The studio Setup Thread

[spinman]

I've notice that there are about two threads every day where someone asks, "I want to set up a studio to record yada yada. What do I need? I want to spend $XXXX".

Now, we have the gear recommendations thread, but I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to have a sticky thread where people post:
1. Their basic studio gear/setup.
2. How much it cost to put together.
3. Some basic pros/cons of the setup
4. A rough estimate of the production quality it gives them.
5. What kind of music and methods it suits (e.g. -- tracking live rock bands, building R&B tracks, making techno, etc.)

I think a thread like this could be helpful for people wanting to get into recording and trying to put together something that suits their budget and needs.

Anyone want to start?

Hey, back off.... I'm trying to establish a post count here.

The only questions I can answer are the "easy" ones.

[tpistey]

LMAO!

Great Post

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally posted by spinman
Anyone want to start?

Sure - I'll have a go....

1. Their basic studio gear/setup.

Blue Bear Sound - Gear List

2. How much it cost to put together.

$250k (gear + construction)

3. Some basic pros/cons of the setup

Pros - commercial recording facility

Cons - $$$$$$

4. A rough estimate of the production quality it gives them.

Right up there!

5. What kind of music and methods it suits (e.g. -- tracking live rock bands, building R&B tracks, making techno, etc.)

Most everything except classical/orchestral (size restrictions to accommodate an orchestra!)...

[spinman]

I guess I'll go myself, too.

My system is now about a year and a half old [edit: now it's nearly 2 years old!].

Main hardware:
Athlon XP 1700, 40 gig drive, 512MB Ram (running windows XP and Sonar 2.2, Buzz tracker, and goldwave for wav editing.)
M-audio delta 44
Digital Designs studio monitors
Altec lansing 300w amp
Mackie 1202 (For pre's and monitoring).

Instruments

Korg Triton rack
Korg N364
Roland Juno106
Yamaha clavinova (controller)
Pod 2.0
Washburn electric
Washburn Acoustic
Kingston (crappy) bass

Mics

AT3035
pair of Peavy SDC's
EV ND vocal mic of some sort
Old realistic dynamic mic (not one of the cheapos)

Odds and ends

Missing link active DI
Zoom Studio 1201
Zoom 505 (collecting dust)
Zoom 506 (helping the 505 collect dust)
Hendrix Octave Fuzz
Crybaby
Cables, etc.
Tons of freeware VST's

Total cost for the main recording hardware was around $1200, spread out over a couple years. The computer cost about $500 for the parts which I assembled myself. I don't know how much all the instruments cost. Too much to think about.

My setup is good for getting about 30 tracks with a fair amount of plugins. I tend to play stuff in live rather than sequence it because of the crappy MIDI interface I use, and because it's my preferred MO. I can't really track drums with this setup, though I probably could do an ok job of it if I had good mics and the space to do it in. I guess the gear itself is capable.

It's been a good setup for song demos and some electronica that I've sold to music libraries. I'd recommend a setup like mine if:

1. Your budget is around $1500 -$2000
2. You are doing a "one man band" or otherwise not recording a full band.
3. You don't mind putting a computer together yourself.
4. You don't need it to be portable.
5. You don't need master quality.

[Alex9992001]

Built up my system when I was doing my music tech a-level. Added a few more bits and pieces this summer so I could take advantage of Virtual instruments.

Hardware:

Athlon roughly 1.2GHz, 256MB DDRRAM (tried to add more but the computer didn't like it ) 40GB 5400RPM System Drive, 80GB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM Audio drive.

