“Plug and Play” picks five things that—together—provide a complete all-in-one package. All you have to do is order it, set it up, and go. We already made the hard choices.
Not everyone has the desire to create a pro-quality recording studio at home, but those of us who do know how challenging it can be to wade through dozens of reviews to find out which components most closely match our needs. This starter studio features pro-quality sound for the audio engineer on a budget. We’re assuming that you already have a computer with a free PCI slot, and we won’t get into software (you can easily spend $500 on software, and you probably should unless you’re one of those shifty pirate types). Everything else you need to record with up to 24 tracks of astounding 96kHz digital audio is included in this $5,000 package.
We break it down after the jump.
Here’s what you need:
Microphone
Superlux CM-H8D Tube Condenser
Mixer
Interface
Monitor
Extras!
Microphone: $515
One of the most critical and, sadly, most often overlooked components in home studios are microphones. A good preamp can only help a bad microphone so much, and so it is with the microphone that we start. Fortunately, you don’t need a stack of $1,000 Neumann condensers to sound like you have a stack of $1,000 Neumann condensers. How so? Enter Avlex, makers of the fine Superlux line of microphones. Never heard of ’em? Don’t fret…that’s why you can pick up an 8-piece drum mic set complete with a pair of large-diaphragm condensors for $240 or, as in this case, a sweet tube condenser which has been favorably compared to the vintage “king of all studio mics” Neumann U67 for a mere $515 (the Neumann, incidentally, goes for upwards of $3,000).
The biggest downside with Avlex products is, being new and relatively unknown, it’s still hard to find Superlux at major retailers. Fortunately, there’s this guy selling them online (warning: site sux) or, barring that, there’s always a few Superlux mics on eBay…whether you’ll be able to find the CM-H8D is, of course, up in the air.
The best thing about this microphone is that it’s so good you can record an entire band with it and it’ll still sound pretty good. Sure, you won’t get any control in the mix, and it won’t be perfect, but it really is that good. You’ll obviously want to expand your collection in the future, but you won’t find better bang for your microphone dollar than Superlux. At least until they get some name recognition and the prices grow to reflect that.
Mixer: $2,600
Another key element (well, they’re all key elements) of your home studio are your mixer and preamps, which fortunately often come together. They don’t have to; you could get away with no mixer at all for this setup and save yourself some dough, but with money being no object for this fantasy project, we’ve decided to go with the Mackie B248. This console is dope, with 24 channels, each with Mackie’s popular premium mic preamp (phantom powered, natch), each with a direct out. This is a pretty hardcore mixer, and it would be easy to go with a more toned-down VLZ-PRO series with fewer channels and preamps if we were on a budget. But we are not on a budget, and this mixer gives you plenty of room to grow while serving as a fine compliment the interface we picked out.
Interface: $1,420
Mark of the Unicorn produces some of the most affordable home and pro studio gear known to man. We were sorely tempted to go with one of their hip FireWire options instead of the proprietary PCI-424 card, but ultimately the PCI-based 24IO won out for two reasons: 96kHz resolution and 24-Channel I/O. The PCI card has some other cool features, too: the DSP chip alone is an excellent excuse to skip FireWire, offloading a ton of work that would otherwise require the CPU and thereby increase latency. Weighing in at just one rack space, the 24IO is a lean and mean A/D converter + digital audio interfacing machine.
Also, I know I said we wouldn’t go into software, but I will say that the 24IO comes with CueMix DSP. So you don’t actually need to buy anything else, although again, you’ll probably want to eventually.
Monitors: $250 (pair)
Some producers and engineers will tell you that you can’t mix properly without the absolute most expensive and ridiculous monitors ever. Others will tell you that it doesn’t make any difference, you can mix just fine on those blown vintage 1961 Sears-brand speakers your mom has in the basement. We’ll take the middle ground here and suggest a cheap pair of studio monitors, specifically the Fostex PM05. Unlike a lot of monitors, they actually come in pairs, and the price per pair is not unreasonable. Why monitors at all? Well, these are among the cheapest you can get, but they are still tuned to have balanced frequency response and low distortion. Considering the frequency fuckery most modern cheap speakers manage to accomplish, it seems sensible to at least try and get a balanced reference for mixing. Even so, paying $700 or more per speaker for flawless response and speaker cones of solid platinum or whatever seems major overkill, regardless of how ‘pro’ you want your studio to sound.
Extras: $170
Ok, so this isn’t really part of a home studio, and if you are a guitarist considering a home studio, you surely already have a guitar and amp. But I bet it’s not a Sears Silvertone! Ok, so Silvertone doesn’t technically have anything to do with Sears anymore, but Silvertone guitars were (as any good guitar geek knows) long the sole domain of the Sears Roebuck Co, as Silvertone was a Sears brand from 1915 to 1972, initially producing oldschool hand-cranked phonographs, up through radios, and finally guitars in the 1930s. Muddy Waters played a Silvertone from time to time, and legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and Chet Atkins started out on one or played them at times during their respective (and respectable) careers. Silvertones pretty much disappeared after 1972 but are back in a big way now, thanks in no small part to the assitance of Paul Stanley and the KISS marketing machine. Silvertone hopes to represent the best price/performance ratio in the guitar biz, and whether they do or not, my grandpappy had one and it was the first guitar I ever played (without permission—my ass still hurts from that spankin’). Long live Silvertone.
Related
Plug and Play: Starter Home Theater [Gizmodo]
https://gizmodo.com/plug-and-play-starter-home-theater-22258
