Cobweb Audio Music Articles

Home Recording Studio - the First Steps

By Rusty Blue

With all the new technologies emerging in the music world today, it would be a crime not to consider the home recording facilities for your own recordings. It has become more and more easy to do it at home without needing some engineer paid around 35$/h and over to do the job. But still the question remains, what should I buy to get started?

First of all you have to decide of the appropriate location for your recording equipment, because there can be many great spot, such as a garage, a basement, a living room, or maybe a bedroom. This question must be answered before you go and buy anything. If, for example, you choose your garage, you’ll have to look for ways to soundproof it, so you’ll have a minimum of control over the sound as you diminish the waves reflections on the surrounding walls. If it’s an apartment living room, you’ll have to find ways to reduce the sound coming from your monitors so that you don’t disturb your neighbors etc.

Second thing to consider is what are you going to record your music with. Will it be the good old analog tape machine or a digital medium such as computer based system? For purist, the analog way is still the way to go, for its warmer characteristic and distinctive sound. But for many, the DAW (digital analog workstation) is the path of the future. Everything can be replicate in the digital domain and everyday it’s becoming better, so take the time to decide what medium you’d like and be comfortable with. But as a recommendation, the computer-based recording system is the best value on the market right now, and will be the only standard use in the years to come.

Then comes the recording chain. Everything from which it is constitute is important, but usually is like a decrescendo in term of importance, as the first to consider and pay attention is the music quality. Technically if you’re a bad singer or a bad instrumentalist, no microphones, preamps, equalizers or compressor will make your performance better, all it can do is alter and modify the original sound source to some degree, nothing more. So you should always try to get the best performance possible before going to tape, Practice, make some good arrangements, make it enjoyable before you press the record button.

Let’s first look at the first component to buy when you decide to record on a digital system. You’ve probably heard a lot about soundcards lately, and with the explosion of various models, these digitals recorders can do a pretty professional task if you learn to use them properly. They all record in 24 bits 96 kHz samples and over, so for the home recorder hobbyist it won’t be a problem to find something that sounds good for a cheap price.

Then comes the choice of microphones, that’s maybe the second most important thing to consider in the signal chain after the performance. All microphones have their distinctive sound and characteristics, so when buying them, take the time, if possible, to listen as many as possible in your local store, Try to put your own voice or guitar on it to see if you like the sound that comes out. Someone else could try it and have a total different opinion of it. So take the time to figure if what you hear is pleasant to your ear. There’s plenty of choice available on the market, but there’s basically three types that you should be familiar with: the dynamic, the condenser and the ribbon microphone.

The dynamic microphone uses a simple design to create the electric magnet that will transmit the sound wave in the audio chain. It basically uses an electromagnet principle to operate. The diaphragm is attached to a coil, so when the diaphragm vibrates in response to the sound source, the coil moves backwards and forwards past the magnet element. This automatically creates an electrical current in the coil, which is passing from the microphone along wires. These mics are often very versatile; they can be placed on all kind of sources from snare drums to vocal overdub or a trumpets section. They are usually the one you take for live applications as they are robust and are less sensible to ambient noise, which also can be good in the studio to record a drum kit or a guitar amplifier.

Condenser mics use another principle to convert the sound. They usually require a battery or an external electric power producing 48 volts to work. These mics are build on a capacitor with two plates with a voltage between them. One of these plates is made with a very light material and plays the role of a diaphragm and then vibrates when attack by sound waves. When the distance changes between the two plates, the capacitance change also. When the plates are closer together, capacitance increases and a charge current occurs in the process. When the plates are further apart, capacitance automatically decreases and a discharge current occurs. These mics are more detailed than the dynamic microphones and are well suite for tracking a lead vocal, and acoustic guitar brilliance, as they capture more details and nuance from the instruments. They also have a flatter frequency response than the dynamics microphones

The ribbon microphone generates voltage by electromagnetic induction. Inside of this mic, there’s a very thin conductive ribbon that vibrates in a magnetic field; a small electric current is induced in the ribbon and preamplified to convert the sound. Considered by many as one of the most natural sounding mic, it has a soft and warm sound that is very pleasant, and can give a vintage presence in those days of sometime cold modern digital recordings. They tend to have a lower output level, so choose accordingly.

With all that in mind, the mic decision must be based on what your ears appreciates. Select one like a painter would play with his color palette: experiment and have fun.

Next comes the microphone preamplifier. Preamplifiers boost the signal to a standard line level, which all recorders can then capture easily. It acts like a gain stage for the mic, before it reaches the recorder. These machines can add texture and color to your recordings, like some microphones do. The microphone preamplification area is a whole world by itself, so I won’t be covering it in details. Let just say that it is an important part of your recording chain and it can maximize the capacity of your mics. Often, as a start, a good mixer with honest preamps can do a pretty good job, and some soundcards companies integrate them more and more inside of their products also.

After choosing a good mic and preamp setup, there’s one component that you can’t dismiss if you want to built yourself a good home studio. I’m talking about the studio monitors. These boxes are your reference for everything that is involve in your recording chain, so a well-taken time to buy a good pair is primordial. Studio monitors differ from hi-fi speakers by their flatter response range. They can give you a more realistic image of what’s going on in your recording and mixing process. Hi-fi speakers tend to sweeten the sound to make it pleasant for listening to commercial CDs for example, but lack the precision of what a good pair of studio monitors can offer. When buying these reference boxes, take the time to go to your local store with your best CD and try to analyze what you hear. Are they too boomy, too harsh or midrangey sounding for example? Try to buy a pair that sounds good for you and that will not create ear fatigue after several hours of listening in your control room.

Finally, you won’t be able to do anything if you don’t have multi-track recording software. That is where you lay down the tracks you’ve recorded. It’s also the place where you edit and mix your songs in real-time. There’s a wide offer on the market for this kind of software, but basically they all do the same things and you’ll find all the basic functions in all of them. If you don’t have the budget for now, you can find free legal versions on the net, which will respond to your basic needs. Most of these software come with default FX plug-ins like compressors, reverbs and equalizers that you can use instead of buying them in a hardware analog module. There’s also plenty of third parts plug-ins that you can buy that everyday emulates more and more the real thing.

This resumes what you need to get started with your home recording studio project. So let’s recapitulate: the location of your recording studio facility: decide where and how, and make adjustments depending of your possibilities. Then decide if you prefer to go the analog or the digital way for your recording medium, and consider that the computer-based system will be the standard in the near future. If you go digital, choose a soundcard that will respond to your needs. Start with one or two good microphones, depending of what you record, and combine them with a preamp or a mixer with good ones built-in. Then choose the best studio monitors you can afford. And finally have a good multi-track recording software to lay down your tracks, edit and mix them.

As a final though, trust your ears when you buy audio material, this will be your best judge in this long journey of audio recording market, and most of all, have fun in the recording process, that will always be the most important thing for the best final product results, which no audio material will do for you.

Rusty Blue runs a great website where you can listen and compare home recording equipments in waves and mp3 format. Take a look here GearAudition.com