[quote name='Beedster' post='915957' date='Aug 5 2010, 01:47 PM']Agreed, although sound-proofing is obviously a two way street, as much about keeping extraneous sound out as keeping ours in, Much as I'd like the space to have a vibe, the sound of distant farm machinery grinding away during the second verse might be a little too much character, as might the sound of the potential Mrs Beedster pulling up outside with her car stereo on 10!
I think the build diary could well happen.
Cheers
C[/quote]
Yeh, of course. At my place we get lorries and all sorts, but not too much as I only record after hours. I think the fact i'm only really doing loud rock music helps, although I did an acoustic album with a young guy, and that went really well - we just had to re-do a couple of songs because of engine noise.
Mixing desk - I really like the protools mixers with integration with the computer. I think it works really well. I think they're probably out of your budget, but I wouldn't know for sure. It would deffinitely be nice to have some sort of physical control over your DAW. I have a steinberg houston, which isn't the most amazing product ever, but I got it used on here for £100ish, and it's great for transport, and for mixing and automation.
I won't suggest an actual mixer as obviously you could afford one with nice pre-amps etc and I try not to look at gear I can't afford. However, deciding on the number of channels shouldn't be too hard - how many mics do you want to record simultaneously? Add 4 to that number for good measure.
RE the computer, it's all down to preference. I like Cubase and PCs, but I also like Pro Tools. I use PCs and windows because I know how, not because they're better than Macs.
I deffinitely think you're looking at a proper tower rather than a laptop though.