Home Recording Studio (Gear/Setup)

[Jay Stevens]

Hello everyone!

I'm Jay and new to the forum. Just to give you a quick back story - I work in radio as an on-air talent and in-house production director. I own and operate a mobile DJ production company in South Florida. I have worked in the DJ and radio industry for a number of years, and in voice-over for the past 2 years. I voice in-house for my radio station and take on voice projects as they come. I would like to find agent representation soon and do more from home.

That brings me to the reason I'm posting a thread in the "Home Studio Conversations" section of our forum.

I'm seeking some insight from seasoned professionals on putting together the right components for my new home based recording studio. I have read this section of the forum - yet still confused on a few things. I plan to use the following:

Desktop PC - A Core Duo Processor, Vista OS, 4GB of Memory, 500GB Hard Drive, USB.

Software - Sound Forge 9.0 & Acid 6.0

Mixing Sound Board - Behringer XENYX 1204

Studio Monitors - (2) Mackie MR8 Active Monitors

Microphone - Electro Voice RE20

Ok, here's where I'm stuck. The Audio Interface. I would like my work space at home to be setup like my work studio at the radio station. My concern is that Audio Interfaces like the M-Box and M-Audio have to work with Protools (please correct me if I'm wrong) and I would like to record my vocals using Sound Forge 9.0.

I would also like to use my mixing board to control the mic volume, headphone volume, and studio monitor volume control. Like at my work studio at the station.

So here's the next thing I'm stuck on:

Do I plug all of my gear into the mixing board and then go from the board to the interface?

or

Do I plug all of my gear into the Audio Interface and then go from the interface to the mixing board?

Also, someting else that confuses me: I notice that some voice studios have a mixing board, audio interface, and a vocal processor. Do I need something like this?

Sorry if this thread was a bit lengthy - but all and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone here.

[chucktaylor]

Jay,
First of all Welcome! I would tell you that you are wrong at least with regards to M-Audio...I have the Audiophile USB and while I CAN use Protools (and sometimes do), I am not married to it... I can also use Audition, Nuendo, Samplitude, Acid or any other DAW program that I would like to with M-Audio...they make great interfaces btw!

Second, plug all your gear into your mixing board, I have the Berhinger Eurorack UB802 (yeah I know, time to upgrade), and then take your mains from the board into your interface. Pretty simple setup, but effective, depending on your gear.

Chuck

[jsgilbert]

There are plenty of M-Boxes and Firewire Solos, 410's and others working fine with SOundforge, Audacity and most other audio recordig/ editing software.

[Jay Stevens]

Thanks guys!

I'm also thinking if I should just connect directly into the Audio Interface - and do away with the mixer. And just control everything from the Audio Interface.

Would any of you object to this - or there really is no actual benefit to using a mixer except for control and flexibility. Please let me know what you think.

I plan to record dry voice recordings into my desktop using Sound Forge 9.0. Then I can take my dry voice recordings to edit them in Acid 6.0.

I now know that I can use Pro Tool packaged Audio Interfaces with other software like Sound Forge. Thanks!

One other thing - If I did use a mixer I would want all of the PC's audio to come out of my studio monitors - controlling the volume up and down back at my mixer.

I would have a channel on the mixer board just for the PC audio volume. How would all of that hook up w/ the mixer, interface, PC?

Sorry for the newbie questions. I just use the stuff - never really hooked it all up on my own before for home recording use. Thanks again!!

[Mike Sommer]

Originally Posted by Jay Stevens

Do I plug all of my gear into the mixing board and then go from the board to the interface?
or
Do I plug all of my gear into the Audio Interface and then go from the interface to the mixing board?

I always suggest to run all your gear through a mixer then into the Audio Interface.
Think of your computer as the tape recorder and as the post production editor. The audio going into the computer should be fully developed, clean and ready to go, this make for more efficient and professional audio production. If you are having to remove room noise, or anything else besides actual production something is wrong and you'll be adding more digital artifacts to the file if you have to correct it in the computer. Which leads me to point out that the sound of your recording space (room) is often more important then the mic you use. The RE20 is a good mic if you don't want to tune your room for appropriate audio production. Folks who dislike the sound of condenser mics often have unappealing sounding rooms.

Finally I am beginning to understand HOW IMPORTANT ROOM TREATMENT IS!!! - Gearslutz.com

Voiceover work: What to use? - Gearslutz.com

Originally Posted by Jay Stevens

I'm also thinking if I should just connect directly into the Audio Interface - and do away with the mixer. And just control everything from the Audio Interface.
Would any of you object to this - or there really is no actual benefit to using a mixer except for control and flexibility. Please let me know what you think.

Keep the mixer. As I said in other post you should develop your audio outside the computer with a tasty preamp, and compressor all run through a quality mixer (I recommend the Soundcraft M Series). Because if and when you do get ISDN you'll need the mixer.

Originally Posted by Jay Stevens

I plan to record dry voice recordings into my desktop using Sound Forge 9.0. Then I can take my dry voice recordings to edit them in Acid 6.0.

That's fine for now but I would suggest Adobe Audition, to streamline the process.

Originally Posted by Jay Stevens

One other thing - If I did use a mixer I would want all of the PC's audio to come out of my studio monitors - controlling the volume up and down back at my mixer.
I would have a channel on the mixer board just for the PC audio volume. How would all of that hook up w/ the mixer, interface, PC?

