Home Studio

[iamDouglasRay]

I'm not here for snide remarks, or arrogant attitudes so please keep any airy comments out.

I just recently started my own home studio for myself (not for a band, or other bands) because Ive tried many many other projects that have all failed miserably. I am not looking to be an amazing producer, or steal ideas from anyone/any band, I'm simply looking for some help and ideas as to ways i can better my experience and learn something new from this experience as a musician and a home producer.

Here's a list of my equipment, I bought on a tight budget. I am not currently looking for more expensive equipment or the best, just some ideas as to what I could use now to help me, or if I am missing anything.

*MIC (w/pop filter and boom stand)
-Audio-Technica AT2035 (Condenser)
-Shure PG48 (Dynamic)

*DAW
-Acoustica Mixcraft 5

*Sound Card/Interface
-Line 6 Pod Farm UX2

*Software
-Propellerhead Reason 5
-Fruity Loops Studio 9
-Antares Autotune

*Monitors/Headphones
-Mackie MR5
-AKG K 44

*MidiController
-Akai Professional MPK 25

*Guitar
-Ibanez ARX320

*Drums
-Reason Reddrum Drum Machine Samples

The reason I posted to the "Joey Sturgis" forum is because Im a fan of his work, and his production abilities. I like every band that has ever recorded with him and hope to work with him my self one day. I really like the styles of many musicians but only certain aspects.

The Color Morale - Rythm Guitar (Riffs/Tone)
Of Machines - Lead Guitar (Smooth/Delay) *Not Sturgis
Attack Attack! - Guitar (Breakdowns/Tone)
We Came As Romans - Programming (Everything)
Of Mice & Men - Bass (Clean/Loud/Tone)
Woe, Is Me - Drums (Samples)

This wont be my only question/forum post I have many ideas, and a lot of questions. If anyone has any questions about my equipment please feel free to ask, and if anyone knows any easy to use, or any good gear (at a small budget price) I would love the input. Im here to learn, help and better myself. So be friendly!

[ahjteam]

um, so what was the question?

[GearMan2point0]

Just to let you know, Mixcraft isn't the best DAW as far as flexibility. I would go with something like Reaper. I know you said you want to just work with what you got, but Reaper is so worth the small price. Anyways, you might want to ask questions. Because we don't know where to start helping you, plus post some clips of what you got and we can help.

[iamDouglasRay]

Originally Posted by ahjteam

um, so what was the question?

The question was, "Am I missing anything, or is there anything else that fits into a small budget I could look forward to adding into my investment"

[iamDouglasRay]

Originally Posted by GearMan2point0

Just to let you know, Mixcraft isn't the best DAW as far as flexibility. I would go with something like Reaper. I know you said you want to just work with what you got, but Reaper is so worth the small price. Anyways, you might want to ask questions. Because we don't know where to start helping you, plus post some clips of what you got and we can help.

I tried their free trial version a while back while doing some mild programming, I completely forgot about them. Ill have to try them out, Mixcraft was just $70 and I have experience in recording with it through various other projects. I can definitely give it another shot, thanks for the advice

[oroinvictus]

Reaper is HUGELY worth their small asking price. You don't even have to pay for it to use it until you decide you're ready for a commercial license (please don't think I'm advocating never paying for a license, a lot of people do this with reaper). IMO, mixcraft isn't going to cut it that well for super-high-fidelity modern recordings. If you're looking to get close to the sounds that those bands have, you've got almost everything you need. The Reason drum samples are not going to cut it, IMO they don't even come close to natural multisampled drum instruments. The kind of sound you might be looking for is Steven Slate Drums (as SSD was used with nearly all of the bands you listed), Joey also has a lot of good drum and cymbal samples for sale, though if you're just looking to work with what you have, then go for it. I would personally recommend the MOTU zbox for recording DIs through a UX-whatever, it's an impedance adapter that matches impedance of a non-amp input, ala the preamps on the UX series. I could also recommend the Waves Mercury or Platinum plugin bundles, they have a lot of great stuff, but their bundles are a pretty hefty investment and require iloks. This is all just my .02¢, take it or leave it as you please.

[iamDouglasRay]

Originally Posted by oroinvictus

Reaper is HUGELY worth their small asking price. You don't even have to pay for it to use it until you decide you're ready for a commercial license (please don't think I'm advocating never paying for a license, a lot of people do this with reaper). IMO, mixcraft isn't going to cut it that well for super-high-fidelity modern recordings. If you're looking to get close to the sounds that those bands have, you've got almost everything you need. The Reason drum samples are not going to cut it, IMO they don't even come close to natural multisampled drum instruments. The kind of sound you might be looking for is Steven Slate Drums (as SSD was used with nearly all of the bands you listed), Joey also has a lot of good drum and cymbal samples for sale, though if you're just looking to work with what you have, then go for it. I would personally recommend the MOTU zbox for recording DIs through a UX-whatever, it's an impedance adapter that matches impedance of a non-amp input, ala the preamps on the UX series. I could also recommend the Waves Mercury or Platinum plugin bundles, they have a lot of great stuff, but their bundles are a pretty hefty investment and require iloks. This is all just my .02¢, take it or leave it as you please.

Dude seriously appreciate it, Im going to give Reaper another try, their compressors and EQs were a little odd to me but i can give it a try.
Ive never heard of SSD so I'll have to look that up, I was looking for something cheap to keep it some demos down until I had a bit more money to invest.

I was looking for ideas, I didnt mean to come off cross, like i didnt want opinions. I just hate the people that have the .02 cents to state,
"well you need logic, PT, expensive interfaces and plugins...etc", Im just looking to better my experience without breaking my bank account.

Everything listed literally cost me less then $600, except reason and FL but Ive had them for a while. I really appreciate the input. Ill have a dropbox up in a bit to post my some of the drums Ive put down already.

[iamDouglasRay]

Alright heres the 2 sets of drum samples I have that were composed in Reason:

1. Drums (compressed/EQed in Reason)
-DropBox

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/64285856/ReasonCompDrums.mp3

-SoundCloud (for easy listening)
http://soundcloud.com/iamdouglasray/reasoncompdrums


2. Drums (No Compression/EQ)
-DropBox

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/64285856/ReasonDrumsNoComp.mp3

-SoundCloud
http://soundcloud.com/iamdouglasray/reasondrumsnocomp
*I put a the Cymbals in the background a bit to give them more of a pan/OH sound. The Toms have been panned a good bit.

No real mixing/mastering has been done to either track

[Folkrav]

Your drums are mixed mono. Pan the fuck out of this.

[iamDouglasRay]

Folkrav, The 1st set is actually a wav file i compressed down in Reason, duplicated in mixcraft then hard panned L/R

the 2nd one (with no compression) is panned slightly to crowd perspective. Ride/Crash - Left ||| Snare/Hat - Right

[Fandus]

Kick / snare always center

Toms high to low start 50l to 50r

Overheads pan to a realistic spread, nothing is ever truly hard left or right as it bleeds. Go 60% one side at most if you use single samples. If you are stereo micing real cymbals pan the stereo pair 100 l 100 r.

Exporting a mono wave and duplicating it to pan hard left and hard right will result in the exact same sound as just leaving one of them centered.