OK...as question asks.

Last spring I found myself conducting a workshop on recording studios...and what they are to a bunch of high schoolers up here in our mighty community. Today, I was asked by one student who went and worked his tailbutt off this summer to come up with $4,000 with which to get certain hardware to put together a bedroom studio.

He has a couple of things now, a guitar and an amp...guitar being a Squier and said amplifier being a Viper 15(?)... and the other thing, which I forgot to mention, was that he has an i7 based laptop with Audacity already loaded on it...

So, what would you suggest he look into?

If he more about guitars and bass, Id suggest a Line6 POD. Can find a good used one and have everything for bass, acoustic and strat he needs.

Maybe some mid-line mics (I5, SM57, d112,and a decent vocal mic)
Mic Stands and cables

Gonna have to have a good interface

KRK or similar monitors
Good headphones

Possibly some sort of drum trigger, midi controller

That would be my starting point

First off, my utmost admiration for your student for working and saving that kind of money for a dedicated end.
If he put that kind of dedication into making it happen, I can only imagine what he will do with it.
The first and most obvious choice is an interface that serves his needs.
He doesn't want to go cheap here, but a decent quality unit with limited inputs may be sufficient.
A MIDI controller is a huge benefit at reasonable cost. Next to my interface, my controller is probably the best investment I have ever made.
Is he interested in drums (who isn't?) There are several reasonably priced e-drums on the market.
Monitors. Another biggie. At a minimum, 6", preferably 8" drivers.
My own setup includes Alesis Monitor 1 MkII passive  monitors with a Samson 300 watt power amp. Not the most popular choice, but I love it.
I would suggest he thoroughly research his options before buying. Buy overkill before barely adequate. There is nothing like being left short on what you wanted.
And of course Sonar. We want to keep this kid in the fold, right?

How about a Roland Octa capture and a basic multi track DAW of his choice?

Encourage him to try the free demos that all (well, almost all) DAW vendors make available.

The Roland Octa seems to be great value and offers the best low latency at it's price point and the substantial inputs means he could get a great recording of one of his buddies drum kits and a another  bass player laying down a rhythm track.

Something like the Octa Capture can be his hub and it will not rear it's head with gotchas. It'll just work great and let him focus on learning.

Once he has that he can use just about any cheap music keyboard that has midi out for doing midi stuff. You can find that kind of item for free if you look hard enough.

I'd also urge him to save most of that money for college.

Then I might ask him if he wants to learn how to build a small pair of very inexpensive speakers... more for the education than anything else. It will be a tangible way to help him learn about basic sound engineering. Then I'd help him find an old hi-fi amp for $10 at a thrift store to power them.

That could get things running better than good for under $1000.

Just some thoughts... all based on my simplistic and personal take on stuff.

best regards,
mike

First... KUDO's to the kid for earning $4k working a summer job.

I would recommend that he start out with only what he needs to get started, and spend and add what he needs when he is ready to move to the next stage..... he will know when that happens.


The temptation to spend the $4k all at once to get "the ultimate bedroom studio" is very strong. But he should resist it.

Since he has a laptop, a guitar and a small amp..... here's what I would recommend.

1.  MC6 $40 or X1/2 essential $100?
2.  a decent USB interface  $250
3.  a POD for the guitar  $300
4. nice set of studio monitors 5" cones $350/pr
5. sub woofer  $300 to $400
6. head phones... between $100 to $200
7. good condensor mic  $400 or less

All that will set him back around $1500 to $1800 give or take. It will get him started and allow him to learn the basics and do some really nice recordings based on his experience level. 

Beyond that... as the need emerges, drum software and other things to make the recordings sound better can be bought..... 

I do not recommend that he walk into a store and announce that he wants to set up a studio and has $4000 to spend to do it..... they will sell him $4k worth of stuff....and he may not need it. With the list above he gets started and only spends half of what he saved. I think that is a reasonable way to get started. Heck I got started for much less than that and added what I needed as I realized I needed a better way to do something. 

He is a little more canny than that, that is for sure..he only told me that he had that amount...actually it ended up being around $6,500 he got for his summer job as his father told me... 


As it is he has a pair of ATM headphones and a pair of KRK5's from my mess ..so he is off and running...well...sort of...

Industrious lad for certain. 

The main thing is to advise him to spend wisely. Which, if he earned that in a few short months.... I would assume he has a good head on his shoulders already when it come to finances. 

PS... don't forget the Lava Lamp. 

He might want a guitar electronic box also like the BOSS ME-25 just for different sounds (because to a kid he might be able to use it more than older folks set in their way with just a guitar amp). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKXSiF2Ol9A

Through hard experience I've learned to concentrate on, if not high-end stuff, high-quality.  If he is doing acoustic work (which is sounds like) and has his monitoring taken care of, my suggestion would be 1.  decent room and 2. decent input chain.

A typical bedroom doesn't necessarily sound bad - with a bed for absorbtion and shelves and dressers providing some diffusion you can make it work w/ a quilt in the corner.  A few hundred dollars in some professional quality pieces can make it sound better - both monitoring and recording.

Most interfaces provide good enough conversion and preamps.  I use TC and the TCK 6 for $200 is a best for bang interface if you don't need midi (which usb can add cheaply) - Martin Walker (I think but one of the SOS writers) claimed it the best sounding lower cost interface.  FW only, and 1 preamp and 2 outs.  The Twin is a step up w/ none of those drawbacks.  But Focusrite or Roland or just about any modern interface should work.  Just be careful about shorting your ins/outs - you really need 4 outs at least.  I haven't found much difference in quality among the same pricepoint - not enough to sweat over, anyway.  If he has the money - lynx or RME would be a step up from $600 or more.

But doing acoustical stuff the input chain is the most important and mic(s) are the key.  If he has $4000 - 6000 a good mic is a must.  For $1000 the Fet Bock is a killer.  You can use it on most sounds and in the typical room and chain you aren't going to get much better sound even if you spent 10 times that much - certainly not 10 times the quality.  I use Oktava's here at home and for $1000 you can get 2 SDC and the 319 LCD and you don't have to worry about quality or when doing stereo.  I just had my 319 modded and it is an even better mic.  Another contender is the Cad 100 and series.  High quality and cheap for the sound, tho in the UK it might not be as cheap.  No, not a Newman despite the hype, but a fraction of the cost.

I have some good preamps, but starting out one doesn't have to go hog wild.  I just picked up a Warm preamp - very good for vintage sound.  The ISA One is a good, modern sounding preamp, lots of extras (headphone, transformer DI, routing).  Either can be had for -$500 and once the kid gets better at recording the attributes of a good preamp are cool.  But a more useful tool is a stereo comp.  Use it going in and coming out for stereo mixdown.  You can go hog wild on this - it is a once in a career buy.  A cheaper way to go is the Really Nice stuff - a stereo transformerless preamp hooked up to the RNC (stereo compressor) for $700 is a stereo chain you will use and can keep.  A little compression going in and more coming out through high quailty preamps.  The preamp makes the compressor balanced in/outs.  Any of the above stuff will give a good, professional base to expand your setup from.

@

He's got somewhat more money than he needs to get started ... which is not to say he won't want to invest it all at some point.  But early on, he's not going to judiciously know where he wants to go with this stuff.  So start with a quality computer, Sonar (or other DAW with a complete suite of bundled effects), a servicable USB interface, a low-end MIDI keyboard controller, a good mic and monitors.  We've spent about $3000-3500 so far right?  In a year (or less) he'll have a much better idea what to apply the remainder of the funds toward.