Home Studio Set Up (suggestions on equipment)

[SyntheticPop]

Hello Ableton Pros,

This is my first post. Happy to be apart of the Ableton community!

I just got an iMac Mid 2011 and am excited to start a home studio. I am a total amateur and am needing some advice. I've got Ableton Live 7, Apple Logic, a Shure SM58 Mic, and a few guitars surrounding me... That's about it. Wanting to know what KEY items I am going to need to be on my way to producing/recording/playing live sets?

My brother (drummer) and I (guitarist, vocalist) had a rock band about 2 years ago, but have since been getting really in to electronic/synth-pop sounds, mixed with organic beats. Our goal is to lay down sequenced tracks to play over (like a million other bands out there), with the intention to play some live gigs... and be famous... just kidding.

What else am I going to need? That is probably a very broad question, but I am wanting to make music right out of the box. More accurately, what will get me going right away? What sort of interface is recommended for mic and instrument plug-in? I've been told the M-Audio Fast Track is sufficient enough? Is that going to be ok for just a 2-piece band? I am not really looking to record my brother on the drums, maybe a few fills he's got under his sleeve for sample purposes-Nothing too difficult. The beats will mainly be made in these programs I've got and my brother will just play along to them and add fills where needed.

A couple other items I am wanting (simply because I see them everywhere and have heard the names numerous times):

Akai MPK25
Akai APC40 Ableton Live Controller
Arturia Spark Drum Machine
Rokit KRK Monitors

Any help is incredibly appreciated. Sorry if my questions are too rookie or if this subject has been covered a million times.

Thank you all,

Brian

[RottenToTheGore]

(ShelLuser posted before I was able to. So I wanted to say I agree in that becoming familiar with what you have first is the best thing to do. See how far you get and then determine what you need to continue.

For example, you may find that just programming drum loops by just drawing them in is completely fine for you, which means you may not even need a pad type controller. Much better than buying one and finding out later you don't even care for it )

A MIDI keyboard and interface are good first choices, that way you can have more control over writing notes into Live and can easily connect your guitar and mic.

From what I've heard, the fast track pro is a good choice for what you're looking for. But like alot of things I'd check reviews.

As far as a MIDI keyboard/controller, it depends what you want/need out of it, and what else you plan on getting. What I mean to say is that if you got the APC40, you probably wouldn't need a keyboard with knobs and faders like the MPK25, and then you could get a better pad controller if that's something you feel is necessary for tapping out beats.

An APC40 sounds like it would work well for what you want to do (Play over sequenced tracks), but just remember that the APC40 is designed for Ableton, so you may want to be completely sure about sticking with it before getting the APC.

I'll leave the monitor comments to someone else. I've decided to get a decent pair of monitor headphones and a cheap pair of monitors, but that's because I want to be sure that I don't spend too much as I'm new to music making in general and don't want to put myself too deep in the hole

But to sum it up, things you would "need":

Interface - Fast Track Pro, to hook your mic and guitar into.
Keyboard - I say one without knobs/faders/ect if going the APC40 route, only to save some cash for other items.
Controller (Knobs, faders, ect) - APC40 (Will let you run Ableton tracks and control the various paramaters)

Plenty of options out there, but I think those 3 categories would be good first choices. You'd need something to record vocals and guitar so the interface would be a good first choice.

Depending on what version of live you have, you already have a variety of instruments and drums available with it, so you could use Ableton to do whatever the spark may offer.

I'm still really new myself, so this is just my opinion. But good luck!

[Theo Void]

Basically w/ what you have all you need now is some moniters and an audio interface. Also, some type of controller would be nice too. APC40, is amazing! You may want to get a soft-synth, Massive and Sylenth are sweet, and get familiar w/ it.

But I also +1 the above posters. Spend some time w/ Live and get familiar w/ it because if u dont know what your doing all the controllers in the world can't help you!!

I 'm to the point now, (after about 3 yrs.) where I pretty much have the program mastered.
It has become an extension of my mind. I can translate a thought into sound. Thats where you wanna be.

So dive in, read the manual, watch tutorials, join forums and most of all, experiment!

[SyntheticPop]

Thank you all so much. You have been very helpful. I wasn't expecting such detailed responses... I guess you get what you pay for! I will look in to this and do some more research. There is this great music store in Seattle called American Music. I recommend it for Seattlites.

Thanks again yall, looking forward to more discussions.

B