Home Brew Audio
Show Notes
In this podcast, you get to meet Dale Hensel and Ken Theriot, the two creators of Home Brew Audio. Ken schools Dale in the basics of recording and shows him how a $5 microphone can produce better audio than a $500 microphone and preamp, proving once again it’s not the gear that makes for great audio but the know-how.
Link to the Podcast
Start a home studio? You probably already HAVE a home studio! If you are like over 70 percent of Americans, you have a computer in your house. That means 7 out of 10 American readers only have to learn to use the home recording studio they already have. And here’s the best part. You don’t have to spend any money to start using it! If you have internet access, or a friend who does, just download the free (open source) software program called “Audacity,” which does multi-track recording and audio editing. Now you only need a microphone like the little PC mics that often come bundled with new computers. If you don’t already have one of those, you can pick one up for 4 or 5 dollars.
I just did a search on Google for “starting your own home recording studio,” and one of the top searches proudly boasts that you can do so for….wait for it—“under $1,000!” Choke, sputter, gasp. What? That’s supposed to convince me to start a home studio? Folks, even if you had to buy a PC microphone for your set-up, you’d still have 3 fewer “zeros” in your price-tag than that.
Yes, there is gear that costs a lot of money. But if you can start out, which you can, for under $10, and then upgrade your studio a bit at a time, why wouldn’t you? Even if you’re super rich and could afford thousands to start a home studio, you’d likely end up with tons of pretty gear you don’t know how to use, or don’t need. The best bet is to start modest, learn the power of the lowest-price gear, and then gradually upgrade until you reach a point where you can produce the quality you need.
I’ve heard any number of bad-sound audio recordings that came from really good gear. And I have heard excellent recordings that came from gear costing a fraction (and I mean on the order of 1/500th) of the cost. The key is this: knowledge trumps gear. If you learn how to get the best possible audio from the cheapest gear, then ultimately you’ll settle into a home studio set-up that produces exactly what you need to produce, at the lowest possible cost, which, as I have mentioned, can be a tiny fraction of what you might otherwise pay.
There are some great resources on the web to teach the kind of knowledge I’m talking about. One such resource is a site called Home Brew Audio, where you can find tutorials, informative articles, and access to resources geared toward helping you make the best recordings possible. So what are you waiting for? Cost is no longer a reason to avoid starting a home audio recording studio. Go to it, and have fun!
I’ve been really vocal about the fact that starting a home pc recording studio is much faster and much cheaper than most people realize. In fact, I say you should start out, especially if you’re new to recording, spending no more than $5.00 or so. Why?
Well, first of all…because you CAN. Secondly, when you learn just how good the audio from a studio like that can be, imagine what it could sound like at the next level up! That first jump will cost you only around $25.00. Then you learn a bit more, and max out the audio quality at THAT level, discovering in the process once again that audio quality is more about technique and know-how than about expensive equipment.
At some point along this process, you’ll find the right audio quality for your particular needs. For many, it will be a set-up costing somewhere between $5.00 and $100.00. Others may want more capability and will find their stopping-point at a higher budget level.
The result of following a process lie this is that you ultimately produce exactly the audio quality necessary for you needs without spending money on features and gear that you don’t need. A common mistake recording beginners make is to buy hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars in gear and software, only to find that their recordings just aren’t that great. Sometimes these folks think “maybe I need THAT microphone, or THAT software, to get the audio quality I need. But again, they find their audio didn’t really improve. Eventually these folks are likely to give up on the whole thing, thousands of dollars to the bad.
Starting out with the cheapest gear, however, and squeezing every last drop of audio quality from it before moving on to the next level and doing the same, will both save you money AND improve your odds of producing great audio. It’s a win-win!
If you are convinced, you may be asking how you get the knowledge needed to follow a process like that. Fortunately there are a LOT of tutorials out there on the web for home recording. Go to YouTube and type “home recording” in, and you’ll see. Of course I am partial to our tutorials at Home Brew Audio;). Our tutorial videos are both entertaining and informative. And we add new ones all the time.
Whatever source of knowledge you decide to use, starting out “bare-bones” and adding just what you need when you need it is the fastest way to produce quality audio for the least amount of money. And who would argue against something like that?
By the time you finish reading this article, you will have a functioning multi-track digital audio pc recording studio without having to spend any money. Interested? Read on!
As heretical as it sounds, I champion the use of the “zero-to-five-dollar” budget for folks to get started in recording audio at home. I’m not dissuading anyone from purchasing gear they can afford (and understand!), but I know what kind of audio quality can be produced with the cheapest of equipment, and it’s better than what a lot of folks are turning out with gear costing hundreds of times the budget I recommend.
In a nutshell, I encourage people to start out with stuff they probably already have: a computer with a sound card, an internet connection, an mp3 player (for the headphones only:)), and a microphone. I even want those new to recording to start with the cheapest PC mic they can get their hands on. Computers used to come with them. If you don’t have one, you can remedy that for about $5.00. If you do have one, then you’re one of the lucky folks who get to start using the recording studio they didn’t even know they had!
The only other thing, other than a sense of adventure and a little time, you’ll need is some audio recording and editing software. “Aha!,” I hear you cry. “We knew there had to be something expensive in here somewhere.” Sorry to disappoint you, but the software I’m talking about is free of charge! This is why I wanted you to have an internet connection. Do a search for Audacity audio software, which is open source (not shareware!), then install it.
OK, so this is the “starter” studio, and you can do amazing things with pretty darned good audio quality at this level. You’ll just have to do a little more work in order to clean up the noise that comes with those PC microphones plugged into the pink input of a sound card. It’s not a problem, since Audacity has noise reduction tools you can use. Hey, if you’re broke, what’s a few more minutes to get decent audio right?
But if you just happen to have 25 bucks you can contribute to the audio cause, you can get your first audio quality “level-up,” heck, “quantum leap” is more like it. For $59 (as of April 2019), a USB microphone such as this Samson Q2U can be had, and boy is it worth every red cent!
I just ran a test using the cheap plastic mic to record my voice, then using a USB mic to do it. The quality difference is awesome! The biggest difference is how quiet the playback of the recording made with the USB mic is compared to the old-style PC mic. At the same time, my voice sounded full and present, a little less “hollow” than with the plastic one. And to top it off, this means you won’t have to spend nearly as much time cleaning up hissy audio after the fact.
Check out my review of the Samson Q2U – with audio samples, so you can hear what it sounds like for yourself – here: Review Of The Samson Q2U Microphone – Hear The Test Audio For Yourself
Many folks will be satisfied with what they can achieve with the “zero-to-five-dollar” budget studio. But isn’t it nice to know that the next “upgrade” is only $49 away. And subsequent upgrades in quality and capability for your studio are also in increments of $25-$50. There is no need to run to the music store and plop down a thousand dollars gear and software, unless you have money to burn.