Your home studio

C

Cheiron

Member
Jan 11, 2006
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Anybody here have a home studio they use either to record fully, or to just record what they are doing to save it for future use and the song writing process? I know one of the guys in Odin's Court just redid his home studio so hopefully he will reply.

I'm looking to start one. I have an interior room here that is unused that would work well. Its not huge, just a small bedroom, but enough for now. But I'm completely unsure of where to start. What products do people recommend, what have they had good luck with, etc?

I don't think I want to go the ProTools route, purely based on a financial standpoint. I've also heard that there are some other good options out there, other cheaper sound editing tools and the like. So any help is very appreciated.
 
If you want to go the cost-effective route then read my thoughts on this:

I use this multi tracking program called N-Track, its not too costly and it does the job very well. Be mindful that if you want to go the PC-recording route then you will need a pc with tons of HD space and RAM. You will probably need some type of compression software(or hardware), effect pedals, and a good(or great) sound card with 1/4" inputs. Personally, I am looking to buy a full electronic drum set, but right now I am using this program called "Drums" that does an ok job in letting me know how my songs are gonna sound like. There's a whole bunch more stuff you might need to get, specially if you want to record guitars the right way(miking the amps instead of hooking the guitar up to a mixer, then the pc) so you will need to soundproof, look for good acoustics in the room, etc. etc.

I am not a connoisseur in any fashion but I have been researching this same thing myself since I am working on setting up a home studio as well.

BTW, check out this site, http://www.soundrecordingadvice.com/index.html, i think you might get a lot of good ideas from it.
 
Yeah I definitely want to mic the amps. I feel that people basically toss away a huge part of the value of their amp by either plugging the guitar directly in or the amp directly in. Thanks for the link. Might buy that book.
 
the main thing you must evaluate is "do i need a multitrack recording device or it is enough for me to record a track (or just 2,3) a time ?"

Because in the first case you need a good digital mixer and a good software as well, if not you can start with some gear as low as http://www.behringer.com/BCA2000/index.cfm?lang=ENG or similar and cubase audio (pretty expansive too) or some less expansive software.


i recorded with it the lap steel guitar solo in "O Theophagos" for our LP (can't remember if it is included in the audio booklet preview in my sign) and it was pretty perfect, even if i won't suggest it to you due to drivers problems.
 
I'd go with the Tascam FW-1082 10 Channel Interface. Its affordable compared to other 10 channel interfaces with a control surface and faders. As for recording software, any of the Steinberg Nuendos are awesome. Much more user friendly than protools and just as powerful. A nice set of active moniters would be nice. People prefer to mic their amps with the classic SM-57. However, I prefer to mic mine with a large diaphram condenser mic. It just sounds warmer and really captures the true sound of your amp as opposed to the SM-57s choppy tone. SM-57s are nice to mic drums though. Make sure you have a computer with a hell of a lot of ram, and HD space.
 
You might want to take a look at The Musicians Tech Central.

The site is quite comprehensive source of tech-related information for anyone about instruments, devices, software and much everything you might need for playing and recording on your own until going pro.
 
I've got a home studio and I used it to record "A Manifesto For Domination". I run a P4 2.6, 3GB RAM, a UAD-1 plug in card, Vegas 7, Sound Forge 8, and have a Tascam FW-1884. I also have an Avalon U-5, a TL Audio tube preamp/compressor, an ART Dual Levelar, and a Joemeek tube preamp/comp.

I would recommend the following:

1) Look closely at a Mac. If you get serious, you're probably going to want to move to it. I'm in that boat myself, but it's $2500 for a Mac Pro, plus another $500-700 to change software since Vegas will not run on Mac.

2) Lots of RAM.....1GB dead minimum.

3) You want at least 1 good tube mic pre, and I'd highly recommend the Avalon U-5 direct box for tracking bass, guitar dry sounds for reamping, and the like. ART put out a line of tube stuff a few years ago like the Tube MP and the Dual Levelar that you should be able to get cheap on ebay, but they sound great.

4) I found this out the hard, hard, hard way....if you want a pro sounding recording, DRY RECORD THE GUITARS using a direct box. you'll need a POD as well so you hear distortion when you track. When we hired James Murphy to do our mixdown, the first thing he said to me was "do you have the guitars direct?" I didn't....and I had already recorded all the rhythm guitars on the record TWICE because I didn't like the tone I got the first time. So I had to do them a THIRD time so we could get him to take the project. Having said that, the tone is easily 10x better. This process entails you sending the dry tone out of the computer to your amp, and then mic'ing the amp up after you've performed it. The process enables you to get a much cleaner performance and you can experiment with tone much, much easier.

5) Drum mics.....focus your dough on the overhead condensers, you'll need two of them. Most rock/metal these days involves the drum sounds being replaced, but you can't do that with the overheads for obvious reasons. So you want your best mics there, and then you can use 57s or whatnot on the rest of the drums.

6) Drumagog is really good for drum replacement, by the way..... www.drumagog.com. I had a tech support issue there and Rim, the guy that owns the company and programmed it, personally called me up to solve the issue.
 
I run Cubase with a Firebox for I/O. Since I'm just me and not an entire band, I don't need multiple inputs at this time. I track each instrument seperately and then mix myself. I've found a couple VSTs to be very helpful: dfhs, ewql symphonic orchestra
 
Things can get expensive quickly! I've built mine up over the past 4 years.

If you want a basic affordable setup for songwriting type stuff, go with something like Cubase SX for software (about $400) and the E-MU 1820 (about $250) for a hardware interface. The E-MU has 2 mic-preamps, and an additional 6 unbalanced inputs. For a guitar mic, just get a standard SM-57 (they're under $100). Cubase has a lot of built in effects too, so don't worry about plugins yet. If you want a nice condensor mic at an affordable price, check out Rode microphones. And get some flat response studio monitors.

If you want to spend some more money, get a nice hardware interface like the MOTU 896HD (I have 2). Each unit has 8 quality mic preamps. Nuendo is a good software program (also by Steinberg, like Cubase). And get a set of nice monitors like the Mackie HR824s. You can't go wrong with those.

The thing is, this type of thing is addictive once you get into it! The more I read and experiment, the more I "need". And some of the classic mics, preamps, compressors, etc. that are found in most every successful studio are quite pricey! I was looking into some compressors and mics and my heart skipped a few beats!
 
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