Building a Home Studio

Alright this question may have different opinions but I'm trying to build a home studio just for recording freestyles and mixtapes. Next year I'm gonna attend Full Sail to learn the whole engineering aspect of music. I'm currently reading documents about mixing and all but want my mixes and vocals sounding smooth. The vocals I currently record doesn't sound nearly like professional but probably need to read up on mixing a lil more.

My setup includes Pro Tools 7.4 with the Mbox 2, FL Studio 7, an M-Audio Nova Condenser Mic, M-Audio BX5a Monitors, Sample Tank 2, Sonic Synth 2, and Sample Moog as my vst's and an MPC 1000. I have a desktop and a laptop both loaded with everything.

My question is, besides the turn table for the MPC, is there anything else I would need to record professional sounding music and professional sounding vocals? I was planning on buy a better mic pre-amp and a better mic or a compressor first but would like to have some feedback before I get into that.


Thanks!

You need to start with the room acoustics, mi pres and then mics themselves.

If your room is not right then what you hear as the resultant mix will not be truthful and no amount of better software or gear will change that.

Sort your room out, then the pres and mics and then worry about mixing skills.

You don't have to sell a nut to afford acoustics.

Have a read of my DIY Acoustics Tutorials.
Hopefully it will help you.

Thanks for the advice, so basically I good besides the vocal recordings. I record in the living room corner, but know I see that isn't a good place. I was thinking about putting the mic in my closet which is a walk in closet and place foam on the walls inside. Do you think this would be a better place to record vocals?

i did that. i basically converted a walkin closet into a recording booth. i used some industrial foam to deaden the space. check out http://www.mcmaster.com/ and do a search for sound absorption foam. its cheaper than the stuff at guitar center and works great. we use it at my job to absorb the sound of a huge air compressor.

http://foambymail.com/

and with all that you have, i dont think you even need a MPC necessarily. you can get a pad controller for your software.

bigroe313 wrote:Thanks for the advice, so basically I good besides the vocal recordings. I record in the living room corner, but know I see that isn't a good place. I was thinking about putting the mic in my closet which is a walk in closet and place foam on the walls inside. Do you think this would be a better place to record vocals?

Corners are one of the worst places to record anything with a mic as the reflective surfaces cause nightmares and particularly with two walls that meet at 90 degrees.