I want to build a studio in my bedroom.

MicFlo

New member
my rooms dimensions are 8 feet and 5 inches wide and 9 feet and 11 inches long.

When I walk into the room the first thing I see is my computer desk on the left and my bed on the right corner. My computer desk is 5 feet and 3 inches wide. Next to my computer desk is my bed which is 3 feet and 6 inches wide and 6 feet and 7 inches long.

My mic is infront of my computer desk it's a Stage Works LD1 condensor on a mic stand, and my headphones are Sennheiser HD 280 pro, which lays on my computer desk. On the edge of the wall I have a shelf it has a Presonus Tube-Pre (Pre-amp) and my cords in a box.

How could I make my bedroom a good home recording studio?

The Current Equipment I have are
Stage Works LD1 (Condensor)
Shure SM58 (Dynamic)
Sennheiser HD 280 pro Headphones
Art Tube MP studiov3 (pre-amp)
Presonus Tube-Pre (pre-amp)
Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (Software)
Reasons 2.5 (Software)

What do I need to buy to make it more proffesional for hiphop? I'm about to buy a delta44 soundcard, and Baby Bottle Microphone; what other stuff do I need for production? monitors, keyboard ect..
 
It's strange how many people have read this thread and not responded. I'll be a man and be the first. IMHO, your room is too small for professional sounding. You could get a good demo going though. As far as how many "hip-hop" experts are here, I do not know, 'cause I am fairly new here. I personally will not respond on what your potential needs are for hip-hop recording because I can not stand hip-hop and have never done any research to see if you need anything special for recording. I would figure that you would not need anything special. Don't be too cheap when buying equipment. Some things can have a lesser price and be useful, but generally, "You get what you pay for". You spend crap, you get crap. Save up and get good stuff that you have done research on. Good Luck.
 
The Current Equipment I have are
Stage Works LD1 (Condensor)
Shure SM58 (Dynamic)
Sennheiser HD 280 pro Headphones
Art Tube MP studiov3 (pre-amp)
Presonus Tube-Pre (pre-amp)
Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (Software)
Reasons 2.5 (Software)

Since you only have headphones (rather than a monitoring system, such as two speakers and an amp), absolutely no room treatments are needed at this point.

Do know that headphones acoustically "lie" as compared to a quality monitoring system. Often headphones give you the perception of more bass than you have, or not enough, depending on the headphones. Some are worse than others, too. But don't fret, you can get used to it, its a matter of practicing recording, making a tape or CD, then playing on your home stereo and car stereo, and adjusting from there.

What do I need to buy to make it more proffesional for hiphop? I'm about to buy a delta44 soundcard, and Baby Bottle Microphone; what other stuff do I need for production? monitors, keyboard ect..

Hip Hop guys seem to really like the Roland TR and TB series, so you might want a sampler, or software sampler that contains those percussion/bass sounds, for example. I see no synths or drum machines in your above list, so you might want to purchase an "all in one" keyboard, multitimbral synth such as the Korg Triton, Yamaha Motif, or a lesser cost version of either. There are about 70,000 synthesizers to choose from nowadays. A tour through your local music store might be a good choice for you, as you can tickle the ivories of various synths to find a unit that has the sounds that you like, want, etc. This is subjective, of course.

If you want to be frugal, a multi-timbral synth that responds to midi channels 1-16, including 10 which is typically percussion, you can probably get buy with one synth in the beginning, until you're more along on your recording.

Then of course, you need midi composing software. I'm a cakewalk bigot so I'm going to recommend Sonar or something along those lines.

Good luck!
 
mixing with headphones....
http://www.recordingproject.com/articles/article.php?article=22


room acoustics when producing hiphop wont substantially come into play until mixdown since you wont be dealing with acostic instruments.....for vocals, some kind of makeshift vocal booth with packing blankets hung on plant hanger hooks would help out.......you wont get pro sound but you can get very decent recordings this way.......


maybe think about getting a Really Nice Preamp to go with that BB.........


mixng may or may not be a problem....id get a smaller monitor to do most of the mixing so you dont have bass booming all around.......then use the phones to get the low end right........
 
I really dont know much of any of the equipment you listed, but I can share mine and give you my experience in a bedroom studio.

Recorder device multi 8-track recorder (two tascam 788s, one for spare)

Boss dr770 drum machine (really authintic sounds)

An eazy cheezy yamaha 30 keyboard(used to trigger sounds from other midi devices)

Roland mc-909 groovebox/sampler

AKG sp1000 small condensor mic

Shure SM58

Home stereo used for monitoring.

SonyMD used for referrencing samples of music.

Advice, I make and record rap/hiphop. If you are in a small room watch your mixes. The mixtakes Ive already made have cost me a lot of time. At times your bass sounds louder than it really is. Your highs can throw you off. Example, cause of my mic not being properly equed/having poor monitors/ and not having a good recording/mixing environment has lead me to a shitty mix.

You can take what advice you want as far as headphones. I use mine jus for panning referrences and some other detailed listening. My thoughts on how Koss headphones will throw you off, sometimes I have the sound playing threw my monitors and headphones at the same time. When I pull my head phones off, you can hear the difference. Its almost like the head phones are playing the sound off pitch. Jus some advice, good luck................pM
 
While a lot of people say you can record (dry) with headphones, but you cannot mix with headphones, they are making the assumption that your brain can't be taught a new trick.

When you were born, you couldn't walk, talk, stand, eat, ride a bike or wipe your ass.

Can you do all of this today?

That means your brain learns things. In fact, every day you life you've made many, many new connections within each hemisphere of your brain, as well as connections between the hemispheres. Because your brain has this ability, you can learn to adapt to an impure listening environment like headphones.

The key is to make a very simple recording. Drums, bass, synth or guitar, and vocals. As simple as possible. Record it absolutely dry so you have a repeatable starting point. Then mix it until it sounds right in your headphones.

While the play button is going... record this to cassette or CD. Listen on your computer speakers. Listen on a boom box. Listen on your car stereo. Seperate each listening experience (on different equipment) by four hours, and don't touch your gear during that time. Read, watch TV, go for a walk. Repeat until you don't have any more stereos to listen to your mix on. For each mix, analyze and scrutinize it. To much highs? To much bass? To muddy? Mids okay? Ignore pan completely, its not important.

Once you've established a paper trail as to how good (or bad) it sounds on different equipment, push play again, record to tape, making EQ changes either on the master, or equal EQ changes on each tape return channel. Make your changes no more than a 10% difference from the original setting.

Then repeat the listening, four hour break, listening, etc.

In several days, you'll really understand what EQ settings you need to get a good recording with headphones.

Then listen to the same recording, with the final EQ settings, through your headphones several times with your eyes closed. COncentrate on how it sounds in the headphones. A little bassy, huh? Whatever it is, it definately sounds "wrong". Listen to it again.

Then try to match all future recordings to that "wrong" aural image. You're future recordings will be at least "darn good" with potential for tweaking to "really good".

BTW, the reason for the four hour or so break between listening on different equipment is important, this gives your brain a chance to forget what it just heard. You'll of course remember the music, the tempo, the timbres, the timing fluctuations, but for whatever reason your brain won't initially remember the exact frequency response if you wait several hours.

This is why you 'drill it in' after you figure out the right settings.

Give it a try, it actually works for about 85% of the population.
 
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