Below is the latest in interesting posts from Yahoo Answers. As usual I am perplexed by the answers given to folks who are obviously just starting out. This person’s advice was to have the guy go spend well over $1000 to get started. What?! CRAZINESS! At the end of this post is my answer, which is 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.
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) You buy a computer system. This 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.
With 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!)
Here is the Home Brew Audio answer:
First of all, DON’T spend more than $100 to start 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). 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. You can even do quite a lot with this equipment with a little skill and guidance, though I would stop short of saying you could produce pro quality audio at this price point. So what price-point must you attain to actually produce pro quality audio? Meh, I’d say about $49. Oh yes, you heard right. Just moving from a $5.00 mic to, say, this USB mic: The Samson Q1U 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.
Cheers!
Ken
How to Use the Home Recording Studio You Didn't Know You Already Had
By the time you finish reading this article, you will have a functioning multi-track digital audio recording studio without having to spend any money.Interested? Read on!
Have you ever wished you could record your a podcast, or a song, or create audio for the videos you took at a wedding or graduation? Maybe you want to start a voice-over business or even your own record company. Then you come back to reality and resign yourself to paying a “professional” to do all this stuff. Why is that?
I’m guessing you have been reading (and believing;)) some of the “how to set up your home studio” articles that talk about the “minimum” amount of gear and/or software you will need to buy BEFORE you even get started learning how to use it all.
Would it change your mind if you discovered that you didn’t need to buy ANY gear? Or that if you did, it was going to be about $5.00? What if in addition to that great news, you also discover that it can be fun and easy to learn home recording? Well guess what? It’s all true.
If you have a PC (or Mac) with a sound card, an mp3 player (for the headphones), and just about any kind of microphone, and an internet connection, you already have the gear you need for a home digital audio recording studio. The only other thing you need is software, which you can go get right now…literally. The software, called Audacity, is extraordinarily powerful, and best of all…it is free! I don’t mean free-for-30-days. And I don’t mean shareware. I’m talking “open-source” free…as in you pay no money for this software, ever.
Just go to the Audacity website at “audacity.sourceforge.net,” download and install Audacity, and you’ll have a home recording studio capable of multi-track recording (for adding music behind your voice, singing harmony with yourself, being a 1-person-band, etc.) and audio editing. All you need now is a bit of guidance to show you what to do. Luckily, there is a lot of free guidance available as well.
There are several tutorials on the interwebs these days to help you with Audacity, starting with the ones on the Audacity website. If you’re like me, you want short, to-the-point, fun, video tutorials that will teach you just what you need to know, when you want to know it. If so, come take a look around at Home Brew Audio, and start using that home digital recording studio you didn’t even know you had!
Now get busy!
PC Recording Software-What is The Best?
What is the best PC recording software around? Well before I say anything more, I should point out that I am in no way affiliated with any of the products I will mention in this article. I have simply been using them for several years now. One of my mandates (yeah I give myself mandates;)) is to help folks record professional sounding audio from a PC recording studio using knowledge as leverage, as opposed to money. And the knowledge I refer to starts out distilled down to several easy-to-learn key audio principles that anyone can put to work making their music, podcasts, sales videos, etc. sound AWESOME. Oh, and I also believe that anyone can start out with a budget of “0-to-5 dollars.”
That last part isn’t because I think you can rival top-notch gear with a 5-dollar studio. It’s because it’s important for you to learn how to squeeze the best possible quality from the cheapest possible gear. Once you understand how to do that, you can make wiser choices when adding gear to your home recording studio. Ultimately, this means you will be able to avoid the all-too-common pitfall of home recordists, which is buying way too much gear for way too much money, and then proceed to continue making crappy audio because they didn’t understand some basic audio principles. How does that sound? Get better quality and spend less, MUCH less on the best recording software for pc? Yeah, I thought that might interest you.
When I say “best” in this article, I’m referring to the whole package, including price and capability. Plus this is all my humble (not really;)) opinion anyway. So let’s get to it.
