Hey all,
I’ve been scanning this site for the past month or so trying to get as much info as possibly can before all of my mjaor purchases for my project studio. I’m basically putting my life savings into this new purchase and I want to be as informed as possible.

Here’s my background: I’ve used Pro-tools many times before in the studio, but have never been able to use in extensively in my home. I currently have an eMac 800mhzG4/768ram with Garageband, which changed my life. I’m a professional musician just out of college and have always been up on music technology, but never had the opportunity to really get into it because of the investment. With my roommate having the emac, I decided to buy Garageband and couldn’t believe how powerful of a tool it was as it reawaked my desire to get a home project studio (common sense force me to supress it for a while, being a poor musician w/college loans). I spent intensive hours with GB, learning just about every angle of it I could, and I used my new skills to acquire employment for a musical theater company writing and recording their accompanying tracks. I’ve created three successful shows (at a thousand dollars each) with GB despite the fact that I was using a low-end computer and a program that was not meant to be pushed in the ways I pushed it. The last set of tracks I did was great, but I’m ready for the next level of equipment. While continuing to write/record material for theater (I mainly use MIDI and loops that I alter), I desire to do a number of other things that are of a higher priority. They include
a) write and record music both solo and with my group, that range from loop inspired electronic music to jazz to just meat n’potatos rock n’roll
b) possibly create music for jingles, tv, movies
c) prepare music (both loops, sequences and interactive compositions) for interactive use in a live setting. It could be trigger drum loops or hits, or writing sequences to play along with, or have my computer interact with the music. Obviously I’ll need a laptop for this (that will come after the initial plunge).
I’m not into tech for the sake of tech, but I’m certainly not one to scoff at it; rather, I see computers, software, and the recording process as musical instruments themselves.
Based on what I’ve described above, hear is what I am planning on buying with my budget ($5,000-$8000):
1) Either a 2.0 or 2.5 G5 with 250g internal HD (using educator’s discount), and an additional 2gb’s of RAM from crucial.com
2) A lacie 250g external firewire hard drive
3) digi002 rack w/ plugins bundle- I’d like 8 mic pre’s since I’m a drummer, so could I get an additional cheap preamps for presonus or would this not work?
4) Logic Pro 6 ($499 w/discount) for both plug-ins and midi
5) Live 3.0 and/or Reason 2.5
6) Tapco 8” studio monitors
7) do I need to buy a sound card or does the digi 002 take care of that?
8) Mics- couple of 57’s, two oktava mko012’s, maybe audix for some drum mics, m-audio luna... a little clueless over the mics for a budget
9) keyboard- good midi controllers, or are there any good workstations out there under $1000 (so that I can take keys to a gig instead of computer and midi controller)

Based on my long-winded description, am I on the right track or are there some things I should/shouldn’t be buying? Can I hook up presonus preamps to my digi002 so I can get 8 simultaneous xlr tracks? Would DP be better or should I stay with PT? What are some good starting points for mics? Are the Tapco monitors ok? I don’t want to break the bank on monitors, but I also don’t want to have the next step up from some cheap consumer computer speakers. Are there any places that offer some of these products at an educational discount? I was planning on buying most from Sweetwater, as I hear they have the best service.
Any input on any of my topics would be greatly appreciated. I pull the trigger in a week and need an help I can get. Thanks!

This post has been edited by 2A Batterie: Wed 7 Jul 2004, 04:04

well, I'd say you are doing ok already scoring for the theater and all. And I might ad I wish I had your budget. But really you've described quite a bundle of stuff that will require quite a bit of learning before it's all useful to you. Garage band is one thing but logic, live and Reason are alot to learn to use well at the same time. Things are about to get real complicated if you pile it all on at once. I might suggest you start with sequencer/audio software and get comfortable with it for a while. Also I don't see a hardware mixer or control surface in there. You can go through the digi and mix in the software but alot of people like a hand on a slider or knob. And if you do get a workstation synth or are micing a whole drum kit, a singer and guitars a mixer could help. Do you have the space and privacy to record live drums? That 's not a simple thing to get to sound right.
Live is great if you are doing a lot of loop work. I love it, and as you may know its very good for live triggering and on the fly sample triggering. (or tringgering whole songs....).
Sweetwater is BIG. But when I called them with a big list they pushed bundles of items including mics or cables I didn't want, and when I asked them to break down the individual prices for me, they wouldn't do it. It was sneaky. Maybe you'll get a better salesperson.
I'd get the fastest G-5 you can get and settle on your midi and audio in/out first, including the software. (firewire for sure).Since you are familiar with protools, I'd consider it. Logic may be better if you are into the virtual instruments and a friendlier look. Make sure you have a good backup system in place with your real jobs.
I'd stick with the Lacie drives. They serve me well. In the end though you flourished on Garage band because it has a straight up interface and is simple. Don't get tangled up in virtual cables, it may strangle your creativity. Start slow and build it a piece at a time. Short take (fast g5, live, logic, firewire i/0 and fool around with it for a while...

good luck.

Digidesign does not recommend using a FireWire drive on the G5, but instead, a second internal Serial ATA drive. Use the external FireWire drive for backup.

Pro Tools LE with Digi002 is host based, no card, all audio and MIDI thru one FireWire cable. Best way to control Pro Tools LE is with a control surface. Either the Digi002 by itself, or Digi002 Rack with Mackie Control Universal. The latter is the best choice if you also want to control Emagic Logic Pro. Although the Digi002 will work with Logic as an Audio/MIDI interface, none of the controls, faders, etc. will work AT ALL (this is not made clear on Digidesign's web site...I found out the hard way and then had to get the Mackie). Mackie Control Universal comes with Emagic Logic labels printed on the interface but also comes with overlays for Pro Tools and other apps, hence, the name Universal. Some people use Digi002 Rack with Digidesign's new Command 8 control surface, but it will ONLY work with Pro Tools, not with Logic, etc.

Logic Pro already has synths and a sampler, so there's no need for Reason, and Live is just that, mainly for live manipulation of sound.

You don't need a workstation either, since Logic Pro does that stuff too. You just need a MIDI controler, so just get a StudioLogic or M-Audio, etc. keyboard controler, no sounds, just MIDI input. Let Logic do the sounds.

Since all this software is host based, i.e. there is no DSP card and the CPU has to do everything, the more tracks, plug-ins, software instruments you have running, the more CPU power you need, so get the fastest you can afford...G5 dual 2.5GHz!

In my opinion, you're scrimping on your front end. You mentioned some okay microphones and presumably the 002's preamps. That's going to start you off with a decent, though not outstanding signal.

I try to find some money for a real nic mic and preamp combo. Although I'm a keyboard player, I'd advise you to defer the $1000 key purchase in favor of a modest MIDI key controller and Reason.

Take the Thousand and look at a Studio Projects mic/pre combo. While it's not as cool as a Neumann U-49 going through a Neve preamp, it won't cost the $10K that combo would run you.