Starting out and want to build a home studio

[bballking72]

Hello everyone I'm 20 years old just starting out and looking to build a home studio but don't know where to start and what equipment I should buy. I already have a mac book pro and I'm about to buy protools for it. I have about a $3500 - $4000 budget to work with to buy equipment and build the studio and I have a few questions about what to do.

1. I have a room picked out in my house to build the studio in and i was wondering if it was a good room to build it in. I don't know the exact dimensions of the room but if I had to guess I would say it's about 20' x 10' and it's a rectangular room. I was wondering if anyone had any plans for a room like this or any ideas on how I should build it and how much you think it might cost me.

2. I need some input on what equipment to buy. Like what I'm going to need to get and what brands are worth the money to buy. I want stuff which I'll be able to record drums and guitars and vocals and stuff like that with.

Thanks.

[String7th]

The $4000 will be just enough for the equipment, with some budget equipment in there for some parts.

For a Protools rig, here's a quick rundown of just the hardware:
Digi003 -- $1100
ADA8000 -- $200
Behringer TRUTH B2030A Monitors -- $300
CAD pro 7-pice mic set -- $200
SM57 -- $100
MXL vocal mic set -- $100
Budget cables and stands -- $150
This set is the cheapest and bare minimum way to record 12 mics at the same time, 16 if you buy more external preamps. Without buying b-stock or used, these are the cheapest options out there and you are at $2150.

If you were to go Cubase or other software, the interface would be in the $700 price range instead of $1100.

What's your plans for this studio? Fun or business?

[newkid]

Originally Posted by bballking72

Hello everyone I'm 20 years old just starting out and looking to build a home studio but don't know where to start and what equipment I should buy. I already have a mac book pro and I'm about to buy protools for it. I have about a $3500 - $4000 budget to work with to buy equipment and build the studio and I have a few questions about what to do.

1. I have a room picked out in my house to build the studio in and i was wondering if it was a good room to build it in. I don't know the exact dimensions of the room but if I had to guess I would say it's about 20' x 10' and it's a rectangular room. I was wondering if anyone had any plans for a room like this or any ideas on how I should build it and how much you think it might cost me.

2. I need some input on what equipment to buy. Like what I'm going to need to get and what brands are worth the money to buy. I want stuff which I'll be able to record drums and guitars and vocals and stuff like that with.

Thanks.

Don't be in a hurry to blow 4 big ones.

What is your objective?
What do you want to record?
What are you going to do next?
What results do you want?

How much do you already know about all this?

Building a good studio could blow that budget many times over.
Just what do you need studiowise? What is your level of good?

Don't know squat about your room. Is it noisy? Machinery or HVAC vents?. Car horns outside? Certainly big enough to record a couple of people playing acoustic. A full band with electric amps may be tight.

Lots of books on building home studios. You should read several of them.

You don't need much to do what you say.
A PT interface with 4-6 mike inputs.
4-6 mikes. 1/vocalist. 2 for drums. 1/guitar.
Stands
Cables

OR (my preference)
Record stereo with 2 mikes/group and one for center fill andor vocalist if needed.

Rug and curtains to kill some reflections.

Hold back 2-3G to fix problems and to buy other gear once you know what you really need.

You need to read as many reviews as possible not just run with what a couple of people say on some forum. MOst gear will be just fine, it is how reliable and how easy to use that matters.
And more expensive does not mean better. So balance everthing to fit within the budget. EG A ten dollar mike and a 5000 preamp makes no sense.

[Strangedogs]

Been doing this for a long time on a Mac (and some on a PC) - I say SCREW PRO TOOLS - with your Mac LOGIC STUDIO 9 would be a whole lotta power and you won't be tied to certain hardware Pro Tools requires - there's also lots more plug-ins (a lot of them are free) available for Logic (AU's) than the overpriced few that Pro Tools uses - Logic comes with lots of great ones! I was contemplating Pro Tools early on but decided against it and I'm really flad I did - I use Logic Studio 9, Cubase 4.5 and my newest DAW is Presonus's STUDIO ONE. They are all great - but LOGIC is king!

[moneycat12]

I'm really flad I didn't go ProTools as well!

[Husky Band]

If you're set on Pro-tools, I think the M-Audio 2626 with Protools M-Powered is the way to go. 8 mic pre's expandable to 24 using ADAT. You'll have $700 in the 2626 and $250 in the Pro-tools software ($950). You can expand this system on the cheap with the Behringer ada8000's and a lot of people swear by them while others swear at them. I personally would expand with Presonus Digimax FS's which are basically the same as the ADA8000's but with better pre-amps and better overall quality.

[boo]

Do you really want Pro Tools? You'll be chained to digidesign's hardware, or m powered pro tools. Digidesign and macs don't always play well together, and right now Protools 8 is not recommended on snow leopard. This is off the digidesign website
"Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) — Currently Not Qualified
Please Note: No version of Pro Tools is currently qualified with Mac OS X Snow Leopard. If you’re a Mac-based Pro Tools 8.0.x user, Pro Tools 8.0.3pr software is provided as a convenience should you wish to begin your transition to Snow Leopard before a fully tested and qualified version of Pro Tools becomes available"

There are a lot of sweet interfaces for the mac..RME, Motu apogee etc. I would do a lot of research before you start plunking down money. I love my macbook pro in and out of the studio, and have never regretted using Logic Studio.

[Husky Band]

I'm gonna have to buy an mbox mini and mess with it for a few months to find out why so many hate pro-tools so much. LOL. It can't possibly be that bad can it? I do understand the issue many of you have with the proprietary hardware. I do think that they will eventually come out with a version that works with everything like cubase etc. But, until then it is my opinion that the M-Audio 2626 is a good way to go if you want Pro-Tools. I do wish they bundled it with m-powered pro-tools but, you can't have everything.