Dennis Mount Joy

Is there a good reason the person using it can’t produce the electricity via a small electrical generator? Why can’t users of a fitness studio through their activity not produce enough electricity to run the electrics for the whole building? Or at least of the piece of equipment one is using?

This is less of an engineering question and more of an economics question. Most companies that build fitness equipment are not in the electronics industry. Thus it is much simpler for the firms to put out equipment that uses simple off the shelf components that plug into the wall. The circuitry and parts needed to do this are not ready to go in an easy to use fashion for a company that doesn’t really do much electronics engineering. Someday these types of packages might become widely available and be put into just about everything. If/When that day comes I am sure they will be implemented into the treadmill. Right now such a system would add a large cost into the treadmill, which will partially offset the monetary gains made by supplying its own power. A lot of time and effort would need to go into this system, so it is not just the additional component costs that have to be added in. Remember workout equipment often times is beat on and shaken a lot, so the electronics would also have to be somewhat rugged. Also, thing about something like a treadmill, it takes quite a lot of power to turn the path beneath you. This means that the energy storage system would have to be massive. This again adds a lot to the cost.

So to sum it up, it comes down to the economics. It would cost a lot, have very little short term gain (extra expense of machines), would take much longer to produce due to the larger engineering problem, and would wind up being bigger and taking up more space in the gym.

I am really new to this. What equipment do i need? And what does each piece of equipment do? How big does the room have to be? What programs should i get? I dont have an endless amount of money though. Is it hard to figure out all the controls?

Wow, it might not be wise to acquire anything until you have a better understanding of the recording arts. I can go buy surgical tools but that doesn’t make me a surgeon.

Seriously, I worked full time as an engineer for several years before anyone would trust me to even make a suggestion about equipment purchases. The reason being is that about 1 in 30 products is actually usable with the rest destined to be stored in a closet or sold on craigslist for a huge loss.

The point of all this is that if you don’t know what the equipment does then you shouldn’t be purchasing recording equipment. Look, a good vocal microphone will cost you anywhere from two to five thousand dollars. How many wrong purchases do you want to make before you find the correct one? The salesman isn’t gonna tell you because, regardless of what he claims, he will sell you the microphone that makes him the most money – period.

Finally, a studio is more than the equipment. You actually have to design a specialized room to put all your stuff in. It has to be a very specific size, made with very specific materials and have some very specific acoustic treatment – fail to do that and the mixes you make will make people cringe.

It took seven months of full time work to have my rooms built.

Go spend some money and go to several real recording studios and take note of the equipment used, room layout, acoustic treatment, etc. Begin to familiarize yourself with fun stuff like compressors, expanders, gates, filters, delays, verb, chorus and vacuum tubes (nothing sounds better). Then you’ll be ready to spend 20k (the bare minimum needed) to make your home studio.

I want to figure out how to make my own home recording studio. I would like to know what software(s) to download, as well as what equipment to purchase.

You can go about this in a few ways. However, it will not be inexpensive.

Least Expensive
———————–
Buy an inexpensive mixer with two inputs. This will allow for stereo recording. A good mixer for this would be the Behringer XENYX 802. This will run you about $50. You then need to buy a cable that has two 1/4" TRS plugs on one end and an 1/8" stereo mini plug on the other end. You would then plug the two 1/4" plugs into the mixer outputs, and the mini plug into your computer’s Line In or Microphone jack. For software, you can use Audacity, which is free, or something like Sony Acid Express, which is more geared for multi track recording, but costs about $70. For a microphone, try the Behringer XM8500, which will cost about $20.

Midrange
————-
Purchase a USB recording interface, such as the Lexicon Alpha, which will run your about $80. Purchase a midrange microphone such as the MXL 990 which will run about $60. The benefit of this system is that the audio will be clean and incredibly more clear than the previous arrangement. The audio goes straight into your computer digitally without having to pass through your sound card. Try software like Logic Express for Mac or Sonar for Windows.

