Recording an Album w/ a All-in-One Studio

[Blue500]

Hi guys, I'd like to know if anyone has recorded an album using a stan-alone workstation. (i.e. Roland VS series, Korg D series, Akai DPS 12/16/24, Fostex, or Yamaha AW). Basically I'd like to know how good your final project turned out. Was it sucessful commercially?(local sales count) Did you receive compliments regarding the sound quality? (from pro engineers). I've put together an album before using some very lack luster equipment - although the results were not terrible they could have been a thousand times better. My lack of knowledge in engineering had more to do with the poor quality of the sound than my equipment. but I'm pretty sure the equipment and the room played a part to. Here's my previous equipment list: Roland VS-880 Audio Technica 4033/SM Mackie 1202-VLZ (used solely as a mic pre) Alesis 3630 Compressor Alesis Monitor Ones (passive monitors) Alesis RA-100 Power Amp My current equipment list: Akai DPS16 - Digital Studio Focusrite Platinum VoiceMaster (mic pre) Rode NT2 Audio Technica 4033/SM FMR Audio RNC Compressor Lexicon MPX-100 JBL LSR25P (powered monitors) I'd like to know if my new set up has enough "potential" to create a sellable album.

[Pro Jules]

Looks not too bad, why not try pick up a classic SM57 then add a little flavor to mic selection. [img]http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img] Jules

[AliAlexandre]

I suggest you read the EQ Magazine issue on the subject (I don't remember well but I think it was April or May, the cover is purple. There is a long article on pros or semi pros who made their album on standalones. Check this out. Alex

[Max Ventura]

Your setup is extremely similar to mine, just the brand names change, but the setup is the same. I think that it all depends on the type of music you are going to record on it. Electronic-based music does not suffer from equipment quality as much as acoustic-based music. Electric-guitar rock also favours from "big" boards and it actually seems they need it for breathing space. Everytime I recorded acoustic or electric guitars on my VS 1680, no matter the pres or comps, they always ended up a bit wimpy. I think it's some kind of a bottleneck effect. However, electronics sound very good on it. Max

[Bonafide]

Hey BLUE500, Our setups are VERY close, I have been having tremendous success with recording an Album here in my home studio, I am still in the process of recording but have finished a couple of tunes. AKAI DPS16 ART Pro Channel Lexicon MPX-100 / 200 Rode NTK (main Mic) Sony 33F RNC Alesis Active M1 MKII Alesis Masterlink Plus a bunch of random goodies... Is your gear capable of 'album' quality production? Absolutley.. The real question comes down to using it. Getting the most potential from your gear is always the trick. Doesn't matter how much you spend, It all comes down to learning your gear. What do think of the DPS16? I am extremely pleased with mine and keep finding cool thing about it. I just upgraded to 3.0 via the CD I got from AKAI and it adds some cool stuff like WAV file support for CDR-CDRW and some interesting dithering options. This tune was done with above listed gear: http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/295/rodney_gene.html Cheers.

[Bonafide]

[quote]Originally posted by argomax: [b]Electronic-based music does not suffer from equipment quality as much as acoustic-based music. Electric-guitar rock also favours from "big" boards and it actually seems they need it for breathing space. Everytime I recorded acoustic or electric guitars on my VS 1680, no matter the pres or comps, they always ended up a bit wimpy. I think it's some kind of a bottleneck effect. Max[/b][/quote] Hey Argomax, No Flame here,Just curious, How does the size of the board (other than the mm of the faders) have anything to do with a 'Big' or 'Small' sound? Also, how does digital data 'bottleneck' on a small board compared to a big board? Isn't all of the information on the harddrive, regardless of the size of the board? I can't see it having one bit of difference to the actual data. Any thoughts?

[gtrmac]

I think the reason that recordings of rock bands are more suited to a "big" studio approach is the question of recording the drums. Here the combination of a good sounding room, expensive mics and a 2" analog tape deck produce the best results. I can get excellent results in my home studio using samples of drums which were recorded using the equipment above but then the missing ingredient is a drummer. I would agree that good final results can be obtained using the gear you have but also agree that the type of music is a factor. My brother just produced a CD in Mexico which went to number one there and he recorded the entire project with a computer running Logic software. They used a large studio though and had the usual selection of high end mics and an SSL console. It didn't seem that the computer was an obstacle though. He said in fact that it allowed options which would not have been available with an all analog recording. ------------------ Mac Bowne G-Clef Acoustics Ltd. Osaka, Japan My Music: [url=http://www.javamusic.com/freedomland]www.javamusic.com/freedomland[/url]

[DougP]

For whatever it's worth, I played electronics on an album by a singer-songwriter that was recorded on (I think) a VS1680 (or related 16-track device). Unfortunately, I don't know what he used for mics or outboard gear, but I do know that there are real drums on only a couple songs (the rest are loops). The guitars (acoustic and clean electric) sound good to my ears and the album got a nice writeup in Billboard (again, for whatever that's worth). I have no idea what the sales were like (I'm sure they're not-so-good locally, since the artist is much more popular in Germany than here in SF), but I doubt that the recording quality had much bearing on those, anyway.

[Blue500]

Thanks for all the great feedback guys!!! I'm very happy with the results that the Akai DPS has produced...but I thought that it was just me. Wasn't sure if others felt the same. Everything that I've recorded sounds great and I'm pretty sure that mastering will take it to another level. I just was curious as to how many people use these stand-alones for serious recording.

[Max Ventura]

BONAFIDE: I don't know. Take my word for it.

[vintagevibe]

Bonafide you are right. The difference argomax is hearing is engineering/production quality - not equipment short commings.

[Anderton]

One of the points I keep hammering on is: [i]A production is not finished until it has been mastered!!![/i] (Preferably by someone who's done it before). Please check out this article: http://www.musicplayer.com/CDA/Player/Main/1,2228,Lessons--5141595,00.html And download the examples to hear what kind of a difference mastering can make to a mixed tune.