Studio setups for the home

[spencer]

Hey everyone, i\'m new.

Now, on to my question:
I\'m trying to set up a home studio, but i honestly have no idea what i\'m doing.  Right now my setup consists of a M-Audio Duo and a Shure SM-58 Mic.  As you can see, i\'m totally lost.  I was wondering what programs and physical devices (mixers, mics, etc) you would recommend Travis, and everyone for that matter.

Thanks for your help guys.

[Travis]

I\'m not up to date so much on consumer level gear but am I correct that the M-audio is a computer interface? Any way, if so I think your on the right track, I would stick to computer based recording rather than a detected box.
I would encourage you or anyone getting into recording to go with a ProTools M-box or Digi 002R depending on your budget. The fact is the whole pro audio world uses Protools and their entry level products are great,  and affordable, this is the software to know. You can also interface with any Pro Tools studio, moving sessions back and forth with few problems. Now there are many fine computer audio programs that are great and will do a great job, but it\'s a Pro Tools world out there so if your just getting started this will give you a leg up. The Shure SM 58 is a good mic. The SM 57 is the swiss army knife of mic\'s. They are cheap and you can record almost anything with one. My first mic purchase was 4 sm 57\'s 35 years ago, I still use the same mics every day. My next bit of advise is just record stuff as much a you can, practice, practice, practice. You have to make a lot of bad recordings to make good ones. In the end the skills you learn are much more important then the gear.

[spencer]

Yeah, the Duo is a USB Audio Interface.

Next question:  What\'s a DAT and are there recommended types to get?  I see those are on the pro Tools diagrams and i\'ve seen them in numerous (ok one) interviews, so i trust they\'re pretty neat.

[Travis]

Digital Audio Tape, a dead format, mines been gathering dust. Stick with a CD burner.

[spencer]

oh, i see.

One last question about producing in general:  Is it as cool of a job as I think it is?  I\'ve been thinking about this all day and just saying "man, this sounds really fun."

[Chris DiCicco]

  I hate it one day then love thee other days I\'m producing a sorta scatterbrained album for my AX (guitar) slinging friend he\'s got 9 tracks of shortened loops that I\'ve doctored useing my program WAVE and basic running the windows soundstation program all recorded in gritty Monophonic Sound waves, So yeah if you got so rockin friends Mr. Spencer and I\'m shure you do and wanna really wow them but also tare out yer hair go for it, I really Wow this friend of mine by switching over to minute counting but I think I goofed Oh Well it\'s not like I\'ll have my hand slapped by the Teacher in Math class... right.. right, But I have yet to do anything like that I have crashed this computer once by overloading an Acid program pushing it over the limites with some of the sound, but thats my bag, Travis says he doesn\'t know whats going on but surprise surprise You do Travis, But anyway Spencer you should experiment and plot I love plotting out sounds and just plain weirdness I do this more then I sleep one of the new thing of software I\'m getting for my next computer is Guitar tracks Pro then there will be plotting OH GLORIES BEYOND PLOTTERS HAVEN.

Retreats into shadows to sleep.

Chris

[spencer]

Ok, i\'m going to keep this as an ongoing thing, because i\'m pretty clueless still!

What\'d a good mixer i could use if i got a Digi 001 or 002?  Price again, is not much of a hindrance, because i\'ll only be getting the best and when i have a steady income.  Right now i\'m just taking down ideas.

[Travis]

You don\'t really need a mixer, it\'s built into the software. There are 8 analog inputs already and if you need more you can expand it 8 more using the light pipe connection with another interface. If you out grow all that you can look at a mixer. The great thing with the built in mixer is everything is automated and all your moves are saved. Makes doing remixes real easy.
Here a link to some info on the software, you can check out the hardware around heres as well. http://www.digidesign.com/products/sw/index_le.cfm

[spencer]

awesome stuff.  

Question part two:  what type of computers do you use?  Macs i suppose, but what type?  G3?  G4?  G5?  Something cool i\'ve never even heard of?

[Travis]

I have Mac\'s, at least 1 of every model that\'s been produced. I own PC\'s but I have always been a Mac person. This stuff works on a PC as well however.

[Saul]

just to throw my 0.02 cents in ... a line 6 POD is a great guitar tool for the home based studio. Great tone right out of the box directly to yer PC.