College Radio Budget Decisions! HELP

ksmalk08

Member
Hi there,

Im the tech director for my schools Internet radio station - we don't have an FM station. We just got our budget for the next year and I'm responsible for deciding on how it is used.

Here is what we do: On a daily basis students come in to the studio and plug their laptops or ipods into our mixer and use the mics connected to the mixer. The output then goes directly from the mixer to the Mac we use which runs our software to broadcast on the internet.

Here is our current equipment (This is EVERYTHING we have):
Alesis iMultimix 8 mixer
Mac running Backbone software
two AKG perception 220 mics
tabltop mic stands
Sennheiser HD202 headphones

Our budget for next year (increased greatly from previous years):
Tools, Implements, Instruments $ 1,430.00
Dues, Licenses, Memberships $ 2,825.00
Office Supplies $ 150.00
TOTAL: $ 4,405.00

What Ive planned on buying:
Continue with Backbone software: $2800
Interface:Apogee Duet interface - $500
Mixer:Allen & Heath ZED-14 - $400
Power Conditioner: Furman M-8x - $50
Headphones: Sony MDR-7506 -$99
Studio Monitors: KRK Rokit 5 - $300 pair
Sonic Maximizer: BBE 362 - $100
Compressor/Gate: dbx 266XL - $150
Rackmounts: South Florida Racks Basic Series 8U - $55
Telescoping Microphone Boom: Heil PL-2T - $110
Acoustic Insulation Foam: $500 worth
Additional Cables: Monoprice XLR/TRS cables - $75


please let me know what you think of my potential upgrades - this is important to me and the school.

- Kurt
 
is there a reason you need studio monitors, in a radio situation i think the worst thing you could do is put a live sound in the room with mics. I would put everyone on headsets, and use a splitter from the headset pos on the board. Unfortunatly my experience with internet radio is from a home computer using pirate cast and pre recording anything that was going to air.
 
The monitors would be going in the control room - separate from the Mics

- unfortunately I've started to set up mics in the control room because there arent enough people to man the mixer and still have someone live. No one really uses the monitors anyway. Maybe just cut them?
 
i would do that and spend the money elsewhere, If it gets big enough where you absolutely need them then your probably going to get a bigger budget as well.
 
OK probably a good idea - any other things of note you would change in my shoes?
 
Not that i can see if someone else who has had more experience in this would jump in. Um another possibility, do you have problems with your low end over the internet? because the sonic maximizer which i have never used but from some articles i just read through sound like it times frequencies?

Um... Wish i had more experience with more advanced hardware...
 
I'm also going to say that you're dumping to much cash on the Duet. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice unit, but there are less expensive options out there that will have less than steller mic pres (which you won't be using anyways), but will have perfectly good A/D converters.

Take the money you save and buy a good large diaphragm dynamic (RE-20, SM-7, PR-40), I think you'll find you prefer any of those over the AKG's.

Toss out the sonic maximizer, it's a gimmicky piece of junk.

I'd also hold back on the monitors for now, unless you're going to have someone besides the host operating the console. Buy more headphones instead.
 
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Maybe another question I should ask you guys - What do you think is ESSENTIAL for this round of the budget given what we have? what would you put the most money into whats most important? A new mixer? an interface? What should I really be focusing on?
 
yeah the quality of the A/D converters is really a Key thing i think. What other models should I look into? I have a presonus Firestudio and happen to love it.

and yeah I think im going to dump the monitors - and the insulation and opt for home made carpets made by our artsy girls haha

also - if I invest in some high-end mics - but have shitty mixers and A/D converters ... how does that chain add up? (kind of rhetorical but how should I balance it?)
 
With 1,400 to spend, I would definately update the mixer, i would also invest in some Direct Boxes just in case, i guess for the mixer i wouldn't go much larger than a 12 input mixer unless you see expansion happening within the next 4 years.


as for mics even if you have a crappy mixer or if you stick with the one you have you'll most likely notice the difference with higher end mics. I myself am working with a 15 year old system that has a Soundcraft LX7 Spirit (origional) and some decent mics, but when we had to rent some mics even with the junk mixer it sounded cleaner. so instead of like on a power train where the weakest component holds everything else back mixing is kinda like whatever you can update helps.
 
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OK - yeah mixer definately dosent need to be big - in fact 4 channels is most likely enough - maybe 8 to be safe - but theres really not much high-end in that small of size - do you know of any good small ones? And i dont see expansion happening - except for a Mobile DJ setup next budget term including PA speakers and other mobiel stuff.

