Home Recording's Dirty Little Secret

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What were your home recording expectations vs commercial high end studio recordings?

  • I was not expecting from the get go I could make high end commercial studio recordings.

    Votes: 529 40.1%

  • I had not considered the question of home recording quality vs commercial quality when I started.

    Votes: 287 21.8%

  • I expected I could reasonably equal the quality of commercial recordings.

    Votes: 502 38.1%
  • Total voters
    1,318
Im answering this in a forward thinking kind of way. I took up home recording because first an foremost Im a singer/songwriter and performer. I've had label interest on my live work alone but in terms of demos etc I haven't exactly been prolific. I took up home recording to try and put together a group of songs as good as the ones I buy. Right now Im in another solar system but hopefully day by day I get closer to that mark of quality.
 
My main goal is to a make reasonable demo recording of my singing and playing that I can send out, or put samples on line that show what I can do for people who may want to book me for live gigs. Coffee houses, senior centers, etc. Mostly just me singing with my guitar or piano. I'm not expecting comercial quality but I'd like a reasonable representation of what I sound like live. I think the home recording medium should suffice for this. I'm getting ready to retire from my day job soon and want to put more time and energy into performing (not really even to make a lot of money at it, just hoping I can do what I like to do, bring some happyness to those who hear me, and at least break even, with gas and other related expenses).
 
When I was doing this 20 years ago, I was working with a Tascam 8 track reel to reel, and the results were decent.
I saw the digital revolution coming so I bailed, and now that it is all digital I don't think there is much standing in the way of HR folk making quality recordings. My biggest problem back then was the additive tape hiss and it's gone now.

Funny anecdote, I was listening to The Who "Who's Next" on my phone with ear buds while driving home the other night, and the tape hiss was practically offensive. Now, coming up with such great material? Not a chance in the world.
 
I never felt I would be able to afford the level of equipment required and especially to match the acoustical quality of the rooms that professionals record in.
 
I just started out recording because I wanted to make demos and eventually show them to someone to get them professionally recorded. I never thought I would get as good as I am now in such little time (it's been a little over a year). Now I prefer to do all the recording myself. I can achieve the sound I want and I have 100% creative control in making a song, from start to finish. As an artist, there's nothing more satisfying than doing everything yourself.
 
I started making demos at home, they were terrible. I was a professional keyboard player. I was fortunate enough to do a lot of sessions back in the '70's and wound up working as an engineer at a commercial studio. I learned how to mike instruments and mix. I left after a few years because I couldn't hack the working hours. Now I totally believe I can equal a commercial facility at home except maybe for an adequate space to record a drum set. My son plays drums and the garage is a terrible place to record them. I've gotten acceptable results, but it's no Sound City.
 
For those of you who are into hip hop, there are more mixtape releases than album releases and I have heard some mixtapes that have horrible quality, and thats from some well known artists.
 
I started experimenting back in the 90's with Cakewalk 1.0 and a Terratec soundcard. You could definitely hear the music was recorded using a computer, but even back then I was excited with the technology, because before computers came into play you could only record on a multi-track recorder. And I had no piano....I started experementing with MIDI as well, and found that almost every year the technology matured, both in software and hardware.
And now, in 2013, with my Intel 17 and Sonar X2, I feel that the limitation is only me. Almost everything I want to do is can be done, it's just that I sometimes lack the knowledge and experience.
 
Given that many home recordists have decent writing/performing chops, there remains the challenge of memorializing a great song with a good recording. I think the potential of making a great recording exponentially grows with the quality of the hardware. There's tons of good DAW software out there, so that's generally not an issue. But, I guarantee that none of us can be very satisfied with our final product if we use mediocre mics and audio interfaces. Good mics and good preamps are a must. But the sound generator, namely the musical amplifier or DI hardware, must also be of good quality.
 
It took me about a year to get 80% there.

It will probably take me 5 years to get 90% there.

It will probably take me 15 years to get 98% there.
 
Hughseph said:
One of my current favorite bands is Surfer Blood just the other day I saw an interview of them talking about recording their first (and only) album. They allegedly recorded it in a college dorm room with "a bunch of cheap Chinese microphones and Protools."

They are currently on tour opening for the PIXIES. I don't know how you can sit around and complain about how poor your recordings are when there are up and coming musicians frequently releasing bedroom recordings. Honestly, the entire punk scene and a lot of the "hipster" scene revolves around bedroom recordings.