Upper-Midrange
———————-
Buy something like the Lexicon Omega recording interface, which will run about $200. This offers two mic inputs and the benefits of the previous package. Try a better mic like the Audio Technica AT2020, which costs about $99. Again, try software such as Logic Express or Sonar.

Entry Level High Range
——————————–
Buy a recording interface such as the Alesis io|26 that supports 8 mic channels. Buy the full version of Logic, Sonar, etc.
You can also get a Pro Tools system for this range. Try Digidesign "digi" series. Get some higher end condenser mics. This will be in the upper $1000 to $3000 range.

High End
————-
Get a Pro Tools|HD system and some high end condenser mics such as the AKG C414’s. Also be sure to have plenty of SM57 or comparable dynamic mics. Many more components to be included but this range is going to cost you several thousand dollars, and I don’t think you’ll buy this for your first home recording studio.
Buy

I am looking for some ideas on what type of advertising & marketing for my new recording studio.

Word of mouth is the WORST way to promote ANY kind of company. It’s only attraction is the cost of 0. Consider this…what you say in any ad is JUST (if not more, really) as important as WHERE you say it at or through what media. With word of mouth you have NO CONTROL of your message. So even with the best intentions, someone could be talking you up and actually affect the listener negatively about what you can do. You never see your failures…only the successes with word of mouth.

I would suggest radio, on stations that play the type of music you most like to produce. You know musicians are also listening in…best place to catch them. Next in line would be different music magazine publications or local ‘hip’ publications. The ones that talk about the art and entertainment scenes or the party places and such.

Your CHEAPEST way is to make a flyer to post at record stores and intrument shops. HOWEVER, if you want it to have a great effect, either put your MOST into making that piece look amazing and keep your copy simple and bottom line as to what is in it for the prospect and don’t gush on about yourself and what great equipment you have. That is important, but only in the way that actually affects what your target audience would want to do or be looking for. Always write from thier viewpoint…not yours. Also…make the graphics eye catching, yet not confusingly busy and keep a level of class and elegance to appear much bigger than you actually are. No matter your size.

I’ve been interested in recording music for a while but never done the research into it, any tips of what to look for and prices. Or really just any info. Thanks!

I did a lot of research before deciding on the Digidesign M-Box Mini, which comes with the current version of Pro Tools. My computer runs Vista, which isn’t yet supported by Digidesign, but I checked all the musicians’ message boards online and found out people were able to run Pro Tools in Vista without any major issues.

Musician’s Friend has customer reviews that are really helpful in deciding which interface and software are best for you. I was going to use a PreSonus interface that came with Cubase software, but Cubase won’t run on Vista. My brother, who owns a recording studio, talked me into going with the M-Box Mini because it comes with ProTools. He says it’s just a good idea to use ProTools software because it’s considered the industry standard. With my home setup, I’m able to record things to my external hard drive and then send them to him for mastering, since the systems are completely compatible.

If I were you, I’d spend some time tooling around musiciansfriend.com and looking at the recording packages available. I got my M-Box Mini from an online seller for $275 (Musician’s Friend has it for less than $300). If you want monitors and microphones, there are a lot of bundled packages available for a few hundred dollars, as well. Once you look around at what’s available you’ll be able to narrow down your choices to suit your needs. But I think my brother is right about going with ProTools if possible. I’ve known a few bands who’ve switched from Garage Band and Cakewalk to ProTools, since the latter is the only one used in professional studios. And it’s still very user friendly. Good luck!

My friend is a vocal singer who give on-stage performances. We are looking for a quality recording solutions with following attributes:
– easy to operate – for layperson
– low cost – note that this is not for studio quality
and commercial productions.
– reliable – obviously.
– Portable – should be handy to carry and keep it on stage.
Battery operated more preferable (with 2hours capacity).
– optional – support Video recording

Probably I am wishing for a recordable ipod
Any suggestions, pointers or places to look for more information.

thankyou.
Thankyou for initial inputs.

