My Home Recording Setup in the early 2000's

[Jarick]

I wish I had pictures or video from then, but the Boss thread got me thinking of this, and it was kind of fun.

Here's what my home recording setup was in the early 2000's, when I did my band's albums:

Workstation: Roland VS-1680
This one was a really cool unit that could do 8 simultaneous tracks (16 total), digital tracking with automation, some built in effects, etc. Powerful enough to do an album but limiting enough you didn't get stupid with it. Was also portable which was cool.

Mics:
As a drummer, I needed a full collection of them, but I had some cool ones.

Rode NT-2 (my good LDC for vocals, really liked it)
AKG C3000 x2 (LDC's that I used for overheads, okay not great)
Studio Projects C-4 x2 (SDC's I really liked for overheads and acoustic guitar)
AKG C418 x4 (clip on tom mics for my big drum kit, they weren't great as cardioids picking up too much bleed)
Sennheiser E604 (clip on tom mics I got to replace the AKG's, way better)
AKG D112 x2 (kick and floor tom mics)
SM57 x4 (gotta have them)
Beyer M201 (really cool brighter dynamic, good for snare underside or snare mics)
Sennheiser MD-421 (didn't really like it as much but not bad for guitar or floor toms)
Sennheiser E609 (spare guitar cab mic, didn't like it much)

Mixer: Carvin SM162

Rack Gear:
Behringer MDX2200 x3 (rack compressors for the toms and kick/snare)
Behringer ADA8000 (8-channel preamp with ADAT out that I later used for recording on a computer)

Again I was a drummer so I needed a lot of channels and this was cheap. I used it as preamps for my drum mics and I also would mix my band's practices to a MiniDisc recorder (I should convert those, would be fun). Those old Carvin catalogs were a blast to read during class in high school.

Monitors:
Honestly at first I didn't have any, so I used a decent pair of JBL bookshelf speakers hooked up to a Yamaha 5-channel home theater receiver. It wasn't awful. Later I upgraded to a pair of M-Audio BX8 (go big or go home, I guess).

For headphones, I had a cheap pair of AKG K44's or something like that, they were free with a mic I bought.

There's probably some other gems in there, but that was my obsession 20 years ago!

 

[fretworn]

1991’ish?

Mixers and midis out of frame to the right.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Started for me around '98. I had done some work in a few studios before that, which had adats and tape but never had anything of note myself at that point. Got a Pioneer reel-to-reel 4 track from a friend and just started throwing ideas down and overdubbing. It was clunky but gave me the bug and I could hear the possibilities.

Fast-forward a few years to around 2001 -- bought a used Apple G4 dual gigabit ethernet computer, picked up an Mbox and Protools which changed everything. My very first DAW and I taught myself pretty much everything, trial and error and a few useful vids back then. This really sparked my love for recording and the continued use of Apple computers. Early 2005 I got a Digi002 mixer/interface and presonus digimax LT8 and that upped the game significantly. Grabbed a pair of KRK Rocket 8's, rode nt-5s, sm57's, a groove tube condenser, sm58's, clip on sennheiser drum mics and a shure kick drum mic among some other stuff I can't remember lol.

Fun times, and still have a number of items from then. Now mainly use a presonus studio192 and motu m4, imac or macbook pro, and the krk's or jbl's. I have a Millenia HVC-3 preamp and some more mic selection now.
Still thinking of upgrading to different AD/DA converters but the above seem to be fine for my needs at the moment.

 

[la szum]

I wish I had pictures or video from then, but the Boss thread got me thinking of this, and it was kind of fun.

Here's what my home recording setup was in the early 2000's, when I did my band's albums:

Workstation: Roland VS-1680
This one was a really cool unit that could do 8 simultaneous tracks (16 total), digital tracking with automation, some built in effects, etc. Powerful enough to do an album but limiting enough you didn't get stupid with it. Was also portable which was cool.

Mics:
As a drummer, I needed a full collection of them, but I had some cool ones.

Rode NT-2 (my good LDC for vocals, really liked it)
AKG C3000 x2 (LDC's that I used for overheads, okay not great)
Studio Projects C-4 x2 (SDC's I really liked for overheads and acoustic guitar)
AKG C418 x4 (clip on tom mics for my big drum kit, they weren't great as cardioids picking up too much bleed)
Sennheiser E604 (clip on tom mics I got to replace the AKG's, way better)
AKG D112 x2 (kick and floor tom mics)
SM57 x4 (gotta have them)
Beyer M201 (really cool brighter dynamic, good for snare underside or snare mics)
Sennheiser MD-421 (didn't really like it as much but not bad for guitar or floor toms)
Sennheiser E609 (spare guitar cab mic, didn't like it much)

Mixer: Carvin SM162

Rack Gear:
Behringer MDX2200 x3 (rack compressors for the toms and kick/snare)
Behringer ADA8000 (8-channel preamp with ADAT out that I later used for recording on a computer)

Again I was a drummer so I needed a lot of channels and this was cheap. I used it as preamps for my drum mics and I also would mix my band's practices to a MiniDisc recorder (I should convert those, would be fun). Those old Carvin catalogs were a blast to read during class in high school.

Monitors:
Honestly at first I didn't have any, so I used a decent pair of JBL bookshelf speakers hooked up to a Yamaha 5-channel home theater receiver. It wasn't awful. Later I upgraded to a pair of M-Audio BX8 (go big or go home, I guess).

For headphones, I had a cheap pair of AKG K44's or something like that, they were free with a mic I bought.

There's probably some other gems in there, but that was my obsession 20 years ago!

Very cool!

I put out an Album in 2006 using very similar gear, centered around one of those hard drive units. I think I still have it.
Pretty sure it was the Fostex 8 track. I also think I mastered to CD, and then sent out the Master to one of those
distribution/reproduction facilities that would print/copy a bunch of CDs for resale.

 

[Jarick]

Very cool!

I put out an Album in 2006 using very similar gear, centered around one of those hard drive units. I think I still have it.
Pretty sure it was the Fostex 8 track. I also think I mastered to CD, and then sent out the Master to one of those
distribution/reproduction facilities that would print/copy a bunch of CDs for resale.

Oh yeah we mixed down and exported to a stereo wav file, then mastered on a computer. In those days I was guilty of finding software online for free so abused the waves plugins and what not. And sent out to a local company to make 1000 CDs (of which we had like 500 left over).

 

[MadMaxG79]

I used to own that Roland VS as well! Great unit. Bought it used and managed to sell it for the same price I bought it for a couple of years later.

Used it to record a bunch of acoustic stuff during a weekend trip with my best friend. We did some cool songs on that thing.

 

[James Freeman]

Sound Blaster Live, Cool Edit Pro 2.
I think I also had a Behringer Eurorack mixer of some sort too.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

I think I got my vs880 in 96 and 1680 like 2 years later. Used that til like 2003

 

[Jarick]

Sound Blaster Live, Cool Edit Pro 2.
I think I also had a Behringer Eurorack mixer of some sort too.

Oh yeah I had one of the Sound Blaster Live cards! I used the SPDIF input to bring in the stereo mix for mastering, as well as archiving the recorded tracks.