In the past, if you couldn’t afford to rent recording time in a professional recording studio, your musical dreams and talents would often go to waste!
The technology available to anyone outside of the recording industry was simply too expensive and complicated to be an alternative. Fortunately, the advancements in today’s recording equipment have made it possible and affordable to build a home recording studio.
How do you go about preparing a space to use as a home recording studio?
A traditional recording studio is typically divided into several rooms. This would obviously be the best way to set up your new studio, but if you don’t have the required space, you could get by with a single large room separated into two spaces through the use of curtains or screens Music recording studio production.
If you have the money or skills to do so, building a wall that divides the room into two separate pieces would be best.
One of the rooms will be used as a control room and the other as a tracking room for the performers. If at all possible there should be a window between the 2 rooms. It is really important for the sound engineer to be able to see the recording artist(s).
What is the purpose of the 2 different rooms?
• Control Room: This is where the sound engineer uses the different recording equipment to capture the music. Here you’ll find the lifeblood of the home recording studio. The computers, mixers, monitors, etc.
• Tracking Room or Isolation Booth: This is where the performer(s) sing and play. It will also have monitors and at least one microphone. This room will be connected to the control room by various cables such as patch cables and microphone cords.
Now that you know what it takes to set up a home recording studio to work in, let’s take a look at what else you’ll need in the way of recording equipment.
Your first task will be to purchase any recording equipment that you don’t already have. I’m assuming that you have at least a working knowledge of computers, monitors and speakers. If not you will need to do some extensive research on the subject. Luckily this research is very easy to access in today’s high tech world.
There are numerous outlets for good computerized equipment and it should be possible to find some good discounts if you shop around. Also, if you are really knowledgeable about this kind of equipment, why not try to buy it used from a source like Craigslist or eBay. Just be sure that the owner’s manual is still available. You may need it to help you choose the optimal settings for your new recording equipment.
This is a list of the basics needed for your studio.
• A computer with appropriate sound cards
• Monitors
• Speakers
• Synthesizers and Samplers
• Multiple cables and accessories
• Lighting equipment
While this is a good start, a Google search of recording equipment would quickly round out the required items needed to set up a complete home recording studio.
At first this will seem like a lot of expense, but it’s not uncommon for a single song to take between 3 and 5 hours to record in a professional recording studio. When you calculate in the cost of mixing and mastering each song, you can spend between $150 and $350 for each song. It will be even more if you have the songs mastered somewhere else besides the studio that did the recording.
