Brand Spankin' New!

[mish]

Hi! I am new to this forum and also an amatuer songwriter looking for advice on studio equipment set-up and functions of various equipment. I have a full-size casio keyboard w/midi and a lg. behringer mixing board.

[jamie garner]

if your primary purpose for a studio would be to record/produce/master your own tunes, one of the 'all-in'one' units from roland, fostex, akai, ect, would be great.

the biggest difference between these machines (under $1000, anyway) is the fx, # of channels, and cd burner options. fostex has a 10 channel unit for $500, with the internal cd burner for $300 extra. it's fx are quite decent.

the roland vs890 has the best fx of any of the lo-end units (imho), tho they want WAY too much for their cd burners.

the boss units that use zip disks or smart media only record at 16bit 32k, so be wary of them- fostex is still touting 16bit 44.1k on their units, but as they point out, cd's are only capable of using that resolution. the roland (and most of the other comparable units) offer 24bit now, but to go to cd, they will all wind up at 16/44.1.

the casio's sound module is not the best- but since it has midi, you could use an external midi sound module. the roland jv1010 is inexpensive, and sounds awesome.

if you sing, or plan on recording and acoustic instruments, a good mic is going to be a must. the studio projects c1, røde nt-1, marshall 2001, ect, would be perfect for a lo-end demo studio. your mixer probably has phantom power (which these mics need), and while i'll probably get reamed for saying this, the preamps in it are fine for what you plan to do.

if you figure around $900 for the recorder+cd burner, $200 for the mic, and an optional $400 for the sound module, you're looking at $1100 to $1500 to have a full featured songwriting studio! be careful tho... once you start putting a little studio together, you can't stop- "hmmm, i think i need another piece of gear- oh, if i get 'x' then i'll need 'y' too..." IT'S NEVER ENDING!!

a lot of fun tho!!!