eliminates room dynamics, with a mic 2-3 inches from the speaker you could record in a garage or a cathedral, and it wouldn't make much differeance, only when doing things with ambient mics are you going to notice room acoustic effecting it much, i record almost on a daily basis, though i prefer sonar, and cakewalk suites, pro-tools i find you can only really take advantage of if you have a macintosh setup, my advise if you want to have a big sound and little investment to start up, your 2 most important items are a NICE dynamic mic, and a decent compressor / preamp, nice mic don't have to me expensive either, i have had seinheisers, nady, and shure mics, and they are all decent, but imo the nady starpower mics are just as good as the SM57s, and nady SP-1s are around 20 bucks while a SM57 is around 100, the seinheisers are a little better at recording guitar than others, but aren't real versitle, the SM57s are versitile, can record damn near anything with them, nady mics are cheap and sound good so you can kick them around and not feel bad about it, as far as compressors go, you are shooting for features here, since under 300 they are all basically created equal

[Vintageheadbox]

I Have My own studio..
57's 58's are a good way to start.. Do your home work recording gear is just as addictive as guitar gear..

and it also works the m way as far a performance.. Basicly you get what you pay for so take your time when making desision
on the gear you buy.. Ive had my studio now for 6 years and I aint done buying gear yet.. and thats not because new gear is coming out all the time.. Its because the the good gear cost a shitload of cash, and its not nessasarily new gear either.

heres my control room http://www.putfile.com/pic/7436916

Heres a list of gear I have now
Ramsa wt-r820 console
Yamaha SPX 90 and 90II
DBX 166-------6
Roland SRV3030 Reverb
DBX 266
Furman PEQ-15-- 8
Focusrite Pentat Stereo Comp
RME 8 ch and presonus 8 ch converters
a ton of Mic cable and snakes
KRK Monitor ( Passive) and the best piece of gear you could have is a good set of EARS


Enough Mics to choke on

so that being said take your time join lots of recoring forums such a recording.org ( Nothing but pros there) and gearslutz
you will learn alot at those forums


Jerry

[torgeot]

Originally Posted by floydmoline

close mic'ing more or less eliminates room dynamics, with a mic 2-3 inches from the speaker you could record in a garage or a cathedral, and it wouldn't make much differeance, only when doing things with ambient mics are you going to notice room acoustic effecting it much, i record almost on a daily basis, though i prefer sonar, and cakewalk suites, pro-tools i find you can only really take advantage of if you have a macintosh setup, my advise if you want to have a big sound and little investment to start up, your 2 most important items are a NICE dynamic mic, and a decent compressor / preamp, nice mic don't have to me expensive either, i have had seinheisers, nady, and shure mics, and they are all decent, but imo the nady starpower mics are just as good as the SM57s, and nady SP-1s are around 20 bucks while a SM57 is around 100, the seinheisers are a little better at recording guitar than others, but aren't real versitle, the SM57s are versitile, can record damn near anything with them, nady mics are cheap and sound good so you can kick them around and not feel bad about it, as far as compressors go, you are shooting for features here, since under 300 they are all basically created equal

Yeah I agree with that, I was thinking more of having a room deadened for mixdown. I've heard a loy of mixes that sound like crap becaused it was mixed in a room that wasn't properly set with a spectrum analyzer. Example: Your mix room is hardwood and kinda reverberates, you mix it and take it out to your car in a cd to listen and wonder where all the reverb went... well it's still in the room where you mixed it, that room has natural reverb.