Archives for August 2011

The Starter Home Recording Studio

August 27, 2011 by Ken Leave a Comment

A very common question out there is “what do I need for a starter home recording studio?
This is a re-post of something that get asked all the time. It is a question asked on Yahoo! Answers several months ago, though some form of it seems to be asked and answered almost daily.

How Would I Make a Starter Home Recording Studio?

Below is a very interesting post from Yahoo Answers. As usual I am perplexed by the answers some folks give to folks who are obviously just starting out.
One person’s advice was to have the guy go spend well over $1,000 to get started. What?! CRAZINESS!
At the end of this post is my answer, which should be starting to get pretty familiar by now to the readers of this blog.
Q: If I want a to make a home recording studio, what will I need as a equipment? Also, what does this equipment do (the more technical things)? What stuff can I buy that is good but that is not too expensive?
(this question does not include instruments, just equipment) so don’t worry about that.

The (Questionable) Winning Answer

A: There are a couple different ways to approach this.
1) You buy an “all-in-one” system like the Roland VS stations. They cost about $2,500 on up for anything decent. The advantage is that they have everything you need to go from a mic to making a CD. The drawback is that they are not as flexible and difficult to upgrade (as in they are the only ones who offer upgrades and you may not like what they offer).
2) Next, you buy a computer system, that offers you the most flexibility, but can be more confusing. For a computer system you need a) A computer that can handle audio recording (Pentium IV or higher with 1G of ram or higher and lots of hard drive space, preferably two hard drives) b) An audio interface in which many come with the software to record. Some suggestions are Digidesign’s Mbox2 (ProTools) or Presonus Fire series. You can really go cheap with some interfaces, but it is up to you. c) You need a mic to get sound in and speakers to get sound out.
In regard to a computer system you can spend anywhere from $1000 on up. It depends on how many inputs you need and what software you want to run. If you want separate software the is meant to be really easy to use, I suggest Mackie’s Tracktion software. They also sell audio interfaces.
Those are the basics, you may want to consider these other items:
– Pop filter
– Studio monitors
– External hard drive (firewire preferred)
– Auralex foam for a vocal booth (or just record in your tub!)
Most of all – have fun!

Here is the Home Brew Audio answer:

First of all, DON’T spend more than $100 if you’re just starting out. Wacky huh? If you are just learning you can do all you need to (by which I mean learn multi-track recording, basic audio editing, and final production) with an average computer, any mic (even the cheap plastic computer mics will do).
So if you don’t have a mic, you can get a pc mic for about $5.00. The recording software is free (Audacity). That’s all you need for the learning part. As a matter of fact, you can do quite a lot with this equipment with a little skill and guidance. But I would stop short of saying you could produce pro quality audio at this price point.
Next, what price-point must you attain to actually produce pro quality audio? Meh, I’d say about $40-$50. Oh yes, you heard right. Just moving from a $5.00 mic to, say, this USB mic: The Samson Q2U will allow you (again with the right skills) to turn out audio quality that I would call “minimum professional level.”
If you want to learn some of these skills I mention quickly, come give our video tutorials a try at: Home Brew Audio Tutorials
Cheers!
Ken

Home Recording Studio Tips

August 27, 2011 by Ken Leave a Comment

We want to be your home recording studio headquarters. I started Home Brew Audio to be a one-stop shop for learning how to record and produce professional audio on your home computer. And I want everyone to understand that they can do this without having to pay lots of money or attend a recording school.
The truth is that in this day and age it’s cheaper and easier than you probably ever imagined.
Find out all you need to know about recording music (like your own demos, CDs) or voice overs (audio books, podcasts, video narration, etc.) or any other kind of audio you can think of, right here in the pages and posts of Home Brew Audio.
We have hundreds of articles available for you to peruse for free. Look over in the side-bar and either search for a key word (top, right of the screen) or use the drop-down menu for post categories half-way down the side-bar.
In addition, we have video tutorial lessons available. The Newbies Guide to Audio Recording Awesomeness video tutorial course ($37), which starts you at a budget of $0 (yep, that’s ZERO dollars) for recording gear. When you’re done with that, move on to The Newbies Guide to Audio Recording Awesomeness 2: Pro Recording With Reaper for $47. Or buy them both together for $67 here.
If you’re not sure you’re ready to buy anything just yet, you can get the first several videos in The Newbies Guide course free of charge. See the banner at the bottom of this post for more on that. You’ll get the first several videos from both modules (Audacity and Reaper software). Plus you’ll get all the latest information we think will be valuable to you in your recording efforts (no filling up your email inbox, in other words:)).
See you around campus!
Cheers,
Ken Theriot

