Completed My Newbie Home Studio Today :)

So yeh.. I bought the final components in my Home Studio setup today. I was surprised how cheap the last few things were. I got everything I bought today, including cables and connectors/adapters for just under $270 USD. What I got today is a Behringer Condenser Microphone, the quality is very good for such a low price point. Then I got a Hercules brand mic stand, which comes with a boom if I ever need it.. it's extremely sturdy as well as lightweight but has all these quick release/adjust features.. very nice. I also picked up a pair of Home Studio Monitor Speakers (also Behringer brand).. they have a separate tweeter and a woofer, and each channel has a full 8w of power.. more than enough. The speakers have their own dedicated bass and treble controls, as well as a master volume control, a 1/4" mic input, 1/8" headphone output, and proper RCA stereo inputs on the back, as well as a spare mono RCA input for a secondary device to pump music through.. like a CD player or something.

As well as what I bought today, I have a Lexicon Lambda audio interface, a midi keyboard, my guitars of course.. and Reaper, my current primary DAW. Now I just need room to move in here.. :) Hehe.. no sweat because I just signed a 6-month lease on a new apartment that has about 4 or 5 times more space for me to setup my recording studio in. I move in on Thursday! :) What a great day it has been! All up, not including the guitars, it all cost me less than $1000 USD, though I did need to shop around a bit.. even the non-commercial license of Reaper is $50 USD..

Anyway.. I am just so happy that I finally have all the equipment I need to write my songs and music with. Oh yes.. the headphones.. I've had them for a few years.. they cost me $220 USD at the time.. so may be just over $1000.. but not by much.. definitely less than $1100... just awesome! :)

Sounds cool when can we expect the album? :D

In about 6 to 12 months at this rate.. lol

Cool stuff man. A home recording environment will give you so many new options.

Behringer have great value for the money they ask. I have a tube composer from them and it's awesome. Cheap too.

Now if I can only get back my Adam A7 monitor from repair I'll be able to resume my recording!!!! lol

I don't get why recording an album takes so long. I mean like, usually you got your songs all ready, if you record one song a day, which isn't too hard, you can get it done in like 2 weeks. But a year? I don't get it. And even if you don't have the song done yet, it usually only takes me a day sometimes only a couple hours(if I'm in the mood) to write a song. Anybody wanna elaborate for me?

hehe I am one of those pedantic people where everything has to be "just right".. I spend hours and days on working out individual lines to my lyrics.. re-writing them and so on until everything is just right.. then I start to work on the arrangement and that, for me, can take weeks to get it just right.. It's just my own personal process for song-writing.. I don't write to a schedule. I wrote and recorded an entire album, in the space of a few weeks about 10 years ago.. and I wrote a full, complete song by myself in a couple of days, years ago as well.. but neither of them are anywhere near the standard I expect from myself these days.

But in the end it's more about my personal creation/song-writing process than anything else. :)

Originally Posted by: oib111I don't get why recording an album takes so long. I mean like, usually you got your songs all ready, if you record one song a day, which isn't too hard, you can get it done in like 2 weeks. But a year? I don't get it. And even if you don't have the song done yet, it usually only takes me a day sometimes only a couple hours(if I'm in the mood) to write a song. Anybody wanna elaborate for me?

LOL, I've been working on my album for well over a year and I'm probably only about 60% through - and that's just the recording, I'll still have to get an engineer to mix and master everything when it's all down.
Composing, learning to play the parts properly without any mistakes, actually nailing the parts in the recording process with the right tone and setup, EQ'ing the mix and tweaking effects, compression, volume levels, programming the drums etc - plus trying to find the time to actually sit down with a guitar really adds up! Even professional bands can spend up to a year in the studio full time. Depends on how complex the music is, an accoustic folk track with one guitar track could be done in a day or two but a very technical like Master of Puppets would take a hell of a lot longer.

Light, how about some pics of your setup?

Congratulations mate, I hope you have a lot of fun and make some excellent recordings. On a cautionary note, don't think building a studio ever ends, there is always another mic or a new pre to check out !

I remember muttering the immortal words..."OK now its finished" about $50K ago !

Next thing Im after is a Neumann TLM103.

I really can't wait to see how it compares with the C414 through the M5 or vt737sp ! Oh Yes !!

:) Doc you sound just like me except my poison is shred guitars and processors! :D I've managed to curb my purchase of processors now that I have both a Rocktron Prophesy II and a Mesa Boogie Triaxis with Simul Class 2:90 to Palmer PDI-03 rig. Guitars are a serious problem though... buying a new 7 string at the moment and am looking aat a custom LGM LEviathon 8 string for good measure. The missus won't be happy! :eek:

I'm about to move into a new apartment/unit this week, so once I have it all setup properly at the new place, I will take some pictures. :)

yep managing to persuade the missis that my salvation really did depend upon having the 100W JCM2000 and the 4x12 was quite a feat. The PRS does sound nice through it though ! The PodXT Live / Variax 700 combo is nice but the TSL has the edge !

Does this madness ever end ?

All I need now is some talent !

Originally Posted by: Dr_simonyep managing to persuade the missis that my salvation really did depend upon having the 100W JCM2000 and the 4x12 was quite a feat. The PRS does sound nice through it though ! The PodXT Live / Variax 700 combo is nice but the TSL has the edge !

Hehe.. one very good reason why I am not married nor plan to be married in the foreseeable future. :p

Does this madness ever end ?

Sure.. when you die. :)

All I need now is some talent !

Unfortunately that is one thing you just can't buy.. :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by: Superhuman:) I've managed to curb my purchase of processors now that I have both a Rocktron Prophesy II and a Mesa Boogie Triaxis with Simul Class 2:90

How do you find the 2:90? I have a 50/50 in my rack at the moment but I've been thinking about upgrading it recently.

The tone is excellent but to be honest, it's just too damn loud. I can record with it ok because I go direct through a Palmer speaker simulator but I used it in a studio before through a Marshall 4x12 cab (200 watt) and it was plain ridiculous. We cranked it to the max and it quite literally shook the foundations - 20 seconds in the room with no hearing protection and you would go deaf - seriously. 90 watts from a tube poweramp is way beyond 90 watts from a solid state amp. I have a Marshall DFX100 for jamming and when its at max volume it sounds like the Mesa rig at about 4 or 5 on the dial. Sounds great but you would want somewhere big to play it because you have to really push the volume to get the famous 'tube' tone (sounds even better with a tube preamp before it like the Triaxis).

Cheers Dude. I'm currently running two preamps in my rack, a Mesa Recto Recording Pre (which I love) and a Marshall JMP1 which all go into a Recto 2x12 cab and tbh it sounds incredible. However, With the great things I've heard about the simul class poweramps I'm just worried that I am not taking full advantage of the rest of my gear :(

Originally Posted by: light487I have a Lexicon Lambda audio interface

Great choice on the interface. I used to have a Lexicon Omega and it was fantastic, great sound quality off it.

While I was using the lexicon I bought a new low latency driver for it from here. It gave me a little more control over the interface and even lower latency. Since I don't have my Lexicon anymore I wouldnt mind giving you my license for that driver if you want to use it for your Lambda. I dont know if the Lambda is supported by it however but I would presume so since the Omega was.