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Home Acoustics
Self Home Recording vs Paying a Recording Studio
The home recording revolution is completely swing. Basic level recording equipment prices have hit the ground. It seams like every band has their very own recorder. Is self recording in your home studio right for you? Are you better off leaving your recording needs to a professional recording studio? Hopefully, we'll answer most of these questions below.
Back in the old days (around 'Nam) recording in the home was a fresh miracle. You could actually hit record on a tool and capture sound in your house. Your eyes would light up just like Thomas Edison did when he first invented audio recording. Fast forward to 2005. It's now completely affordable to outfit a completely functional recording rig in your home for the price tag on a high quality,Guest Posting American made guitar. While the price to getting into home recording is a lot cheaper than it has ever been before, it's still a lot of cash. Is setting up a little studio worth the price? What are the pitfalls of trying to record yourself? Would you be better off just paying a professional recording studio to do the job for you? Hopefully, I'll answer these questions and more.

What It Takes
You are going to need a lot of knowledge, gear, time, and patience before jumping in to the recording studio world. I was a computer nerd half finished with a degree in electronics when I jumped into the recording world. I understood electronic basics and had run live sound numerous times. I totally understood how to operate a mixer/console. So all I had to accomplish was jump in to the recording portion, right? ....Well, it proved that there was a significant learning curve to go from a clear room to the creative process (which is the fun part) and go out with a finished cd in hand.

I had no idea how much time I would spend cursing Windows audio drivers, failed hard drives, out of sync audio recordings, clicks and pops, unwanted distortion, etc. Honestly, I went from the average computer user to some type of computer master in that handful of monthes it took me to work out all the kinks in my system. That is right. It took me several monthes before I was prepared to record my first band. It had been that tough. That was in 2001. Maybe things are easier now. I'm guessing that you will still have quite a road in front of you.

Once you get your rig fully operational, you're still going to have to learn the software. I'd HIGHLY recommend that you get a DVD and a book to instruct you the software that you would like to use. home acoustics could have saved myself thousands of hours of headaches easily would have just read the stupid manual and had just a little instruction. I learned a lot by tinkering (which might be your nature too) but there is no point in learning things the hard way if you don't have to. On my initial recording session, I had my manual in my lap. You can only imagine how stressful it might be for those who have 5 guys looking at you while you desperately push buttons on something you barely understand. I'd say it took me a good 3 monthes of everyday tinkering before I felt comfortable using the software for basic recording. Keep in mind that I wasn't trying anything advanced here. No crazy editing, no fancy automation. Actually, I had very little knowledge of audio when it came down to early reflections and multi-tap delays. I'm discussing just getting the stupid song onto the computer.

Okay, so I've sort of prepped you on how the learning curve necessary for recording music. Let's talk about the gear.

These days, it's a waste of time and energy to use the stand alone recorders you see in the mail order company catalogs. While these boxes promise to have all you need to record your demo (and they usually do) the learning curve requirements are astounding. Yes, I simply wrote a whole section on what tough it was to learn computer recording. However, there is a big difference between the learning curve of computer audio and the training curve of stand alone recorders. When you learn computer knowledge, that knowledge pays to on almost every computer on the planet. (I've kept myself from starving several times with my computer knowledge which I mostly attribute to recording). Also, computer recording software generally runs on the mixer that is clearly a fairly close simulation of the real thing. The concepts stay the same. When you are utilizing the stand alone recorders, you end up understanding how to hold E1 + Function + Menu to access Aux send page. Why do you need a full page for aux send? Anyway, I've had several friends who have used these boxes and do not know any thing about audio. They spent almost all their time learning this spanish that'll be obsolete as soon as the record is. In summary, I recommend that you go with a computer for the digital recordings.

Okay, so you need a computer. The good thing is you don't need an extremely fast one by today's standards. In fact, I built my recording computer for about $300 and it's overkill. I need a faster computer than most because I do more projects than most. It makes a difference when I'm rendering down mixes that I could do it doubly fast because I have too many songs to combine on confirmed day. I don't possess 3 minutes to sit around and wait for the computer to think.

Along with the computer, you'll need a soundcard. I would recommend a soundcard with a breakout box. Therefore a cable will in actuality come out of the back of your computer and connect to a box where your audio connections are created. Setups with breakout boxes are almost always preferred. Actually, I ownly know of one professional audio company it doesn't depend on a breakout box for their computer interphases. I do not advocate Sound Blaster and those sorts. We are not playing games or watching DVDs. We have been recording music. The demands aren't the same. You will discover many Firewire and PCI soundcards in the mail order catalogs that work great. Pay special attention to the amount of inputs and optional preamps. That is important. You might only need 2 inputs for your recording. Actually, most projects I really do seldom use more than 2 channels 90% of the time. Of course, another 10% of that time period we might be using 19 or 20 channels. When you are recording electronic music and only anticipate performing a few overdubs with vocals or the casual instrument, 2 channels will probably work fine. If you plan on recording your complete 4 piece rock band live with rock drums you will definitely need at the very least 10 inputs (maybe more). So plan ahead and work out how many mics you plan to use simultaneously.


