Home studio set-up

[eyei7]

Hi Guys

Firstly I'd like to start by saying what a cool forum you guys have here! I've recently taken the plunge and picking up a i7 2.93 GHz 4GB RAM 1TB HD. I have never owned a Mac before and have a few questions (would appreciate any advice!) .

Is 4GB ram enough to run Logic 9 pro? I will be primarily recording audio with a small amount of MIDI. At this stage, I wont be running any additional DAW software alongside Logic.

What USB mixers do you recommend? I will need at least 4 mic inputs for drum tracks

What MIDI keyboard do you recommend? Apple seems to plug M-Audio however piano is not my forte. Probably something cheap and reliable will do the job

Any feedback will be appreciated

 

[zimv20]

Is 4GB ram enough to run Logic 9 pro? I will be primarily recording audio with a small amount of MIDI.

yes.

What USB mixers do you recommend? I will need at least 4 mic inputs for drum tracks

for that many tracks, you'll want a firewire interface. i'd start my search with Presonus.

piano is not my forte.

boooooo!!!!!! (i'm boo'ing your pun

you'll also want a dedicated drive to record audio, and not try to record 4 tracks (plus playback) to/from the system drive.

 

[lethalillness]

As zimv20 said 4GB of RAM is just fine and it is very smart to get FireWire device as well as external HDD if your not able to get a second internal. As for a MIDI piano it's really all preference as MIDI is just a form of binary. What ever makes you feel comfortable, I have a first gen. M-Audio Axiom 25 and I love it.

 

[eyei7]

Thanks for your comments guys!

Great, I'll stick with the 4GB RAM. I thought that would be enough however I've got the Mac on order so I still had a chance to increase it to 8GB. I can now put this money towards a MIDI keyboard based off your recommendations. I'll also be purchasing a portable HDD in the next month as I still have some Christmas vouchers to use up before they expire (knew they would come in handy!)

I see the most difficult part of my set-up will be deciding on a mixer. I was planning on spending around US$500 however based off what I will need it for I may need to spend more! I will mainly be recording one track at a time, however I want the ability to record live drums (hence minimum 4 mic inputs). Thanks for recommending that I use a firewire interface!

 

[zimv20]

btw, you don't necessarily need the mixer, and it'll probably be an easier setup (and cheaper) w/o one.

e.g. the presonus firestudio project will handle 8 mics at once and feed them via firewire to Logic as separate tracks.

mixing would then be done inside Logic.

 

[ChrisA]

Is 4GB ram enough

Yes, 4 is OK.

What USB mixers do you recommend? I will need at least 4 mic inputs for drum tracks

No. You do NOT want a mixer. Get an auduio interface box. Best to go with Firewire and get one with built-in MIDI if you can.

What MIDI keyboard do you recommend? Apple seems to plug M-Audio however piano is not my forte. Probably something cheap and reliable will do the job

What will yo be playing on this keyboard. Don't you already have one? What ar you playing on now? Must have MIDI. If you have to buy one you have to think about the music. Will you be playing piano sounds mostly? If so them you'll want one with weighted hammer action keys. Are yu just playing a rhythem background in a rock band then a short synth action keyboard might work. Think about both the number of keys and the kind of action.

Almost always a cheap keyboard is not the annswer as you will be replacing it soon.

[/QUOTE]

You will get better answers if you tell us mre. For example what will you use all of those four audio channels for. Will you really use all of them at iince plus a midi keyboard?

Next think about monitoring and speakers. Do all your musicians need headphones?

 

[ChrisA]

I was planning on spending around US$500 however based off what I will need it for I may need to spend more!

$500 is a reasonable budget
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FireStuProj/

Have you price'd out a set of mics? I bit over $500 for the set perhaps a LOT over $500. It would be easy to spend $1K or, the sky is the limit

 

[eyei7]

Thanks for replying Chris and for the suggestion zimv20! It looks the goods. I will need to work on the price. Although the Aussie dollar is trading the same rate as the US dollar, the cheapest I could find for the FireStudio was $895! The included software is a bonus though.

What will yo be playing on this keyboard. Don't you already have one? What ar you playing on now? Must have MIDI. If you have to buy one you have to think about the music. Will you be playing piano sounds mostly? If so them you'll want one with weighted hammer action keys. Are yu just playing a rhythem background in a rock band then a short synth action keyboard might work. Think about both the number of keys and the kind of action.

Almost always a cheap keyboard is not the annswer as you will be replacing it soon.

You will get better answers if you tell us mre. For example what will you use all of those four audio channels for. Will you really use all of them at iince plus a midi keyboard?

Next think about monitoring and speakers. Do all your musicians need headphones?

I'm not that great with a keyboard so I don't require anything too flash. I have set a budget of $150 for a keyboard as I will primarily use it to lay down MIDI bass lines, harmonies, effects, etc. I tend to lay a quick/dodgy track down then go into the piano scrolls and edit.

Regarding the audio channels, 95% of my recording is done solo (I play multiple instruments). I will need the additional Mic inputs for recording drums, or if I want to do a basic room recording of a band.

I use headphones for monitoring and I've got cheap logitech speakers which is fine for editing (I think it's better to edit sound on cheap speakers as most people listening to it don't have studio quality speakers). Eventually though, I will invest money on speakers and mics.

Overall I'm trying to build up a decent system which will allow me to write and record jingles professionally whilst giving me flexibility to record bands (including my own solo stuff)