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!
Home Recording Equipment
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
Echo Audiofire 4 Audio Interface
This is from an article by Jonny Caine, from the website Home Studio Essentials.
After doing a ton of research (reading lots of reviews mostly) I’ve decided on the firewire/1394 based Echo Audiofire 4 Audio Interface to replace my E-MU 1616M which I had for about a year and half.
The E-MU1616M started causing random glitches & pops and I couldn’t find anyway to stop them. During my search around the internet for a solution to this problem I found that it’s a common issue. So I would probably not recommend it to you, although I was reasonably happy with it before the problem began.
Read the original article here.
Cheers,
Jake
What home recording systems for vinyl records did people have in the 1960s?
More Q&A stuff from the interwebs on home recording. I don’t completely agree with the person who answered this question. My thoughts follow below.
Q: What home recording systems did they have in the 1960s for recording vinyl records? How did they record Vinyl records at home? Was this a common?
A: actually most people didn’t do much in the way of home recording. If we needed to record something it was on reel to reel tape. You had to go into a professional recording studio to have a record recorded.
To add the above answer, it really must be said that though home recording was MUCH less common, it did exist. But those folks weren’t recording directly to vinyl. Tape recorders were the order of the day. As a matter of fact by the 1960s, they were all the rage. One great example was Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. In 1958 the actor and song-writer was down to his last $200. He spent most of that on a V-M tape recorder, which allowed him to vary recording and playback speeds. This home recording project gave birth to Alvin and the Chipmunks, and the rest is history. Ross Bagdasarian was also responsible for the hit, My Friend the Witchdoctor.
So even before the 1960s it was possible to do home recording, but the medium was tape, not vinyl.
Blue Snowflake USB Microphone
The Blue Snowflake USB mic is a pretty darned amazing microphone. And it’s really compact and, dare I say it? – cute. I would never have considered recommending a mic under $100 for professional sounding audio 5 years ago. But now – well the recording landscape is wide open with professional level mics for 50 or 60 bucks. Check it out!
For more on home recording microphones, see the following posts:
Voice Over Recording With a USB Mic and
Good Recordings On a Budget