We are looking for a solution to record the on stage performances. The objective is to keep record of performances, but less to verify "how I did".

I agree and we are not looking for a microphone and a tape-recorder.

best regards.

Unfortunately, if you’re trying to record while on a stage, you’re dooming yourself to some ghastly echoes and flat tones unless you have professional (and expensive) equipment. If you’re really looking for "low cost" as in "listen later to find out what I did wrong," any $30 microphone hooked up to a cheap tape player/recorder should do the trick. If you want something good enough to send in as a demo tape, you’re better off going to a recording studio (which can be $50-$200 for a vocal recording, if you don’t expect them do to a lot of electronic mixing), or you can get your own microphone and software and do it on your home computer. This is cheaper in the long run if you’re doing more than one recording, but will probably cost you about the same as using a recording studio.

Check your phone book – no matter how rural an area you’re in, there is probably at least one recording studio in any town of 50,000+.

I’m looking to upgrade on my home studio equipment, and I’m looking to upgrade. I want at least 90% of good quality to come from hardware, and 10% or less of clean up work to come from software.

Keep in mind I’m just looking to upgrade my Preamp. But if y’all can give me some more advice or comments on my equipment that would be great. I don’t want no hate comments or anything like that, but honest and HELPFUL opinions.
Keep in mind my budget is at $300 max.

Here’s what I own…..

- Behringer B-1 Large-Diaphragm Cardioid Condenser Microphone
- R0DE NT1-A Anniversary Model Microphone
- Nylon pop filter
- ART Professional Tube Microphone Preamp ( Personal Processor Series)
- Audigy 4 Creative sound card..which is now partially fried!! works but clicks and pops every long while while playing music and recording.
- Syntrillium Cool Edit Pro version 2.0
Here’s what I have been looking at.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/A…

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/S…

Tell me what you y’all think, and which one y’all would rather recommend me using. Strictly all my work are done on recording vocals. With a budget of $300 max for a microphone preamp. Which is the better pick? or do you recommend something else?

Please list the reason(s) why you recommend a certain preamp to me, and reasons why you woudln’t pick the other.

Also what is a compressor, and what is a limiter?
As for interfaces and all I mess with XLR cables if that’s what you mean by interfaces.

"You also list a preamp in your gear you need another one?"

The reason Is that I need to upgrade, and I want to upgrade because it just doesn’t get the job done, sound quality is some what decent. I want quality where people can bump my tracks in their ride and have it come out loud with clearity.

You didn’t mention what interfaces you have on your computer. I can only recommend presonus, m-audio and the tascam units (firewire or usb). All have decent preamps and phantom power. I personally got the Tascam FireOne (firewire 1394) so far it is really clean, but it is really new too. Check the price at Musicians friend. Presonus is my second choice, but it doesn’t have knobs and is software driven. BTW the FireOne is cheap at Musicians friend a has a rebate. REMEMBER my uses are mainly for demos and video. You may need something much cleaner. You also list a preamp in your gear you need another one?

Stanhope House Stanhope Place London W2 2HH

The studios are in the basement, but I have never known this building to have a number

SOLID BOND STUDIOS

SOLID BOND STUDIOS

Sound recording studios

Stanhope House
Stanhope Place
Paddington
London
W2 2HH

020 7724 0164

Paul Weller bought it in the 1980s but sold it in the 90s.

Trying to build a booth to record vocals in a 2.5′ x 5.5′ closet w. no doors in a cement walled building. Not worried too much about outside noise but echoes and pops in vocals. Price?

Go to the Lumber yard and pick up a few sheets of Blue insulation foam and Glue it to the walls with PL Contruction adhesive. If that doesnt do it I dont know what will. Use an old Mattress as a door. Sound proofed, Studio quality, and ghetto fabulous….. NICE!!!

Video Blog Part Two: Alias of Anticon Records showing what equipment he uses to make music and recording electric guitar for his new record.

Duration : 0:9:52

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