Home Recording Equipment

How Do I Decide What Microphone I Need For My Home Recording Studio?

December 3, 2010 by Ken 1 Comment

Below is the latest Q&A entry on Home Recording from Yahoo Answers. I honestly don’t see the need for this person to move from his/her Samson G-Track to an Audio Technica 4050. though the latter is undoubtedly a good mic, will it be better for the question-asker? I honestly don’t think so. If he has the money, great. But if not, what exactly is wrong with the G-Track? Samson USB mics are awesome! In fact you can get the G-Track (normally about $130) used for $50 right now at Guitar Center. Click Here. Anyway, here’s the Q&A. As usual, I think the advice given calls for too much money to be spent.
Q: I have a home recording studio already, but looking to improve it. I currently use a samson G-track. Do i need something better?
A: I’m going to do a bad thing and assume that you are recording mostly vocals. If this is the case, the Audio Technica 4050 is a really good vocal mic but it can be used for just about anything. I’ve seen them for $300 used. Good luck!

The Home Brew Audio Answer:

Unless you’re certain the Audio Technica will work better for you, don’t waste your $300. In fact, the best thing to do is borrow or rent (some music stores will rent mics!) an AT- 4050. Then have a friend record you talking into both mics. Have the friend ask you to listen to them back in random order without telling you which is which (a blind study). If you can’t tell the difference…or if you PREFER the Samson, you’ve got your answer.
Cheers,
Ken

Sample of Music From Our Christmas CD Recorded In a Bedroom

December 2, 2010 by Ken Leave a Comment

Home Recording Christmas Music We have been recording our Christmas CD for Raven Boy Music (should be out by next week!), and I thought I’d put up a quick sample of what some of the music sounds like. I’m hoping to give you an example of what can be accomplished on a PC recording studio in a room of you house or apartment, which is where this was recorded.
Have a listen to these clips:

Gaudete	[audio:https://www.homebrewaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Gaudete-Clip.mp3\|titles=Gaudete Clip – Home Recording]
Cantique de Noel (Oh Holy Night)	[audio:https://www.homebrewaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Cantique-Clip.mp3\|titles=Cantique Clip – Home Recording]

These, along with 13 other Christmas songs, were recorded right here in my bedroom home recording studio, which consists of my computer, some software, 3 microphones, and a computer interface (external sound-card where you can plug mics in).
The CD, entitled Gifts of Midwinter by Ken and Lisa Theriot, should be out in the next week…if you’re interested;). but mainly I just wanted to show you that good quality audio can be created in your bedroom, on a normal computer. and you can start doing this yourself.
Got any Christmas stuff you need to record for a kid’s show at school? How about recording the kids singing (or just talking) for the grandparents this holiday? Home Brew Audio can show you how.
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!
Ken

What Did We Use To Record Our Christmas CD?

December 1, 2010 by Ken Leave a Comment

Before I get back to recording on the Ken and Lisa Theriot Christmas Album project (I know! We need to hurry), I thought I’d send out a quick message telling what hardware and software I’m using.
Starting with the mics, I use a Shure SM-81 for acoustic guitar and either the Rode NT2-A or the Oktava MK319 for vocals. These all feed into the EMU 1820m Audio Dock, which is my computer interface and has the mic preamps and analog-to-digital converters. Then it’s all software. I record into Reaper and do all my mixing and arranging (as well as track effects such as compression, EQ, Auto-Tune, reverb, etc).
Once all tracks are recorded, treated and mixed, I render it all to a 2-track stereo file. I then open that file in Adobe Audition for final treatment, which includes stuff like trimming the front and back of the song to get rid of count-ins, and audible stuff at the end of the song. I like to use quick fade ins at the beginning and fade outs at the end so everything starts and ends at absolute zero.
I then apply light compression to the song and normalize the volume so that the loudest bit of audio in the song is JUST below 0DB (the loudest digital volume level before distorting).
I do that for all the songs, making sure the average loudness (measured in Audition) is about the same (usually about -14 dB). If a song is way below or above that, I’ll undo the compression-normalization steps and do each a little more or less until I get the average loudness to about -14DB.
Then I convert each song from 32 bits down to 16 bit audio, which is required for playing in a CD player. I’m then ready to create a CD, burning directly from Adobe Audition.
Wow, that was a bit more than I had planned to say, but I couldn’t stop myself;).
We’ll have this thing out soon. We promise!
Happy Holidays!
Ken

