setting up a basic multi-track home recording studio

[metalinferno]

hey ppl, am new here and really need some guidiance, although i tried my best to figure out what this whole mess is all over the last 2 weeks. =)

am trying to set up a basic home recording studio, and will probably have a couple of friends coming over to jam together from time to time. (most of the time will probably be 2 ppl, sometimes 4?) Since i aint gonna include drums, i would guess that a min of 4 tracks will be good? (vocals, keyboard, guitar, bass)

Am using a Windows Computer, which has USB 2.0, a firewire port and a PCI express slot.

I am mainly confused about the choice of audio interface, but here are my needs.
a. Phantom Power for condenser mic
b. Pre-amps (heard it goes with quite a lot of audio interface)
c. *Preferred but not compulsory , 2 headphone o/p
d. Good sound quality and minimal latency

the rest S/pdif i/o , ADAT i/o and MIDI i/o i totally have no clue whether they are essential (Sorry new to this thing (: )

Budget will probably be around 400-600. Anyway what do u guys think of this Yamaha MW8CX 8-Channel USB Mixer, cause yamaha is selling at 410, but there aint ani bloody reviews of it out on the net yet, so i aint sure if its good. Though i have a feeling that other brands would be able to offer more for a lower price.

Hmmm oh and I will be buying the following equipment as well, would like your opinions too and please feel free to suggest other alternatives that i can look into, can probably stretch my budget a little if its really worth it

Keyboard/Synthesizer: Yamaha Motif XS8 (FIXED, PAID at 25% discount)
(was an offer i cant resist due to the 25%, lol. i am aware that the motif has a shit load of functions (Including a multi-track recording, but onli 2 inputs only i THINK) but i cant figure that out yet cause it will only be shipped over within the next 2 weeks.

Speakers: KRK RP5 (budget around 400)
MIC: At2020 (condenser) (budget around 250)
Headphones: (any suggestion pls?) (budget around 150 each)
Software: Cubase ( comes with the yamaha motif XS)

Thank you for your help guys.

[unholyernest]

umm.. should focus on your audio interface first...
in this recording field.. its either 1,2 or 8 inputs.
it depends on whether u wanna get high end or budget kind of interface.

recommended is presonus firebox which cost around $450 (2 inputs)
or firepod which cost $700+ (8 inputs) from resolution.
or u can try line6 products..
M-audio is also quite good.. for reputation.. but i never get to play with it before.. can put it under your checklist too.. cost slightly more than presonus..

i believe most interface would come with phantom power lah..no worries..
u micing up amps or u gonna do direct in? micing up no need preamp but direct in without any effects pedal.. then u will need to get preamp.. recommended for low budget.. get presonus bluetube..
presonus firepod has 8 outputs man.. u can adjust every single one of them.. as in.. your guitar wants to hear more bass less vocals...or vocals wants to hear less lead more rhythm.. all can be adjusted into their headphones

for studio monitor.. RP5 cost $490 from hung brothers.. recommended to get..

for mic.. AT2020 is lesser than $200.. but recommended to get Rode NT1A which cost $270 from hung brothers.

headphones.. haha.. i think the more u pay the better u get loh.. i'm using those $50 kind and i'm happy with it..

software.. cubase should be good enough..

mixer.. i dun think u need any yet.. focus on your audio interface and mic and preamps..


i'm also quite a beginner..so dun blame me for saying anything wrong. good luck!

[THOA]

When you say jam, you are planning to record yourself playing as a band? And is your band gonna have a drummer eventually?

You are not including drums and you are not very particular about quality because you are just trying to record down ideas, don't need to be so elaborate. 2 overhead mics can do you good enough.

But if you are going for quality recording fpr 1-2 songs but doing it as a band, then it is seriously best to go to a studio and get it recorded by a pro. It's gonna cost you much less than all that equipment.

If you are instead going for recording of instrumentation one by one, layer by layer the most important things is but your system itself. Processor/RAM/HDD able to process all that data?

After all that has been considered, only then should you look into audio interface. If you gonna have a mixer, something has two line inputs is already more than enough. But then your mixer has got to have EVERYTHING you require.

Things to ask:

- how many mics do you need to use? if you are using mics on your guitar and bass amp then your mixer gotta have at least 3-4 mic inputs.

- what equipment your guitarist and bassist using? certain pedals (eg most multifx and some Digitech single pedals) have amp emulators so you can record guitar directly into the mixer without having to worry about mics. In fact they can sound better than using a mic; micing amps are just tricky business.

- some audio interface like Line 6's Toneport (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ) even have their own built in amp emulators

- consider the fact that, if you are recording a jam with all instruments at once, whatever your guitar and basist play is gonna bleed into the vocalist's mic, so vocal quality may not be great without careful acoustic isolation.

[metalinferno]

geee....i am a little confused, cause i have always been doing vocals and piano. as for guitar i only have an acoustic one as i just started learning recently

Hmmm... I aint very keen on micing up my amps (for guitar/bass), hope to do a direct in, which means that i would need an audio interface with a decent preamp built in. Have a question at this point, will the sound quality for the electric base/guitar be as good as an average amp if i am using pre-amps w KRK RP5?

Oh i can't have a drumset due to space constrains and parental objections haha, they will seriously kill me for the noise produced, lol. Anyway, i will probably just use my motif XS8 to add in drums if necessary.... though most of the time i guess my recordings will mainly be acoustic... yep

I would suppose that a mixer that this point of time is probably not really necessary for me. I am kinda just doing all this for leisure.... jam/practise for some performances and probably record a few songs and upload them to myspace.

Hmmm the line 6 Toneport seems like a pretty good choice, am actually seriously considering the UX2(but does it allow for multi-track recording?). As for presonus firebox, everyone is bloody talking about it, but it is kinda expensive especially for the fact that it only has 2 inputs. In what waes is the firebox better than the UX2?

Sorry if i sounded quite noob here, but i am one in this field trust me, haha.