People need to just come to terms with the fact that even a terrible recording of good playing sounds good. Whereas, a pristine recording of bad playing will always sound bad.
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Thats an interesting band from a standpoint of Home Recording 1st Album and Gil Norton Warner Bros. 2nd album.
I like the music and also have read articles of Gil and his Analog/Digital perspective.
I thought the comparison was pretty decent for this thread of "expecting to get a pro sound...etc.."
The Gil Norton Python recording is amazing to listen to. The other "HR" albums is probably at the peak of Home Recording too, not the beginner by any means.

Cool band ...interesting story.
 
The problem is that nearly all gear is of good enough quality now, its our expertise in using it that is lacking. Learning how to "hear" well and engineer is a long term skill, like learning to play an instrument well.

20 years ago I struggled to get a good sound with a Fostex E16 and Studiomaster mixing desk. Kind friends told me that it was because it wasn't pro gear (it wasn't) and there were limits to what I could achieve. I accepted that for a while until the day I accompanied an Island Records AR guy called Chris Hearn to visit 2 new signing of his, with the unpromising name of Gerry & Terry. Terry was a singer/musician/writer, Gerry an engineer.

We had lunch at Terry's house and they played some recent demos. They sounded like masters, absolutely superb! I asked them what gear they used and they took us upstairs to a spare bedroom where I found, you guessed it, Fostex E16 and Studiomaster desk.

Lesson learned.
 
I really like classic recordings. Zeppelin recorded early stuff with an eight track, and had to finish the scream before the lead guitar came in on the same track. How much do we need to deviate from a pure signal into the mic? Classic bands did great things with panning, basic mics, and preproduction (the source). I forget the program this guy used, but i heard his unaltered original mix, and he kept updating it up to six versions with this software. When i told him that i liked the first version, and it was easier on my ears, he couldn't believe it. I agree with an earlier poster about spending too much time on trying for the perfect sound, and ending up not making any music. Can you hear all of the elements? Is your heart and soul in there? Don't spend a fortune. Capture the moment.
 
I personally think with a little bit of time and a little bit more money anything is possible. I have more in my drums, guitars, and mics than I do in computers, mixers, and monitors. All it takes is patience and know what sound you want. Take your time, adjust a little bit at a time and before you know it all that tedious shit pays off and you have something you are happy with.
 
I changed my answer. I seriously think I might be dyslexic. I thought the question said "what ARE your home recording expectations ....."

I definitely used to think I could get as good a sound as the pros. What I discovered is that I can get the most out of the gear that I have, which translates (with proper mastering) to something fairly decent, if not mildly great. Definitely not ear-popping excellent.
 
I have recorded albums (back in the late 80's) in major multi million dollar studios. The stuff I'm doing at home is far superior to anything I did in those studios. It is not about having top end mountains of gear, but rather what you can do with what you have. I have seen people work in studios with gear I will never be able to have at home, and still produce crap at the end of the day.
 
damianhk said:
I really like classic recordings. Zeppelin recorded early stuff with an eight track, and had to finish the scream before the lead guitar came in on the same track. How much do we need to deviate from a pure signal into the mic? Classic bands did great things with panning, basic mics, and preproduction (the source). I forget the program this guy used, but i heard his unaltered original mix, and he kept updating it up to six versions with this software. When i told him that i liked the first version, and it was easier on my ears, he couldn't believe it. I agree with an earlier poster about spending too much time on trying for the perfect sound, and ending up not making any music. Can you hear all of the elements? Is your heart and soul in there? Don't spend a fortune. Capture the moment.
Click to expand...

It isn't about capturing the "perfect" performance or tone. It's about capturing magic.
 
IloveJesus said:
For me it was about the songs.

I've always believed that nothing can compete with a good song.
Click to expand...

Bingo we have a winner!

Though a pristine well mixed , well mastered audio recording is a wonderful thing, in of itself, without a great song it's just a great recording of a mediocre tune...you can not polish a turd...you can try but it's still going to be shit.

Tod Rundgren released an album a few years back called "Arena" done on a laptop with Reason and line 6 gear... Tod has had a little bit of success in his recording career..kinda knows his shit and was able to make an album he felt worthy of releasing at home on a laptop...says a lot about where we have come..

This Mix Magazine Article presents a realistic perspective of what is possible and not in a home studio...
 
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