Home studio/portable studio equipment questions

[Thomaswhudson]

I am working on my home studio setup but i also want it to be space saving and portable. Any insight, advice etc. would be appreciated. Here is what i have or will have.

Focusrite 2nd gen 18i20 ( i had the 18i8 but i want it in a rack and the new 2nd gen is coming out)
Furman Power conditioner (I can one used for 30 bucks)
BEHRINGER ULTRAGAIN DIGITAL ADA8200 (Do i even need this yet since i am getting a 8 pre audio interface? I will be tracking drums and whole bands at some point i am sure. Is there something better for the money?)
I am unsure which rack i should get. Should i get a small 4u one like the Gator molded case https://www.amazon.com/Gator-Cases-R...words=gator+4u
They go for 150. I can buy a used 10 space rack and power condition for 130, but is that overkill and to bulky, but has room to add more things in the future. If i go with the 4u its small and better for travel if i ever do that, but no room to add stuff. ( not sure what stuff i would add)
I have a bunch of different mics already.
Anything else i should consider adding to the rack?

[jerome_oneil]

Buy a hard case and a lot of foam to pack it in. I do a ton of recording at festivals so my gear gets hauled all over town.

I'd buy the larger rack, and put it on castors. You can't make a small rack bigger, but for some reason, you can always find stuff to fill up a bigger rack.

[Thomaswhudson]

Originally Posted by jerome_oneil

Buy a hard case and a lot of foam to pack it in. I do a ton of recording at festivals so my gear gets hauled all over town.

I'd buy the larger rack, and put it on castors. You can't make a small rack bigger, but for some reason, you can always find stuff to fill up a bigger rack.

Yeah that is true. Good idea.

[G-Sun]

Originally Posted by Thomaswhudson

Focusrite 2nd gen 18i20 ( i had the 18i8 but i want it in a rack and the new 2nd gen is coming out)
Furman Power conditioner (I can one used for 30 bucks)
BEHRINGER ULTRAGAIN DIGITAL ADA8200 (Do i even need this yet since i am getting a 8 pre audio interface? I will be tracking drums and whole bands at some point i am sure. Is there something better for the money?)

For the money? No, don't think so

[Thomaswhudson]

Originally Posted by G-Sun

For the money? No, don't think so

Would you add a compressor in the rack? If so which ones?

[G-Sun]

Originally Posted by Thomaswhudson

Would you add a compressor in the rack? If so which ones?

Depends on your needs, workflow, budget.

There are many good reasons to not add a compressor.

[Win Conway]

Keep the smaller rack, do not get the bigger rack, you can always add another rack on top, your back will thank you when you get to my age, my back is trying to sue me !!

[yep]

Originally Posted by Thomaswhudson

I am working on my home studio setup but i also want it to be space saving and portable. Any insight, advice etc. would be appreciated. Here is what i have or will have.

Focusrite 2nd gen 18i20 ( i had the 18i8 but i want it in a rack and the new 2nd gen is coming out)
Furman Power conditioner (I can one used for 30 bucks)
BEHRINGER ULTRAGAIN DIGITAL ADA8200 (Do i even need this yet since i am getting a 8 pre audio interface? I will be tracking drums and whole bands at some point i am sure. Is there something better for the money?)
I am unsure which rack i should get. Should i get a small 4u one like the Gator molded case https://www.amazon.com/Gator-Cases-R...words=gator+4u
They go for 150. I can buy a used 10 space rack and power condition for 130, but is that overkill and to bulky, but has room to add more things in the future. If i go with the 4u its small and better for travel if i ever do that, but no room to add stuff. ( not sure what stuff i would add)
I have a bunch of different mics already.
Anything else i should consider adding to the rack?

How important is portability? Are you planning on doing 90% field recording? 50%? 25%

You're describing about the cheapest functional setup that will do what you want, which is fine. Cheap gear is quite good, these days, and you will probably be able to get pretty good results from the setup your describe. If that will get you started, I say go for it!

As soon as you can, I would encourage you to move into the used market for higher-quality gear. The price-to-performance improvement won't be that great, but the resale value of, say, RME, MOTU, or Apogee Interfaces is much better. You can practically always re-sell it for what you paid for it, used. The re-sale value of Wal-Mart interfaces is essentially nil. Don't worry about that to get started, but do avoid the upgrade trap of going from a $400 interface to a $600 interface to a $1,00 interface, and ending up spending $2,000 on interfaces that are now worth $600 on ebay, compared with just buying a used interface for $1,400, that will still be worth $1,400 when you want to sell it.

[BenK-msx]

I can see it now ...

*Yeps Loan company*
Need a loan? We always say "Yep!"
Don't buy that cheap stuff, fork out now!!


forgive me, I jest. Makes sense if liquidity is good!
and nice to see Yeps wisdoms are still available to the forum.

