Jaaakkkeee Posted April 28, 2017 Report Share Posted April 28, 2017 So I start HND Sound Production in August. Over the next two years I'm wanting to build up my home studio. What gear is best bang for the buck? What's an essential bit of kit that won't break the bank? Are there things I should save up for and just do without instead getting a cheap version? Let me know! So far I'm looking in to getting: Focusrite Scarlett KRK Rokits Headphones (?) I think I'll need: Pro Tools (not overly. but this is what I'll be using in college. Be good to get some practice at home.) I saw they do a subscription service. 30 quid a month seems not too bad. Considering some packages are a grand outright for a perpetual lisence. I tried to look in to it but I got confused. Is Pro Tools HD what I really need? Or can I get the vanilla version? A USB hub. Anyone know decent ones that won't cause too much lag? Macbooks only have 2 USB ports. Or should I look at getting thunderbolt stuff over USB? This will definitely be a slow process, and I've probably missed out some gear/software. But I'm just wanting to get shit in order so I can slowly but surely start acquiring gear/saving for gear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stroopy121 Posted April 28, 2017 Report Share Posted April 28, 2017 I'd recommend the Zoom R16. Cracking piece of hardware for the money. https://www.zoom-na.com/products/production-recording/multi-track-recorders/zoom-r16-recorder-interface-controller xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colb Posted April 28, 2017 Report Share Posted April 28, 2017 Thunderbolt will have a lot less latency than standard USB - and if you're going mac you'd be as well cos you'll end up needing the usb's for keyboards and triggers/sample launchers. I'm not great at the recording but i do ok for samples beats to play live over, biggest things for me: 1. get really good drum samples, I don't think free samples and lops that come with DAW's aren't great - Addictive Drummer or EZDrummer as a minimum for me. 2. external hard drive, your DAW will break down and you will get read/write errors that'll wreck your projects, keep a backup, and back up at least once a week. 3. piano keyboard, you'll end up piano rolling so much stuff that having a wee keyboard will save you tons of time. That's what i'd be looking at anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cabbage Posted April 28, 2017 Report Share Posted April 28, 2017 Focusrite have a range of thunderbolt interfaces, I'd definitely look into those over the USB ones. Although I'm only at a sub-amateur hobbyist level if I was to start again I'd look into replacing my Scarlett for one of those as latency issues really crippled me. I use a windows machine which is half the issue but having to get all IT on its ass when you just need to capture the greatest song in the world kills the flow. I'd second colb's points on backing up to external drive and getting a piano keyboard. Also I found having one of those laptop cooling stands that allow you to raise and angle the laptop really useful when standing and playing. I got mine from maplin and I couldn't believe how much easier it made recording instrument parts. Labeling the transport shortcut keys on the laptop keyboard with sticky labels was really useful as well as I'm too tight to fork out for an external controller and don't have a spare port for one either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaaakkkeee Posted April 29, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2017 Cheers folks. So thunderbolt is the future aye? Yeah I will be looking at getting midi controllers/piano but they're slightly lower down in priorities. Want to get better gear for monitoring and recording to better my mixing skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Moon Posted May 5, 2017 Report Share Posted May 5, 2017 Depends how good results you want out of it and how much you want to spend, environmental stuff can affect it to. We use; interface; soundcraft signature 12 mtk weirdly not too expensive for what a great multi track recording mixer it is! computer mac pro (old one but it works) software reaper I use it because it's free, I'm familiar with it and the plugins are actually quite good mics 2 sm58's akg d5 (my personal favourite vocal mic ever) 5 "pulse" sm57 copies, actually really decent mics for £12 I've used them a lot and I like them and we have a cheap condenser which we hope to replace monitors, we currently have a cheap pair of alesis things which will definately be going but look for studio spares old versions of the sn10's best monitors I've ever heard and so cheap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaaakkkeee Posted May 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2017 cheers. looks like it might all get pushed back a year anyway. This site should have a RemindMe! function like reddit. As now i probably won't need this information for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Moon Posted May 13, 2017 Report Share Posted May 13, 2017 Your welcome to come try it man, as far as home/ dodgy shed studio space it's more mid range than budget I'd say Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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