New studio for recording

[bong0]

Hi all,

my newly formed latinjazz act is getting serious and we've found a new spacey place to reharse. Since I'm the tech-savvy guy (and bass player, btw), I'll be in charge of buying all the new equipment we need. That's the band:
2 main vocals
2 saxophones
2 trumpets
percussion
bass
drum
keyboard
guitar

So counting up the mics I need (I also want to record drums and percussion the best I can), I came up with this:

2x SM58 for vocals
4x ??mics for blowers
2x pan mics for percussions
2x pan for drums + 1 snare + 1 kick drum

total 12 XLR inputs, and the rest goes into line inputs (4).
Then the only choice for (affordable) multitrack recording is the Phonic Helix 24, which have 16 true mic preamps (Alesis is too small for us 🙁), built-in effects, auxes (for monitoring) and 4 groups. Now I have a couple questions for all you experts in digital recording out there (you know who you are 🙂):

1) I can buy a G5 mono for aroun 5/600 euros: do you think that recording-wise and mixing-wise will I experience frustrating slow-downs and hiccups? Did they came with 7200rpm disks or it's alwasy better to hook up a FW800 disk? and btw, how much space a 16-track recording occupies per minute approximately?

2) if, for example, one of the sax player wants to repeat its part, can I play the recorded tracks minus the sax through the mixer and at the same time record one track over? I'm thinking Logic Pro here.

3) are SM58 good for winds too? or should I ask the horn section to buy those little clip-on mics? my setup will also go live, so maybe it's a better idea anyway.

4) any mic suggestions for overheads and kick drum? but please have mercy of my wallet 😉

thanks and props to this great community, it helped me clear my mind on a couple of things!

 

[WinterMute]

1) I can buy a G5 mono for aroun 5/600 euros: do you think that recording-wise and mixing-wise will I experience frustrating slow-downs and hiccups? Did they came with 7200rpm disks or it's alwasy better to hook up a FW800 disk? and btw, how much space a 16-track recording occupies per minute approximately?

It depends on the processor speed, however I've recorded 30 tracks on a G4 using Protools, it's not the recording that hurts, it's the processing in the mix phase. Hooking up a LaCie FW800 is simplicity itself and a very good idea, you should never use the system drive for recording. As for space, it depends on the sample/bit rate, but assuming 44.1/16 then your looking at around 8Mb per track minute I think. (been a long time since I tracked in anything other that 96/24 tbh).

2) if, for example, one of the sax player wants to repeat its part, can I play the recorded tracks minus the sax through the mixer and at the same time record one track over? I'm thinking Logic Pro here.

Yes you can, but you'll need some way to monitor the playback, headphones are the usual way, so look at getting a headphone splitter/amp, Behringer do some very useful 4 way racks very cheaply.

Be aware however that if the original part was played alongside the others then their will be spill from the sax into the other mics, and some "ghosting" may occur if the part is significantly different. Isolation is a good idea when tracking a whole band, however it tends to damage the relationship between players in the performance.

Essentially you should experiment to se what is the best approach for your band, you may find that recording the rhythm section first then overbudding the brass etc might work well.

3) are SM58 good for winds too? or should I ask the horn section to buy those little clip-on mics? my setup will also go live, so maybe it's a better idea anyway.

If you have nothing else the SM57/58 will work for brass, Sennhiesser MD421's are great, Neumann U87's even better...! In my experience the AKG clip mics aren;t bad, the Beyer ones are better , but nether sound as good as a stand alone mic.

Check out Sontronics mics, their condensors are cheap and very good.

4) any mic suggestions for overheads and kick drum? but please have mercy of my wallet 😉

thanks and props to this great community, it helped me clear my mind on a couple of things!

Standard thinking on the kick is the AKG D112, which works, but the Electrovoice RE20 or the Beyer M88/98 works better.

Overheads are ruled by DPA 4011 or 4009 in my book (but your wallet just died), so check out Sontronics 160's, they come in a stereo pair and are cheap and very good for the money, however, almost any decent matched pair of cardioid condensors will do.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[zimv20]

imho, you'll get a ton more mileage for your money by going into a studio, rather than trying to build one.

i'd do that unless you budget is >$10kUSD and you're willing to spend a couple hard years whipping yourself into a decent engineer. it's a fun path, but if you want results straightaway, DIY is probably the wrong way to go.