Recording Equipment: What Do You Suggest?
Mar 9, 2009 Uncategorized
Posted by
Russell Martin
I have been thinking lately that I would like to set up a small studio at the church. I am not looking for something too complicated but would like to be able to record our instruments into separate channels on Sunday mornings so they could be mixed to create a balanced recording.
I know there are many of you out there with alot of experience in this area so I would love for you to answer some of these questions. I am sure others reading would benefit from your years of experience too.
So here are your questions.
If you were going to set up a small studio how would you do it?
What equipment would you include? Computer software?
Interfaces?
What are some things to watch out for?
Finally what other questions would you ask?
Leave your answers in the comments, or if it is easier write your own blog post and leave the link in the comments.
March 10th, 2009 at 6:30 am
I will tell you the setup I use, and if you want more detail – I’d be glad to share it. About four years ago, my church wanted to do the same thing. The music pastor at the time decided to purchase two M-Audio Firewire 1814 units to use along with Pro-Tools M-Powered. This setup was easy for us in the means of direct outs from our board. We have a digital mixer and we just used digtial outs to a Behringer aDAT Lightpipe and use the digital ins on the FW1814. This did provide some really nice quality recordings at the church. Since then, we have hired a new music pastor and we just do live recordings to CD (which end up working all right for the services where we can play with the mix a bit more – since it is a straight board mix). This guy has talked about using what used to be known as the Firepod, maybe the Fireface now?
I use the 1814 myself and love it. Pro-Tools M-Powered is very much so feature-rich, regardless of the fact it is not the biggest, baddest version of Pro Tools on the block. I haven’t put together an entire album or anything, but for everything I have used it on, I have been pleased. All in all, my setup cost me $550 and that got me eight channels of simultaneous recording, a great software interface, and the great quality of the 1814.
March 10th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
I like minidisc recorders for mobile recording–use a Y-splitter to record in stereo.
I have not been happy with the FireBox I got for my mac laptop–glitchy.
More home recording gear ideas here.
March 11th, 2009 at 12:09 am
I strongly recommend the Presonus Firewire Audio Interface. it is the best possible piece of recording gear you can get for your dollar. It has become industry standard, as I have even seen it used it in Nashville’s studios. And yet, I still use it in my own bedroom for independent projects.
http://www.amazon.com/PreSonus-FP10-Firewire-Recording-System/dp/B000W9LV8O/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1236750093&sr=8-1
Of course, you will need a computer and recording software to run it on. I simply use Logic on my macbook and it has exceeded any expectations. Most engineers I have worked with prefer Pro Tools M-Powered. This ends up just being a matter of preference, and doing some research is usually the best approach to finding what will best suit your needs and preferences.
Happy Recording
May 15th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I have been working through this same question for the last year or so. At our church, we have a Digi003 Rack that can accept 18 inputs from our soundboard. But in order to take advantage of all 18, you need a few more pieces of equipment as the Digi003 only has 8 actual inputs itself. For another 8 inputs, I use a Behringer ADA8000 that connects with an optical cable to the Digi003. For the final 2 inputs, I use a Behringer SRC2496 that connects with a spdif cable to the Digi003. This whole setup costs about $1800 ($1400 for Digi 003 Rack, $200 each for Behringer units). This setup included Pro Tools software also. I just connect my MacBook Pro to the interface and I’m ready to record. I’m pleased with this setup so far.
If I had to do it all over again, I would consider buying M-Audio hardware(the profire 2626 looks great, although you would still need a couple of Behringer ADA8000 to get higher track counts), Pro-Tools M-Powered, and a copy of Logic. This gives you the best of both worlds. A lot of times, I record into Logic simply because I don’t have to be plugged into digidesign hardware to edit (Pro Tools requires you to be plugged into some piece of hardware for it to load – great if you have a small PT interface but the 003 Rack isn’t exactly portable!) Logic is great because anyone else that uses it can take the files on a flashdrive and edit elsewhere.
Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be glad to share what I’ve found. I’ll post some pictures of what we have so far on my blog soon.