Accent on Accents: American or British? The Nose Knows

August 27, 2011 by Lisa 1 Comment

Voice over recording tips – This is the second in a series of articles by Lisa Theriot on speaking in different accents, a useful skill for voice over actors.
I used to babysit some English children, and they found it delightful when I copied their accent and began to speak “normally.” When I asked them to copy MY accent, they said, “Oh, it’s easy to do an American accent; all you have to do is hold your nose.” They demonstrated, and I was somewhat alarmed when these children, who naturally had straightforward “BBC newsreader” British accents, produced fair Manhattanite American simply by holding their noses. They were nowhere near my SoCal American, but they were definitely more American-sounding than British-sounding.
This taught me two things. Number one, the less you know, the less you recognize. Just as many Americans miss the differences between, say, a West Country accent and a Merseyside accent, a lot of Brits will not hear the difference between “right coast versus left coast” American accents, especially from urban centers. (Most Brits can spot more pronounced accents, like Bronx or North Dakota, and almost everyone in the world can spot a “twang” accent, though they can’t usually distinguish between Texan, Deep South, and Midwest rural. Heck, a lot of Americans can’t.) The narrower your audience, the better your accent has to be. Try to convince a native Texan that you were born in Dallas, and you’d better be perfect; to convince a Californian, you might only need to slow down your delivery and throw in an occasional “y’all.” (I was born in California to a Texan mother; as a child, California kids at school would tease me about my “Texas” accent, while I can remember my Texan cousins remarking on how “funny” I sounded.)
The second thing I learned was the critical importance of the nose. As someone with a prominent proboscis as well as chronic sinus problems, I have spent years learning to speak and sing around my nose. This turned out to be a real boon in accent work, because if you can’t banish the nasality from your delivery, there are some accents you just can’t pull off. (Happily, there are a lot you can, even in Britain; South London and Geordies are pretty nasal, to name just two.) The opposite is also true; you’ll need to manipulate your nasality to do an accent from a culture that is more nasal than yours. When doing Indian British, I focus on shutting off my nose (and no, holding your nose won’t do—you’ll likely sound less like Shaheen Khan and more like you with a cold ).
Here’s an easy exercise to try. Get a short passage of text, say it as you would normally, then hold your nose and say it. It will probably sound ridiculous, but that’s the point. You’ll also feel the vibration in your nose through your fingers. Say it again, and this time, try to make your vowels rounder and deeper (say “how now brown cow” a few times). Drop your chin as you speak (say “Dad” and then “father” while watching what your mouth does, and you’ll know what I mean). You should notice the vibration reducing dramatically. Eventually, you’ll be able to sound almost the same with your nose pinched, though M and N sounds, which are inherently the most nasal, will still buzz a little. For you Brits trying to sound more American, the reverse will work; hold your nose and TRY to make it vibrate. Think flatter vowels (say “mitt meet mitt meet” for awhile) and grin while you say it. A little practice, and then, who nose?
Lisa Theriot

The Key To Pro Audio In a Home Recording Studio

August 25, 2011 by Ken Leave a Comment

Lots of people think it is hard, or at least expensive, to get professional sounding audio when recording in a home recording studio. A big part of our mission at Home Brew Audio is to disabuse people of that notion. I’ve been reading a lot of Q&As on the interwebs about how to record good, professional level audio on home computers. People usually ask questions to which there are no simple answers, such as “what is the best microphone to use?”, or “which recording software is the best?” I usually have to preface any answers to questions like that with “it depends on…”

But there is one question I believe DOES have a pretty straight-forward answer. If someone were to ask, “what is the single most important factor in making the difference between poor and pro-sounding audio?” I would give this answer – “Noise.”

I’m not referring to barking dogs or TVs in the background (which I assume you already know is not usually desirable). Mainly I’m talking about two things, room sound (echo and reverb from the room you record in) and electric noise like distortion, computer drives, static in the signal, etc.

