Definitions of Home Recording

[atomictoyz]

Ive only recently discovered this wonderful place called home recording.com and wanted to ask the question to what are the minimal requirements to be a "home" recordist? Where is the line drawn between" Home Studio" and" Project Studio"? And the line between Project Studio and Pro Studio? I think it would be nice to clarifiy the definitions and requirements so everyone knows what Project Studio means etc...

Let me know your thoughts and opinions please :0)


Peace,
Dennis

[Queue]

Where is the line drawn.....?

Dennis,
Those lines are very grey. Don't waste much time defining what you do, or putting a name on what you do. Just do it. If you need help figuring out how to do it, just ask.

Here you'll find many variations on many themes, everything from a high school kid with a guitar and a 4-track to professional recording engineers who own/work at recording studios, and everything in between. We all co-exist peacefully (most of the time) and share all levels of information.

My advice to you:
Use the search engine as much as possible, before asking questions. Try to provide as much information as possible when asking a question here. (State what you are trying to do, and what you are trying to do it with...) Don't get put off by odd responses to threads here, engineer humor is something that takes getting used to.

Most of all, enjoy!
and Welcome to HomeRec...

Queue

[DavidK]

Pro studios make money, home studios dont!

That being said, I think of a pro studio as in terms of the engineers, producers, musicians who work there. Nowadays, equipment is so inexpensive that lots of people can get an acceptable rig for the basement/home studio, but a decent engineer seperates the men from the boys, so to speak.

I am constantly amazed at the knowledge engineers have of math,electricity, acoustics, etc. I guess that is what makes a "Pro" studio.

Welcome!

[frederic]

A Home Studio is located in your home.
A Project studio is usually located not in your home, but typically involved professional gear, billing, and fees.

These lines of course are very gray. For example, I have a home/project studio. Its in my home, and it invoices

Pro studios typically are larger, have more equipment, on-board professionally trained engineers, and access to the major talents.

Though, like someone said, there is a lot of gray area and overlap.

Originally posted by atomictoyz
Ive only recently discovered this wonderful place called home recording.com and wanted to ask the question to what are the minimal requirements to be a "home" recordist? Where is the line drawn between" Home Studio" and" Project Studio"? And the line between Project Studio and Pro Studio? I think it would be nice to clarifiy the definitions and requirements so everyone knows what Project Studio means etc...

Let me know your thoughts and opinions please :0)


Peace,
Dennis

[atomictoyz]

All very encouraging info and I appreciate your views. So it seem that the definitions are clear, each kind of studio has its purpose but yet has a level of interchangeability. For Instance a Project Studio could be a Home Studio as well, and Steve Vai for an example has a Studio In his home that he lets other people use, but to him it is all 3 kinds, He uses it like a Home/Project studio, but it also generates some income just like a Pro Studio. Does this make any sense? How would one make a transition from Home to Project, and from Project to Pro? What are some examples of the types of equipment used in these different studios?

Peace,
Dennis

[Vance Dylan]

I would disagree with David K. Home studios can and DO make money. We've been set up with our production studio here at home for 2 years now and we were recently able to buy a home 3 times the size of our last one due to it.

I almost prefer now to work from here at home. It gives clients a level of comfort that can't be found in a studio. I'm so sick of dark stale studios with glass seperating everyone. Any-hoo...my two cents.

Vance

[DavidK]

Vance, if you make enough money to buy a new house from recording, I would say that you have a "pro" studio in your home!

Zappa made his later records in his home studio, so has Peter gabriel and lots of folks. I dont think the location of the studio really matters, at least it didnt for Zappa.

Let me put it a different way: Pro studios have "Pro's" at the helm,regardless of the location of the studio and the amount of equipment. There, that sounds pretty good

[sjoko2]

I think the best thing to do it.......

Read J.D.'s series of excellent articles on "the project studio":
http://www.digitalprosound.com/cgi-b...plash_Main.htm

[sjoko2]

Originally posted by DavidK
Zappa made his later records in his home studio, so has Peter gabriel and lots of folks.

http://realworld.co.uk/studios/index.html
that's a link to Peter's home studio

[Vance Dylan]

I never even knew that site exsisted. Couldn't find part two of the Project Studio Articles tho...still searching.

[Queue]

As I said, very grey lines.

Vance's studio is in his home, Home Studio? He makes money there Home Pro Studio? Does he do projects there? Home Pro Project Studio?

All somewhat vague and somewhat interchangeable terms...

Queue

[Vance Dylan]

You know I never put too much thought into all this. I've worked as a freelance engineer out of studios across Canada and down into the States for 10 years now and after setting up some gear at home I realized how much more work I could do in the comfort of my own home. I didn't do larger music productions at the house aside from some editing and that got us into more web audio and doing radio production for folx like Much Music and producing two syndicated radio shows.

As well as working part time at a Music store (great staff discounts on gear ) and my wife working at the best major market radio station in the area combine with the work from the studio we were able to move last month here to this great place.

After following the link to Peter Gabriels studio I realized we were trying to do the same thing. We're trying to create a unique enviromment in this area where people can come and work. It's relaxing, over 20 acres of artist retreat and only 10 minutes from the city. Three Guest Rooms, A mastering suite, tracking room and control room. This plan came from people coming over to our last home studio and commenting how comforting it was. Now we're getting those same comments but from the folx with much larger budgets.

This was enforced by doing sessions at local studios and I started to look around...no windows, no pictures, low lighting and they all start to look the same. Sure they were nice...but I found myself and my clients were not getting inspired.

Now our set up is still in the acoustic treatment stage and we can't tear all nilly apart and build this amazing place like the spot Sjoko has got under way (Look out Gabriel...Sjoko's coming!) but we're planning on making one hell of a cool "Home Studio" (Shit...those terms again) that offers the same or better sound than our competition but without all the classic "Studio Athetics" and gives a more layed back atmosphere.

I'm trying to find a point to my post here but I think using terms and the like don't really apply. If you can create a good looking and sounding enviroment and it's pays even a little bit...well it doesn't matter where it is or what you call it...it's your workplace, play place and place to go and indulge in your musical fantasies.

All this time I've been referring to my place as....the studio...lol

[sjoko2]

I'm afraid our place is many millions more modest than Real World, which is an amazing place (and friggin big as well). Having spend quite a lot of time there in the past, there is one thing I'm sure off - I get better sounds here - (this statement could have something to do with my severe dislike of SSL consoles)