[SonicAxiom]

one of the smallest, cheapest and still most powerfull portable pro audio setups:

- a used Yamaha 01v96VCM mixer (550,- EUR)
- Dante-MY16-AUD Dante (extension card for 01v96; 16 i/o via Dante; 580,- EUR new)
- laptop running Audinate's Dante Virtual Soundcard (transforming the Laptop's inbuilt LAN socket into a 64 i/o audio interface; 29,- EUR)

just fire up the mixer, plug all sources into it, conntect the mixer to the laptop via a simple cat 6 network cable and start recording up to 16 tracks in Reaper (the cat 6 cable is capable of transmitting up to 500 uncompressed audio channels in each direction!).

advantages compared to traditional audio interfaces:

- instead of having only a simple AD/DA interface you get a full-featured, rock solid digital stand-alone mixer with real-time eqs, gates and compressors on every channel, 8 auxes, 8 busses, direct outs, 4 internal studio-grade fx engines, a no. of high-end vcm fx emulations of neve eq, dbx 160a and UA 1176LN compressors

besides recording up to 16 channels without the need for a dedicated audio interface or a dedicated stand-alone recorder you can also play separate tracks back into the mixer and do virtual sound-checks without the band playing on stage

- the mixer provides true real-time processing and delivers 0-latency cue mixes

- the setup can easily be upgraded and expanded in the future by adding other Dante devices or other computers to the network via a simple (manageable) gigabit switch.

- the digital mixer is usable as a stand-alone device as it needs no host computer to function (in contrast to any kind of computer audio interface)

- a Dante network overcomes traditional point-to-point audio connections (ADAT, USB, Firewire) which only allow two devices to be connected with each other. Dante delivers real networking capabilities where all connected devices auto-discover themselves in the network and are able to route audio wherever you want throughout the whole network



I'm using this very portable setup for live recordings and foh mixing. Simplicity and quality of this small setup are hard to beat.

rear view of mixer fitted with Dante interface:

[Thomaswhudson]

Ok i can get either a Gator 4u for 100, a SLK 4u for a trade or 100 or a Roadready 8u for 100. I will be doing probably 75% recording in house and the other 25 traveling some. I am not a pro by any means. Should i still get the smaller one?

[SonicAxiom]

the setup I'm showing is equally ideal as a home studio setup as for live tasks - both on a pro quality level and still very small and affordable. It overcomes many issues related to setups which involve "normal" computer interfaces (like latency).

[Thomaswhudson]

Originally Posted by SonicAxiom

the setup I'm showing is equally ideal as a home studio setup as for live tasks - both on a pro quality level and still very small and affordable. It overcomes many issues related to setups which involve "normal" computer interfaces (like latency).

Sooo something like this would be better than lets say the new Focusrite 2nd gen 18i20 , my other preampsbehringer ultra 8200 and a power condition. Oh and my laptop? A box of rack stuff basically and a laptop.

[SonicAxiom]

well, generally, yes (did you read post #10?)

[SonicAxiom]

1.) Regarding Dante. In short: With Dante, audio can be transmitted over IP networks using standard cat 6 cables and ordinary (manageable) gigabit switches. Main benefit is that the audio can be routed from any Dante-enabled audio device connected to the network to any other device on the network - thus, it is not yet another point-to-point audio transmission but real audio networking between any no. of audio devices present on the network. Devices that are plugged into the switch are auto-discovered by all other devices within seconds an can start to exchange audio streams with them.

2.) Regarding the 01v96VCM + laptop setup: The 01v96VCM is a very small yet performant digital mixer (look up the specs). It still rivals a lot of more recent mixers in terms of quality, flexibility and especially second hand price. You can look at it as your audio interface. It's hard to find a cheaper alternative delivering the same feature set.
The benefit of this machine is that you can use it stand-alone as it does not require any host pc to function unlike any usb or firewire interface. Moreover, it has far more features than those (being a mixing console). The feature set of the Focusrite interface is very limited in comparison, audio quality being more or less equal.
The 01v96VCM allows you to record without caring about latency. It offers a great variety and no. of analog and digital connections (SPDIF/ADAT + Dante if you fit it with the MY16-Dante expansion card). The Dante card allows you to connect the mixer directly to your computer's lan socket and renders a dedicated audio interface obsolete. It delivers 16 i/o via cat 6 cable to the computer (mac or pc).
Dante latency can be set as low as 150 microseconds! While you can't achieve this low latency on a connection to a pc's lan socket (with the computer running Dante Virtual Soundcard), latency is not an issue in the first place with this setup as the mixer has latency-free monitoring capabilities.

Except for the most expensive product range and the RedNet series, Focusrite sells mediocre prosumer devices. So you don't get much more quality than with Behringer. However, their pro series gear (like the RedNet series which covers all Dante stuff) IS absolutely pro quality and gets used even by the most demanding audio professionals!

Feel free to ask if you want to get more details.

[karbomusic]

I have a 6u rack to go mobile with, the thing to remember about racks is if you get exactly what you need, a short time later you may need/want to add to it and can't so 2u extra isn't a bad idea. I agree 10u is a little bulky, my 6u is just right but sort of wish I had 8u.

I think I've decided to just keep the 6u and add my extra items to an additional 4u, that way, if I load them up intelligently, I may only need the 6u sometimes and leave the 4u at home.

[partonkevin]

I've had a couple of portable systems over the last 20 years or so. My current low buck system is a Tascam US-1641 that is several years old and a rack mount 8 channel mic pre. I have it racked with a power conditioner, a patch bay, and a 8 channel mic splitter. It's 5 pieces in a 6 space rack.

I have a 2.2ghz laptop with 3gb ram and a 250gb SSD. I can record 14 simultaneous tracks with no issues. Latency is a problem, though. A newer interface with a DSP mixer would solve this.

I use this setup when recording live shows. I take a split of the vocal mics and anything else that runs to the PA, like kick. I usually run drum mics straight to my interface. I can take a guitar mic split or I can double mic the cabs if needed. Most of the shows I record are in smaller clubs and bars and not much goes to the PA. It works well for me.

This same rig records band rehearsals and jam sessions, too.