1. Don’t Fear the Reaper
Remember, I have no affiliation here. But it is my strong opinion that you should run, not walk (or the cyber-equivalent) to the Reaper site on the web and download their free trial software now. The trial version is no different from the “full” version, not crippled in any way. The stated evaluation period is 30 days, but guess what? The program does not stop working after 30 days. You will simply be reminded every time you open it that it is not free forever. This allows you to be more flexible when testing it out, taking more time than usual if need be. It’s on the honor system. Yeah, I know. Who does that? But that isn’t the end. Once you are ready to purchase a license, you have two choices (and remember, the software is the same regardless of what license you have), the discounted license for $40, or the full commercial license for $150. Again it is up to your honor to decide which license to buy. The guideline for the discounted license says (from their site) you can use it if:
- You are an individual, using REAPER only for personal use.
- You are an individual or business, using REAPER for commercial use, and the yearly gross revenue does not exceed USD $20,000.
- You are an educational or non-profit organization.
If you do find yourself making $20,000 from the recordings made with Reaper, then you will not mind springing for the $150 full commercial license, I presume.
2. How Well Does It Work?
Really well. Oh, you want details. Alright, here goes. I use it every day to record voiceovers, podcasts, music, and any number of other audio products. Reaper does everything I need it to and a LOT of stuff I don’t need often. IN fact, the capability is so vast that there are things it can do that I don’t even know about. And I use it every day, and have for 5 years. Using Reaper, I’ve produced pop music CDs (Raven Boy Music), countless voiceovers, audio books, royalty-free music, podcasts, videos, etc. For a complete description of what it can do, go to their site. But if you want to record and mix multi-track, hi-resolution audio fast, including MIDI capability and built-in effects (lots of them), Reaper is what you need.
3. What’s the Catch?
Reaper is tracking and mixing software. That means if you want to do destructive editing of audio files, you will probably want to also use an audio editing program such as Audacity (free), Sound Forge, Adobe Audition, etc. I have Adobe Audition, but since I have been using Reaper, I’ve used Audition less and less because Reaper offers a lot of editing capability as well, and it’s non-destructive. The only thing I find myself using my editor for these days is noise reduction, and other treatment (some call it mastering ) of the mixed-down stereo (usually) end-product. One other thing I am led to understand is an issue with Reaper is its MIDI capability. But they are constantly upgrading that. And to tell you the truth, I love using Reaper for MIDI. I use it for virtual instruments all the time. I think it works great. But if you are like, a MIDI ninja, you may find this program a bit lacking, or so I am told. I am not a MIDI ninja.
So there you have it. You can start using what I consider to be the best PC recording software around for free, right now. After you’ve come to the conclusion that it’s awesome, just pay $40 for a license. Then after you make $20,000 with it, spring for the $150 clams it will cost for the full commercial license. You will thank me.
For more information in the form of cool video tutorials on how to get started recording from you regular computer (as opposed to some super-computer the music store guy says you have to have), check us out here: PC Recording Tutorial Videos
What is the best setup for a home recording studio?
I plan on doing some recording in the future and I would like some advice on the different aspects of doing home recordings.
What is the best environment? (Size of room, composition of walls, echo/reverb, etc.)
What is the best equipment? (Microphones, computer recording station, software) I’ll be recording vocals, acoustic guitar, piano and various electric instruments.
I’ve been using Adobe Audition which works great but I’m curious as to what the alternatives are and what are their pros and cons.
