software

OK, imagine that you had a room that you decided would solely be used as a studio. You pad all the walls, floors, etc to make it as soundproof as possible, and you invest in some quality recording equipment.

Is it realistic to think that with that setup, you could make recordings that have the same level of quality as major CD's? In other words, professional recordings, at home.

If yes, then what is necessary to achieve this? This is basically my very long-term project, so I've got to start saving my pennies now....

I know someone who has a professional studio in his house. It really depends how much you want to spend, though. He has $15,000 in just cables. The good thing is that you can start small and upgrade everything.
I'd recommend getting Pro Tools and a nice Mac.

I wouldn't say you could create recordings on par with major studios without investing MAJOR money, but you could come close with the right stuff, and recording things that had limited needs.

1 to the mac and pro tools. That's a good place to start. I'm on my way to being pro tools certified at the moment.

If you want a quality professional studio, you're going to have to invest ridiculous amounts of money in order for it to come out like the major CDs. You're going to need tons of different mics, some you'll have to pay around 20 grand a piece for (Telefunkens are very good from what I've gathered). Lots of rack equipment should be purchased. You'll want to add things like compression, delay or a little reverb to spice up quot;hardquot; tracks to quot;masterquot; quality.

I'd look into getting a new Mac and Pro Tools like n00b mentioned. Mic placement just comes from experience and when I talk to my friend (who owns a studio himself), when he talks about mic placement, it's like science the way he has it all laid out.

Me? I'm happy with my Shure SM57 through my Tascam US-122 to Cool Edit Pro 2 on my Toshiba. I don't get the dimensions that other recordings get because I only use one mic (very often pros can have up to several recording at one time), but it works for getting good tone on a major budget (I prefer to invest my money into my gear more than my recording equipment).

OK, guess I'll have to win the lottery before I do it then....

To quote a Mr. H. Simpson: 'D'oh!'

Look at it this way. Victor Wooten recorded a CD a few years ago at his house and a friends house on a Roland VS-1680. It was up for a Grammy that year.

There's exceptions to every rule. Todd Rungren was infamous for going into his home studio alone, and coming out with hit records . . . that were renowned for being some of the worst recordings in history.

(I know . . . I own them all.)

This summer I put a little over 20 grand into my home studio. Pro Tool HD accel2, G5, avalon pres, quality mics, etc. I'm working very hard (spending basically all my free time) to get my recordings to match up with unbelievable sounding stuff that's being put out nowadays. Equipment alone won't do it, though. Great tunes amp; great ears might.


Originally Posted by seafoamerEquipment alone won't do it, though. Great tunes amp; great ears might.

That's the key. If you have a decent modern DAW system on a good computer, with a few good mics, and a lot of patience, you can make a record as good as a major studio. You just can't try to copy all the stuff you hear on a major studio release. You'll never sound the same, and as good, but you can sound different and better.

Like they say about guitar, the tone is in the fingers. The studio version would be the tone is in the engineers ears. And remember horrible songs are still horrible even if they are recorded well.

My Roland VS1880 amp; CD burner seem to do just fine in my wife's library. I'll put anything that I've released up against anything that's being played on the radio. Of course, the difference is that none of my material is being played on the radio!


Originally Posted by the_ChrisIf you want a quality professional studio, you're going to have to invest ridiculous amounts of money in order for it to come out like the major CDs. You're going to need tons of different mics, some you'll have to pay around 20 grand a piece for (Telefunkens are very good from what I've gathered). Lots of rack equipment should be purchased. You'll want to add things like compression, delay or a little reverb to spice up quot;hardquot; tracks to quot;masterquot; quality.

I'd look into getting a new Mac and Pro Tools like n00b mentioned. Mic placement just comes from experience and when I talk to my friend (who owns a studio himself), when he talks about mic placement, it's like science the way he has it all laid out.

Me? I'm happy with my Shure SM57 through my Tascam US-122 to Cool Edit Pro 2 on my Toshiba. I don't get the dimensions that other recordings get because I only use one mic (very often pros can have up to several recording at one time), but it works for getting good tone on a major budget (I prefer to invest my money into my gear more than my recording equipment).

I have a 3rd bedroom that is my studio.
It can be done. The Beatles recorded on technolgy far less advanced than todays average Tascam.

ProTools is good but seriously expensive. Sonar or Cubase are viable options for far less coin. All of the rack stuff mentioned above can be done with software these days for a lot less coin. Acoustic treatments are important especially if you are using a smaller room. If you do your homework it can be done well fairly inexpensively.

Now, all of that said will you be equipped like a world class studio? No. But a lot of the albums you hear weren't either. The Blue Note Label back in the day recorded most of their stuff in the home studio of Rudy Van Gelder. To this day those old Miles and 'Trane records are amazing. At least one of the Gambale/Hamm/Smith records were recorded in Steve Smith's house

The 3 most important pieces of gear are 1) A killer sound card. Money invested here is rarely wasted. 2) Monitors. It doesn't matter what you record if you can't hear it accurately 3) Acoustic treatment. The best monitors are useless if the room is coloroing the sound.

