Advice on Building my first rack
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Posted on Aug 17, 2008 03:57 am
boedonaldson
Sir SM57
Member Since: Jan 29, 2008
Ok ive just bought a 8 unit Rack/Mixer combo roadcase for my Mixer and Fireface 800, mainly to save carting individual things around and keep them protected going to practice etc. Ive got 7 space left i assume (Fireface takess up one). Im after some advice on what types of rack gear to buy. Im planning on definately having a headphone distributor (probably a Behringer one) for everyone to have headphones for recording. I would like an Equaliser, Compressor and some essentials and im willing to spend around $300 AU (which is around the same in US at the moment with the dollar exchange) on each rack though if I can get a rack that does the job just as good for a cheaper price that would be sweet. Ive been looking at DBX, Alesis and Yamaha gear lately and it seems pretty neat. any advice on some gear to buy? Versatile units that would be appropriate for live and studio use would be good. This is because I like to run the analouge outs on my fireface to my Mixer line in's to get 'live' recordings. Cheers, Boe
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Aug 17, 2008 10:56 am If you are planning on spending $300 dlls on outboard gear such as equalizers compressors i advice you to save your money and dont buy it, perhaps spend that money in microphones or a pre-amp, and that headphone amp. The thing is that a 100-300 dll compressor isnt really worth it, in my case, if i buy outboard gear ill invest a high amount of money in a unit lets say 600 dlls and up (sometimes much more than that), if not, i rather go the plug-in way, its not a good feeling to spend some money to find out that the thing you bought in fact sounds cheaper or is more limited than what you already had in your DAW.
Its easy to think that just because a piece of outboard gear is hardware it will sound better than a plug-in, and this is not true, there are some very good plug-ins, some of them emulate very high-end, expensive, vintage, legendary, etc.. hardware equipment.
Unless you buy something that is really worth it (sometimes it doesnt have to be expensive, there are good cheap things out there, but most of the time they are in fact very expensive) i recommend staying in the plug-in side until you have more money to buy nice outboard gear that sounds better than your plug-ins and not the other way around.
The bad thing about doing that, is that in time you become a gear slut like me, and you find yourself spending all of your money in hardware gear.
Hope this helps
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Aug 17, 2008 07:56 pm Boe, your list of wanted gear is reasonable for sure. Although I will agree that the first step is probably the headphone amp. You will find that $300 will be enough for the headphone amp and probably a good compressor/limiter.
My suggestion is to try each piece of gear to make sure it sounds as you would like. I agree on that part with Dualflip.
I don't however agree on needing to spend a huge amount of money for it to be a good piece of gear. You can look at used gear in shops that specialize in that and there are good pieces of budget priced gear out there for your type of need. That is that main reason those companies make budget gear and some do it very well.
For me in the beginning I made do with a lot of used gear or budget priced gear. I even still have a few pieces of the budget type stuff that just had a quality that I found usable for certain things.
So your best bet is to take your time and find the pieces that fit your need the best and will work in both the live and recording side well for you.
Aug 17, 2008 08:43 pm Yeah second hand gear seriously doesnt worry me and a Headphone Amp is priority before all the others. Would you recommend a dual Graphic EQ? See im also a person that likes to wait and spend good money first rather than have to sell stuff to upgrade. But then again when it comes to this things become messy and people tend to sell high end stuff for other stuff anyhow as it seems. Either way i cant really just listen to every single type of Compressor out there, what would be some recommended models to compare between and also would I best buy a Comp/Limiter/Expander/Gate (you know how they have the combos I guess you could say) in one or would you recommend dedicated devices for each function. Sory if im confusing some people im still learning and practicing using compressors and the like so im still in Noob mode waiting to evolve.
Aug 17, 2008 08:54 pm Oh and im definately considering a Furman Power Conditioner. I live in a shared student house so there isnt the cleanest power. Just a question...can I use the Furman to Power my Marshall JCM800 and Mesa Lonestar Amplifiers and guitar pedals etc......or is it only really designed for rack stuff. If not what type of power conditioning device would I need to power my amps and guitar stuff?
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Aug 17, 2008 09:17 pm Oh ya, the Furman can be used for everything. Simply make certain you buy one that can handle the wattage draw load all the gear will put on it. You may want to look at using a pair of them. One for the guitar amps and one for the rack gear.
On the compressor. Yes, getting a combo unit that does comp./limiter/expander/gate is a good idea. It really saves space and if you get a decent one they work as well as individual units of each do.
Aug 17, 2008 10:02 pm The Furmsn Power Conditioners are great. I have 3 in my studio... 1 for the guitar rig, 1 for the bass rig and 1 for the recording rig. I don't let anything get plugged straight into the wall anymore, except for lights.
Aug 18, 2008 12:20 pm After the DAW, the power conditioner is the most important piece of gear in your studio, it doesnt matter how good or expensive your equipment is if you have a hum in your signal, ground loop and/or noise.
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I don't however agree on needing to spend a huge amount of money for it to be a good piece of gear.
BTW, i didnt said that you have to spend a lot of money in your equipment, i just said that in most cases good equipment is expensive, and that in most cases cheap equipment isnt really worth it..
[quote]
Unless you buy something that is really worth it (sometimes it doesnt have to be expensive, there are good cheap things out there, but most of the time they are in fact very expensive)[/quote]