Next, you need preamps. Preamps boost the signal of a microphone up to line level and so are just about required. Preamps are usually the most notable knob on the mixer of one's PA. You will need one preamp for each microphone you plan on using at once. You will want to have the same number of preamp channels as you do inputs on your soundcard. There are plenty of soundcards that include preamps. There are numerous many external preamps that may improve you sound quality just slightly. If all else fails, utilize the preamps in your PA mixer. If your mixer uses inserts you can split the signal quickly the preamp by only pushing in the cable half way. I'm discussing the cable that goes out of your preamp and into your soundcard.

Next you will need mic stands. There aren't way too many cases where you do not need a mic stand. You have to be very careful with mic stands. In the event that you purchase a supercheap mic stand, you could have issues with the mic changing it's position in the center of a session. The outcomes can be absolutely horrible. So buy decent mic stands. $30 per stand is really a reasonable low quality stand. I would not recommend that you spend any less on a mic stand.

Next is microphones. This is where it gets fun. There are so many to select from and you can find so many tonal options. You will want as much mics as you have preamp channels and soundcard channels (or you went overkill on preamps / soundcards). Choosing microphones is beyond the scope of this article. It is possible to spend $50 on a mic or it is possible to spend $3000 on a mic and you also have no way of knowing which will sound better on a given source. This can be a severely big deal with regards to recording and it's really one major area that seperates the men from the boys, as they say. Home recording studios will often have terrible mic selections to pick from.

The most important little bit of gear in your studio can be your studio monitors. If you try to work with a boombox you may be very dissapointed once you burn a cd and try to show mom on another audio system. Of course, you'll probably be dissapointed in case you have a $10,000 set of studio monitors because your acoustics will undoubtedly be all wrong in you room and even still you almost certainly haven't mixed enough songs to be any good at actually mixing.

Okay, I've outlined what switches into recording your cd. Guess what, any decent studio has all this looked after you. Do you know about audio latency in XP? Are you aware anything about room nodes? The studio guy probably does. That's how he makes his living.

So when you walk into a professional recording studio ran by a serious engineer who cares about your music, you can expect to focus on a very important factor... the recording of one's music. You don't have to wonder about the specs of the computer, the cables connecting the preamps and the soundcard. You don't need to worry about wasting huge amounts of time as the bass player stares at a mess of cables. You don't have to choose the mess of cables. In fact, I've recorded entire albums cheaper than you'll spend on mic stands. Put simply, I've delayed charging a higher price so that I could get tons of practice and become popular in my area. You might find a significant recording guy yourself who might work cheaper than you think.

What a skilled recording studio engineer knows that you almost certainly don't.
1)The worthiness of his time - An experienced engineer isn't cheap (but could possibly be much cheaper than trying to record yourself) but he knows that his time will probably be worth X dollars. How is this an edge? It's amazing how humans rise to meet a challenge. When you go in knowing that you are about to spend $20, $30, or $50 one hour on recording all of a sudden you take the time to get your guitar setup beforehand. You ensure that your songs are mega tight and all set. You get the sofa in gear because you are going to spend some money. Whenever your guitar players let you know that he thinks he has the recording device working right, you do not jump up get busy. You get frustrated while he tries to determine the issues on channel 1 and 5.

2)Advanced knowledge of acoustics - This is one of those areas that you will entirely put off. Initially, you are just trying to figure out how to turn the computer on. Perhaps you have really put any serious thought in to the comb filtering effects of your room? The chances are minute. In fact, I bet most bands put no thought to their room acoustics. Do you know what. Worthwhile studio has spent thousands of dollars pefecting their acoustics. The only thing more important than acoustics in a recording is the song, the musicians, and the instruments. From then on, acoutics is first. Proper acoustics are more important than microphones. I'd gladly record an album with $50 mics in a $2,000,000 room before I did the opposite.

3)Advanced microphone selection - Having the right mic for the work is an vitally important part of being truly a recording engineer. Once you know that a guitar is too bright, you put a mic on it that may reduce this brightness. When a vocalist sounds dull, you put a bright mic on them. It goes on and on. This is exactly what really makes the sound quality section of recording. Recording in the home will make it hard to justify a $15,000 mic collection (or much higher). Some studios have $15,000 mics.

4)Advanced knowledge of mic placement - Even more important than the microphone is where you put it. A practiced pro will know very well what has worked on days gone by 10 albums he's done. He knows what he likes and what he doesn't. He doesn't have to wait until following the mixing is complete for him to figure out that the snare sound sucks. You'll be experimenting like crazy, nonetheless it will take some time before you obtain it right, more than likely.

When you combine all of this knowledge together, it becomes quite clear there are serious advantages to letting the professionals handle the work. With that being said, if you actually want to learn audio, don't mind pumping thousands right into a bottomless pit, and are really that excited about taking a long time and years to learn the craft properly, do it now. I did.

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