Running WinXP Pro with a M-Audio Delta 410 soundcard for main audio work. SBLive used to use for soundfonts but now only use it for its MIDI port. Gdget Labs Wave 8.24 now defunct company haven't installed into my main system yet, worried about conflicts with non-XP drivers

Roland VM-3100 mixing desk, wouldn't buy it again, would like to upgrade to a Yamaha O1V

Focusrite Voicemaster

Audio Technica AT4033a
Sure SM57

Lexicon MPX-1

B&W HiFi speakers
Marantz amp

Instruments

Cubase SX
Kontakt
Trilogy
Drumkit From Hell with addon pack
POD 2
EMU Virtuoso with Xtreme Lead upgrade
Fatar studiologic 76 note controller
Ibanez RG 407 guitar
Boss GT-3 guitar multiFX
Marshall JCM2000 guitar amp (don't use since getting the POD, it's too loud and impractical)
Large collection of free soundfonts from the internet

I'm pretty happy with my setup. Still just recently got back into it, so figuring things out again, but it seems fairly geared towards my method of working (ie creating rockish stuff with "real" instuments, working mostly alone and tracking one part at a time)

I'm good to go with around 40 tracks including a fair number of plugins. RAM is the limiting factor at the moment, and it restricts my track count more than I'd like and means I can't use the huge sample libraries in real time.

It probably cost around £2200 for the stuff in the PC and around £2-3000 for the rest of the stuff.

I'm fairly happy with the production quality I can get out of it. But the limiting factor there is totally the room I'm working in, not the gear. Dedicated monitors would probably be the next thing to upgrade once I was working in a decent room.

[dirtyragamuffin]

Here's what we've got right now...

http://cosmiccowstudios.tripod.com/index/id2.html

I'd call it "demo" quality; look at what we've got in the gear list and you'll see what I mean. We have other odds and ends right now that aren't listed.

Our sound is improving markedly as we keep inproving our gear and our rooms. We started treating our rooms with Auralex last week to get rid of some flutter echo and funny reflections, and we're looking into building some bass traps and more diffusion panels to rally hone some goodness out of the tracking and control rooms. One thing we had on our side was that there are few parallel walls in our rooms, bu they're pretty small, dimension-wise.

Hmmmm...I think we've got a bit over $10K in the recording gear right now, so that's excluding ALL instruments (I'm not even going to guess at the worth of all the cool old folk instruments my partners have plus all my stuff...thousands more...) and figure another grand in on a new mic that we'll be getting shortly...

Pros--our rates arequite reasonable; we're hobbyists who do this for fun and not for money, and we can (and have) put out a good demo or a decent "low budget" sounding LP

Cons--Not "pro" quality sound; space limitations

[nutsack]

Basic set up for good demo quality recording.
Used for mostly live instruments, with limited editing (compared to computer based). Good flexibilty on the analog side, not that great on the digital side.

Yamaha AW2816 w/Waves effects card
Mackie 1604VLZ board
Presonus MP20
FMR RNC
Midiman Flying Cow 24 bit AD/DA
Tannoy PBM 6.5II monitors
Hafler power amp
Sure Beta 58
Sure SM57 (4)
Sure KSM27
Studio Projects B1
Sennheiser MD421
AKG D112
Oktava MC012 (2)
Cost: $6500 (mostly bought new) plus misc chords, furniture, headphones, etc

Recording equipment is in the interior of my finished basement. Only construction cost was for 12x12 tracking room (somewhat soundproof):
Soundbarrier material, wallboard, building materials, plus auralex cost: approx $1500

Instruments avail:
Gibson LP Studio Plus
Epiphone 335 Dot w/Duncans
G&L Comanche
Larrivee D03
Fender '65 Vibrochamp
Boogie Mark IV
Traynor YCV40
Yamaha Studio upright piano
Premier XPK 5 piece kit
Instrument cost: Shit, 12 grand. This stuff was not bought specifically for the studio, but it's definitely nice to have available if someone needs something.

I never added all this shit up. I just realized I'm sick! Totally whacked. What the hell is wrong with me, spending all this money on a bunch of noise making garbage? I'm throwing my life away on crap!

A work in progress.... I haven't a clue what I've spent over the years. A rack full of "stuff", mostly junk....

