How Do I Spend $45,000, Updating my studio Options

[newrigel]

English producers make me laugh!
In truth, you want a combination of two things. Software and hardware. They all combine this in their own way. Anyway, my way is simple but a little more expensive. This will let you sound as good as timberland! (none of these guys ever managed to be THAT clean and precise) and also any other proper modern sounding artists and engineers.

  First if your spending this kind of money, forget software problems.Just be prepared to spend 50 000! Buy logic it is relatively inexpensive(remember computer is just a glorified tape recorder). Buy a decent interface (ie fireface, metric halo, top end motu), you will need good A/Dconverters to hear anything at this level of detail. Monitors are a personal choice... GO WITH WHAT SOUNDS GOOD TO YOU. I can recommend Dynaudio, Klein&hummel etc. DO NOT buy the mackies as they have shit detail and will reduce your ears to pulp! (trust me I know).
You will need a good hardware monitor controller to keep software at 0db (true monitoring, as software faders reduce bit rate as their level is reduced!) Your looking at around 6000/8000 sterling.
  For peripheral stuff, this is simple, but you are sorted with this.
NOW for the main bit... THE ONLY HARDWARE MIXERS TO GET WITH YOUR KIND OF MONEY are NEVE and SSL consoles. Around 45 000 pounds. These are the desks that make  top ten hits, and always have been. Without this you are just playing around. Without this you are going to struggle to get the sound you want. Personally at this price I would go with SSL's AWS 9000 console, and make my studio a top one... Fully automatable, digitally controlled, no more crap software routing bullshit, and a sound that focusrite could never produce, liquid channel or no liquid channel. Only neve could compete at a higher price.
The alternative if you don't have enough, is to find a vintage one second hand. This will still pee over anything you could buy in the average store.
Good luck,
G.

Software: Logic 7 or DP (DP has done more hit records than an SSL I can guarantee that... Danny Elfman scoring, Chick Corea music, Mike McKnight Madonna, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion etc. etc.) An SSL is a mixer board and you can mix ITB and use summing amps to get that same sound so I dont want to hear all this need a console shit.
Hardware: Convolution is the wave of the future in music and audio production... Sintefex 2000 or 8000 will sample any sound and do it nicely... have you heard one? or a Lunch-box to treat CRITICAL TRACKS!

Yes, SSL's are nice... but you don't need an SSL to make a hit record man, now that makes ME laugh!
Just plain raw talent and be @ the right place @ the right time!
I've heard TONS of platinum albums done on other gear besides an SSL...
SAVE your $$$ and do what you feel is best for YOU!
This SSL is going to cost you an arm and a leg man and unless this is a commercial facility maintaining this console can get quite expensive as time goes on. Stay virtual it's only going to expand as time goes on and this desk thing is all just personal taste it's not concrete. You'll be amazed @ the songs you hear that sound excellent that were NOT mixed on an SSL!
Oh yeah.. monitors are subjective so listen to ALL the monitors you can to find the one that YOU'LL be comforatable with over long periods of listening.

This post has been edited by newrigel: Sun 4 Dec 2005, 17:46

[gspeed]

Firstly SSL's sound is not replicable. Second, they now do outboard aswell, thirdly I am twenty seven years old and grew up using macs. I learnt programming languages from an early age. My introduction to production (being a musician in the first place) was with Reason. I now use logic and ssl. Go figure. You say the future is digital... guess what a young man will tell you youre wrong!
The future is a marriage of hardware and software. I'm afraid neither tube nor algorithm can provide real warmth, depth, and punch. Warmth and punch comes from transistors. Guess what? SSL make the best transistors!
As a guitarist (one of many instruments I play) I also know that a couple of tubes is a joke! Guitar rig sounds like shit, so does guitar amp pro in logic... amplitube just about passable. If younger producers like me would rather listen to Carlos Santana than to an engineer waxing about something that we have all grown with since we were kids... There is a reason. Those tunes sound FAT. Same with Jimi, etc... If they still sound fat today, it is because Eddie Kramer would know how to maintain a neve or trident.
Timbaland, the neptunes etc. also love hardware. Tunes are littered with loose jangly triplets generated by hardware samplers such as the asr10. OK, maybe plenty of plugs are used(which I actually take for granted these days), maybe some valve grit, but those mixes will sound as good as Mr. Kramer's a good forty years from now. Why? THESE PRODUCERS (FROM DRE TO PERRY) KNOW THAT MONEY CAN BUY BADASS TRANSISTORS. ONCE AGAIN, software is cheap and easily obtainable. Everyone has it. Hardware is OUT OF REACH for most people's budgets. But if you can do it, do it. SSL is one thing that you may regret, but your sound never will. Besides, it probably won't loose its value either way.
P.s. You speak of raw talent. Well, it seems you are very much an engineer. I think this kind of advice is damaging for the next gen. who all know their machines better than you! Why don't you try some raw talent of your own and start moving some faders without a mouse! Then you may become a little fitter to record that young raw talent you speak so highly of. I'll say it again. When you drop a software fader you loose bit depth, resulting in a loss of quality. This means you are now no longer mixing in 16 or 24bit or whatever. What does it take to show you guys?