Goals & Semester Brief
This semester, I am aiming to rework my home studio so that the space is more functional and efficient for writing and recording music. This will be accomplished via a combination of:
To demonstrate that I’ve improved the studio and learned new ways to use the equipment that I have available to me over the course of the semester, I will record two tracks using similar styles and instrumentation at the start and the end of semester as a point of comparison. Task 1: Taking Stock and Researching Pre-Amps After spending an afternoon in Lee’s studio, we concluded that if I wanted to build upon my current studio set up, I would need to (at some point) invest in new “stackable” preamps. This is because my current set of mixers and preamps are “not stackable”, meaning that I cannot connect more preamps to it and therefore I can’t record using more than four microphones at a time. The preamps / interfaces I have are:
The mixer is most commonly used for live recordings and therefore, individual channels cannot be recorded as separate tracks (which is crucial when recording for the intent of mixing and mastering). However, the MOTU 4Pre can record each of the 4 inputs as separate tracks and acts as it’s own interface. This is fantastic for recording something using only four mics and it’s a high quality preamp - however, it cannot record more channels than that and unlike other brands, it can’t stack anymore preamps together to record more instruments. My first task is to research potential future preamps (within my budget) to use for my studio so that I can expand it as necessary as my studio grows in the future. Currently, my “future budget” is looking at under $800 for a starting preamp. The best starting preamp would be an 8 channel input preamp that is stackable. However, this is very likely to be outside of my current budget. So, I landed on looking at something like the Focusrite Scarlett four channel input preamp. This preamp is easily stackable with other brands and fits nicely within my price range, coming in just under $700. Although I had a look at other brands such as Audix’s Audient 8 input preamp, it’s Primera he was well into the thousands, which for now, is out of my budget. However, I believe that it is definitely something to aim for when I start building upon my preamp stacks. Another thing to consider is the amount of microphones I actually have to use these preamps with! My current list of microphones I own includes:
I’ve got 9 mics, 3 of which are in pairs (the shure SM58, the Seinheiser e835s and the C2s). It’s really important to have pairs of the same microphone as it means when your recording something using an XY configuration, it’s easier to mix since they’ll have the same sort of specs. Some of these mics are in better conditions than others merely because of wear and tear over the years (especially the Shure SM58s), but they all still work and I understand that I have a wide enough range to effectively record many different types of instruments. The only thing missing is having a pair of omni directional room microphones. Currently, I have some friends with pairs of these mics that I often borrow but investing in a pair of my own for the future would be a good investment.
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Artist SummaryI'm a WA Fremantle based singer-songwriter / composer. Here, you can have a gawk at my studies, compositions and performances. Archives
August 2022
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