Help me out with a ~$1500 budget home studio please?

S

skeep222

New member
My account is new here, but I've been lurking for a few months and you guys seem like the best place to go for this kind of advice.

So I'm a rapper/relatively amateur producer, and essentially I'm looking to build a little studio type setup for recording and beats etc. I have about 1500 dollaz as my budget. At the moment I'm using an AudioTechnica AT2020 USB Mic, an old iMac, a cheap ass mini midi keyboard, and a pirated version of logic.

I want to build a computer dedicated mostly to music. I'd love for someone to point me to ALL the parts I would need to build one from scratch, but I have friends who will help me in the actual construction process. I want a new midi setup, like a drum pad and new keyboard. I want a cheap way to turn a closet into a semi-professionialish recording booth. I want some relatively low priced studio monitors and/or studio headphones. I want a DAW to use, maybe still Logic but I'd like recommendations. I don't necessarily want to do the whole audio interface thing, and I think my mic works decently enough, but If you guys say otherwise I'll take that into consideration for sure. I'm not sure if I'm missing anything here, but I really appreciate any help you guys can give me. Thank you all!
 
Check out my forum post at this think. KVR: Looking for software to start with, help (Topic in the 'Getting Started (AKA What is the best...?)' forum) It is mostly what you need to know.

M-Audio Oxygen 61 | Sweetwater.com :comes with Ableton Live Lite (don't worry about the Sonivox Twist: I couldn't get mine to show up after installation) Sweetwater here might be able to give you a deal on it??? They did for me. Hey anything helps right?

https://www.futureproducers.com/forums/hardware-software/hardware/studio-monitor-deal$$$-489784/ Jump on this one. Incredible steal of a deal. And ultra cool monitors too! Better hurry, the sale might be ending soon.

TC Electronic Impact Twin Firewire Interface Here's another steal of a deal. Comes with what might be the Suite 8 version of Live I'm guessing like mine did several years ago. Worth a call. Note: It is IEEE 1394, in other words: Firewire. So unless you know for sure you are getting a computer with firewire don't bother.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002S53IG8...e=df0&creative=395097&creativeASIN=B002S53IG8 A Desktop PC is easy to upgrade to Firewire: just slide the Firewire card in exactly just right, after you take off the back of the computer, which is really pretty easy too. Also: Nowadays I really couldn't find any mainstream company selling a PC Laptop that has Firewire. And you can't add it either, so the Impact Twin isn't recommended from me in that way. Hey I like the thought of a quality PC for less money: mainstream companies. E.G. Dell,HP.

Amazon.com: Antares Audio Mic Mod EFX Audio Plug-in: Musical Instruments I highly recommend this for many people. If you get responsive signal from your mic it can be used easily. It changes your mic into another one. I use it on "Generic" mode because my mic is not listed. Now I have changed my mic into fantastic expensive mics. I use a Blue Encore 100 for my hardware and Mic Mod EFX for the rest.

Blue Microphones Studio Microphones | Sweetwater.com Currently there is a Buy 1 get 1 sale with Blue Microphones.

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-Icicle-Converter-Preamp/dp/B001EW5YQS If you want to stay audio interface free and buy another mic that is not USB here is the Blue Icicle inline USB Preamp converter. Nice sale here too.

You'll oftern times get off cheaper when buying a sale deal computer rather than building one yourself. Many problems can arise when building a computer yourself. You need to make sure everything is compatible from everything to the: chipset, motherboard, RAM and OS. Also the Power outlet as well. Then on top of that you need to purchase your own Operating System too. And furthermore Seymour you don't get a warranty at all or tech support. And ofcourse problems will arise when not knowing how to setup, install and do your own tech support.

You missed the great deals on computer that come about at the end of October every year. Additionally the deals usually appear from January-March again in the same places. Though usually the deals are not so great as October.

http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stor...252&siteid=NKa3hZyYoHA-Lby7Q7.kfhzdSwSxL3_rTw Here is a good deal on a Desktop PC.

http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stor...siteid=qcLRzjFniJE-yzBDnEyp6SXvr7lLWOXUPAHere is an OK computer laptop but it's chip is only a 6mb cache and it only goes up to 3.5 ghz. Also laptops tend to make noise with their fan.
http://ark.intel.com/products/78930/Intel-Core-i7-4710HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz here is it's chip.

What you can do for yourself is search things such as "XPS DEAL" "HP ENVY QUAD EDITION DEAL" "LAPTOP DEAL" "Computer DEAL"

https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=slick+deals+deals2buy+dealnews&ei=utf-8&fr=chr-yie11 My favorite deal sites are Slickdeals.com and Deals2buy.com
 
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Yooo thank you! This was a huge help, I think that HP deal you linked is the computer I'm gonna go with! Much appreciated, fam :victory:
 
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