Yes, everything can run through the mixer. The mic gets one channel, Computer gets another channel. Main output to Audio Interface, monitor output go to monitors. It's all depends on the mixer and its capabilities.

[Jay Stevens]

Mike Sommer,

Thank you very much for your informative post! You really did break it down for me!!

One more thing...

Main output to Audio Interface, monitor output go to monitors.

My main output on my mixer is XLR and I'm guessing that the inputs on the Audio Interface will be something else - 1/4 I suppose. I guess I can get some type of XLR to 1/4 adaptor plug to make the connection?

And then the monitor output on the mixer is the same as "Control Room Output" on the back of the mixer I suppose? Well the thing is the headphone volume knob on the mixer board is also the same for the "Control Room" so it's like they want me to use either or.

I would have to un-plug the speakers everytime I need to turn up the headphones to voice - and then plug the monitors back in when I need to hear them....I hope you get what I'm saying.

I'm almost getting it all - this thread has really helped me understand. Thanks!!

[Mike Sommer]

Originally Posted by Jay Stevens

My main output on my mixer is XLR and I'm guessing that the inputs on the Audio Interface will be something else - 1/4 I suppose. I guess I can get some type of XLR to 1/4 adaptor plug to make the connection?

Yes. You would need a XLR to 1/4 TSR cable.
TRS connector - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
And by the way I'm not a fan of MBox or most all in one preamp/interface mush boxes. If you're going to do it, do it right. I'm quite happy with my Audiofire 2, and there are the Presonus units and other sound card and interface options.

And then the monitor output on the mixer is the same as "Control Room Output" on the back of the mixer I suppose? Well the thing is the headphone volume knob on the mixer board is also the same for the "Control Room" so it's like they want me to use either or.
I would have to un-plug the speakers everytime I need to turn up the headphones to voice - and then plug the monitors back in when I need to hear them....I hope you get what I'm saying.

I looked up your mixer and you are a little limited on that particular consumer model, Yamaha's have the same limitations. It looks like you'll have to do some switching around every time you want to record. Which is why I suggested the Soundcraft M Series and it's more on the professional end of things and with better thought out "user friendly" layout and features. On my mixer when I plug in the headphones it automatically kills the monitors, maybe your mixer will do that too. If so, problem solved.

I'm almost getting it all - this thread has really helped me understand. Thanks!!

Mine is acquired knowledge as well.

[Paul Plack]

Jay, your Xenyx 1204 mixer should have everything you need. If you route the computer's playback audio through an AUX Return on the mixer, I believe you can then route playback to Alt-3/4 bus to feed the monitor and headphones, but NOT back to the computer's input. This is really nice when you want to overdub yourself, record to a click-track, etc, without having what's in your headphones wind up on your vocal track.

You won't have EQ or pan on the computer playback, but you generally want to hear that flat and accurate anyway.

You can do the same thing by bringing playback in through the RCA jacks labeled CD/TAPE IN, but then you have no level control on the mixer for computer playback.

Run your monitors from the 1204's Control Room Out.

The USB audio interface that comes with the mixer is a toy, with poor signal-to-noise specs. Stick it in a drawer for emergencies. You'll want a better interface. If your computer's built-in sound card has an aux or line input, do some testing to see how clean it is. My Dell has a SoundBlaster X-fi internal card, which has upgraded shielding from the low-end cards, and the line input is very clean.

The drawback all these mixers have compared to broadcast consoles is the lack of a monitor mute when the mic channel is turned on, and they share the same volume control for both monitor and headphones. One workaround to get separate volume control for the headphones is an outboard headphone amp fed by the 1204's CD/TAPE OUT RCA jacks. Do that, and you can turn the monitors down quickly and easily to avoid feedback using the volume pot on the mixer, and control the volume in your phones on the headphone amp. (I have a Rolls HA43 headphone amp, drives up to four sets of phones, and it's about $70 from various outlets.)

The RE20 will get you started, but get a good pop screen, NOT the foam muffs some radio stations use. The '20's big advantage is its relative freedom from proximity effect (bass boost when you get close) and its forgiving nature in less-than-ideal rooms.

The preamps in the Xenyx mixers are very flat, and have adequate gain to use a low output mic like the RE20, but that mic really benefits from a better preamp. If you get one, use the mic into the outboard pre, and the pre's line-level output into a 1/4-inch TRS line input on the Behringer.

By the way, the aux sends on the 1204 can be used to create a mix-minus for use with an external telephone hybrid, if you ever need to record phone interviews or work with a remote producer via landline.

Welcome, and good luck!

[Jay Stevens]

Fellas,

That is alot of GREAT information! I'm taking notes on all of this! So glad I stumbled across this forum!! All of you are very helpful - thank you so much!!!

[Jay Stevens]

Originally Posted by Mike Sommer

That's fine for now but I would suggest Adobe Audition, to streamline the process.

I was thinking this. Adobe Audition can do it all - right?

Record my vocals and everything as far as producing a spot.

Makes better sense - instead of going to and from Sound Forge and Acid. We do it this way at the radio station, so I figured keep it all the same for home recording.

But, AA sounds like a one-stop do it all center!