By JC Wilson
You too can build a digital recording studio in your living room, using mostly second-hand equipment plucked from the garage sales of bankrupt dot-commers. Here’s a glimpse of a working home studio assembled by J.C. Wilson of local collective Accidente Feliz Recordings. -Ed.
My “digital audio workstation” set-up, with most equipment purchased used, is probably the most inexpensive route to a fully balanced (pro-quality) digital recording system:
THE COMPUTER
- Apple Power Macintosh 7500/8500/7600/8600 ($150 or less, used)
- Powerlogix G3 ZIF upgrade card with 266 G3 processor — can be upgraded to G4 500mhz or more! ($150)
- 128MB 60ns EDO RAM (two 64MB DIMMS @ $50 apiece, can be done cheaper with 32MB DIMMs)
- 9GB IBM Ultrastar SCSI HD — bare minimum for most multitrack audio work ($75)
- Atto ExpressPCI Ultra SCSI controller card ($50)
- Yamaha 8x4x24 external SCSI CD-RW ($125) — you will need AdaptecToast 4.0 or later (approx. $80) for true disc-at-once audio mastering. You can get a used 4x drive for about half the price.
- Digidesign Audiomedia III PCI $175-$275 — some EBay sales include Protools software, which you may need as well. This card provides 24-bit analog and digital I/O and can function as an I/O for any Sound Manager-compatible recording program. Very important: Revision QC or later cards are required for G3 systems and revision QE or later cards are required for G4 systems.
- Mac System 8.6.1 works best with this setup (audio bugs in System 9, so don’t bother).
- A cheaper system can be built with a Powermac 7100 or 8100, Audiomedia II card and XLR8 or Newertech G3 upgrade card, but you are stuck with slower hard disk access (SCSI II) and system bus (max 40mhz). Hard disc access is the bottleneck for most A/V work, so a fast SCSI controller and HD on a fast system bus are critical!
MONITORING
- Decent stereo amplifier — I use an inexpensive Technics 150 watt.
- Audio-Technica ATH M-40fs headphones with flat frequency response for mastering ($99 new).
- Hafler M-5 passive studio monitors (I recently picked up some used “scratch & dents” for $75 each).
- Remember that flat frequency response is important for mastering. Cheap speakers or headphones will be very unreliable. Also, make sure you do not interfere with your digital workstation with unshielded speakers. There are big magnets in there that will cause malfunctions and noise in your system if the speaker is close enough!
THE MIX
- Mackie 1202 Micro series mixer ($150, but an older non-VLZ model works fine).
- DBX 1066 Compressor — critical for peak level control, digital clipping will ruin your recording fast ($500 — different models can be purchased used for much less).
- ART DI/O — new item on the market, has 24-bit digital and analog I/O with a real tube to add warmth to the digital signal(!). ($199)
- Alesis reverb or other mastering effects (optional) — I also strongly suggest getting a rack unit, “stacking” more than one rack unit is asking for trouble.
CONNECTIONS
Connect the 1202 to the DBX to the ART DI/O with balanced TRS cables and then use shielded RCA cables to connect the DI/O to the Audiomedia III (SPDIF digital link). This setup is also compatible with any PC that has a digital input, but I’m not so sure about the quality of SoundBlaster cards …
TOTAL COST
Approx. $2,000, not counting computer monitor and cables. A similar system new could cost three times as much or more.
OK kids, you are all set with hardware! All of the items mentioned above are premium components that work well even when purchased used; you can settle for cheaper components, but in my opinion purchasing a used piece of gear with a history of reliability is better than acquiring a new expensive item that may fail. Do I have to tell you that it will take much trial, error and maybe even years of experience before learning how to drive this system properly? You have to be obsessive to do this at home. Now get to it!
The Accidente Feliz Recordings collective, including artists such as Neighborhood Bass Coalition, ROBO, Earwicker and OW-TOWN, can be found online at mp3.com/AFR/.
Tags: DIY Library
