Studio 101: Is it really this hard?? (AKA: I have no idea where to start)

[jxe]

Step into a real recording studio sometime and say that.

it’s not a holy war, and i don’t know why dtr is giving me permission to buy computers, but i’m not running a real recording studio, and if i were i might use a system 7 mac with a stack of gross avid farm cards before thinking of linux. because i need firewire.

what is this, slashdot?

 

[DougUSMC]

it’s not a holy war, and i don’t know why dtr is giving me permission to buy computers, but i’m not running a real recording studio, and if i were i might use a system 7 mac with a stack of gross avid farm cards before thinking of linux. because i need firewire.

what is this, slashdot?

The challenge is that most of the components (once you get beyond a certain point) prefer the higher bandwidth that Thunderbolt provides. I suppose I could use USB-C, but I don't really want to spend a few grand to get nice gear, then potentially hamper it with "work arounds". After you get past that hurdle, most of the software has to be ported to PC, which isn't optimal either...

 

[jxe]

oh, i get it. i looked hard at the uad stuff recently even, but the fact that it’s a basically a mac-only peripheral scared me off. the plugins i’m sure are great, but expensive and processor hungry and apollo processors aren’t cheap. and so on. i ended up with a junky little audient, which is fine because i’m not quite alan parsons.

 

[DougUSMC]

oh, i get it. i looked hard at the uad stuff recently even, but the fact that it’s a basically a mac-only peripheral scared me off. the plugins i’m sure are great, but expensive and processor hungry and apollo processors aren’t cheap. and so on. i ended up with a junky little audient, which is fine because i’m not quite alan parsons.

Yeah man, I'm in exactly the same boat. I decided that I'll play w/this stuff for 6-12 months, then see. That should get me through the remodel on the "studio room", and enough time to see how much I really use what I bought. If I'm digging it, I'll bite the bullet, get the Mac and go all in on the UAD.

 

[jxe]

Yeah man, I'm in exactly the same boat. I decided that I'll play w/this stuff for 6-12 months, then see. That should get me through the remodel on the "studio room", and enough time to see how much I really use what I bought. If I'm digging it, I'll bite the bullet, get the Mac and go all in on the UAD.

take care of those mics, interfaces and computer junk comes and goes but good mics last.

 

[DougUSMC]

Yup, that's why I started a little bit higher than I'd intended. I figured anything over $1k would be lost on me, but that ~$500 sweet spot was good quality that would last.

I just got the approval for the basement from the wife, so I might start that demo this week. I'm torn between "the gear will show up this week, don't tear the room apart before you play with it" and "you can mess w/the gear a bit in the other room, the sooner you start on the rebuild, the sooner you're set for the long haul"...

 

[Tucson Thump]

Yup, that's why I started a little bit higher than I'd intended. I figured anything over $1k would be lost on me, but that ~$500 sweet spot was good quality that would last.

I just got the approval for the basement from the wife, so I might start that demo this week. I'm torn between "the gear will show up this week, don't tear the room apart before you play with it" and "you can mess w/the gear a bit in the other room, the sooner you start on the rebuild, the sooner you're set for the long haul"...

No problem remodeling as long as you have all the materials you'll need. My son in SF demoed his kitchen, laid the floor, and is now stuck at home with no kitchen.

 

[dmatthews]

No problem remodeling as long as you have all the materials you'll need. My son in SF demoed his kitchen, laid the floor, and is now stuck at home with no kitchen.

Dayum... bad timing!

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Yup, that's why I started a little bit higher than I'd intended. I figured anything over $1k would be lost on me, but that ~$500 sweet spot was good quality that would last.

I just got the approval for the basement from the wife, so I might start that demo this week. I'm torn between "the gear will show up this week, don't tear the room apart before you play with it" and "you can mess w/the gear a bit in the other room, the sooner you start on the rebuild, the sooner you're set for the long haul"...

The last studio (for paying customers) I built for myself was the first one where I really paid attention to acoustic principles. Unsurprisingly, that made a bigger difference than fancy preamps, mics, and processing combined.

All of the sudden separation was improved, noise was decreased, and getting good sounds was way easier. Take your time and do it right before the gear is set up if you can.

