£1000 budget .... fresh home studio set up ... equipment?

[davidhughes]

Hi all

In the past to create music I have always used a computer with software running and a midi keyboard, and thats more or less it.

My most recent set up is a PC running Ableton (of course?) but it is an old PC.


I want to refresh my studio setup, at the moment I have a PC which is around 8 years old running Ableton Live 8 with a Creative Audigy 2 Platinum, and there are a lot of latency / cpu spiking problems when I have too many tracks / effects running

I have a budget of £1000

I'd need a new PC + Soundcard, as well as new midi controller keyboard, + any mixer you recommend.

I predominantly create tracks with vocals so I would need a new Mic and everything that comes with having a Mic

Also Ive never owned Monitors (Ive always used a headset) so what would you recommend for those? and of course everything I would need to get those to work.

and... as an added extra --- Soundproofing? (I think my neighbours will be angry to hear me singing at the top of my voice day and night)

Within £1000, what is your recommended set up for me? (At a push, I could take it to £1200 if needed)


Looking forward to your suggestions
David

[Tone Deft]

monitors and pre-amp.

whole budget spent.

get those down, the rest will follow. without good monitors and in your case pre-amps, it doesn't really matter what else you have.

[Rave]

My Mac mini with 4gb ram for 450
Apogee duet
Shure sm 58
Korg lp25



Then save for monitors and u will have a pro setup

[davidhughes]

monitors and pre-amp.

whole budget spent.

get those down, the rest will follow. without good monitors and in your case pre-amps, it doesn't really matter what else you have.

thanks man, but surely without the ability to create music first there is no point listening to a spiking / latency riddled track through lovely monitors

Id prefer the monitors to come last when I save up for them?

Any body with specific equipment / PC Spec advice?

[Tone Deft]

IMO opinion if you can't hear what's going on you can't use your tools as effectively. I'm a big advocate of using good monitors, I LOVE good audio. get back to me when you get good monitors, then you'll see.

of course it's all up to you and how you work, just my $0.02.


on the flip side...

fairly recently I got a Dell 6 core 2GHz 8GbRAM (?) blahbitty blah machine for ~$850 new (that's like £5 I believe), no monitor, makes a massive difference.

sounds PROOFING is pretty expensive. putting foam on your walls won't mask all the noise, it's more to stop reflections and make the room sound better.

a good mic can take half your budget and that also takes a pre-amp which can cost as much. sky's the limit with those but decent ones are a few hundred $$ each. I use an Audio Technica AT3035, does me well but I'm not a mic snob. for a pre-amp I use my Edirol UA101, that sound card has treated me well for nearly a decade. again, others can guide you better on that.

even £1200 will only just get you started. a computer, mic, pre amp will easily eat that budget.

[davidhughes]

cheers mate

[Khazul]

The bare minimum - ok, so lets say 100-150 on a mic, 100 on an audio interface, 500 on a computer and 400 on monitors, and say 200 on a basic dumb keyboard/controller - or 300 if you want 61 key novation or akai type thing. The mic pre-amp wont be great, but way way way better than what you have.

Not too bad starting point, though you will probbaly want to replace the PC in erm, well - the next day

I spent 1350 on a custom build pc which included using most of the hard-drives, monitor keyboard and mouse from my previous DAW PC - ok so end result is pretty decent. Whats a good starting point these days for Live? 2.6Ghz i5, 4GB memory and minimum spend on the rest of it?

That will probably take care of 800+.
Then add as above + screen if yours is very very old and small.

Maybe look at second hand stuff as well?

[davidhughes]

I spent 1350 on a custom build pc which included using most of the hard-drives, monitor keyboard and mouse from my previous DAW PC - ok so end result is pretty decent.

Really cool advice cheers

Out of interest, what is the spec of your custom PC?

What sound card are you using?

[muthafunka]

Look second hand too for certain things, lots of great stuff out there, ie controller keyboards, I/O etc. Look in the for sale section here and KVR. How many channels interface I/O do you need? How many channels of mixer? Do you need a mixer? I use active monitors and an I/O with a volume knob and no external mixer.
Soundproofing for vocals? Just rig a tiny 'booth' up in a corner somewhere by hanging some quilts, blankets etc from the ceiling, mic stands, whatever. Cable ties and imagination are your friends and can produce great results. Why waste your budget on your neighbours?

To be honest it's a tiiiiiiight budget for all that stuff so look at what you absolutely can't do without to just get the job done as you see it and buy the best stuff you can. Kind of echoing Tone's comment, buy good stuff once, buy crap 3 or 4 times.

[Tone Deft]

Soundproofing for vocals? Just rig a tiny 'booth' up in a corner somewhere by hanging some quilts, blankets etc from the ceiling, mic stands, whatever. Cable ties and imagination are your friends and can produce great results. Why waste your budget on your neighbours?

good call.

build a $21 vocal mic booth.
http://blogs.oreilly.com/digitalmedia/2 ... booth.html


you can also buy ones that are pre-made that go onto the mic stand.

[Delie]

Ok, here's what you could do for £1000:

Monitor speakers: Samson Rubicon R5A - pair £250
Audio interface: Presonus Firestudio mobile £240
Mic: SE Electronics X1 Project Studio RF Bundle - £150
Computer: cheap Core i3 machine: £350
(e.g. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/225760)
Firewire PCI card (if needed): £10

The Presonus audio interface uses a virtual mixer for all your routing and has lots of inputs/outputs so a hardware mixer really isn't needed to get you started

Given you said you could push to £1200 if needed, these are some extras you could get:
midi keyboards:
- http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/ ... ard--67742
- http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/ ... ard--45050
Midi keyboards start @ £30 for the real basic stuff. However, preferably you'll want to aim to get a keyboard with pitchbend, modulation wheel, velocity-sensitive keys, and aftertouch. You might be able to get some nice sliders/knobs to allow you to control VST instruments/effects and Live.

If you have any spare cash afterwards, upgrade the pc processor from an i3 -> i5 -> i7, depending on how much you have. The same applies to the memory upgrade from 3 -> 4/5/6/7/8gb which will be handy if you're dealing with lots of samples.

This should get you up and running nicely

[EX]

A workplace where you can concentrate and feel completely free - priceless.

[simpli.cissimus]

A good quad-core PC 2.8 or above GHz L12MB cache and Corsair RAM with ASUS motherboard.
(This makes your DAW running smooth in all situations) 600-700Euros

Yamaha 80HS active monitors with 4 amps for each tweeter and 2x 120watts.
(This is where you want the best and clearest for the lowest budget) 500Euros

M-Audio ProFire610 for good sound for an affordable price. 300Euros


1000 British pounds = 1 161.02871 Euros

I know this setup is a bit over the £1000, but it's what I would recommend.