Those things plus quite frankly, experience recording and good ears will get you where you need to be.

Re: the sound card.

What do you reccomend on a budget (couple hundred) and an unlimited budget?


Originally Posted by seafoamerThis summer I put a little over 20 grand into my home studio.

Wow... That's a lot of cash.

Thanks for the advice guys... from this I have gathered that I need the following:

1. A good computer with an excellent sound card

2. An excellent mixing desk

3. Loads of mics

4. A decent room

5. Good ears Are Macs really that much better than PC's? You can get some really amazing sound editing programs for Windows, so is a Mac really necessary?

my band just recorded a song at my buddy's home studio, and it came out really really well.

the mics he has aren't of the best quality, but they're good enough to get the job done. he has a rack about as tall as me full of a bunch of processing gear, and two rackmount 8-track recorders (though i can't recall the make or model of them), and a behringer eurorack 48 channel mixer or something crazy like that. his stuff is pretty sweet, but it isn't the absolute fanciest stuff out there. but the reason he can make it sound so good is because he really knows how to use his stuff. so i guess the end result can depend more on how much you know your **** than how much gear you've got.

perhaps i'll post the song once it's been mixed and mastered.

you dont necessarily need pro tools and a mac. I find that to be the expensive route.

I helped my dad set up a killer studio for a whole lot less. I built an Athlon 64 based PC, 2 gigabytes of ram, 2 seagate barracuda hard drives raided, 2 western digital 10,000 rpm raptors raided, delta 1010 internal card, tube mic preamp, mackie 16 track mixer.

This actually totaled to a lot less than my uncles Pro tools 002 and mac setup. We use Sonar 4 producer edition.


Originally Posted by darkshadow54321Wow... That's a lot of cash.

Thanks for the advice guys... from this I have gathered that I need the following:

1. A good computer with an excellent sound card

2. An excellent mixing desk

3. Loads of mics

4. A decent room

5. Good ears Are Macs really that much better than PC's? You can get some really amazing sound editing programs for Windows, so is a Mac really necessary?

Macs tend to be alot more stable than PC's because of the way they are built (all the parts, etc. having to go through QC checks by Mac itself). I do my recording on a PC and it works alright, BUT I have about a $1200 PC, not including the sound card. You don't neccessarily needs tons of mics, just the right ones. Sure, years down the road, after your ears have been extensively trained, you may hear a tone in your head and go quot;Man, I could get that sound with so and so mic.quot; But for the most part, a few well rounded large diaphragm condensers, a couple small diaphragm condenders and some good dynamic mics for drums and/or guitar should do you just fine.

The key for me is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS a good drum sound. If you can't get that, your recording is always going to sound amatuerish and weak. So what I would reccomend doing is save up your money to buy an 8 track sound card/preamp (M-Audio makes some good ones that aren't crazy expensive) that has XLR inputs, that way you don't even have to worry about getting a mixer yet (but you'll need one later). Then go and buy up some SM57's, a kick drum mic and some cheaper small diaphragm condensers on ebay. This should give you a pretty good drum mic setup and the SM57's can double as guitar mics, the SD condensers as a vocal mic, and the kick drum as a bass mic (but you can usually DI bass).

You're probably looking at about $1200-1500 right there. And that's just the beginning. But you can use that for a year or so and just work on mic'ing techniques. No mic, no matter how expensive, will give you a good sound if you don't know how to use it. So use these mics to learn the ropes while you save up money to buy better gear. If you can put down some decent sounding tracks with that stuff (and you should be able to after a while) it'll only get better as you get better equipment. It's like learning to play guitar...only way more expensive.

One more thing....padding up the walls won't help your sound much. Sure it'll get rid of the really noticable echo to a small extent, but most of that stuff will only capture high frequencies, so your mids and bass are still reflecting just as much as ever and that can make your recording muddy if you're not careful. So search the internet and build some bass traps. They're actually not hard to build at all and pretty cheap. Hope this helps...Good luck dude.

Tracking drums is always the big obstacle in home recording. I've built my studio up pretty nicely, but wish I'd gone a more portable route. I may downsize to a Mac and Protools, just to make a rackmountable/portable recording rig, so I can take it to rehearsal spaces to track drums. I've moved my studio from a commercial space to a musicroom at my place, so it's pretty hard to get good tracks in a bedroom, unless they're direct recorded. At home, you've just got to do what you gotta do.


Originally Posted by Tom MRe: the sound card.

What do you reccomend on a budget (couple hundred) and an unlimited
budget?

If you can strech to $350 on the card the Echo Gina is solid. M-Audio makes decent stuff too. On an unlimited budget RME products are very good as is Motu. I have used them but I have heard good things about Creamware as well. Don't go the Soundblaster / Audigy 2 route though. There aren't any true ASIO drivers for them and the Clock / sample rates are limited. If you want Pro Audio you need a Pro card.

I record on a Digital Portastudio and mix at at studio in Pro Tools.

A few good mics, phones and some decent montiors and you can do amazing things.