 

[RickP]

The last studio (for paying customers) I built for myself was the first one where I really paid attention to acoustic principles. Unsurprisingly, that made a bigger difference than fancy preamps, mics, and processing combined.

All of the sudden separation was improved, noise was decreased, and getting good sounds was way easier. Take your time and do it right before the gear is set up if you can.

Much wisdom in this. The best processing correction is none at all. I assure you that this was the farthest thing from the minds of the persons who built my house.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Kinda sounds like you're good with 4 inputs?

That’s what sh...... .......I’ll get my coat!

 

[Deleted member 5962]

and i don’t know why dtr is giving me permission to buy computers

Simple. I offered an alternative that some people think is they way to get by with a lot less cash invested in a computer and have one that performs well in the high stress music recording environment. One guy had a 7 year old core I5 with 8 gigs of ram and said he had never gotten over 30% of system resource use, when using Linux on a Windows 10 computer. I’m no computer expert, but several guys said that when using Linux and those bypassing all of the windows “drivers” you not only saved TONS of system resources, but also bypassed all the “driver conflicts” “Driver compatibility issues” and other items Windows suffer from.

You were probably joking, maybe not. But you laughed at the suggestion. I said, ok then, get yourself a Mac. The only reason I haven’t been recording for years now is I tried and failed with windows PCs to the point I gave up, and wasn’t willing to drop $2K on a computer then disable everything else on it so that all it could do is record. Just a couple years ago, most people said you couldn’t “multi-task” with a computer and needed to do all sorts of things to make the computer suitable for recording only.

Maybe it’s all my fault. One of my laptops was brand new and top spec at the time, and would never function with the $500 pro tools +MBox I bought, even after a guy who WORKED for Digidesign tried for a whole weekend to make it work. HE basically concluded it was “driver incompatibility.” That MBox wouldn’t function with that or the next PC I had and now is worthless. I recorded 2-3 things with it but it constantly locked up the computer. The “Happy Birthday thing was done with that, and another thing I did right afterwards that was better, but it froze during recording and I missed the whole performance.

 

[jxe]

Simple. I offered an alternative that some people think is they way to get by with a lot less cash invested in a computer and have one that performs well in the high stress music recording environment. One guy had a 7 year old core I5 with 8 gigs of ram and said he had never gotten over 30% of system resource use, when using Linux on a Windows 10 computer. I’m no computer expert, but several guys said that when using Linux and those bypassing all of the windows “drivers” you not only saved TONS of system resources, but also bypassed all the “driver conflicts” “Driver compatibility issues” and other items Windows suffer from.

You were probably joking, maybe not. But you laughed at the suggestion. I said, ok then, get yourself a Mac. The only reason I haven’t been recording for years now is I tried and failed with windows PCs to the point I gave up, and wasn’t willing to drop $2K on a computer then disable everything else on it so that all it could do is record. Just a couple years ago, most people said you couldn’t “multi-task” with a computer and needed to do all sorts of things to make the computer suitable for recording only.

Maybe it’s all my fault. One of my laptops was brand new and top spec at the time, and would never function with the $500 pro tools +MBox I bought, even after a guy who WORKED for Digidesign tried for a whole weekend to make it work. HE basically concluded it was “driver incompatibility.” That MBox wouldn’t function with that or the next PC I had and now is worthless. I recorded 2-3 things with it but it constantly locked up the computer. The “Happy Birthday thing was done with that, and another thing I did right afterwards that was better, but it froze during recording and I missed the whole performance.

well... mbox, how many decades ago was this? and then, how terrible was linux audio back then especially compared to everything else.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

well... mbox, how many decades ago was this? and then, how terrible was linux audio back then especially compared to everything else.

I again apologize for my lack of complete clarity. The MBox was back when they were new. If that wasn’t obvious. I bought it new.

The rest was all at The Gear page in the last 3 months. More than one person claiming a dual boot system with Linux was easy, cheap, reduced your computer costs/needs and was as stable as any Mac. And guys using 3-7 year old computers, or at least were able too, and not high end current ones.

I’m not computer expert, so I won’t discuss it any further. Was just offering a different option.