Reading up from the commute.
Thanks for all the ideas,tips, precautions.
Will explain tonight how I work now and what I want to expand this workflow with and why.q
Been looking at a refurbished Venice. Might be just what I need!
Studer 962
Orion32/Aurora16
Unity Audio “The Rock”
Lunchbox
Keep the rest and buy with patience once u test things
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Buy one thing that will make you happy every time you look at it. If you are a guitarist, treat yourself to one you’ve always wanted. There are good deals. Personally I avoid vintage because the value isn’t there and the ones I’ve played haven’t been as good as new vintage style guitars - heresy!
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That was exactly, what I was missing here.
It has already been said, but it’s so true. Spending money on pro-studio out-board-gear will render 20k a humble budget. If spend wisely, you will end up with great gear and have saved up some money to add to your studio later.
If you and your partner will be the musiciancs, singers, and speakers, you don’t need a big “real” desk at the beginning. Just ask youself. How many voices will you record in parallel? Each unused channel costs money. Of course, it’s very convenient to have each mic or instrument hooked up to the mixer, but if you don’t use it to switch them on day by day, a small mixer or an audio interface with not too many inputs and those combined with a patchbay might be a good balance between quality, convenience, and cost.
From your original post you seem to be up to something what I would see similar to video/gaming/scoring/broadcasting production. Is this right?
A good start would be a set of microphones to pick up the human voices and traditional instruments, which are in the scope of your work. A suitable recording environment (room treatment) is also required. It could also be an idea to check out particular mic-preamps or out-board channel strips (500 series) for the mic-recording. Better to have one or two high quality audio chains rather than a bunch of affordable channel strips on a mixer.
You could also think about sounds, you can not generate with your own instruments. Want some classical orchestral sounds too? For audio book like productions classical or world instrument sounds could also be interesting. There are many excellent sampler-based instruments available. I produce sound tracks for videos from time to time and it always was an advantage, to have the opportunity to dig for a fitting sound in my libraries … which brings us “in-the-box”.
A good DAW (…you name them …) could be a pro recording and mixing device. Many DAWs can be supported by a controller with real motor-faders, buttons, channel-strip displays etc. like the big boys. Combine such gear with an audio interfaces from RME (just to name one as an example) you might get exactly the sound quality and workflow you need for reasonable money.
After having talked too much … and speculated … 
Find your priorities, put down your money there and don’t forget, a well outfitted studio is a balance of wanted and needed equipment (hope that was not too philosophical)
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I would say … it’s not completely true … having a high pro-level audio treatment and medicore quality for the rest of the gear just doesn’t fit the bill either. IMO it’s to find the “balance” between priorities, wanted gear, required gear, and budget available, which takes much thinking or experience to do it right from the beginning
The whole chain of projects, environment, gear, and workflow has to be harmonized … somehow …
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You hit the point…. talking about the integral part of the studio is crucial… i see it more as a cell or a unified entity (space) mix of acoustics and technology.
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Often overlooked, but important…
… Plan for adequate (allow for growth), stable, protected power.
… Plan for ease of access to cables/connections so reconfiguration is quick and painless.
… Plan for dealing appropriately with differing line voltages, impedances - connection protocols.
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That’s great feedback @SoundRider, thanks.
It could also be an idea to check out particular mic-preamps or out-board channel strips (500 series) for the mic-recording. Better to have one or two high quality audio chains rather than a bunch of affordable channel strips on a mixer.
We will never record in parallel, overdubs yes, 1 at the time. Stereo/Mono sources, yes.
So outboard cost will be only 1 stereo pair, a lot more realistic. (We did NOT win EuroMillions, yes we did … by not playing weekly maybe … 
).
I’ve been thinking about a Boss RC505 lately, as a no brainer creativity sketchpad available in the living room. I read good things about the device and it’s always ready to go + distraction free.
No, we don’t need a big “console” in a multi tracking way.
I would like a big “mixer”. Like @dobermate I have been looking into a used Midas Venice too. I need to have a lot of stuff (everything ideally) ready to go all the time, including external outs from an interface (samples like weather effect XYZ or animal sounds, prerecorded voice text idea, soft synth/instrument/low-bitrate-noisy-thingy and what not).
I have 16 outs combined (Focusrite+ADA8200) at the moment.
Also Ext Outs from the Tanzbär I would like to be available + other outs from hardware I already have + guitar, bass, playback off vinyl, cassettes/DV (we have old rehearsal tapes and I want to sample some of them).
Yes, I have sample based instruments, I just don’t use them much because I want them to be integrated within a hardware mixing device. I dislike nothing more than muting and setting levels/effects with software. It’s a total creativity/passion/in the moment killer (for me).
I have used midi controllers before, unfortunately - IMHO - not good enough. I checked the new Faderfox PC12. I will give this one a shot in the future for software effects/softw control.
In combination with a 24/32 channel hardware mixer! 
Yes I will get one, finally. Like a lot of you already stated, getting the room in a good shape will cost a bit, so I will start at the beginning and build up as we go from there.
I still have a full winter, the space will be available around spring.
Meanwhile I am back to the creative side.
Gear and tech - I love them but - time, energy and focus are limited & resources have priorities (and limitations too).
In the end it’s about getting something done creatively and spending is often counter productive (for a while). @@Open_Mike 
Thanks for the tip on looking into registering for VAT @tedmanzie
@rex_mundii The soldering iron and learning the basics of the craft have been on my mind for ages, will do in 2018! Visit the crew from Koma Elektronik and follow a workshop there to get me going.
A few other have shared links with gear I still want to check out soon(ish). Thanks
Is that you Dieter @Letstrade?
Peas Out.
T
// Edit
@mrcharles saved my life with that one for sure, thanks.
@re5et I’ll get the Circuit when the time is right for the kids, was on my mind already
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Can’t believe I never thought of using cheap bookcases. Brilliant!
These are fantastic mixers! I have the model that was released before the new series at my workplace, they are miles ahead other digital mixers that I used in terms of sound, usability and built quality.
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Have to look into them more, aren’t they better suited for FOH use vs Studio use?
Built on our latest generation 96kHz FPGA XCVI core, SQ sets a new standard for compact digital mixers, delivering pristine, high resolution audio with a class-leading latency of <0.7ms.
Maybe a audio interface like the RME is also good, but with the SQ console, you get the physical interface, and the ability to control it remotely via network. If you are for example record your instrument, you can hit record on your tablet, and don’t have to run back to your mixer.
They are modeled like the ones on the DLive series, i can only feedback about the Q Series, the Reverb is nice, Delay usable, i don’t have experience with their new plugin like format, but i would expect it to be professional sounding. I mostly use external FX, H9 and an analog delay (BIM.)
The SQ is quiet a bite more advanced than the Q.
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Thanks, I also like to keep effects and mixer separate… too much milk from the same cow makes you sick, I heard once 
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