R/E/P Community

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Basics for upgrading from "project" to "pro"?  (Read 4326 times)

AdamC

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 11
  • Real Full Name: Adam Cotton
Basics for upgrading from "project" to "pro"?
« on: November 10, 2011, 05:33:40 AM »

Hey guys, at the moment I have a project studio, nothing fancy, in an extra room in my house with a pretty simple setup running into PT 9 on a mac mini. One old Aphex mic pre and that's about it as far as outboard gear. Like I said, nothing fancy.

There's a chance I might end up with a few extra bucks to spend on the studio this year and I'd like to upgrade to the simplest version of what one would need for consistent professional work, even if professional here just means my own projects and a few small jobs on the side.

I'm making a list and wanted to make sure I don't miss anything. It's still going to be simple but say, I have to get 1 of all the things you would want for good recordings, the meat and potatoes of gear for a basic pro studio setup. One good mic pre, one good compressor, one good converter (?). . . and whatever else, suggestions?

Thanks,
Adam
Logged

Tim Halligan

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 84
Re: Basics for upgrading from "project" to "pro"?
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2011, 10:03:17 AM »

It's still going to be simple but say, I have to get 1 of all the things you would want for good recordings, the meat and potatoes of gear for a basic pro studio setup. One good mic pre, one good compressor, one good converter (?). . . and whatever else, suggestions?



1 good room.

EVERYTHING else come second.

Cheers,
Tim
Logged
An analogue brain in a digital world.

Red Mastering

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 9
  • Real Full Name: Filip Pietrzykowski
  • online mastering studio
Re: Basics for upgrading from "project" to "pro"?
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2011, 02:51:16 PM »


1 good room.

EVERYTHING else come second.

Cheers,
Tim
then monitors/speakers
and dac:)

AdamC

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 11
  • Real Full Name: Adam Cotton
Re: Basics for upgrading from "project" to "pro"?
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2011, 07:56:11 PM »

 Thanks guys yeah I have pretty good monitors, forgot to mention that I know pretty well, but room treatment is definitely on my list, thanks.   My buddy and I are just mainly trying to set ourselves up so we can do some work, mostly post and composition work for film and TV out of our own setup along with our own music projects.   Just mainly want to set up a quality signal chain, even if it's only for 4 to 8 channels.  Whether that means upgrading to a Mac Pro and Pro Tools HD getting a nice preamp and compressor, a few more good mics, etc... or what remains to be determined but kinda shuffling around through those kinda options.
Logged

jaykadis

  • R/E/P Forums
  • Jr. Member
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 57
Re: Basics for upgrading from "project" to "pro"?
« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2011, 01:15:35 PM »

After the room and monitors, I would go for at least one really good microphone.  Everything that comes afterward can be altered, but the input is where it all starts.  A great microphone can make the rest of the system less critical.

Fletcher

  • Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 590
Re: Basics for upgrading from "project" to "pro"?
« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2011, 08:59:02 AM »

Well... the biggest question is "what would you like to hear be better?"  The term "professional" has been way skewed over the past decade - decade & a half... so the real question is - when you play your stuff in the car - what aren't you hearing the way you would like it to be heard?  Forget that your stuff isn't as LOUD as commercial product - we're talking "audio quality" wise.

There are a bunch of really excellent tools out there that are relatively inexpensive... FMR pre-amps, compressor are very inexpensive - but sound wonderful.  The Speck ASC-T eq... great tool... the API "A2D" is a great sounding A/D converter that comes with a pair of API mic pre's... for the money they cost they rival way more expensive converters [and can give you a line in function as well as the mic-pre function so you can "vary your colors" on the recording end.

The real key in all of this is to evaluate anything you bring into your studio... not just a first listen "wow that's cool" but over a couple of weeks - in varied applications - and then try to determine whether or not your latest acquisition is really making a palpable difference after the "wow" factor wears off.

I know in my career I've tried new things I thought were the dogs bollocks at the start of a project and by 2-3 weeks in I was ready to rip my eyes out as I realized that my latest and greatest "cool" acquisition was actually a turd that was getting in the way. 

I'd suggest you work with someone on the "gear supply" end who will give you extended trial periods... and really take a good amount of time to figure out what you need.  The other thing I'd seriously suggest is to get one or two tools at a time.  I built a studio back in '04 that I stocked with lots of tools I thought were going to be EXACTLY what was needed for the studio [things I had experience with - things I thought were going to be  perfect!!].  Within 18 months better than 60% of the stuff that started in the room was gone... and replaced by other tools that had floated through my reality that did the jobs I wanted them to do better than the stuff I started with [bloody expensive lesson... but after that year and a half the product we turned out was really very serious!!].

I hope this is of some assistance.

Peace
Logged
CN Fletcher

mwagener wrote on Sat, 11 September 2004 14:33
We are selling emotions, there are no emotions in a grid


"Recording engineers are an arrogant bunch
If you've spent most of your life with a few thousand dollars worth of musicians in the studio, making a decision every second and a half... and you and  they are going to have to live with it for the rest of your lives, you'll get pretty arrogant too.  It takes a certain amount of balls to do that... something around three"
Malcolm Chisholm
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 



Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc.

Page created in 0.032 seconds with 21 queries.