Why do you record at home?

  • Thread starter Thread starter squibble94
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bozmillar said:
To me it's kind of like asking "why do play the guitar if you can just buy a CD for $15 and listen to someone play better?"
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More like "Why have a drummer in the band when I can just buy a drumset?"

If you want to be a drummer, great!

If you want to make good music, why not keep focusing on playing guitar and writing, and get a drummer who can contribute to the final product?

As to the question of working with an engineer who has an idea of how things HAVE to be, I'd say there are loads of great engineers in the world. They're no more interchangeable than musicians. (that is to say, you can hire 50 guitarists, some will be jerks, some super guys, some great players, some suck.)
 
This is a great thread and I have enjoyed reading the responses.

Mines a different kind of path that I took to get to the home studio. I started by living my dream of owning my own music store with a fully equipped studio. I loved it...for the first year. But like anything you love to do, turn it into a job and you start to hate it. The recording sessions were great but they got old. The retail sales side was thrilling but nervewracking, the teaching guitar lessons got tedious at 40 lessons a week. The instrument repair side of it stayed fun just cause I love to tinker. But after a few years of it and my friend/business partner screwed me over (dont ever go into a business with a friend or a relative) and I had to shut down and get a real job.

5 years later and the itch hit me again but not to play gigs. Did that too many years. Not for a store. My nerves couldnt handle that again. But I missed the recording side. I loved taking raw sound and editing, tweaking, mixing and mastering it into something I was proud of.

Our approach is waaay different now though. We are still laying floor joists for the studio and its in the building and buying stage but we have already started working on tracks. And by we I mean my wife, 4 kids and I. We all have a passion for music. The wife sings supurbly, both daughters sing very well, one of them is learning guitar, both boys can belt out a tune and one of them is learning sax and guitar while both can play drums. And I can play all the instruments needed to single track layer a song into whatever we are looking for.

So I have gone from trying to make a buck at music to it being solely a hobby. Likely nobody will ever hear most of what we record but it is so rewarding for us to create what we do and sit and listen to it.

Our current cost figure to be able to record that first track in the new studio is right at 10 grand (and thats before i start on my wish list for after the studio is done) but thats not too bad for a hobby that is so rewarding. I say that because ive priced out ski boats, fishing boats and gear, hunting equipment, high end remote control airplanes and gear, and other high end hobbies and i'd say this isnt excessive. And it helps that I wont be locking myself away working on this but it is a family hobby that we all share a passion for and will be involved in.
 
gecko zzed said:
Ironically, I am exactly the reverse. I used to play, solo and in bands, for years, and I always thought I would do that until I drop.

However, as I got older, I increasingly lost interest in performing . . . and now the thought of being on stage makes me shudder.

Instead, I have become increasingly attracted to recording music . . . to capture some of those fleeting ephemeral moments . . . and to explore what I can do with sound.

The process of recording is what attracts me. Once something has been recorded, I am not really very interested in it.
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OMG, this^^^^^^^^^^^
 
Think about this:

1) Back in the 1980's I got into recording because I wanted a home studio to record my Ideas and demo various bands I was in, I set up a 4 track TEAC 3340S and modified an old live PA mixer to behave as a studio mixer. My friends heard the demos and asked if I could record them too, I charged a small fee which I put towards more gear, then friends of friends of friends started coming and soon I rented an old factory and built a studio, I am still going.

2) In the 1990's recording gear and computers became cheaper and people set up little home studios to record ideas before going into the professional studio to record the real thing, but the home studio got better and better and in the end the work dropped off for the professional studios and they started to struggle.

3) The year is 2010, I only run my studio as a part time business now due to there not being enough work to open full time, this does not bother me too much as I enjoy what I do in the studio and I have time to play in my own band. So who records with me?

Bands that want to record live together in a room, with live drums and amps.
Bands that do not own any recording gear and don't want to buy any.
Bands that have nobody technical in the band that knows anything about sound recording.
Bands that have a home studio but want to track drums and guitars and take the files home to work on it.
Solo acts that would rather spend their money with me, get a good product and get on with playing the music live.
And most importantly, Bands that come to me to use my experience with both recording, producing and musical input that you do not get sitting at home on your own.

Don't forget that a big part of classic albums is the producer and engineer, if the Beatles had set up a home studio they would have recorded great songs but would never have meet George Martin, the fifth Beatle.

By all means have a home studio, record ideas, sell a few CDs at gigs, but if you are serious at some time you will need (want) to go into a Studio.

Cheers
Alan.

P.S. When paying for a studio as a band, your personal costs are only the costs divided by the number of members, i.e 4 band members = $1000 a day divided by 4 = $250 day for you. If you go out and buy the gear so that your band can record, they record for free and you pay for the gear and spend all the time. If the band buys gear, thats fine until the band breaks up or someone leaves at some point (which will happen), then who gets the gear?
 
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'cos it's comfortable, I'm in control, I don't pay studio fees........:cool:
 
I recorded because I enjoyed it. I don't enjoy it so much any more due to having to work round some broken equipment I can't really afford to replace, so I don't bother.

Bottom line: If you don't enjoy it, don't bother.
 
I'm just recording how I can, where I can for now, it doesn't matter to me that it's at my house, I'd rather it be in a nicer sounding room than my tiny little basement and some nicer gear wouldn't hurt oh yeah and years of experience would help too, but I can't afford a real place yet but also I can't afford to not be recording :D

I'd say just do what you're comfortable doing and don't worry about "why"
 
witzendoz said:
Don't forget that a big part of classic albums is the producer and engineer, if the Beatles had set up a home studio they would have recorded great songs but would never have meet George Martin, the fifth Beatle.
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Well said sir. John, Paul and George all had tape recorders of their own which they intelligently used for the sole purpose of song writing, but they were smart enough to leave the serious recording to the people that knew how (Emerick and Martin).

How do you think the musicians would feel if us sound guys didn't listen to their music and made our own!
 
WOW! This thread's a hit :eek:

Never thought it'd get this many responses.


Thanks everyone. I enjoyed/enjoy reading the responses.
 
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