Essentials for hiphop home studio

I

ITW

Guest
Hows it going lads and lasses,

I am planning to break into what I believe to be a profitable niche market and that is the emerging Irish Hip Hop scene. I currently am a member of this community on the emceeing front, though as I am training as a sound engineer I believe I can put my talents to good effect by opening a home studio where local and national artists can record. As it is a fledgling community, most are unable to afford major studio production and record labels are slow to catch the trend. My aim is to set up a hiphop friendly home studio, and what I need advice on is what should be the key components of this studio, and how much I should be willing to invest.
Thanks in advance,
Kev
 
I can't tell you the details of pricing and what not but you can probably assume that your clients will want at least these 2 things:

Pro Tools and a MPCxxxx sampler.
You might also look into getting a Triton Studio.

I personally don't feel that these are the essential items for hip-hop or any music but they are the "hip" items nowadays.
 
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i started with a mpc2000xl and then added on from there.
 
I think from your post that you are saying that you want to open a studio where people can record for cheap. Now I must say that unless you have loads of money, it will cost a lot of money to buy the equipment, soundproof the room, build a vocal booth and everything else. And then on top of that it will cost a lot to maintain the studio. However, you could mean you want to just set up a small home studio with a few bits of equipment, not really care about soundproofiin etc.
Anyway, what is best is that you research. Even if it takes you a year to research everything. It will be time well invested. You will pick up stuff, and hopefully all the knowledge you gain can be used to make the studio better. That's just my opinion. Hope it helps....good luck.
 
ima give it to ya straight.
u might wanna pick up some reading material on the subject. this is the gear you will need to produce/record a 'badass' demo. what i mean by this is if you are skilled enough it will sound like a near-normal pro production to a consumer.

decent condensor mic: 500.00usd
decent mackie mixer: 400.00usd
barebones pc: Intel 1ghz or more 512mb 2 30+ gig hd: 700.00usd
(u might already have one that will work just upgrade it a bit)
decent 24bit 96khz soundcard: 200.00usd

ima get in trouble for the next one... heh

decent home stereo amp and some good speakers. look for bose speakers and a technics amp.. its not worth your money to buy ****ty monitors good monitors are too expensive.
spend 300.00usd

2-3 pairs of good headphones
bunches of connector wire and some other misc stuff.

now for software...
i won't list prices cause i don't know em... plus you might be able to scoop em up from a friend. but i would recommend:

actual composing programs:
fruity loops, cubase, reason.

buying some sample cds or drum kits from bangin drums.
good softsamplers:
kontakt, battery...

good softsynths are
absynth, fm7, trilogy, pro-53, atmosphere...

i say you need to invest atleast 2000.00usd to be really serious about this home studio deal. not to mention hours apon hours learning your gear. good luck i know i ****in rant like a maniac but i think its good info and i wish someone would have told me this list back in the day.

later
 
thanks to everyone who replied. There are some great tips in there. I will be researching it for some time to come because I believe in thinking before acting. 2000USD is not beyond my range at the moment as I recently inherited 5000euro. However I'm not going to blow it so I want to know exactly what I am doing with it.

One other question which is bothering me a little is that I have no real experience with making beats, and so I worry that if I invest all this money and turn out to be talentless in the creative production side I will be really screwed. Would you suggest starting off buying a keyboard and cubase or reason and giving myself a crash course in making tracks before investing the bigger bucks?

Thanks again,
Kev
 
ITW said:
One other question which is bothering me a little is that I have no real experience with making beats, and so I worry that if I invest all this money and turn out to be talentless in the creative production side I will be really screwed. Would you suggest starting off buying a keyboard and cubase or reason and giving myself a crash course in making tracks before investing the bigger bucks?

Yes, definitely try makin some beats for at least a few months before anything else. You will look a bit stupid spending 5000 euros on a studio, get loads of people in and they go ok show me the beats you made I want to write some lyrics to them. And youre like I havent actually made any beats, but Ill try now. And then you make a sh*t beat. What I feel is the best option is this:

learn the keyboard using a book. A lot of people will dispute this, but if you can learn to play the keyboard, then you can sit there sometimes and just make up some small riffs and then build around them. You don't need an expensive keyboard, just get one with a small sequencer in it, and a few drum kits. Actually, I reckon you should cop the Korg M1. It is real cheap on eBay, and it has a sampler and synth in it and an 8track sequencer. This will definitely get you off the ground. It is old, but oh well. It is a classic. And then if you do decide to make the studio, you can use the M1.
 
When I say people will dispute you learnin keyboard, I don't mean people say you shouldn't learn it, but I reckon some might say you can make beats without being able to play an instrument well. This is true, but I think learning keyboard is a great place to start. Can you play any other instruments?
 
I can play basic piano (primary grade) and Im going to continue with it until I get to a standard where I am completely comfortable sitting behind a piano/keyboard.
I have access to a keyboard and cubase in college and have made one or two decent tunes. I was in the studio with a good producer here in Dublin and he said my best bet would be to get an mpc2000xl. Im currently on a laptop here at home and Im not sure if i should upgrade. I'll research this Korg M1 you mentioned ... should I use it in conjunction with cubase/reason ??
 
To be honest I don't know the first thing about computers and I won't front like I will either. So the thing about the M1, I have no idea. I guess you could probably midi it up and everything, but I think just buying the M1 will get you started. I've used one and they're mad cool. A MPC2000XL would be good to use, but I still say get the M1! Then later on you can get the MPC. But I definitely reccomend that sooner or later you get the MPC2000XL.
 
I have a korg m1 and its a pretty good workstation but the sequencer isn't that great, and some of the sounds are cool but for the most part its not what I'd call a Hip - Hop station. I use it mostly as my trigger for other stuff. A decent workstation to look into if you can't get a triton, motic ect... go for a korg trinity off e-bay.
 
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Yeah trinitys are real nice, but I'm saying he should just get a cheap workstation that he can mess around with, get a feel for things. But if you have the money for a Trinity and want to get it, by all means go ahead.
 
Im thinking a keg of guinness will do us just fine... have to bring a new flavour to this game ;)
 
Marech said:
And what about a microphone and preamp ? (for 250s)

well i think i mentioned a 500 dollar condensor mic. and i wouldn't recommend a pre amp unless you plan on spending 1g on it alone. the mackie mixer has decent enough preamps to get some damn good vocals.

IDM practice in reason and get a book on sound production and mastering.. you will be able to rock the house with a lil practice.. its all about dedication. or you could always purchase beats lotsa people will make custom ones for ya. im sure i know someone that you can get some good hiphop beats to start out
with.
 
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