What do you need for quality home recording?

[jonathanmaria]

My brother is a musician and wants to record his own stuff in a home studio environment - he's used to recording in proper studios and having someone else mix with Pro Tools...

He has all the equipment needed to make a good job of it on his own, but is currently thinking about using a PC to do the recording - I'm inclinded to think he'd be better off with a Mac - would he?

Can anyone advise on what hardware and what saftware would be best for professional quality home recording? Is Garageband or the free Windos equiv. up to it? Does one need special ports or are are USB connections enough? How much RAM do you realistically need?

All advice, much appreciated!

 

[cellardweller]

I won't answer, because there are many MUCH more experienced people here.
BUT, they are going to ask for more info.

Like,

what do you currently have.
How many tracks need be recorded at one time.
Perhaps what genre of music.
What kind of space do you have to dedicate to recording.
How much money do you have for this.

 

[reshp1]

Well for the PC vs Mac thing, it depends on the software he plans on using and what he's most comfortable with. If he's used to Protools, a Digi 002R would be a good all in one solution. It comes with the interface (via firewire) and Protools LE software. That way he can bring the sessions he records at home directly to the pro studio and open them right up without painful conversion/importing. I use 1GB of RAM, may be a little overkill for some things, but it lets me do everything I need no problems.

 

[jonnyc]

Yeah it really depends on what software your brother wants to use. Anyway if its ProTools I highly recommend a Mac. You don't need a powermac the Imac does a fine job. If cubase is something he's interested in then I'd say go pc. And some software only works with macs or pc's. Many people don't recommend pro tools le because of how limited it is. Its biggest drawback for me is the 32 track count limit and I can work around it. I personally love pro tools eventhough it has limits and if your brother plans on taking what he does to a pro studio then ptle is the only way to go. Theres much more info to give if you can give us some more specific details on what you want to do.

 

[dwillis45]

High quality “professional” home recording? Start with a good room design, add high quality monitors, and focus on the main ingredients in the recording chain: Mics, preamps, AD/DA converters. The computer brand is really a matter of what the user knows best. Macs are more expensive but may have a slight reliability edge (but who knows!) Just make sure the machine has plenty of storage space, a fast hard drive (9200rmp), plenty of RAM (1GB?), and a chip set that is compatible with the interface or sound card. Software is also a matter of personal choice. There are a lot of good options and you probably can’t go wrong with Cubase, Digital Performer, ProTools, Logic, etc. Many of these can be downloaded on a trial basis so you can judge whether the interface makes sense.

I can't emphasize enough the importance of the room, the monitors and the recording chain (Mic-preamp-Converters). Next to talent and engineering this is really the whole ball of wax IMHO.

 

[tappmusic]

My home studio operates from a PC. To me, here are a few start-up components that are important:
- At least 7200 rpm processor (mine is a 2.8GHz)
- At least 512 MB of RAM (more would be preferrable)
- 19" - 21" computer monitor is nice because you can see more tracks at a time
- A set of decent active near field monitors (Yamaha MSP3, MSP5, etc.)
- A soundcard with a good quality A/D converter
- A large diaphram condenser mic (they're versatile - vocals, acoustical instruments, etc.)
- A one or two-channel mic preamp
- A compressor to keep your vocal recording at a good level without clipping
- Multiple sound panels to control your room acoustics (I made mine and they're great. Look up Jeff Strong's web site. I believe he has instructions to help you out.)
- I'm a Cakewalk fan! I'm so pleased with the capability of my Cakewalk-based DAW, but I think you could do great stuff with whichever program you pick.

I'll stop there. I hope this helps!

Micah

 

[fraserhutch]

My home studio operates from a PC. To me, here are a few start-up components that are important:
- At least 7200 rpm processor (mine is a 2.8GHz)

Ummm, I think that a spec for a harddrive CPUs don't rotate
You can get into wars here stating what you believe minimum CPU speeds should be, bu 2.5GHZ is to me a bare minimum for serious work.

I woudl strongly suggest 2 harddrives, one for your system files and another for you audio files (project files OK here too).
The harddisks should have 8MB buffers and be at LEAST 7200 RPMs.

- At least 512 MB of RAM (more would be preferrable)
- 19" - 21" computer monitor is nice because you can see more tracks at a time
- A set of decent active near field monitors (Yamaha MSP3, MSP5, etc.)
- A soundcard with a good quality A/D converter
- A large diaphram condenser mic (they're versatile - vocals, acoustical instruments, etc.)
- A one or two-channel mic preamp
- A compressor to keep your vocal recording at a good level without clipping
- Multiple sound panels to control your room acoustics (I made mine and they're great. Look up Jeff Strong's web site. I believe he has instructions to help you out.)

This is such an underrated part of the equation. My studio's sound sucked until I put in the effort to tune up my room. Check out the Studio Building forum here, Ethan Winer et al have all the info you need and they are wonderful about sharing it.

 

[blazingstrings]

Another thought on the "pro" equipment.

Even if his Brother is working on stuff in a pro studio he can look into other software than Pro-Tools.

Many Programs support exporting in a Pro-Tools format.

I would suggest using a PC for many diferent reasons, but the biggest reason is the Price . as you can now build a machine that will smoke a Apple(Uh oh here comes the Apple Vs. Pc Crap)....

I use Sonar 4 PE and have used Cubase and others. In my studio Cakewalk Sonar 4 PE rocks and is very usable. And I am only using a Celeron processor and 512mb of ram and not realy the best componants. I can do 24 tracks at 24/96. and still use plugins.

That just my 2cents.

-Blaze

 

[mbenny123]

I use Sonar 4 PE and have used Cubase and others. In my studio Cakewalk Sonar 4 PE rocks and is very usable. And I am only using a Celeron processor and 512mb of ram and not realy the best componants. I can do 24 tracks at 24/96. and still use plugins.

Same here. I too use a Celeron with 512mb memory and Sonar. It's sluggish at times but it gets the job done.

 

[blazingstrings]

Hey Mbenny?
What speed is your processor? Just curious as I am running a 2.4ghz and Sonar doesnt realy run sluggish at all.......... Althought my OS is nice and tweeked.

-Blaze

 

[NYMorningstar]

The most important ingredient for a quality home recording is the same as any recording. First and most important is you need someone that knows what they're doing. Without that it's pretty much hit and miss and is usually more miss. Then you need something good to record. Shining shit will waste away your life so fix the source before you hit the record button. After that then the room, hardware and software come into play. Mac or PC? Doesn't really matter because both are transparent to your sound. Use whatever you feel comfortable with and make sure you have enough processing power to record at least 24/48.

 

[sile2001]

As NYMorningstar just pointed out, equipment really is one of the smallest factors in a professional sound. I'm sure your brother has some nice equipment and all of that, but you said one key thing: "he's used to recording in proper studios and having someone else mix with Pro Tools." Your brother doesn't have the experience with tracking and mixing that that "other" person (the engineer) has. It is ALL about the experience.

I can guarantee you that you could set me down in a multi-million dollar studio with a nice Neve console and more quality mics and rack gear than you could shake a stick at, and you could set George Massenburg down in front of a Tascam 4 track with a pair of SM57's............and George's tracks would beat the crap out of anything I could come up with. It's ALL about experience.

 

[mbenny123]

Hey Mbenny?
What speed is your processor? Just curious as I am running a 2.4ghz and Sonar doesnt realy run sluggish at all.......... Althought my OS is nice and tweeked.

-Blaze

1.7Ghz .........