Jump to content
Hamer Fan Club Message Center
  • 0

Home Studio Opinions [Edited]


velorush

Question

Edited [Reader's Digest Version]:

Can anyone render an opinion on any of the following components for home recording?

iD14 Audient 2 Channel Audio Interface $299.00
LA220 Lauten Audio LA220 FET Condenser Microphone $249.00
S1v3A PreSonus Studio One 3.5 Art $99.95
SRH840 Shure Closed Monitor Headphones $179.00

For a total of $826.95 (of course, I'll need cabling, stands, hardware, etc., as well). 

 

The unabridged remainder of the initial question (feel free to skip):

So, here we are about a year after my 'I'm getting out' meltdown wherein I sold most of my little gear collection. Said episode began as I realized I had done nothing musically in over five years and the prospect for anything going on in the future was absolutely nil. Said episode ended with the shocking prospect of selling a certain Hamer guitar, my bond with which is uncanny given, well, frankly, it isn't a Strat.  But I digress...

Much of the discussion in the initial For Sale threads (highly consolatory and therapeutic responses from my HFC brethren) included recommendations to begin recording as a creative outlet.  With the looming prospect of receiving within the next month payment on a rather expensive piece of sold gear, I revisited the thought and, knowing absolutely nothing about recording [other than a completely cluster-failure attempt at the act using the wonderful THR10 and the equally un-wonderful Cubase], I read as many HFC recommendations as I could find, then called my Sweetwater Sales Engineer.

My initial budget was $500 (I was thinking, [HFC-approved] Reason, a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, a mic and headphones).  I was informed that, yes, that would do it, but "For a Few Dollars More" (great movie, BTW), efficiency, effectiveness and more to the point, end product, would be notably enhanced.  [Above] is what he recommended.

Some thoughts before I pose my question: I am unfamiliar with Audient (not because I know anything, but it isn't a brand that shows up in the GC, Musicians Friend or Sweetwater mailers that find their way to my house.  Reviews I can find are quite favorable; that's all I know.  The Lauten Audio mic gets favorable reviews, though I am intrigued by a recent-ish rethinking/clone of the Neumann U87, the Warm Audio WA-87 that retails for around $600.  Sweetwater makes no bones about their entire staff being in the tank for PreSonus Studio One.  From what I can tell online, it seems fine, but what do I know?  Lastly, having read the specs, I really really like the headphones (but I am as openly in the tank for Shure as Sweetwater is for PreSonus).

Now, if you've read this far, thank you very much for affording me this much of your time.

The question is, does this look like a good start?  Not doubting my Sweetwater Sales Engineer - he's been great on a wide variety of purchases for more than five years - but there's no harm in getting a second (or tenth or hundredth) opinion. :)  Oh, and it will all be run on a recent Dell Win7 PC with plenty of RAM, storage, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

Thanks!  The reviews and discussion I'm reading are saying exactly that.  Once again my ignorance amazes me!

I have determined one other thing reading from a very recording-geek forum.  What I first (ignorantly) saw as a weakness of the Audient is actually a strength.  It seems phantom power is available only if the Audient is powered by the wall wart.  Why not just get phantom power from the USB connection?

Many chimed in and spoke of issues with preamp power being less than sufficient on interfaces that pulled phantom power from the USB connection (I understood it to mean the USB connection was a source insufficient to simultaneously power both the interface and phantom power).  I'd never have conceived of such a thing without the discussion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Focusrite 6i6 has a separate power supply.  It has pretty good pre-amps but their are better available.  For the price I got the 6i6 for, not so much.

good luck with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would say don't worry about the equipment too much. You've got stuff to work with, get in there and record some tunes, the trial and error approach. Maybe some reading and researching of recording/mixing techniques.

To me recording is much like playing guitar, it's sometimes easy to get off track and worry about gear too much and get away from actually playing/recording.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/26/2017 at 3:29 PM, velorush said:

Thanks!  The reviews and discussion I'm reading are saying exactly that.  Once again my ignorance amazes me!

I have determined one other thing reading from a very recording-geek forum.  What I first (ignorantly) saw as a weakness of the Audient is actually a strength.  It seems phantom power is available only if the Audient is powered by the wall wart.  Why not just get phantom power from the USB connection?

Many chimed in and spoke of issues with preamp power being less than sufficient on interfaces that pulled phantom power from the USB connection (I understood it to mean the USB connection was a source insufficient to simultaneously power both the interface and phantom power).  I'd never have conceived of such a thing without the discussion.

Yes, USB just doesn't have enough power available for both, it can't "manage" the power between the two.  The mic needs to get and maintain the power it requires, it can't fluctuate.  Also good headphones are the venerable Sony MDR-7506.  Light, sound great, and can fold down if needed.  Haven't tried the Shure headphones, so I can't comment on them, but try out the Sony and compare if you can.  

For a PC running your audio workflow, do yourself a favor and don't let it be your everything PC.  If you bought from Dell and it came with a bunch of other software, really do yourself a favor and buy a copy of Windows, copy any data off the PC and wipe the drive and install just Windows and the audio software you'll use.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only thing on your list I have experience with is Studio One, great software. Been running on a Windows machine for several years and never had any issues. I have 16gb of ram but never use anywhere near that, even running Superior drummer, EZ Keys and several VST's simultaneously. I will say that I found the base software had some limitations and eventually upgraded to the Professional version. They ran specials periodically and all told the upgrade ended up being pretty inexpensive.

Good luck and enjoy.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Use Reaper as your DAW for free for 90 days and use the extra $100 towards a better mic. 

one thing I have learned is this...mics are important...but even more important is this little axiom:

 

Get it right at the mic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/28/2017 at 5:04 AM, scottcald said:

For a PC running your audio workflow, do yourself a favor and don't let it be your everything PC.  If you bought from Dell and it came with a bunch of other software, really do yourself a favor and buy a copy of Windows, copy any data off the PC and wipe the drive and install just Windows and the audio software you'll use.   

Any experience with Virtualization?  We run virtualized servers here at work and the "Windows Virtual PC" download is free - would provide a second PC (virtually, any way) running on the same machine.  Might give this a whirl (why not play Captain Kirk?).

ETA: well, after some reading, I find this will absolutely not work.  Good to know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...