MAKING A Home Studio

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wastehead

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Hello Friends.

This is my first post on this wonderful, helpful and informative forum, so... please go easy.

Im in my last year of high school, and plan on going to college for Recording Media, Digital Applications, and Industry Arts to learn more about the music industry, and learn how to use things like mixers, recording studios, and just basic recording techniques to help me in making my little home studio.
I also play drums, and I have a band. (www.purevolume.comsmd :D )

Now, yes it may seem like im feeding all of you with my life story, but this is just to give more of an idea of what im trying to get done in the creating of my home studio.

I have:
A bunch of vocal mics, (Shure RS25)
A program called Vegas 4.0 by Sonic Foundry
A Yorkville AP812 powered mixer
A surround sound system to act as monitors.
A Peavey bass amp
A Marshal guitar amp

My vocal mics are used to mic my drums, (although they don’t sound great, they do the job) and they're plugged into the AP812 along with my 2 amps, which is then plugged into my computer, running in Vegas 4.0...

(Aside from drum mics) What do I need to do to have good quality recording for my little home studio...

Thanks

.!h3aD:?
 
Thank you VERY much "mshilarious". The website is very helpful. :)
 
wastehead said:
(Aside from drum mics) What do I need to do to have good quality recording for my little home studio...
Click to expand...
Recording skills....

Seriously - I'm not being funny.... many novices think it's about the gear, when in fact, it's the engineering skills that matter for the most part. Before you spend another single penny on gear, you should be learning/practicing recording techniques with the gear you already have.
 
Ahhh...the bear is wise. Put off Gear Slut Syndrome as long as you can. Only buy new gear when you have maxed put the potential of what you have.
 
Welcome to the forums!

If you're planning on doing all your mixing in software, you basically have two chains of gear you need to consider:

Recording chain:
Source (instrument or singer) --> Microphone/DI box --> Preamp --> AD converters (sound card)

Monitoring chain:
DA Converters --> mixer/monitor controller --> Monitors

The most important factor is your actual playing and singing, followed closely by your instruments. Then you can start taking your picks from those two chains and upgrade bits. So you might decide you want one or two quality preamps to replace the ones in your mixer ... or you might want some good monitors to hear what your music REALLY sounds like. But all of that is secondary to actually having some skills, both in recording and performing your music (or getting your clients/bandmates to perform theirs!!!!).

Hope that helps - here is a really important little article on getting your basic gain-staging right, which will stand you in very good stead:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct00/articles/soundcard.htm

Nik :)
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Recording skills....

Seriously - I'm not being funny.... many novices think it's about the gear, when in fact, it's the engineering skills that matter for the most part. Before you spend another single penny on gear, you should be learning/practicing recording techniques with the gear you already have.
Click to expand...

True, and ive been doing that... The AP812 is an interesting unit, and it Does bring alot to the table, but agian, All i have are vocal mics, and to record my drums with vocal mics (especially the snare) sounds rediculous. A lot of Distortion. Not to mention, the acoustics of the room are terrible. Its an old basement Italian kitchen with cement blocks for walls. Now imagine a drumset in that 12 x 8 room. Not very good... But, do with what you have i guess.

And again... Thank you for all your help :)

.!h3aD:?
 
noisedude said:
Welcome to the forums!

If you're planning on doing all your mixing in software, you basically have two chains of gear you need to consider:

Recording chain:
Source (instrument or singer) --> Microphone/DI box --> Preamp --> AD converters (sound card)

Monitoring chain:
DA Converters --> mixer/monitor controller --> Monitors
Click to expand...

Well, Nik (noisedude)

What does all that mean? Like.. again, i AM a newbie at this so... go easy.

the "DA Converters", and the "mixer/monitor controller" ?
and that Manual Soundcard in the link you posted, what does all that do?

Thanks,

.!h3aD:? :o
 
wastehead said:
True, and ive been doing that... The AP812 is an interesting unit, and it Does bring alot to the table, but agian, All i have are vocal mics, and to record my drums with vocal mics (especially the snare) sounds rediculous. A lot of Distortion.
Click to expand...

I can't find the RS25 on the Shure site, but the principle of using a vocal dynamic mic on snare should work OK. The Shure SM58 works fine. That's not to say all you need are 58s to record drums; it's nice to have one or two condensers for overheads. But I don't think that's your biggest problem.

Not to mention, the acoustics of the room are terrible. Its an old basement Italian kitchen with cement blocks for walls. Now imagine a drumset in that 12 x 8 room. Not very good... But, do with what you have i guess.
Click to expand...

OK that is a big problem. You need to deaden the walls a bit with anything you can find--blankets, heavy curtains,medieval tapestries . . . What is the ceilng? Exposed joists? If so, stuff 'em with the good ol' pink insulation. Actually there is an encapsulated fiberglass roll insulation that is perfect for that. Pretty cheap too, and readily available at your local home center.
 
wastehead said:
Well, Nik (noisedude)

What does all that mean? Like.. again, i AM a newbie at this so... go easy.

the "DA Converters", and the "mixer/monitor controller" ?
and that Manual Soundcard in the link you posted, what does all that do?

Thanks,

.!h3aD:? :o
Click to expand...
AD/DA converters = analogue to digital/digital to analogue converters. Basically they take the 'physical' waveform of your sound (i.e. the outputs from your preamps/mixers) and 'sample' them, turning them into digital data that can be put into files and manipulated by your PC.

A monitors controller ............ basically a volume control for your monitors. Studios with larger desks use the monitoring sections of their desks, people like you and me use a mini-mixer or something like the Samson S-Control or the Mackie Big Knob.

The article I linked you to will help you use your existing gear to its full potential, getting a healthy SNR (signal-to-noise ratio, basically getting plenty of your music and as little hiss as possible from your gear) into your computer.

Hope that helps! You have a lifetime of reading and learning to get started on, and there is so much already available on these forums and others sites that I don't plan to spend all night typing my versions of it for you!!! :)
 
mshilarious said:
I can't find the RS25 on the Shure site.
Click to expand...
Well, its under "Wired Mics" and theres not a big section on it. (i dont think theyre as proud of it as their SM's)


mshilarious said:
OK that is a big problem. You need to deaden the walls a bit with anything you can find--blankets, heavy curtains,medieval tapestries . . . What is the ceilng? Exposed joists?
Click to expand...

Well, the ceiling is finished. 2 walls are studed and are drywalled, one wall has concrete blocks, and one wall has old ceramic "nonna" tiles, a couple cubbards and a kitchen sink, so... yea, :( not cool.

What do all you, studio "been there, and regret doing that" people, suggest I do to, i guess you can say, soundproof the walls, and do it CHEAP. (I do need to graduate :) ) and what can i do about the ceiling?

Thanks, yet again.

.!h3aD:?
 
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