antichef
pornk rock
If you're new here, you probably have some questions about recording equipment - this post does not try to answer those questions, but rather attempts to establish a framework for reading, understanding, and interacting with the many people and voluminous information you'll find here and elsewhere on the internet.
If you're like many of us, you're a musician who is either active or used to be active. You probably have some studio and/or live performance experience and you probably have some songs or parts of songs you've been tossing around for quite a while. You've discovered that technology and recording equipment have advanced to the point that there's a chance for you to record yourself (and your friends) without having to go to an expensive studio, and you're ready to give it a shot. You realize you've got much to learn, but would love to get started right away.
Welcome! You've got some very good moments ahead of you. There is *a lot* of equipment available at many different levels of cost, quality, applicability to your situation, etc., etc. I'm not going to try to describe it here - rather, I'm going to try to get you to think about where you may go with all this:
Professional engineers and producers have many, many advantages over us home recordists, most pointedly in terms of skills, but also budgets, general knowledge, availability of facilities, and much more. But there's one advantage (yes, probably just one) that we have over them -- Lack of Deadlines (or Time with a capital T). We have it, they don't. We can take 3 months or 3 years picking at the same song, "release" 20 versions of it, and if it still sucks at that point, there are no consequences to pay - not so for them (unless they are also home recordists, but let's ignore that complexity for the time being). Why is this important? Because what you choose to do with your Time will have a lot to do with when/how/which equipment you purchase, and what you should think when you read someone going on about how some particular doo-hickey is awesome or sucks or whatever. Trust me, this will save you from wasting a bunch of time (and therefore a bunch of Time) reading information that you did not need to read, and possibly from buying stuff you did not need to buy.
Based on my extensive study and scientific experimentation on the members of this board - normally without their consent, I have determined that, as you make your way through the world of home recording, you are likely to fall primarily into one (or two) of these three categories:
1. The "musician": You do some careful research and with a modest budget, buy just enough modest equipment to get your singing/playing into a passable MP3. At first, it's difficult, and you're not satisfied with your recordings. You experiment by moving things around in the room(s) you use (including with reference to furniture that was already there and isn't going anywhere), where you place microphones, the way you're playing and singing, how you get the signal into the computer, and a few things beyond that, and before long, you've found a formula that works and you're happy with *your* recorded sound. You don't know (or really care) whether your formula will work for others, but you share it when you can. You then use your Time to complete and record all your songs, and to write more songs and improve your playing / singing / performance. Every once in a while, something happens that disturbs your situation and you have to take a break from recording -- for instance, a move to a new house that means you have to re-work a few parts of your formula, or the failure of some of the modest equipment you bought. But soon you adapt and replace as necessary and continue as before.
2. The "engineer" (or "producer", depending on your inclination): You fairly quickly find yourself fascinated with the technical and production side of things and develop an urge to become, or at least become like, the professionals you're reading about. You decide you want not only to record yourself and your friends, but also others in your community, perhaps even for a fee. You read everything you can get your hands on, learning about electronics and electro-acoustics. You research equipment slavishly, and may see value in higher end pieces, if for no other reason than reliability and durability. You get some fairly nice stuff and your budget is probably a good bit higher than you originally thought, except that sometimes you were able to *make stuff yourself* because of all the learning you did. At first, it's difficult, and you're not satisfied with your recordings. You keep reading, learning, and experimenting, maybe even attending classes, and before long, you have a dedicated room or two that you're treating for sound - you may even decide to build a dedicated structure for the purpose. As your knowledge and skillset grow, you occasionally pick up new equipment, but you rarely buy something you didn't want/need, because you take the time to try out things as much as you can before you buy them. You rarely have to replace or repair equipment or deal with service interruptions, because your carefully chosen pieces work beautiflly day in and day out. Your ear starts to develop, and you start recording other people, and soon realize how very much more demanding and complex things are when you're working with unknown musicians, instruments, styles, and personalities. At some point you start to lose your Lack of Deadlines and Time (oops), but manage to preserve a good amount of it for yourself, so you're good.