When the old-lady complains about a "closet full and nothing to wear" I just say... "let me tell ya"

Hardware:
Clapped out 1GHz Celeron PC with 192MB, 10GB 5400 HD, CD burner, running Home Studio 2004 and Ultrafunk Sonitus:fx suite.

Delta 44
Audiophile 2496
Audiosport 2x2

Mackie 1202

Earthworks Lab 102
JoeMeek VC6Q
Audiobuddy

FMR RNC
DBX 160A
Alesis 3630
Ashly Parametric 3-band
Microverb IV
Nanoverb
Patchbay

KRK 7000b
Hafler TA1600

MXL V67
Shure BG 5.0
Sennheiser e825
Radio Shack 3032 (x3)

Instruments:
Roland XV3080 module
49 Key MIDI Controller
Fender Strat
Fender Jazzmaster
Fender Precision
Martin EM18 (electric)
Guild D50 (acoustic)
Mesa Boogie Heartbreaker
Ampeg AX70
Peavey CS400
(2) EV T22
Roland KC 550 keyboard amp

Pros: Functional and cheap, and items can be upgraded easily as budget permits.
Cons: Cheap. I have expensive tastes without the funds to support it.

I can get some decent quality from the equipment, the biggest hindrance is my talent level.

My setup is for my entertainment/enjoyment only. I record what I like when I have the desire. The only "asshole" musician I have to deal with is myself.

[EfromO4D]

nice!

[STIXXS]

Here goes:


Cost:
Est. 5-8K range

Pros:
"Relatively" inexpensive, quick tracking/editing, ample HD storage for demo quality recordings.

Cons:
demo quality, limited space 10"x12" (three's a crowd!)

Quality:
demo quality (do I hear an echo? )

Genre/Methods:

Currently light Contemporary Christian, with upcoming heaver rock and folk styles.

Methods: strictly overdubbing

Peace,
Stixxs

[sami_rautio]

Check my setup from http://www.geocities.com/dimlight_studio/

Cons: Not good enough!!! Khrm... at the moment the problem is headphone mix... Have to buy a separate headphone amp to be able to listen to aux bus and use talkback. At the moment lacking patchbay, will fixed in few months.

Pros: stable system, great sounding desk.

I use this stuff mainly for my oneman band, not so much synths though...

[PrimarySpecies]

I have the crappiest setup evr: works good for recordin sessions.
But now my band is going to a studio.

Behringer MX802A
4 radio shack mics
Tascam MF-P01

Various trial versions of cakewalk, cool edit pro, sound studio, etc.

Pros: Easy to use
Cons: Sounds like shit

Total Cost all together (including cords and stuff) 300 dollars.

Now since a lot of peopel wer listing instruments and stuff ill put mine.
Charvel (dont know what model)
Jackson Dk-2 (with new emgs)
Marshall Valvestate 30

[psycho chemist]

Originally posted by spinman
beginners need to speak up too. Let's hear from the <$1000 crowd some.

how about this:

Duron 700MHz 128MB RAM
SBLive
Karaoke mic
Peavey Envoy 110 gtr amp
Aria Pro II LP gtr
cheap bass (actually some wood w/ strings)
Cooledit 96
Acid XPress
cheap headphones

(this was added later)
it suits my needs: record ideas so that they don't get lost until our next rehearsal.
pros: this setup is soooo cheap... it can be enhanced a lot with anything I ever purchase.
cons: not even at demo level, not portable. and it can be enhanced a lot with anything I ever purchase.

[MarkGifford-1]

Here goes:

Lower mid-level "pro" studio...