DI boxes yeah got those
 
OK - yeah mixer definately dosent need to be big - in fact 4 channels is most likely enough - maybe 8 to be safe - but theres really not much high-end in that small of size - do you know of any good small ones? And i dont see expansion happening - except for a Mobile DJ setup next budget term including PA speakers and other mobiel stuff.

DI boxes yeah got those


Mackie makes some pretty decent although if you have the money Allen & Heath are amazing, i have never been disappointed with either brand. I would stay away from the behringer stuff as its more catered to the struggling artist band member.
 
yeah I agree behringer stuff is trash - I tried it once and learned my lesson - crapping out on me at a huge school function in front of my profs ahaha (I have a Soundtracs Topaz that I brought as well thanks be to god)

- but yeah does A&H make anything smaller than the ZED-14 that has sliders?
I could go with the WZ3:12:2 but then thats pretty much our budget right there.
 
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I think the monitors are a good idea. The way it works at WUVT-FM (the student radio station at Virginia Tech) is that the monitors play the air feed (actually taken off of an FM receiver tuned to 90.7 MHz) at all times, except when a mic is hot. When mics are hot, the speakers mute automatically and air staff must wear headphones (which I believe also monitor air, and are not pre-transmitter). This way, the person in the studio knows *exactly* what listeners hear.

Might want to put a bit of money into an RE-20, as someone stated above. It'll probably sound better than the AKG (though it may be hard to hear via streaming). ZED-14 looks OK to me (though in the future you should save up for a read broadcast desk, and not a live desk). I'm not too familiar with the other gear, so I'll let others guide you there.

Mike
Staff Engineer, WUVT-FM (Class C3, 6.5 kW from the top of Price Mountain, VA... :) )
 
At the moment we are really a fledgling station here - we have no FM frequency - only 256Kbps. Our university actually has the second oldest college radio station in the country - but in recent years it has really gone under after we lost our FM frequency - and we cant get it back.

Id love to get to the point of haveing a real desk - but thats MANY MANY years - and many tech directors away from where we are now. You are very lucky where you are at with VT were not even back in that realm yet.

Right now im focusing on what we have and trying to improve it -

If you had to prioritize the items you would get with this budget (and given what we currently have) what would you be buying?

Ultimately i think our bigger issue is popularity on campus - but thats not my forte
 
If I were in the position to buy for you, I would probably go for a bigger desk, better mics + "real" radio mic booms, studio monitors, a compressor (maybe something multiband instead of a 266xl), and maybe a new computer interface. I'd also buy 2-3 real CD players and tell air staff to lose their iPods and such. Might also get turntables, though you probably don't have thousands of records in the stacks.

Foam is nice, but I bet you can do it much more cheaply than $500. While new headphones are nice, the HD202's aren't bad and will probably serve just fine. Scrap the sonic maximizer...a good compressor will do the job just fine.

Does that help?
 
definately - most of that stuff I agree with for sure - maximizer you can consider scrapped (ive never used one actually)
CD players and turntables (SL-1200s haha) we have but havent been used - ever - as far as i know - we do have thousands of vinyl records actually - prolly a thousand or so 45rpms haha. But really the Djs we have are primarily interested in blasting party music and having their friends hear tham talk - thats it. Most dont know how to operate a mixer sadly.

Why the bigger desk though? We have no more than two people on at a time and only one line input. Whats the best small mixer money can buy? Is an A&H ZED-14 really it?
 
definately - most of that stuff I agree with for sure - maximizer you can consider scrapped (ive never used one actually)
CD players and turntables (SL-1200s haha) we have but havent been used - ever - as far as i know - we do have thousands of vinyl records actually - prolly a thousand or so 45rpms haha. But really the Djs we have are primarily interested in blasting party music and having their friends hear tham talk - thats it. Most dont know how to operate a mixer sadly.

Why the bigger desk though? We have no more than two people on at a time and only one line input. Whats the best small mixer money can buy? Is an A&H ZED-14 really it?


well its the smallest allen and heath make, i bet i could find a smaller one but it wont have sliders.
 
Down the road you may want to have lots of things hooked up at once. For instance, if you connected both CD players, both turntables, two mics, a studio computer, and an aux input, that puts you right at 14 channels (in stereo). Just because you don't use the CD decks all the time doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't have them connected (and plus, you might want to start nudging the airstaff towards CD's and vinyl...we take great pride in our vinyl collection at WUVT and the turntables get used for almost every single show in some fashion).

Also--that mixer can get moved to the remote rack and/or live rig if you upgrade in the future.
 

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