As we both know, there are literally hundreds of online vendors who sell recording equipment. It can be a bit daunting trying to choose, so I am writing this blog to help you out. I found a site that I have ordered from a few times, and I will share with you why I like them so much. First, their product selection is small. I love this because I do not have to weed through all of the stuff I don't want to look at to find what I need. The gear they carry is specifically for home recording, and you will find that they carry items priced for various price ranges. Mainly three. You will find pretty cheap items, medium priced items, and more high priced items. Usually the items they carry, even the cheap ones, are the ones that will give you the most bang for your buck. This saves me time when trying to compare products. I know what I am getting when I order from these guys, and I hope you check them out. Link is below, and happy shopping. Isn't buying equipment fun?!!!
Home Recording Essentials
Friday, October 2, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Choosing Your Gear
With the leaps and bounds that have taken place in modern technology, a low budget home recording studio can crank out professional sounding recordings, without breaking the bank. The first step in building any recording studio is planning. Without a plan, you may find yourself going many different directions at once, which can really make things more difficult. Avoid this by planning every single aspect of your home recording studio before you start constructing it.
Most project studios are put together in a spare bedroom, or maybe in a multi-purpose room, and if you have a room that can solely be used for your home recording studio, then that is great. Choosing a room will be part of the planning process, and once you have that figured out, we can get to the fun stuff and start thinking about what kind of gear we will need.
First and foremost, there are two different routes you can take to record your music. We will need some kind of interface that will capture the sounds for you. The most common way to do this nowadays is a computer. If you have a decent computer, with at least a GB of RAM, then you will probably be set for now, and can upgrade at a later date if need be. Computers are so common, and so versatile, that they make an excellent studio companion, and can be the workhorse of any studio, large or small. The other route you can take is that of a Multi-Track Recorder. These recorders are standalone units that encapsulate the entire recording process into one machine, without the need for lots of outboard gear. There are advantages to both methods of recording, but the general consensus is that computer based recording offers you much more versatility when creating your music. If you decide to take the computer recording route, which you no doubt will, let's discuss some other items we will need to get your studio up and running.
When using a computer, it is not advised to use the factory sound card that came with the computer, because this will not be up to standards for audio recording. You will want an external sound card that connects to your computer via Firewire or USB. You can also find PCI cards that have the needed connections, but I do not advise this route for many reasons. Firewire soundcards can come in many flavors. Some look like mixers, some are rack-mountable units, while some of just boxes. The same goes for USB soundcards. Any major pro-audio dealer will carry these items. I personally prefer Musician's Friend for my gear. Firewire will allow you more simultaneous inputs and outputs, as opposed to a usb interface, and keep that in mind when planning your home recording studio. You should already know how many tracks you will need based on whether you will be recording just yourself, a few people, or a full band. For just yourself, I recommend something with 4 tracks. For a full band you will want a minimum of about 18 tracks, and 24 is about the average.
Now, a possibility is to get an interface with only a few channels, and then use a mixer in the chain before your sound card, that way you can have more channels going into the computer than what is allowed by your sound card.
Now that we have an interface to plug into our computer, let's discuss preamps. A preamp 'preamplifies' the signal to bring it up to line level, which is suitable for recording. When you purchase a firewire or usb type interface, they have built in preamps on the channels, excluding the need for an outboard preamp. Now, the quality of the preamp used can dramatically affect the sound of your recording, and by using an outboard preamp, you will effectively bypass the internal preamp on your mixer or soundcard, since the signal is already at line level. Most mixers come with built-in preamps as well. Just remember how much a preamp can affect the sound of your recording, and then experiment and use what you think sounds the best. A good ear is must have asset in this business, as you will quickly learn.
Now that we have a way to get a high quality signal into our computer, let's discuss the software you will need on the computer to mix and edit your recordings. Most good sound card firewire interfaces come with bundled software, which is great considering that software can cost just as much, if not more than your outboard gear. The industry standard for professional audio recording is a program called Pro Tools. While you do not have to have this software to record professional sounding tracks, most studios around the world can accept the Pro Tools file format. So if you will be charging for your services, you may want to consider Pro Tools if you are worried about being taken more seriously. Again, this is still personal preference, and there are many other great audio recording programs other than Pro Tools.
Now that we have most of our basic needs met, let's discuss some other essentials to a home recording studio. Microphones. A good microphone is a must have in any studio, especially if you are going to be recording vocal tracks. The microphone can make or break the song. There are two types of microphones, and you should understand each of them. a Dynamic microphone requires no external power, and is what you see a singer using on stage. A condenser mic on the other hand, requires 48V Phantom Power to operate. Most mixers will have Phantom Power on them, and even some recording interfaces/sound cards will include Phantom Power. Be sure to check the specifications of the product to make sure. Condenser mics will pick up all of the nuances that dynamic mics miss. Condensers are the standard for vocal recording, and you can use them on other instruments/amps as well. Do some research, read some reviews, and find which condenser is right for you. One condenser mic is probably all you will need for the time being, and it can serve as your workhorse mic. Pick up some dynamic mics as well, and for instruments I recommend the Shure SM57. All major instrument/audio retailers will carry these microphones.
If you can afford it, I also recommend buying a good rack compressor. The built in compression of audio software and also the ones housed in the effect banks of mixer units, etc, are just not up to par for that punchy professional sound everyone is always chasing. The compression has a lot to do with getting some of that sound. A compressor can be set to do different things, but mainly it will compress the highest spikes in the waveform of a track down to a more suitable level. This can really change your sound quite a bit, because you are changing the waveform dynamics. So this shows how important it is to have a GOOD COMPRESSOR.
