New studio project. Advices needed.

Hey guys,

I'm planning the building of a new studio. So far we gathered a list of material we feel we are going to need.

This is an audio studio that will be paired with an animation studio. So it will preform the following tasks.

-Musical Composition and Production for 3D animations

-Field Foley recording.

-Musical Production (Recording a band, mixing, mastering)

Give me your thoughts about this rig.

If you think some of this items could be substituted with better ones at the same price level feel free to suggest.

So the list of material, so far, is:

Mics

2x Shure SM8

Neumann TLM 102

AKG Perception 820

3X Shure SM57

AKG D112

Mics for Field Recording and Mobile Recording Rig:

AKG CK 91

AKG CK 92

AKG CK 93

AKG CK 94

AKG CK 98

Marantz PMD 671

Sound Division Mixpre 2 Portable Mixer

Computer, Interface, Preamps, Controllers, Software:

iMac 21.5” (Extras: CPU i5 - 3.6GHz and 8 Gb Ram)

Apogee Ensemble.

Focusrite ISA 428 MKII

Or

SPL GOLDMIKE 9844 + Art PRO MPA II

(see comment 1 in the end regarding preamps)

Logic Studio

Novation Nocturn 49

Yamaha 0X1 (See comment 2)

Phones and Monitors

Beyerdynamic DT770M

Sennheiser HD25-1 II

Sennheiser HD201

Yamaha HS80M

We are working on a budget, so far all the equipment sums up to about 11000€.

It can be pushed a bit more but it's almost at the limit.

The main goal is to buy a simple but good starting point. We plan on upgrading the studio when possible, but if we are going to buy something now it has to be something that is going to last many years in our studio.

Comment 1:

The 4 preamps on the ensemble are not enough, so we need another 4, to record a drumset with 8 mics.

And so far I have two choices available.

1. Buy the focusrite for 4 good pres

2. Buy two units of two preamps each, like goldmike and MPAII, that have a smaller name on the audio world.

The second choice has the advantages of being cheaper, and adding variety to the rig. But Focusrite is always a standard and I’m a bit unsure. Feel free to suggest alternatives to either option.

Comment 2:

The Yamaha 0X1 we already possess. It was a prize in a contest. It's not good enough to be our main interface, but it could be useful as a midi controller or for auxiliary ins or outs. What do you think? Should we keep it? Or its kind of useless and selling it to buy another mic would be a better choice?

P.S. Sorry if I'm not clear in some sentences, english is not my native language and sometimes it's difficult for me to explain myself.

I dont have much to say since i'm not very experience in this stuff, but why not by an interface with 8 pre amps straight away instead of buying separate preamps? Something like this: http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=13

-Max

Well, i really like the apogee products, and the ensemble was developed for logic full integration, and that's a big plus for me...

And besides, apogee is known for the best AD converters, and buying ensemble will offer really good conversion with 4 good preamps as an extra.

You bring a valid point, but i'm not sure if the presonus will be at the ensemble level. And Apogee is allways a nice name to ear, in a studio with apogee material it might be a reason to earn some extra clients...

Thx for the help, but i think that is one of the few things that i don't want to change on my list.

So the questions remains, is there any item you would change on this list? And wich preamps would you choose to complete the needs of this studio?

Yeah the apogee products are great. If you have the budget for it I dont see why not, and your probably right about the extra customers... you just have to advertise it right

Anyways, as i said i'm not very good at this stuff yet, but I asked my friend who works in a studio and he said the Focusrite would probably be the best choice, their pretty sturdy and should give you a really good sound.

Only other thing I can suggest is the Audix D6 (Kick drum mic) as Ive heard that it is one of the best. I only say this because i'm a drummer myself

Cheers,

-Max

Yeah, i probably will choose the focusrite preamps... Everybody talks very good things about them. It's a bit more expensive but i hope it will pay itself over the time..

I didn't know that mic, i'm going to check it out.

Thx for the help.

Come on people, no sugestions at all?

I'm on a tight budget to buy a lot of things. And i want to buy the best equipment at that price range. Also i'm not sure if the computer will be enough...

Surely something here is not the best choice ever, and if you could spot some of those things it would be great.

thx

I would add MXL mics, they're affordable and sound good.

We did videos for their mics, check it out:

http://www.mxlmics.com/gallery/

Also, I think that iMac is gonna be a little underpowered after some time.

Try to get a mac pro, even used, because of the internal drives expandability.

Otherwise, you need an external FW drive to record your projects too. Can't use the system drive to record, you'll have issues with big projects.

Yeah thx for the mics advice... didn't know that brand.

And i kinda knew that the computer would be a little under the needed, but a mac pro it's way more expensive and i was trying to save a bit of money... But it's better to save money in other things instead of the computer.

I'm going to search the used market for a Mac Pro. Thx for the tip.

Finally, i'm reading about different material every day, and i found a interface that made me doubt a bit of the Ensemble, the RME fireface UFX.

Any toughts about this? Witch one would be better and more versatile?

"Names" that consistently show up for quality have been Apogee, Metric Halo, RME, Lynx.

If you would like to engage the interface "holy wars" you could go over to the Gearslutz forum and do some searches there.

good luck!

Hi schizoidman,

I have a similar setup and I had to make the same decision in terms of mic pres to record drums. My top 3 were the Focusrite, SSL Xlogic Alpha VHD and the Sytek MPX-4Aii w/Burr-Brown Chs. 3-4. In the end I choose the Sytek. Very nice 4 channel preamp and a lot cheaper! Might want to check it out.

~Del