Building a home studio

[InVinoVeritas]

I'm looking for advice and information. I want to build a home studio and am wondering what equipment I need. First, I am leaning towards purchasing a Yamaha Motif 7. It's seems to be very versatile which is important b/c I will be recording everything from dance to classical, but with an emphasis on techno. I thought about the Motif 6, but think the extra keys on the 7 will be worth the extra money.

Also, will the Motif work fine as a stand alone, or should I purchase a new pc/mac. The Mac G4 seems to be a great choice when coupled with ProTools, but I'm on a budget, and am wondering if a less expensive pc will work just as fine. I currently have a laptop, but it's a PII 266 with 128MB of RAM. I don't think it will push the audio software I want to run, such as Cakewalk's new Sonar. Can I wait on the computer purchase and just use the Motif, or will a new pc/mac make things alot easier???

In addition, any suggestions on other equipment, such as microphones, would be helpful.

So, feel free to chime in. Thanks.

[d-dmusic]

I haven't as yet heard the Motif but I've read alot of good things about it. I think it could be a good choice as a "centerpiece" of any studio.
However, I've never found one keyboard to be able to do everything that is "needed" to be done-sonically or stylistically. With that in mind, an idea would be to supplement your Motif 6/7/8 with softsynths/samplers so you can acheive a broader pallette of sounds economically.

Running with that idea, my choice would be a SINGLE processor Mac G4 (as fast as you can afford).Can't afford a new G4 ? checkout local rags for used G3's. They pack a fair bit of power. PC's are fine if you've got the time.

Cubase VST32/5.0 would be my choice(because I know from experience Cubase works with VSTi's/softsynths/samplers very, very well). Avoid dual processor Macs. Some plug-ins/softsynths don't like DP's at all. Freezorama.

Softsynth wise, anything by Native Instruments is just excellent. Really top of the line PRO stuff.
Battery, B4, Absynth.... just great and compared to hardware synths/samplers...well, you do the math.$$$. The only drawback with softsynths is latency. There are workarounds though.

Are you going to need a sound card ? How many audio ins/outs do you need ? Low latency for softsynths ? but can it still stream digital audio from your recording drive effortlessly with low disk buffer settings ? How does it sound ?

Check the net for info on Sonar. I've read quite a bit of negative stuff on that app.

[InVinoVeritas]

thanx for the useful info.
i'm definitely purchasing a hard synth b/c i'm a "keys" kind of guy who grew up on the piano, so it suits me better. but i will probably supplement it's synth capabilites with additional software.

Yes, i will need a new audio card, but won't require numberous audio I/O's. i plan on letting the Motif do most of the synth/sequencing/sampling work for now and it uses a simple USB connection.

The new G4 is impressive, but expensive. Maybe i can luck out on ebay or something.

Thanks again d-dmusic

[blacko3788]

If you can wait, and I mean saving up just a little bit more, you can save yourself hassles down the road. Buy quality products. Buy what you want to have at least for many years if you are serious about music.
If you interested in a G4 then save for a G4. I wish I could've got a G4 before I bought my PC. Since I bought a PC, my whole platform must be around a PC. There is no turning back without losing alot of money. Get the G4 and use an interface such as MOTU 2408 and a DAW such as Emagic's Logic Audio. Logic Audio is a great program that not just records 24 bit but also has the abilty to sequence which is great for your dance music or any other style for that matter.