A Room

MCI 636 Console
MCI 2" 24-track
ADAT XT20 x 3
Sonar
Sound Forge
MOTU 2408
Dynaudio BM15a monitors
dBX 165VU
ART Pro VLA
ART ProMPA
Lexicon 200
Lexicon PCM70
Lexicon PCM60 x 2
TC M3000

B Room

Mackie D8B
Sonar
Sound Forge
MOTU 2408 MkII
Tannoy SRM (?) 12" monitors
Event 20/20 active monitors
ART Pro MPA
TC M300XL
Lexi PCM60

Common Mics and Gear

Rode Classic
AKG 451 x 3
Senn 421
Senn 441
Shure SM57 x dozens
EV RE-20
AKG D112 (stolen recently)
Gobs of Chines and Russian mics
Dozens of guitars, Gibson and Fender, mainly.
Marshall Superlead 100 W head w/a few basketweave cabs
SF Twin Reverb
SVT Pro w/4x10 cab

Sound Quality - from great to crappy, depending upon the artist. <vbg> In the past 6 months we've done projects with Lou Gramm, Greg Howe w/Vic Wooten and Dennis Chambers, Russell Tompkins from the Stylistics, Danny and The Juniors, and several dozen other bands, from straight ahead jazz to emo to nu-metal to folk to blues to Celtic to country to contemporary Christian to whatever... No rap, tho - we're really not set up for it.

In MY producer's tub:

Soundelux U195
Royer R-121
AKG 460
AT ATM-25
Senn 421 x 2
Oktava MC-012 x 2
SM-57s
Great River MP-1NV
Gaines Mic Pre
RNC
Kurzweil MicroPiano module
Lexi MPX100
Lexi MPX500

1957 Telecaster
Gibson LP Special RI
PRS CE24
Dano 12 String
Dano Longhorn
Taylor 410
many others...

BF Bassman head
Marshall JCM 800
Marshall JCM 2000
Fender Pro Jr.
SF Vibrolux
Vintage Orange 4x12 cab
other stuff...

A dozen or so cool pedals...

I also have a small basement project studio w/a buddy: Mackie 24/8, 2 BF ADATS, Tannoy Reveals, ART Pro MPA and VLA, Lexi MPX500, Sonar, Reason, and SF. Don't really use it anymore, tho. We made some really nice sounding records there, tho.

I also have Sonar, SF and Reason on my home computer and do some editing, assembling and a little VO work here.

I have no idea what all this cost, but all MY gear has been paid for with gig/recording income.

MG

[Greenshoe]

Demo-quality setup for singer-songwriter. Cost figures as if brand new (though I did buy a few of the stuff below used).

Room
10' x 10' (yuck)
Tracking and mixing in same room
Carpeted, drywall, speckle ceiling
Auralex studio foam ($150)

Mics - $1,200
Neumann TLM103
Rode NT5 matched pair
Shure Beta58

Preamps - $350
Studio Projects VTB1
M-Audio DMP3

Outboard Effects and DIs - $700
RNC
Pod 2.0
Bass Pod

DAW & Software Plugins - $2,800
Digi001 & Protools LE
Reason 2.0
McDSP Compressor Bank, Analog Channel, Filterbank
Waves Gold Bundle

Monitors and headphones - $500
Event PS5s active monitors
Sennheiser HD280 headphones

Peripherals & Accessories - $800
Cables, boom stands, etc. - they all add up

Computer Setup for recording and general use
Mac G4 450, OS 9.1, 21" monitor
1.25 Gb RAM
2x 80Gig firewire harddrives (one for backup)

Instruments
Martin DM
Fender US '62 reissue strat
Les Paul Studio
Ibanez RG560
Takamine cutaway nylon string
Yamaha RBX-270 bass
Korg 01/w proX keyboard workstation
Cello

Pros
Good prosumer setup with more than enough tools to:
1) Flush out song ideas, arrangements, and experiment on your own in an apartment where noise and space are an issue (hence no megawatt amps).

2) Learn how to track and mix and realizing that the quality of the recording is dependent on the following (in order of importance):

People -> Material -> Quality of Instruments -> Room acoustics -> Monitors -> Mics -> Preamps -> Recording Medium (analog tape or computer) -> special effects

Cons
Square boxy room sucks.
Computer is too loud, even in the closet.
80 year old crabby lady living below me.
Prosumer setup makes it easy for me to blame everything on the gear.