The 2 things I hear most often in what I would scientifically call crappy audio are:

Distortion, and
Room noise

The good news is that the fix for these is very low-tech and inexpensive. So you really can go from crappy audio to pro audio in many instances just by preventing these two problems. Here’s how:

Distortion – This is when something in the “audio chain” (everything between your voice and when the audio gets recorded) is too loud for the hardware. Oddly, this is more often a problem for folks with higher-end gear with more things that can go wrong. The fix: test levels BEFORE you record and make sure you’re not getting that fuzzed-out, unpleasant distorted audio sound. Ideally there should be meters showing you these levels. The key is to stay out of the red.
Room Noise – This is by far the most common issue, and by far the easiest to fix. If you’re recording at home, you almost certainly have a less than ideal (my way of saying “bad”) sounding room. The fastest and cheapest (and best to my mind, especially if you’re mainly recording voice narration) way to prevent this problem is simply to get close to the mic, as in like 5 inches or less. This allows your voice to be center stage and the echos of your voice that have bounced off the walls to be mostly kicked-to-the-curb. The more distance there is between your lips and the mic, the more the echos take the center stage position and the more echo-y and far-away sounding your voice will sound in the recording. By the way, I encourage you NOT to try to “fix” your room by plastering foam all over your walls. That can do more harm than good if you’re not an acoustician.

So there you have it. This is one more example of our motto, knowledge trumps gear, in action. Basically you can move from bad or amateur-sounding audio to professional sounding audio by turning some knobs or sliding some sliders (avoiding distortion) and/or getting closer to the mic. That’s it! Give these remedies a try before you decide you absolutely need to spend a couple hundred bucks on a new mic or some other gear in order to sound professional.
Good luck!
Ken

Studio Monitor Speakers – Do You Need Them?

August 17, 2011 by Ken Leave a Comment

A big question in home recording is whether you need studio monitor speakers, or if you can get by with just headphones. As with so many things, the answer is “it depends.” I know, I know; you want to know what it depends on. Well, I’d say it depends mainly on whether or not you record music or mainly voice overs. Here’s why.
When recording music, you will typically have several tracks of music with different kinds of sounds such as voices, pianos, guitars, drums, bass, and so on. The sound-stage starts to get a bit crowded and the individual sounds start stepping all over each other’s frequencies. I don’t know about you, but I hate it when my frequencies get stomped on. Seriously though, this frequency competition is a big issue in recording and mixing audio. In a perfect world, all you would have to do is turn the volume controls up or down for each track of music in order to hear as much of each instrument as you want to hear. Many people think this is all there is to mixing, hence the name right? WRONG! Silly mortals. In this imperfect world of ours, we are forced to use our stupid lying ears (see the article: Your Ears Are Lying to You – Why Your Song Sounds Great in Your Room, But Not in Your Car for an explanation) in rooms that randomly seem to turn up certain frequencies and turn down others just by their mere size and dimension (see: Getting a Good Mix With Cheap Monitor Speakers). Add to that the fact that monitor speakers themselves can cause some more inaccuracies in the audio. At the end of the day, the more elements (tracks, instruments, etc.) in a mix, the more things can go wrong.
So what is the answer to the original question? Wait, what WAS the question? Oh yeah, should we use monitor speakers in our home studios? I’m going to say “yes” for music recording purposes. When recording music, it seems that listening to music “through the air” (as opposed to in headphones) helps us hear things much more accurately than listening in headphones. Many is the time that I have thought something sounded AWESOME in the headphones, only to want to run and hide when played on loudspeakers. Try it for yourself. In my particular case I can recommend Event Tuned Reference 8s, since those are what I use.
On the other hand, if you are going to stick to voice recording, possibly with the odd bit of pre-recorded program music thrown in, I don’t think monitor speakers are nearly as necessary. In fact, if you lack the space or budget, you can probably do just as well without them. Get yourself some headphones, such as the Sennheiser HD-280s and you should be able to record and produce professional audio with no trouble at all.
So in a nutshell, my advice is to definitely use studio monitor speakers if you plan to record music. But if you plan to limit your recording to voice over productions, you can likely do without speakers as long as you have a pair of decent headphones.
Happy Recording!
Ken