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Starting a Home Studio on a Small Budget:
An Introduction to setting up a home recording studio on a budget
I remember when I was in junior high in 1994. I remember taking trips to the local music store and gazing around in awe at the many beautiful guitars. I didn't have any idea if any of them were any good, but I knew that I didn't have a guitar and I wanted one. There was one guitar in particular that really had my attention. I had seen the guitarist in Metallica use the same style of guitar, and Metallica was my favorite band at that time. I knew it was a Gibson Explorer.
Like most junior high students, I didn't have a job. The lust-like desire I had for that guitar had me lying awake in bed at night imagining how great of a guitarist I'd be if I only had that guitar. But as enamored I as I was with that guitar, I was still a realist and I realized that there was no way I was going to scrounge up the money to buy that tobacco-burst beauty.
My father didn't have a great deal of money, but for some reason I felt like he might be my ticket to that guitar. I asked him and after some discussion and planning (on how I was going to pay him back) the guitar was mine.
The arrangement I had with my dad was simple. He would buy the guitar and keep it until I had paid him back all $525. I can't remember what I did for the money back then, but I know that I earned it. Slowly I paid the balance off, writing down each payment on a piece of paper so I could tell how much I still had left to pay. Then, when I had paid about half of it, my dad surprised me and gave the guitar to me even though I still owed over $200 to him. I was so excited. Now, with my own guitar, I was officially a guitarist.
Most of the hours I spent playing that guitar were with a metal band I was in throughout high school called Caje. Like most bands we were pretty excited about our original music and wanted a way to record it so we could at least start thinking about releasing a tape, or even better, a CD.
My friend John, who was the other guitarist in the band (and also owned a wonderful Gibson guitar of the Les Paul variety) just happened to have some knowledge of the current recording technology and helped us on our way to setting up a home studio. Once we were setup and started recording I was instantly addicted to the idea of being able to archive all of my original music ideas if for no other reason just for personal use. The problem was that the equipment was very expensive and I was a teenager making minimum wage at Subway. The dream all but died.
Fast-forward 10 years.
I'm 24, married and just now getting back into playing music. I have a little extra money coming in and I'm ready to begin setting up a home studio so I can forever preserve my musical creations. What options are available to me? I've been out of the music scene for several years and I have no idea what the latest technology has to offer me. I'm very proficient in computers and I've had some fun playing around with loop-based software programs, but is my computer really a good tool to base a home studio around? What equipment would be involved? How much would it cost? These are the questions I'm going to answer in this seminar.
The Computer as a Multi-Track Recorder
When Caje was attempting to record an album, we were using a 4-track tape recorder, which was pretty high-tech back then. The process was simple: you record one track, a guitar for example. Then, you record another track on top of that (keeping in mind that the first track you recorded will be played back while you're recording your second track). So you essentially layer audio tracks on top of each other until you end up with what sounds like a full band playing a song.
The problem with 4-track recorders and other multi-track recorders is that they aren't the greatest in terms of quality. Sure, you can purchase newer multi-track recorders that are digital and CD quality, but they're not cheap and usually not very easy to operate.
Computers are a great base for a home studio because, more than likely, you already own one AND they are much more powerful than most digital multi-track recorders.
My recommendations for the beginner PC recording enthusiast is as follows:
- PC – at least a 1 GHz Processor with 512 Mbytes of RAM and at least a 40GB Hard disk drive with a (preferably) a SoundBlaster sound card.
- Recording software for the computer (called a sequencer) (I use ACID Pro 3).
- Microphone Pre-Amp (make sure it has XLR connections and 48 volt phantom power).
- Microphone(s) - Condenser mic for recording vocals and acoustic instruments, Dynamic mic for recording guitar amps (i.e. Shure SM57).
Setting up your Home Studio
So, you have the computer and you have the other items listed above but you don't know how to get them to work together.
Once you're software is installed (just use the default settings), you're ready to move on to the hardware setup.
If you have a SoundBlaster sound card (if you're not sure, you probably do), you'll notice that there are about 5 jacks of different colors that span the width of the card. One of those jacks has a microphone symbol next to it. Using a 1/8” cable, connect the audio output ( a cable adaptor may be necessary) of your Mic Pre-Amp to that jack on the back of your sound card. Once that's finished, you're ready to connect your guitar amp, microphone, MIDI keyboard or other instrument to the Mic Pre-Amp and start recording! You may have to make some adjustments to the volume levels on your various pieces of gear to ensure a higher quality recording, but the basics are there, the rest is just icing.
Using Effects in your Recordings
One of the things you'll notice once you start recording is that your instrument sounds pretty bland (especially if you're hooking it directly into the Mic Pre-Amp without using a guitar amp or other preamp). The way around this is effects.
Now, there are many different ways of achieving effects. There are hardware units that you can purchase, which can be very expensive, but the types of effects we'll talk about here are software effects. There are usually enough software effects available with your sequencer to get you through any situation that arises, however, if you find that you don't have the effects that you're looking for (or don't like the quality of the effects) there are many 3rd party companies that make studio-quality effects plug-ins for all of the major sequencers on the market.
Assuming you're using the software effects that came with your sequencer, most all programs will handle the effects a little differently, but they will all be the same in logic. You should be able to create an effect preset and then apply that preset to one or as many of the tracks as you would like, very easily. Not difficult at all at the beginner level.
Mixing, Mastering and Fine-tuning your Recordings
The most important piece of the process of recording a song is the mastering process. Mastering is the process of getting your finished recording (meaning you're done recording all of the instrument tracks) so that all of the different tracks mesh well and sound like a finished product. This is the most subjective portion of the recording process, but since you're making your own music, that shouldn't be an issue.
As a general rule of thumb, you should NEVER mix your song using headphones unless you plan on being the only person that ever listens to the song and you always plan on using headphones. Headphones are great for listening to music because the give the music a much fuller and rich sound than actually exists by playing off of the design of your ear. For this same reason, they are very bad for mastering. It is best to use a standard set of speakers that has neither too much highs nor too much lows. This will ensure that you get a high quality sound no matter what stereo you're using to listen to the song.
The process of mixing is very simple. However, because there is no one right way for a song to sound, it's very difficult to tell when you've reached the “finish line”. I would suggest mixing the song until it resembles your mental picture of what the song should sound like.
Conclusion
So, you now have a home studio. You might be a little confused by everything right now, but play around with your setup and get to know it a little. After a little while it will make sense and you will be recording all sorts of songs. Trust me. And if you outgrow your simple home studio setup, rest assured that there are bigger, better and more expensive tools that you can purchase to improve your studio's (and your production's) quality.
Happy tracking.