Recording quality of setup
Crap at worst, very good demo quality at best - depending on the skills of the musician and engineer.

Kinds of music it suits
Singer-songwriter that can track one part at a time, or
R&B producer making beats and scratch vocals

[Rimmer]

1. Their basic studio gear/setup.
2. How much it cost to put together.
3. Some basic pros/cons of the setup
4. A rough estimate of the production quality it gives them.
5. What kind of music and methods it suits (e.g. -- tracking live rock bands, building R&B tracks, making techno, etc.)



Okay. I'll give it a go..

1. Audio and midi recording through a Powermac G4/400 running a legacy version of Logic audio. Various mediocre to decent mic preamps and mic's from Studio projects, Akg, EV, Realistic, Rode, Shure, Peavey (
) etc... Korg 1212 run from a Fostex VC-8 ADAT interface (consumer level at best for the Coverter). Various Guitars and Basses from TangleWood to Fender. Mellatron, Clavinets, Bluthner Upright Grand, Many leslie speakers c/w six Hammond organs. W30's to Novation to Yamaha Ex5r's. Ex-BBC OB monitors designed by Rogers for the BBC and run from two quad 303 amps. (Verry retro.. )

2. Too hard to say. With all the instruments which probably make up the bulk of the cost, £15,000-£20,000.

3. Con's = Poor A/D Adat convertor. Legacy audio card that wont support my new OS. Legacy audio OS. OSX is soo much better. Weak headphone monitoring. Weak sound proofing.

Pro's = Great instrument choice (variety is the spice of life.. ) Great computer recording system and software. Good cabling. Some nice mic's to experiment with. Good recording space in terms of size and musical vibe (essential).

4. The production quality for me is more to do with engineering skills, present musicians and fellow creators. The potential is pretty high unless someone is expecting the pristine results you would receive from Abbey road. It's easy to get too 'gear tart' about these things. I have enough tools to do record a meaningful and listenable experience.

5. Anything audio to midi. I'll have a stab at recording anything. The system usually records hand played musical instruments.

[Kestral]

Computer
Apple 12" 867 mhz Powerbook
LaCie 7200 rpm 120 gig Firewire HD

Software
Emagic Logic Audio Platnium 6
Emagic EXS24
Emagic EVP88
Emagic ES1

Preamp
Summit Audio MPC-100A Tube Preamp/Compressor

Synths
Roland Juno 106
Oberheim Matrix 1000
ARP 2600 (on loan to friend)
Emu SP 1200 (borrowed from same friend)

Guitar Stuff
Fender 70's Strat reissue
Vox AC15TBX Amp
Boss FA-1 FET Amplifier
MXR Distortion II
MXR Dyna Comp Script/Bud
MXR Phase 90 Script/Bud
Ampeg Scrambler clone
Digitech WH-1 Whammy
Digitech XP-300 Space Station
Korg A2
Digitech DHP33
Korg SDD-3000 Digital Delay
Guyatone TO-2 Tube Overdrive

Speakers
Altec Lansing ATP3

Mixer
Behringer Eurorack UB1202

Mics
Shure SM-57
Oktava MK219

Ok, so the speakers are cheap home speakers. But I used to work at a music store that sold gear and I was used to Genelecs and Mackie HR824's. At some point I'll end up with either the Mackies or Genelecs, but first on the list is a new digital audio interface. Trying to decide between the MOTU 828 mk2 or Digi 002.

Next on the list is to upgrade my preamp. Looking at a Neve 1073 strip and then maybe a Urei 1176 to go with it. THEN it's speaker time.

I have access to at least three fully loaded Pro Tools TDM rigs anytime for mixing so I'm fine there. The little mixer I just use to mix line signals - it does not get used at any point in the actual recording chain. The chain goes from mic/instrument to Summit to DAW.

Ok, so my mics suck (I do like the SM57), but keep in mind I have access to borrow at least one Neumann U87 and one Neumann U47.

