I'm posting this in the hope of saving newbies some of the pitfalls
amd mistakes ive made in putting together studios in the past 25 years.
Heres a list of tips.
you CAN build a good quality home studio for about 2500 bucks.
stick rigorously to this budget. it CAN BE DONE.
heres how..
-- buy used equipment eg: synths (become outdated quickly anyway)
-- consider building your own mic preamps. if you are really
serious about becoming a recording engineer you should
learn some electronics anyway. take a night course.
low noise audio transistors with noise floors of only 1db
can be bought for 5 to the dollar. look on the net
for lots of schematics. you can build a mic preamp thats clean
for 20 bucks. starting out you can use preamps
also in old used portastudios. some ive seen go as low as
10 dollars used. you may not be aware of this , but some
of the old portastudios used preamp designs based on pretty proven circuits.
-- THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE PERFECT MONITOR. even if there was
there is no guarantee YOUR MIX will translate well to
a boombox or poor pair of speakers being used by an A and R
exec listening to your demo re; possibly signing you.
a better solution is to test your mixes out on different
speaker combinations friends have or in the car.
ive heard many a fine mix go south that was mixed on
multi thousan ddollar monitors when listened on a pair
of one dollar headfones from a dollar store.
therefore you should have in your studio say a pair of yorkies,
a boombox, a car speaker, and any other lousy playback format
you can get hold of used or thrown away by a family member.
-- the ONLY THING I WOULD BUY NEW is the soundcard. because
this is the HEART of your studio. using on board sound chips
or cheap sound cards just will not give you the conversion quality.
also i would consider one decent "honey" lead vocal and
instrument mic. just one. supplemented by a couple of cheap
mics. there are many you can choose from.
on the subject of mics , and this applies to a lot of equipment,
just because its cheap does not necessarily mean its bad.
as an example a few weeks back i got a stunning vocal track
out of a no name dynamic a friend gave to me , because of losing
interest in recording. i tried this piece of junk mic as a challenge\
to myself to see if i could get anything useable.
soloed the track was a tad noisy,
but after a bit of editing, and cleaning of the track and
manipulation i was stunned to find the track fitted perfectly
in the mix. more perfect in fact than more expensive mics i tried.
so just think on this point. ITS NOT THE EQUIPMENT YOU HAVE,
its how you choose TO ENGINEER WITH IT. also think on this.
when i was taught by an old engineer audio recording basics he pummeled into me
one important aspect. he made me use the most awful mic.
it took me several hours but finally i found a sound we both
liked. finally he said "what have you learnt ?". i meekly replied.
you CAN get a good sound out of anything if you work at it.
The main point i'm trying to make is yes everyone would like
a 2500 dollar preamp , and a 2k mic. but good tracks
have been done with less IF YOU WORK AT IT. believe it or not
one of my songs at soundclick thats had thousands of plays
used a crazy old speaker as a mic for one of the guitar tracks.
thru a diy mic preamp. why has this song had more play than
others ive recorded in multimillion dollar studios ?
Because its a song folks like. and they like the sound texture
given to it by all the crazy gear i used on the song as an
experiment. an old recording saying where i come from .
"a mongrel dog is better than no dog".
-- computers are cheap now. if you need one , a 2ghz amd should
get you over 40 tracks easily. which brings me to a point.
-- DONT OVERPRODUCE. every new studio ive ever come across, their
first song always has loads of tracks. ive even seen guys do
40 midi tracks plus 60 audio tracks with different computers.
or to qoute someone else on the bbs. you cant polish a turd.
if the songs BAD. then write another song.
when i was taught, one thing was pummelled into me.
in the first 8 tracks you know if the song is happening.
by 16 it should be close to finished. so my steadfast
rule is maximum of 24 tracks. which gives some leeway,
even with stacking and submixing tracks.
anymore and i'm overproducing. what ive found is if i need
lots of tracks to build the sound picture than i'm not
capturing the source tracks properly. i'm being lazy.
also be tough on yourself. we used to take rough song ideas
out of the studio and ask random folks in the street what
they thought of a particular song. its brutal on the
songwriter who just labored away, but it brings you
back to reality WITH A THUD. One of my songs on soundclick
every little old lady loves because its a sloppy love song
called springtime and love. how i came about writing this
song was several little old ladies at random said to me one
day noone writes sloppy stuff anymore. even though i like
writing rock i could see there was a need unfulfilled.
hence the song. so another piece of advice. listen to
the normal people. dont get so wrapped up in all the equipment you
forget the often unfullfilled needs out there.
folks ive made a SLEW of mistakes over the years, and though i'm
posting this i dont want anyone to think i know it all. I DONT.
i'm just a struggling songwriter from the school of hard audio
engineering knocks trying to help newbies avoid
all the stupid things ive done in the learning process. and maybe
save folks some money.
One of the major things ive learnt is
a song must have HOOKS to be successfull. if thats your aim.
a good song with great hooks will beat out a poor song recorded
using elite equipment anyday imho.
also - let me say if your aim IS to be huge , my advice newbies is
think twice. ive met a few big names in my time and was shocked to be told about the downsides. how you cant go anywhere, and the constant media scrutiny. and many other problems. its not all its made out to be.
My final piece of advice , and this is how i stopped my own
gear acquisition syndrome. everytime i get hot on a new piece for
my studio i think to myself two things. one i'll probably
find it used at a cheap price in 6 months, and two - get off your lazy bottom and write a new song instead of visiting the equipment store.
I was lucky when i started out, i had some seasoned engineers
to kick me occassionally. and knock sense into my know
it all ego. i suggest you find your own mentor as well.
you can learn lots from them.
happy new year to all homereccers.
amd mistakes ive made in putting together studios in the past 25 years.
