Home studio advice

simonbeckwith

After a few years out of having any studio gear at home due to raising a family etc, I'd like to get back into it again.  I've recently joined an originals band and am already in a covers band, and require something more streamlined and inspiring than an old iPad and GarageBand , although it'll do the job for now...

I had a Mac Mini running Logic 8, EZ drummer and a mass of plugins back in 2007 whilst studying Music Tech at Uni and had that until approx 2015 ish, it then failed and I couldn't afford to replace it etc so sold off everything else I had.  

Looking for something compact to use primarily as a songwriting tool and to produce decent demos, but long term get back into mixing and mastering to start with and then full on multitrack recording ideally.

I'm guessing a laptop would be more ideal with a single or dual input interface to get started?
It's likely I would run an amp sim of some sort as well as decent drum programming software - Neural DSP and GGD looks good, had Ez and Superior drummer before which were great.
Decent headphones to start with as well.

Budget, all in I'd like to keep it under £1k if possible, £500 being the ideal target!

This won't happen overnight and will be funded primarily by my covers band  as and when we're all 'back to normal' but whilst I have the time on my hand to research, seems like a good place to start.

any advice welcome!

Jalapeno

Another Mac Mini ?

Musicwolf

Look for an AI that comes bundled with DAW software.  Here's a Steinberg model which includes Cubase AI, it also has 'Latency-free DSP-supported monitoring' which is the same feature that I have on my UR824 interface.  Very useful as it allows you to work with very high buffer settings without worrying about latency which can lift a lot of the strain from the host computer.

mrkb

Your old toontracks licences will still be valid so you can still download all their software you had before.

simonbeckwith

Jalapeno said:

Another Mac Mini ?

Had a look at new mac prices......

simonbeckwith

mrkb said:

Your old toontracks licences will still be valid so you can still download all their software you had before.

Good shout!

simonbeckwith

Musicwolf said:

Look for an AI that comes bundled with DAW software.  Here's a Steinberg model which includes Cubase AI, it also has 'Latency-free DSP-supported monitoring' which is the same feature that I have on my UR824 interface.  Very useful as it allows you to work with very high buffer settings without worrying about latency which can lift a lot of the strain from the host computer.

Sound advice, I will keep that in mind.