Why Reaper Rocks as a DAW

November 23, 2010 by Ken Leave a Comment

Reaper, by Cockos, is what I use for my digital audio workstation (DAW) every day of the world. There are so many things about it that I love, I find it hard to narrow down what makes it so awesome. But I’ll try.
I think what I like the most about Reaper is how fast it allows me to work. When I think about work-flow with Reaper compared with any other method I ever used for recording and mixing audio, it makes my head spin.
Want to add a new track?. “Control-T” BAM! Done. You want to fix a buzzing guitar on one measure? No need for fancy “punch-in” techniques. Just record that same bit of audio on another track (which you just added with a swift “ctrl-T”), peel back the buzzy bit from the original track, drag the new part from the track below into the space where the old, buzzy guitar was, and you’re done.
That whole thing takes me about 90 seconds. I can use my eyes as well as ears to cross-fade the new bit of audio into the original track so nobody could ever tell it was a patch; completely seamless.

What are some other daily things that rock about Reaper?

How about accidentally “cutting” a slice of audio in the wrong spot? No problem. Just drag the ends of the cut part back out to create the right section! Every time you cut or copy a selection of audio, you’re actually copying the entire recording on that track, but only showing the section you chose. In other words, if you highlight and cut a section of audio out, and later realize you need it back, simply grab the edge of the audio item after the void you left when cutting, and drag it over the blank space. Bingo! The original audio is back. Basically everything is non-destructive but in an incredibly intuitive and neat way that speeds up your ability to produce your project.
As you can tell, I really like Reaper. And no, I don’t have an affiliation with them. They don’t really need affiliates since their product is so awesome. Oh, and did I mention their Fair Pricing scheme? there is only one version of Reaper. In other words, there is no “trial version” that is hampered in some way. You get to pay for the license you say you qualify for. That would be either the full commercial license for $225, or the discounted license for $60. Say WHAT? Yup. You heard right. The same software sells for either $60 or $225, though in truth it is worth FAR more than $225. It’s based on the honor system. who does that? Cockos, that’s who. If you make $20K a year using Reaper, you should choose the full commercial license. If you make less than that, you’re allowed to use the $60 version. And nobody is going to ask you to prove anything. There are no dongles, no fancy copyright security schemes that make other programs hard to work with. It is just pure awesomeness.
Basically, if you don’t already have a DAW, you should run, not walk, to their website at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/purchase.php ASAP. BTW, I have no affiliation with them. I’m just a satisfied customer;).
Once you get your hands on Reaper, you’ll want to learn to use it with our Reaper tutorial course – The Newbies Guide to Audio Recording Awesomeness 2 – Pro Recording With Reaper
Cheers!
Ken

What Will I Need For A Simple Home Recording Studio?

November 20, 2010 by Ken 3 Comments

Below is yet another question asked by a teenager about what they will need to start a home recording studio. Notice two key words here: “teenager” and “start.” About the answer that was given to this question from Yahoo Answers, please allow me to state the following: AAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH! If I were 15 years old wanting to start a home recording studio, and someone gave me that answser, I would sigh and give up. Basically, if you don’t have well over a thousand bucks to drop (closer to a few thousand, actually), you can’t start a studio using the advice given in the response. See below (after the italicized excerpt from Yahoo answers) for the Home Brew Audio reply.
Q: I’m in high school and I want to set up a simple home recording studio. I know I’ll need recording microphones, a mixer, a laptop and recording software. What else will i need?
A: There are quite a few things you could need depending on what plan to record (music, voice-overs, both). Actually there is a wonderful article I’ve come across on this exact topic.
http://www.audioneeds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=208
I am confident that will answer all your questions. If you have more, ask those guys there, and they will help you a lot.

Here is the Home Brew Audio answer:

First, you should know that you don’t have to spend anywhere near a thousand dollars to begin with. You would be amazed at how much you can do with just a decent USB mic – like the Samson C01U – and a computer with free software like Audacity. Total cost – $70. No, there aren’t any zeros missing from that figure. You can start recording pro quality audio with a studio costing about seventy bucks. The other thing is that you do NOT need a mixer for home recording. In fact it can be a detriment. See our 2-part post
Why You Should Not Use A Mixer In Your Home Recording Studio for why I say this.
For how to round it out, as well as tips on how to get the best quality out of any mic, check out our 5-part post series: How To Build A Home Recording Studio.
Good luck!
Ken