[Amperd]

This is my home studio:

Instruments
Electric guitars
- Fender Telecaster USA Standard
- Squier Stratocaster
Bass guitars:
- Squier Jazz Bass
- OLP Music Man Sting Ray
Semi-acoustic guitars:
- Yamaha APX-6A
- Sigma ST35
Synthesizers/modules:
- Roland RolandPiano 800 electric piano
- E-mu Emax HD sampler
- Yamaha TG77 wavetable synthesizer
- Yamaha TX802 fm synthesizer
- Yamaha PSR-330 keyboard
- Yamaha Portasound PSS-20 mini-keyboard
- Yamaha RY30 drum computer
- Roland TB303 (selfmade)
- Casio Casiotone MT-86
- Bontempi 109 electric chord organ
- Eminent Solina K150 organ

Microphones & D.I.
Condenser microphones:
- Røde NT-1 (cardioid)
- Telefunken CMT-541 (cardioid) (2x)
- Sony ECM-959V (stereo)
Dynamic microphones:
- Sennheiser MD-421N (cardioid, 3-pin tuchel/tonader) (2x)
- Shure SM57 (cardioid)
- Sennheiser MD-21U (omni)
- ElectroVoice RE-10
D.I. boxes:
- IMQ Stage Line DIB-100 (passive)

Main computer (acting as the recorder)
- AMD Athlon XP 2600+ @ 2,31 GHz
- Asus A7N8X nForce2 mainboard
- 1024 MB TwinMOS PC3200 DDR SDRAM
- Ati Radeon 9000 Pro on two 17” monitors
- Logitech MouseMan Dual Optical
- Echo Layla multitrack soundcard (10 in, 12 out)
- IBM DTLA 30 GB 7200 RPM UDMA-100
- Maxtor DiamondMax9 80 GB 7200 RPM UDMA-133
- LiteOn 16x10x40x IDE CD-rewriter

Slave computer (acting as a sampler)
- Intel Celeron 464 MHz
- Abit BH6 mainboard
- 384 MB PC133 SDRAM
- Asus V6800 Deluxe (GeForce256) on a 15” monitor
- Creative SoundBlaster Live 1024 Value soundcard

Amplification & listening
- 80’s Vox AC30 Top Boost tube guitar combo (2 x 12”)
- 70’s Fender Champ 6W silverface tube guitar combo (1 x 8”)
- Eko EVC10 tube guitar combo (1 x 12”)
- Frontier Merit 24-4-2 mixer (for monitoring)
- Hill Audio MULTImix 16:4:2 (for mic pre-amps)
- Sharp System 7700 power amplifier
- Jamo Studio 180 hifi speakers
- Sennheiser HD500 circumaural headphones
- Sennheiser HD490 supra-aural headphones
- Philips SBC HP140 closed headphones

Effects
- Boss GT-5 guitar multi effects processor
- ProCo TurboRAT distortion pedal (TB)
- Tech21 NYC SansAmp GT2 (TB)
- Pearl OD-05 Overdrive
- Guyatone PS-103 Driving Compressor Box (TB)
- Morley PWV Pro Series Wah/Volume
- Marshall GV2 Guv’nor Plus (PB)
- Ibanez TS10 Tubescreamer Classic
- Boss CH1 Super Chorus
- Boss DD5 Digital Delay
- Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb
- George Dennis Super Phaser Volume (TB)
- Hughes & Kettner Tubefactor (TB)
- Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (Black Russian)
- Carl Martin Combinator
- Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
- MXR Preamp (Commande)
- MXR Distortion + (script logo)

Miscellaneous
- XRI Systems XR300 SMPTE synchronizer
- Sony MZ-R70 MiniDisc recorder
- Philips Xtreme 45ESA discman
- Technics SL-XP290 discman
- Yamaha YT-250 chromatic tuner

I have collected this stuff in about 10 years I guess. Don't know the costs. I can record pretty much everything at home, except drums.

