Budget setup

[Bearstripes]

Just getting back into recording after like 5 years of not . I’m lookin for advice on a cheapen setup as I don’t know where to start anymore. I have a crazy powerful pc so and I have bleats a lot great things about reaper so I think I’m gonna rock that. Not sure at all about an interface tho. Really would like to get something multichannel that’s not total shit. Then like monitors, headphone amp, condenser, and anything else that I prob need. Really wanna keepyhe whole thing under 500 but can flex if need be.

[rustywire]

How much research (approx hours) have you personally done before starting this thread...both 5+ years ago and since then?
A good starting point is building upon what is already familiar and whatever gave success/satisfying results in the past.

Reaper is great. Audacity a useful editing tool, too.
Good multichannel iface+monitors+headphone amp+condenser all for under $500 is a tall order.
I would start by ditching the dedicated headphone amp, an iface will handle that duty.

What/how you plan on recording, types of instruments, styles of music etc all make a difference in "which gear is best for my needs while fitting into my budget"

[Bearstripes]

Really jus doing demos and Lofi fun stuff with friends. Not trying to cut records however may do some guitar tracking for a band from home so that’s the one thing that “higher quality” may be required.

I did some off site research but found the options overwhelming and started a post just to get opinions from others who already went thru all this.

[Bearstripes]

Really jus lookin g for an decent starting ground and upgrading as needed. 500 would be great but can be stretched. I also intend on buying everything used if that’s means anything

[Kacey Y]

I would get something like a Focusrite Scarlett series interface. It will have decent preamps and, headphone and monitor control built in. If you need something more expansive, you can get something like the OctoPre, which allows you to add preamps channels with an optical connection and if you needed more in the way of headphone amp options, you could always pick up something cheap from Behringer. If you have something solid, with options as far as connections and routing, you can scale. Reaper is free and works well, you can get plenty of good free VST plugins, no real need for specialty hardware like compressors, really, unless you really want it, then look up Warm Audio or something. I'd get a couple cheap Shure SM57/58 mics, a cheap LDC from MXL or similar and maybe get like one really rugged more expensive dynamic like an RE20 or SM7B, that can do a few different things. Some headphones like Sennheiser HD280 or AT M40x or something like that, maybe some M-Audio or similar monitors if you really want, but monitors are only as reliable as the room/treatment, so heaphones can be more useful on a budget and then check your mixes on a stereo/car.

I'm just spitballing, there's lots of ways to accomplish a budget recording rig. It really depends on what you're going to be recording and your budget. Recording is up there with/above drums in the category of expensive and infinitely scalable gear collecting.

[rustywire]

I would personally get a Zoom R16 for "demoes and lofi fun stuff with friends" and get a pair each of sm57 & 58 mikes or competitor stuff [Audio Technica etc], some headphones and nearfield monitors. You don't need big drivers, just flat/boring response

[Kacey Y]

I would personally get a Zoom R16 for "demoes and lofi fun stuff with friends" and get a pair each of sm57 & 58 mikes or competitor stuff [Audio Technica etc], some headphones and nearfield monitors. You don't need big drivers, just flat/boring response

A version of this kind of setup (whatever the equivalent Zoom multitrack was at the time) was the setup I recorded my first demo recording I did for a band I wasn't in. I had SM58 style mics from singing in bands for years, I borrowed some from the band as well and I used the mixer in a PA to be able to record the whole band live, then do some overdubs. I used headphones to mix and I think I might have also used some small nearfield hi-fi speakers that I ran a turnable through at the time, that were pretty flat. If I listened to that now I'd probably think it was hot garbage, but at the time it sounded better than local professional studio demos I had paid good money for, just because we could take our time and experiment, listen back and adjust, without being rushed. It certainly sounded as good or better than a lot of indie and punk rock tapes I had in the 90's.

[GardenoftheDead]

http://reaper.fm/purchase.php
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SM57GtrPack
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/iD14

Those three will run you $518. The Audient is better than the budget Focusrite stuff in my experience (and I've used both extensively), the SM57 is in every studio for a reason and built like a tank, and Reaper is great for the money. The benefit of the Audient is that if you get an 8 channel preamp with ADAT out later on, suddenly you've got 10 simultaneous mic pres.

Edit: Forgot headphones. These Senns will get the job done if you don't have a pair of studio cans.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IT0IHOY/re ... UTF8&psc=1

[Bearstripes]

I have some 57s and a telefunken m80 laying around so I’m not worried about dynamic mics. And I have a half decent pair of sennhieser headphones too. Really focusing on the interface, condenser, and other things that I may not be thinking about. My buddy has a tascam he will hook me up with for like 50. It’s an 8 channel from like 09. But not sure if I can scoop it anytime soon and he wants it gone ASAP.

Any one like them?

