Small Studio With Splendid Equipment, Need a help to manage... Options

[cabasa]

Hello everybody!

I need your help. I have to manage small DAW based on ProTools HD system. Budget: ~EUR40,000.00

I need to understand how is reasonable this compilation or not:

· I need ONE, but high class tube mic with ONE high class mic preamp/compressor/eq for recording pop-style vocals (in general). It would be very good for me to know outstanding industry-standard combination of studio mic/preamp for pop vocal recording (if it is)
· 2 or 8 ch. A/D converter for ProTools HD sound routing specially. Apegee Rosetta 200/800 is good solution (not orginal Digidesign Protools HD converters) I heard. Or anything else?
· Well, Protools HD cards + G5
· STANDALONE final compressor/limiter (like TC Finalizer etc.) for final mix processiong. The sound goes from HD digital OUT to final comp/limiter digital IN. Then it goes to the second G5 audiocard digital IN to Bias Peak (for example) to make final stereo mix bounce.
· I need 2-ch. D/A converter to send the final mix to studio monitoring interface (like Presonus Central Station http://www.presonus.com/centralstation.html ) to hear all the sound which I ugly did.
· Active acoustic monitoring system Genelec 31A or 32A. I like Genelec's hi freq "sharpy" sound.

That's all.
I ask you, gentlemen the professionals, to help and give me an advice to complete this kind of studio!
What the best indastry-standard couple of tube mic/preamp for pop-vocal recording? Converters for Protools HD? Final stand-alone compressor/limiter with aes/ebu in/out?
Neutral sounding studio monitoring interface? Active monitor system?

Thank you very much in advance and excuse me for my ugly english.

Emegical IM

[keefer.k]

Dear Cabasa,

For 40K Euro (about US $45K), you can buy a nice small desk like API 1604 and a top multi-track like Studer A820/AMPEX MM1100 and leave the DAW world behind until it's time to mix/master. I'm not kidding. As far as value/build quality, these were the top of at least FIFTY YEARS of research and development by some of the smartest people using the best military spin-off technology. What we use with DAW systems is 10 years old technology at best, and a side-line of the hobbyist computer industry.

There are things you can do with a DAW that are completely amazing to a tape-only editor, but digital PCM workstations in this price range don't come close to the basic excellent sound quality that can be recorded with a great board and analog tape.

I have heard the glory of 2 inch 16 track, as fed through a little API desk. I hope that PCM or other digital recording can be this good, but it's not yet. It doesn't matter if the monitors are Mackie 824, Stax headphones, or $15K built-in custom monster main monitors, analog tape still sounds better as a master format. It costs more, but so what? Better is better. Better is getting *even* better with ATR Services tape. Not cheap: super-excellent.

Analog tape from 1963 plays back fine. Floppy disks from 1993 are marginal. Tape from 2005 will last 50 years in a cardboard box and play back fine in 2055. ProTools sessions will be unusable, even if readable. The companies don't support 3 software versions back, and will keep doing this. 2" tape is a genuine Standard, not a whim of company X.

As far as microphones, spend big. They hold their value and are easy to move. Don't discount older dynamics like EV 668, RE-55, big ribbons (AEA44/RCA44), or vintage ALTEC or WECo/ERPI mic's. They are cheap, compared to old AKG or Neumann. In LA, you can try everything.

PS: You don't have nearly enough money budgeted to pay the people who can actually make a studio happen. The room will cost about $80K (after you own the building) to come anywhere near the capability of this gear. This is true with a DAW as well.

The solution is to find a studio with most of what you want (rent the rest) with an engineer who can do what you want and pay them to record the talent. I can think of at least 6 good situations like this in Portland or Seattle.

Building studios is thankless!

Let the flames begin, and Cheers!

Karl Keefer
Portland Oregon

"Have soldering iron and Air-Vac, will travel."
Power Macintosh G4 Sawtooth, RME HDSP 52/96.
1992 Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 L05 G80 in fleet white.