For the basics on setting up a home recording studio, check out this article: http://www.articlecube.com/Article/How-To-Build-A-Home-Recording-Studio/49379
Once you’ve read this, you’ll have a nice foundation. Audition is a nice program and can achieve professional results like many other multitrack recording software programs out there. However, I recommend getting a copy of Pro Tools as your main recording software for a few reasons. First, it is the industry standard in recording. Many major label records have been recorded on Pro Tools. Second, it’s easy to use and there’s plenty of support an tutorials available on the market to get you up an running in no time (see: http://cgi.ebay.com/Brainwerks-PRO-TOOLS-7-LE-M-Powered-HD-Tutorial-Video_W0QQitemZ260085583899QQihZ016QQcategoryZ41786QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem ) Third, it’s easily portable to other studios that have Pro Tools (and many studios do!). This gives you the ability to record a session at home with your guitar and piano; save that session to disk; go to another studio with a nice drum and vocal room (if you choose) and pull the same session up on Pro Tools and add those elements. Then, you can take that session home to arrange and mix your project. Or you could send your Pro Tools session to professional mix engineer, to have it mixed. The sky’s the limit. The problem with other programs like Audition is that not as many studios use it (even though it’s a good program) so being able to transfer Audition sessions from studio to studio many not be as easy, because that studio will need to have Audition installed on their system (which many studios don’t). Another great point to add is that you can now get Pro Tools for around $250, making it very affordable for anyone who wants to put together a home studio. http://www.homerecorder.com/products/software/recording/protoolsmpowered.html
Hope this helps. Good luck!
What is the Best Home Recording Equipment Package?
Below is another common question I pulled from Yahoo Answers. “What is the best home recording equipment package?” It isn’t a bad questions as far as it goes, but it’s a little like asking “what is the best car?” It depends very much on what you want the car to do for you, what your budget is, how important certain factors like maintenance requirements, fuel efficiency, etc. are to you.
So as usual, I have added my reply below, after the reply that came in to the original question.
Q: I would like to buy some home recording equipment (software, hardware, etc.), but I don’t know much about this stuff. Can anyone give me some guidance on what I should buy? Thank you!
A: When you say “best” do you mean cheapest? Or do you really mean “best? (I agree totally – K)
Cheap (~$175) but good: Tascam Track Pack T1 US122L Soundcard with Microphone Pack
Good but still far from the best: http://www.sweetwaveaudio.com/home_recording_package.php (and costs about $2,000).
If you really mean “best” then I hope you are prepared to spend a lot of money (maybe $500,000 or more).
My answer is to start with a question like this: “What do you want to do with your home studio?” If the answer is anything like “I want to do voice-overs,” or “I need to record audio for my podcast,” my answer would be to point the person in the direction of a MUCH less expensive set-up (at least to start) than either of the above suggestions. I’d probably suggest something like: “Get yourself a USB mic like the Samson Q1U Handheld USB Microphone for about $49. Then download Audacity software, which is free. You can get some amazing quality with just that! If that doesn’t give you what you need, you can move up the price range, but you might as well start affordable, no?
My next question would be: “How is your home recording knowledge?” If the person is a total newbie, my answer would definitely be the same as above, combined with advice to find some tutorials on the web designed to teach newbies how to record audio from home. Once good place like that would be this site – Home Brew Audio (just off the top of my head:)). However, if the person has some experience and knowledge already, I might add a few different items to the mix, such as downloading Reaper (by Cockos) for a 30-day trial of their excellent software that will eventually cost you a mere $60, if you make less than about $20,000 per year using it. If your audio work using Reaper makes you more than $20K a year, you probably won’t mind spending the $220. And these are the same software “versions.” BTW, I have no affiliation with Reaper. I just love and use their product.
If the person is wanting to record a rock band and put out a CD, well then things change quite a lot in that a few different kinds of mic will be needed, as well as the ability to record 6 or 8 (or more) tracks at the same time. I’d probably recommend something like the: Focusrite Clarett 8Pre that has 8 preamp inputs for about $800.
Of course there is a lot of middle-ground here as well. B&H Pro Audio asked me for advice on home recording equipment bundles and based on my input, set up two starter kits. One is geared (no pun intended:)) more toward the absolute beginner on a budget who expects to do mostly voice-over, podcast, video narration type stuff. It’s called the Fast Track Home Recording Starter Kit for just about $300.
So before you run out and ask your music store guy “what the best home recording studio equipment package” is, do yourself (and your bank account) a favor and ask someone who can help you match the gear you need to your budget and your recording goals.
HappyRecording!
Ken