I mean for50 if I can get to him it’s a no brainer but I like this so keep talking cause you all great

[ibarakishi]

If that zoom had some more outs on it, it would be killer for the money. i love the simplicity and mobility of it

[Kacey Y]

If you're buying an interface/recording/whatever for $50 and it's functional, just figure out a way to make it work. My personal experience with recording is that technique makes more difference than gear. Gear is nice, but it's like musical instruments...something cheap will sound great in the right hands and the most expensive gear can sound like crap in others. I wouldn't bother with a tube LDC personally, I'd get something FET 47 style, whatever's in your budget, lots of good cheap mics around these days. Just get whatever you can get and record as much as possible. You can always go on youtube and look up how-to videos these days. Pensado's Place and Produce Like A Pro are both run by and feature professional engineers, so those are good resources, though you have to dig and absorb a lot. The best thing to do is listen to well recorded music on the setup you're recording/mixing with. So you have some sort of reference. Experiment, record and listen back, adjust, repeat. You can overcome a lot of shortcomings of gear with technique and patience.

Just a caveat about how-to's, some will do the "most typical way to record/mix ____" and I would try to find alternatives to anything. If every place you look says something is recorded a certain way and you can't do that with your setup, there's a dozen other ways to do and some will work. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that.

[rustywire]

^
The "LA style" of recording:
Cherry pick from a big budget studio's mic locker, the emphasis on mic selection and miking. Highest quality commercial gear.

The "NY style" of recording:
Use what's available and finesse to make it work. More comp/eq/processing (both commercial and custom gear with big iron).

I like using elements from both methods. The LA style is better suited for polished sounds, the NY-style tends to impart or perhaps, highlight gritty qualities and edge...perfect for lofi (as it is essentially the DIY approach)

[Kacey Y]

I wish I had a concise way to describe the method I like to use for recording and mixing. I record digitally and I like to track everything very clean. High headroom, dialing in the tone at the source as close as possible to the desired finished product, no compression or EQ on the way in (unless it's for monitoring). I tend to use character mics only for accent, like a room mic, a heart mic on drums, something I know I'm going to cut to on guitar or vocals for a more tightly focused solo'd tone (like an intro riff or something). Then I get most of my character in mixing. I put a heavy emphasis on gain staging. LPF/LPF for inaudible (or unnecessary) frequencies and very super light compression on every track and group up front, to sculpt everything into place, before I even start going for character compression/EQ/reverb/delay, etc. I guess it's "naturalistic"...not trying to be the pure documentarian style recording of someone like Albini, not the far opposite extreme of artistic expressionist style recording/mixing (like Sgt Peppers or something contemporary that can't be performed live), but something that's meant to sound like what people think natural sounds like in context.

The downside to that is it takes a lot more pre-production and familiarity with the band/material. I usually have to have some kind of idea of how everything is going to sound ahead of time, though there's room for changes and surprises. I have had a couple bands flat out not trust me in tracking for guitars and bass and I had to essentially take 30 minutes to an hour to record a sample section, roughly mix it and show them how it's going to sound all together, because guitarists especially cannot seem to accept the idea that the heaviness of a band sound doesn't come from their solo'd guitar track. I have also run afoul of some people who have stock recording opinions, like insisting that every track have a parallel DI, in case we want to re-amp later. I have never reamped anything I've recorded, with the exception of getting natural reverb and reamping a snare to get more sizzle from the snare wires. I am not a fan of DI bass, especially because I'm primarily a bassist and have never had trouble getting a good clean bass tone with low end from recording with little effort. I find that a lot of engineers are just lazy or not willing to take the time to do a fully produced bass tone in tracking, so a lot of bassist labor under the misconception that doing everything DI is how you get a great bass tone. I have gotten shit from other bassists and engineers about that online though, so I'm aware it's not a popular opinion.

At any rate, I think if you have a good handle on mixing and/or have a strong vision for what you're recording, you can get away with a lot of shortcomings or limitations in gear during tracking. In a way that doesn't necessarily line up with how I like to do things either, some people bake in every tone up front and print it straight away on tracking and that works too.

[rustywire]

Think I really only prefer DI bass tones through mic pres/ch strips with big iron...and primarily tube variety...but essential for it to have input/output transformers. What a difference between RCA BC-## series consolette mic pres (or similar) and using a standard digital audio iface.

[Kacey Y]

I think if someone is using a bunch of gear direct to get a tone, cool. I'm just not a fan of the sort of rote "just throw a DI in there, we'll run it through a plugin/Sansamp later and get something". As someone who has spent decades figuring out how to get good bass tone in the real world and record it, just comes off as not caring about it. When I have had comments like "How the f*ck did you get that bass tone man??!", the answer is always a variation of "I plugged a bass into some pedals, into an amp, into a cab and put a mic on it. Then adjusted things until it sounded good. Nothing crazy". Same for guitar or anything else really, unless it's something very production trick heavy, for artistic purposes.