3. The "moron": This is the category I proudly fall in, and therefore it is the one of which I can speak with the most conviction and authority. You run out and buy a bunch of stuff, go home and put it all together, and realize that you're missing a key component. You do a little hasty research, go out and buy more stuff, come back home, and soon, you've got an MP3, so you start making recordings of your songs. At first, it's difficult, and you're not satisfied with your recordings. You get on the internet, search around without finding anything directly relevant, and then ask questions about which piece of equipment is best for this or that and soon realize that the items that you purchased are not really usable for the purpose you intended or the purpose you now intend, and you start to read about high end stuff that sounds incredible, but costs a lot of money, and you wonder why. You price out what you think is your dream system, and realize it's *way* more than you can justify spending, so instead you go out and buy replacements for most or all of your components that you believe will be somewhat better, mainly based on a bunch of posts saying how good they are. You get home and do more web searches on the things you just bought, and start to find other posts saying how much they suck. You get a little bummed, but go ahead and start using it. You get more of your stuff recorded, and your skillset starts to grow a little bit. You use your Time to read posts about equipment, paying special attention to threads that talk about the best microphone or preamp for this, that, or the other thing, even though you're starting to doubt how helpful they are. You think about how awesome it would be to be able record this, that, or the other thing (even though there's little chance you ever will), and go out and buy more stuff, repeating the cycle just described. After a few years, you've got heaps of audio equipment, much of which you don't use anymore, and perhaps a few of those "high end" components that you saved up for and got mostly just to satisfy your curiosity. You're having a good time (which is a great use of your Time) and you have some gratifying recordings, but you're a little jealous of the "engineer" and worse, you listen to a few awesome MP3s posted by the "musician" and realize that they were recorded with the equipment that you first bought and stopped using years ago, or something similar. And still worse, you go back and listen to *your own* recordings from a few years ago, and hear some good things that you don't seem to be pulling off any more. You take a break and ultimately resolve to be either the musician or the engineer (or both) using the equipment that you've got, but you still fall victim to bouts of "Gear Acquisition Syndrome" from time to time. All in good fun.
NOTE: I submit that all 3 of these categories are populated by folks who are doing just what they want to be doing and should be doing - but think about what happens when the moron reads a post by the engineer, or when the musician notices what a moron the moron is, etc. -- That is, think of all the miscommunication and poor advice that's possible when you mix up these three types and try to have meaningful dialogs about equipment.
When communicating here: 1) identify which category best describes you (go morons!!); 2) take a guess at which category best describes the people who are trying to help you (or are laughing at you); 3) translate appropriately.
Now, with that in mind, go nuts!
If you're like many of us, you're a musician who is either active or used to be active. You probably have some studio and/or live performance experience and you probably have some songs or parts of songs you've been tossing around for quite a while. You've discovered that technology and recording equipment have advanced to the point that there's a chance for you to record yourself (and your friends) without having to go to an expensive studio, and you're ready to give it a shot. You realize you've got much to learn, but would love to get started right away.
Welcome! You've got some very good moments ahead of you. There is *a lot* of equipment available at many different levels of cost, quality, applicability to your situation, etc., etc. I'm not going to try to describe it here - rather, I'm going to try to get you to think about where you may go with all this:
Professional engineers and producers have many, many advantages over us home recordists, most pointedly in terms of skills, but also budgets, general knowledge, availability of facilities, and much more. But there's one advantage (yes, probably just one) that we have over them -- Lack of Deadlines (or Time with a capital T). We have it, they don't. We can take 3 months or 3 years picking at the same song, "release" 20 versions of it, and if it still sucks at that point, there are no consequences to pay - not so for them (unless they are also home recordists, but let's ignore that complexity for the time being). Why is this important? Because what you choose to do with your Time will have a lot to do with when/how/which equipment you purchase, and what you should think when you read someone going on about how some particular doo-hickey is awesome or sucks or whatever. Trust me, this will save you from wasting a bunch of time (and therefore a bunch of Time) reading information that you did not need to read, and possibly from buying stuff you did not need to buy.
Based on my extensive study and scientific experimentation on the members of this board - normally without their consent, I have determined that, as you make your way through the world of home recording, you are likely to fall primarily into one (or two) of these three categories:
1. The "musician": You do some careful research and with a modest budget, buy just enough modest equipment to get your singing/playing into a passable MP3. At first, it's difficult, and you're not satisfied with your recordings. You experiment by moving things around in the room(s) you use (including with reference to furniture that was already there and isn't going anywhere), where you place microphones, the way you're playing and singing, how you get the signal into the computer, and a few things beyond that, and before long, you've found a formula that works and you're happy with *your* recorded sound. You don't know (or really care) whether your formula will work for others, but you share it when you can. You then use your Time to complete and record all your songs, and to write more songs and improve your playing / singing / performance. Every once in a while, something happens that disturbs your situation and you have to take a break from recording -- for instance, a move to a new house that means you have to re-work a few parts of your formula, or the failure of some of the modest equipment you bought. But soon you adapt and replace as necessary and continue as before.