[J6P]

Here's our set up. Off the top of my head. Acquired over time.

Haven't setup the M-520 yet, but now that the DA-88s are linked for 16 track, that day is fast approaching. Patchbays are finally getting close to completion. That will save a lot of time and frustration, and wear & tear on jacks. Blah, blah.....The short of it is that it's coming together nicely. I may find a seperate home for it soon. It's taken over most of an apartement.
This set up has been being used for Singer/Songwriter and rock stuff mostly. Some gear seldom gets used, due to newer stuff being acquired. ( ie: old 8-tracks ) But you keep it to play the old stuff. Right?

Boards
1 Tascam M-30
1 Tascam M-512
1 Tascam M-520
1 Behringer MX2642a

Microphones
2 Sennheiser MD-421
2 Shure KSM-27
2 Shure SM-57
2 Shure SM-58
1 Shure 315
1 tfpro TF27
2 Oktava MK-012
2 Audio-Technica AT-811
1 Electrovoice EV-611
1 Electrovoice EV-911
1 Electrovoice EV-664
1 Stromberg Carlson 7cs

Tape Decks
2 Tascam DA-88 8track DTRS ( linked )
1 Tascam syncaset 238 8track cassette
1 tascam cdrw 700 cd recorder
1 Sony W-33 cd recorder
1 Aiwa Ad-wx-808 cassette deck

Rack Gear
1 Intersound PRV-1 reverb
2 Yamaha SPX-90 reverb
1 Alesis Microverb 3 reverb
1 Korg SRV-3000 reverb
1 Roland SRV-2000 reverb
2 FMR RNC compressor
1 Behringer T1952 compressor
1 ART Dual leveller compressor
1 Symetrix 522 compressor
1 Rane GE27 graphic eq
1 Rane PE15 parametric eq
1 Joemeek V5C Semi-parametric eq
1 FMR RNP preamp
1 ART DUAL MP preamp
1 Altec 1598B Preamp/mixer
1 tfpro P3 pre-amp/op-compressor/eq
1 Aphex D103 aural exciter
1 UREI 562 feedback suppressor

Monitors
2 Alesis active monitors M1

Instruments and stuff I have to put off 'til another time.

Cost? Um....6 grand? More? Again, purchased over time. A number of bargains. Like the SPX-90s, I got 1 for $250 (not a bargain) and 1 for $125 (bargain). I will sometimes put in a low bid on something I like, or wanna try out. If I win, great. If I don't, oh well. I'd say if you can be patient, you will save money. I only wish I could be more patient. Never pay what they're asking at Guitar Center. Ever. Just a rule of mine.
(Side note: I have also been contacted when an Ebay seller hasn't reached their reserve but I've had the highest bid.)

The Pros and Cons....
Pros, It's fun, It's paid for, It sounds good, It's always available, It's pretty versitile, Lots of lights and meters ,
Cons. It's a lot of stuff. It takes up a lot of room. It draws a lot of electricity. Alot of it is used, so.....who knows. The collection contains a mix of balanced and unbalanced gear. Hasn't been an issue, but it's being addressed. Largest problem is that the big boards are RCA friendlier.

Quality? No complaints. Very positive responses, from people who should know better. Very pleased. People want to make Radiohead records at home,and get frustrated. That seems like being mad that no matter how much you trick your car out, it won't break a 12 second 1/4 mile. Use the tools you have to get the best you can. Appreciate what you can do.
There are a number of pieces, that some folks claim suck. Hey they work for me. Mostly. ( guess which board I don't use. Yet the compressor from the same co. I like )

As I said above, mostly folk and rock. Other bands/people are getting recorded too. I like that. The friend who's in on this with me has more time to use it than I do. Real excited about the 16 tracks. My time will come. Tonight is actually my first night off in 6 weeks. Gotta make hay when the sun shines. When this job ends....Oh Baby!

What was the question again?