Heres a list of tips.
you CAN build a good quality home studio for about 2500 bucks.
stick rigorously to this budget. it CAN BE DONE.
heres how..
-- buy used equipment eg: synths (become outdated quickly anyway)
-- consider building your own mic preamps. if you are really
serious about becoming a recording engineer you should
learn some electronics anyway. take a night course.
low noise audio transistors with noise floors of only 1db
can be bought for 5 to the dollar. look on the net
for lots of schematics. you can build a mic preamp thats clean
for 20 bucks. starting out you can use preamps
also in old used portastudios. some ive seen go as low as
10 dollars used. you may not be aware of this , but some
of the old portastudios used preamp designs based on pretty proven circuits.
-- THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE PERFECT MONITOR. even if there was
there is no guarantee YOUR MIX will translate well to
a boombox or poor pair of speakers being used by an A and R
exec listening to your demo re; possibly signing you.
a better solution is to test your mixes out on different
speaker combinations friends have or in the car.
ive heard many a fine mix go south that was mixed on
multi thousan ddollar monitors when listened on a pair
of one dollar headfones from a dollar store.
therefore you should have in your studio say a pair of yorkies,
a boombox, a car speaker, and any other lousy playback format
you can get hold of used or thrown away by a family member.
-- the ONLY THING I WOULD BUY NEW is the soundcard. because
this is the HEART of your studio. using on board sound chips
or cheap sound cards just will not give you the conversion quality.
also i would consider one decent "honey" lead vocal and
instrument mic. just one. supplemented by a couple of cheap
mics. there are many you can choose from.
on the subject of mics , and this applies to a lot of equipment,
just because its cheap does not necessarily mean its bad.
as an example a few weeks back i got a stunning vocal track
out of a no name dynamic a friend gave to me , because of losing
interest in recording. i tried this piece of junk mic as a challenge\
to myself to see if i could get anything useable.
soloed the track was a tad noisy,
but after a bit of editing, and cleaning of the track and
manipulation i was stunned to find the track fitted perfectly
in the mix. more perfect in fact than more expensive mics i tried.
so just think on this point. ITS NOT THE EQUIPMENT YOU HAVE,
its how you choose TO ENGINEER WITH IT. also think on this.
when i was taught by an old engineer audio recording basics he pummeled into me
one important aspect. he made me use the most awful mic.
it took me several hours but finally i found a sound we both
liked. finally he said "what have you learnt ?". i meekly replied.
you CAN get a good sound out of anything if you work at it.
The main point i'm trying to make is yes everyone would like
a 2500 dollar preamp , and a 2k mic. but good tracks
have been done with less IF YOU WORK AT IT. believe it or not
one of my songs at soundclick thats had thousands of plays
used a crazy old speaker as a mic for one of the guitar tracks.
thru a diy mic preamp. why has this song had more play than
others ive recorded in multimillion dollar studios ?
Because its a song folks like. and they like the sound texture
given to it by all the crazy gear i used on the song as an
experiment. an old recording saying where i come from .
"a mongrel dog is better than no dog".
-- computers are cheap now. if you need one , a 2ghz amd should
get you over 40 tracks easily. which brings me to a point.
-- DONT OVERPRODUCE. every new studio ive ever come across, their
first song always has loads of tracks. ive even seen guys do
40 midi tracks plus 60 audio tracks with different computers.
or to qoute someone else on the bbs. you cant polish a turd.
if the songs BAD. then write another song.
when i was taught, one thing was pummelled into me.
in the first 8 tracks you know if the song is happening.
by 16 it should be close to finished. so my steadfast
rule is maximum of 24 tracks. which gives some leeway,
even with stacking and submixing tracks.
anymore and i'm overproducing. what ive found is if i need
lots of tracks to build the sound picture than i'm not
capturing the source tracks properly. i'm being lazy.
also be tough on yourself. we used to take rough song ideas
out of the studio and ask random folks in the street what
they thought of a particular song. its brutal on the
songwriter who just labored away, but it brings you
back to reality WITH A THUD. One of my songs on soundclick
every little old lady loves because its a sloppy love song
called springtime and love. how i came about writing this
song was several little old ladies at random said to me one
day noone writes sloppy stuff anymore. even though i like
writing rock i could see there was a need unfulfilled.
hence the song. so another piece of advice. listen to
the normal people. dont get so wrapped up in all the equipment you
forget the often unfullfilled needs out there.
folks ive made a SLEW of mistakes over the years, and though i'm
posting this i dont want anyone to think i know it all. I DONT.
i'm just a struggling songwriter from the school of hard audio
engineering knocks trying to help newbies avoid
all the stupid things ive done in the learning process. and maybe
save folks some money.
One of the major things ive learnt is
a song must have HOOKS to be successfull. if thats your aim.
a good song with great hooks will beat out a poor song recorded
using elite equipment anyday imho.
also - let me say if your aim IS to be huge , my advice newbies is
think twice. ive met a few big names in my time and was shocked to be told about the downsides. how you cant go anywhere, and the constant media scrutiny. and many other problems. its not all its made out to be.
My final piece of advice , and this is how i stopped my own
gear acquisition syndrome. everytime i get hot on a new piece for
my studio i think to myself two things. one i'll probably
find it used at a cheap price in 6 months, and two - get off your lazy bottom and write a new song instead of visiting the equipment store.
I was lucky when i started out, i had some seasoned engineers
to kick me occassionally. and knock sense into my know
it all ego. i suggest you find your own mentor as well.
you can learn lots from them.
happy new year to all homereccers.
