Thanks for doing this Raw! Hey everybody :)

[robdocherty]

I'm Rob. I love nothing more than being in a recording studio and helping artists grow their ideas into complete songs.

I am planning on giving my advice and asking plenty of questions - first question being: If you had $30k to buy recording gear, what are the must-haves brand-wise from your perspective?

Not worrying about marketing the studio or offering cutting edge necessarily.

 

[stainless]

welcome Rob!

OK, before I give my useless opinion- Is this $30K (hypothetically speaking) starting from scratch? Are you going digital or analog (tape?)- What is the environment this $30K purchase will go into?  What type of recording will you be doing ('bands' (simultaneous multi-track) , individual artists players brought in (multi-track over numerous sessions), rap, synth/virtual), singer/songwriters (1 - 2 instruments and voices)

[robdocherty]

$30k from scratch. Going into a 1500sq ft. building completely empty and gutted. [literally all I am paying for with this budget is equipment/software/[mics etc.]]

Digital, bands - simultaneous [live drums] and direct to board bass/guitar potentially - I want a protools/control 24 right potentially but don't necessarily have to go that route.

[stainless]

assuming someone else is paying for acoustic treatment (and if not, budget some money)

As someone who owned a Control 24... no, you really don't want one... the pre's are crappy and they cannot be bypassed

The Euphonix control surfaces are great- If you want an analog board- the new Mackie looks good and will interface digitally

I do not see the justification for PT HD- if you really want PT go with 9.0. I'm now using Digital producer, great platform oin par with PT (IMHO) but the users forum has no patience for novices or poorly worded questions

as ProTools is now  a non-proprietary hardware software-

RME FireFace 800 (I'm biased, I have one)

or one of the Appogees or Prisms

I would also  look for straight A/D and D/A converters for the optical ADAT I/O's- why- I think (IMHO) you're much better off having separate pre-amps, rather than internals (The RME has 4, how are they... couldn't say... I've never even tried them) , unfortunately most internal pre's are not

pre's- there is a reason high quality pre's are $$$, they're very transparent ( and  another bias as I do have a Prism  4 channel... tops!)

however, I like the coloration from the not so $$$

Bellaris tube and  pre's and channel strips, Aphex, Presonus, Focusrite ... and I'd suggest immediately replacing the stock tubes (IF tube pre's) with NOS JAN RCA's, Mullards, GE, etc

compressors- Manley, UAD, Bellari's tube pre, is phat... a bit dark, but it has it's uses, and if you can find the older Altec Lansing compressors, very cool

EQ, at least a few whether 4, 7 or 31 band... your pref) , a para EQ

mics- I think there's quite a few reasonably great mics between $500 and $1000- I do like the Oktamods (Michale Jolie)-  get a matched pair of LDC,s SDC's and a few of the workhorse SM57's (the Granelli rigght angle SM57 is great for snare)- on the lower $ the MXL 603c Mogami's are great and there are omni capsules available and a sweet cap mod that if you're good with a soldering iron can be made for not much $-

patchbays- really put some thought into this- if it's a PITA to change signal paths, you'll find you that you'll begin to ignore perfectly good gear

and I'm sure you've now long since run ourt of money LOL

[robdocherty]

I have up to $100k to spend on gear but won't lol.

This is all honestly just for fun also; I'm a young guy and want to have some fun - help some friends' bands and am developing a home studio training dvd course. Acoustic treatment going with Auralex

[stainless]

Look closely at what the used models are selling for, often a good indicator  of the accepted "value" of a piece of gear- can't find examples of some gear for sale on the used market.... might just  be a reason for that. Cheap gear is noisy, often has quirky responses, but that's why is didn't cost as much

I'd do some more research- I think there's better alternatives to Aurelex.... but that's a subject unto itself

I've not seen lots of Aurelex in commercial studios- though granted my perspective isn't on a national scale

 I used it once and did a really fine job of killing a room so I always had to put verb on everything .... 

let us know what you decide on

pictures of your progress would be great!

[robdocherty]

Thank you. I definitely will. I am closing the lease probably in a few weeks - $1500 for 1500sq. ft. 3 year lease - decent location - noise isn't an issue. I'll get pictures up as soon as I can.