Well there ya go. While you can get plenty of other gear to outfit your studio, these are the basic components that will get you up and running, on the fast track to recording professional sounding audio. I hope you learned something, and I hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned and catch some of my other Home Recording Articles.
Link Market - Free Link Exchange, Link Swap and Link Trade Directory
Have you ever tried to exchange links, swap links, or trade links? Was it hard? Use link market instead; - it is easy to use, free and very smart. It will save you hours of work.
Most project studios are put together in a spare bedroom, or maybe in a multi-purpose room, and if you have a room that can solely be used for your home recording studio, then that is great. Choosing a room will be part of the planning process, and once you have that figured out, we can get to the fun stuff and start thinking about what kind of gear we will need.
First and foremost, there are two different routes you can take to record your music. We will need some kind of interface that will capture the sounds for you. The most common way to do this nowadays is a computer. If you have a decent computer, with at least a GB of RAM, then you will probably be set for now, and can upgrade at a later date if need be. Computers are so common, and so versatile, that they make an excellent studio companion, and can be the workhorse of any studio, large or small. The other route you can take is that of a Multi-Track Recorder. These recorders are standalone units that encapsulate the entire recording process into one machine, without the need for lots of outboard gear. There are advantages to both methods of recording, but the general consensus is that computer based recording offers you much more versatility when creating your music. If you decide to take the computer recording route, which you no doubt will, let's discuss some other items we will need to get your studio up and running.
When using a computer, it is not advised to use the factory sound card that came with the computer, because this will not be up to standards for audio recording. You will want an external sound card that connects to your computer via Firewire or USB. You can also find PCI cards that have the needed connections, but I do not advise this route for many reasons. Firewire soundcards can come in many flavors. Some look like mixers, some are rack-mountable units, while some of just boxes. The same goes for USB soundcards. Any major pro-audio dealer will carry these items. I personally prefer Musician's Friend for my gear. Firewire will allow you more simultaneous inputs and outputs, as opposed to a usb interface, and keep that in mind when planning your home recording studio. You should already know how many tracks you will need based on whether you will be recording just yourself, a few people, or a full band. For just yourself, I recommend something with 4 tracks. For a full band you will want a minimum of about 18 tracks, and 24 is about the average.
Now, a possibility is to get an interface with only a few channels, and then use a mixer in the chain before your sound card, that way you can have more channels going into the computer than what is allowed by your sound card.
Now that we have an interface to plug into our computer, let's discuss preamps. A preamp 'preamplifies' the signal to bring it up to line level, which is suitable for recording. When you purchase a firewire or usb type interface, they have built in preamps on the channels, excluding the need for an outboard preamp. Now, the quality of the preamp used can dramatically affect the sound of your recording, and by using an outboard preamp, you will effectively bypass the internal preamp on your mixer or soundcard, since the signal is already at line level. Most mixers come with built-in preamps as well. Just remember how much a preamp can affect the sound of your recording, and then experiment and use what you think sounds the best. A good ear is must have asset in this business, as you will quickly learn.
Now that we have a way to get a high quality signal into our computer, let's discuss the software you will need on the computer to mix and edit your recordings. Most good sound card firewire interfaces come with bundled software, which is great considering that software can cost just as much, if not more than your outboard gear. The industry standard for professional audio recording is a program called Pro Tools. While you do not have to have this software to record professional sounding tracks, most studios around the world can accept the Pro Tools file format. So if you will be charging for your services, you may want to consider Pro Tools if you are worried about being taken more seriously. Again, this is still personal preference, and there are many other great audio recording programs other than Pro Tools.
Now that we have most of our basic needs met, let's discuss some other essentials to a home recording studio. Microphones. A good microphone is a must have in any studio, especially if you are going to be recording vocal tracks. The microphone can make or break the song. There are two types of microphones, and you should understand each of them. a Dynamic microphone requires no external power, and is what you see a singer using on stage. A condenser mic on the other hand, requires 48V Phantom Power to operate. Most mixers will have Phantom Power on them, and even some recording interfaces/sound cards will include Phantom Power. Be sure to check the specifications of the product to make sure. Condenser mics will pick up all of the nuances that dynamic mics miss. Condensers are the standard for vocal recording, and you can use them on other instruments/amps as well. Do some research, read some reviews, and find which condenser is right for you. One condenser mic is probably all you will need for the time being, and it can serve as your workhorse mic. Pick up some dynamic mics as well, and for instruments I recommend the Shure SM57. All major instrument/audio retailers will carry these microphones.
If you can afford it, I also recommend buying a good rack compressor. The built in compression of audio software and also the ones housed in the effect banks of mixer units, etc, are just not up to par for that punchy professional sound everyone is always chasing. The compression has a lot to do with getting some of that sound. A compressor can be set to do different things, but mainly it will compress the highest spikes in the waveform of a track down to a more suitable level. This can really change your sound quite a bit, because you are changing the waveform dynamics. So this shows how important it is to have a GOOD COMPRESSOR.
Well there ya go. While you can get plenty of other gear to outfit your studio, these are the basic components that will get you up and running, on the fast track to recording professional sounding audio. I hope you learned something, and I hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned and catch some of my other Home Recording Articles.
Link Market - Free Link Exchange, Link Swap and Link Trade Directory
Have you ever tried to exchange links, swap links, or trade links? Was it hard? Use link market instead; - it is easy to use, free and very smart. It will save you hours of work.
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