2. The "engineer" (or "producer", depending on your inclination): You fairly quickly find yourself fascinated with the technical and production side of things and develop an urge to become, or at least become like, the professionals you're reading about. You decide you want not only to record yourself and your friends, but also others in your community, perhaps even for a fee. You read everything you can get your hands on, learning about electronics and electro-acoustics. You research equipment slavishly, and may see value in higher end pieces, if for no other reason than reliability and durability. You get some fairly nice stuff and your budget is probably a good bit higher than you originally thought, except that sometimes you were able to *make stuff yourself* because of all the learning you did. At first, it's difficult, and you're not satisfied with your recordings. You keep reading, learning, and experimenting, maybe even attending classes, and before long, you have a dedicated room or two that you're treating for sound - you may even decide to build a dedicated structure for the purpose. As your knowledge and skillset grow, you occasionally pick up new equipment, but you rarely buy something you didn't want/need, because you take the time to try out things as much as you can before you buy them. You rarely have to replace or repair equipment or deal with service interruptions, because your carefully chosen pieces work beautiflly day in and day out. Your ear starts to develop, and you start recording other people, and soon realize how very much more demanding and complex things are when you're working with unknown musicians, instruments, styles, and personalities. At some point you start to lose your Lack of Deadlines and Time (oops), but manage to preserve a good amount of it for yourself, so you're good.
3. The "moron": This is the category I proudly fall in, and therefore it is the one of which I can speak with the most conviction and authority. You run out and buy a bunch of stuff, go home and put it all together, and realize that you're missing a key component. You do a little hasty research, go out and buy more stuff, come back home, and soon, you've got an MP3, so you start making recordings of your songs. At first, it's difficult, and you're not satisfied with your recordings. You get on the internet, search around without finding anything directly relevant, and then ask questions about which piece of equipment is best for this or that and soon realize that the items that you purchased are not really usable for the purpose you intended or the purpose you now intend, and you start to read about high end stuff that sounds incredible, but costs a lot of money, and you wonder why. You price out what you think is your dream system, and realize it's *way* more than you can justify spending, so instead you go out and buy replacements for most or all of your components that you believe will be somewhat better, mainly based on a bunch of posts saying how good they are. You get home and do more web searches on the things you just bought, and start to find other posts saying how much they suck. You get a little bummed, but go ahead and start using it. You get more of your stuff recorded, and your skillset starts to grow a little bit. You use your Time to read posts about equipment, paying special attention to threads that talk about the best microphone or preamp for this, that, or the other thing, even though you're starting to doubt how helpful they are. You think about how awesome it would be to be able record this, that, or the other thing (even though there's little chance you ever will), and go out and buy more stuff, repeating the cycle just described. After a few years, you've got heaps of audio equipment, much of which you don't use anymore, and perhaps a few of those "high end" components that you saved up for and got mostly just to satisfy your curiosity. You're having a good time (which is a great use of your Time) and you have some gratifying recordings, but you're a little jealous of the "engineer" and worse, you listen to a few awesome MP3s posted by the "musician" and realize that they were recorded with the equipment that you first bought and stopped using years ago, or something similar. And still worse, you go back and listen to *your own* recordings from a few years ago, and hear some good things that you don't seem to be pulling off any more. You take a break and ultimately resolve to be either the musician or the engineer (or both) using the equipment that you've got, but you still fall victim to bouts of "Gear Acquisition Syndrome" from time to time. All in good fun.
NOTE: I submit that all 3 of these categories are populated by folks who are doing just what they want to be doing and should be doing - but think about what happens when the moron reads a post by the engineer, or when the musician notices what a moron the moron is, etc. -- That is, think of all the miscommunication and poor advice that's possible when you mix up these three types and try to have meaningful dialogs about equipment.
When communicating here: 1) identify which category best describes you (go morons!!); 2) take a guess at which category best describes the people who are trying to help you (or are laughing at you); 3) translate appropriately.
Now, with that in mind, go nuts!
Last edited:
