What are some essential pieces I should consider for my home recording studio?

Question

I'm not going to be renting it out or anything(it is going to be in my house),which generally is just going to be my guitars,piano,and etc.Of course I will need a microphone,I will also be doing vocals in there.I'm only making the recording studio because I would love to have lots of room to play my instruments and sing.But what else are some very essential pieces I should have in my own home recording studio?Thanks everyone.

Answer 1

Some items you'll need include:

Mixer - To Deal with all sound input, levels etc.

Interface - to direct all mics into your computer, so you can edit.

Mic's specific for each instrument, including voice.

Computer Program for Editing music. - I'd suggest Ableton Live.

Monitor Speakers for playback.

All this stuff Comes in Huge ranges of cost. Some good sites to check out are:

http://www.tomleemusic.ca/main/recording...

http://www.zzounds.com/cat--Recording--2...

Do as much research as you can before hand. And before ordering on like, definitely remember to include shipping and handling in your cost outlines.

You should be able to set this up with under 600 bucks.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

You didn't post your budget.  What have you budgeted for this project?

Most small home recording setups can be had for as little as $20,000.  That amount would get you basic essentials and room treatment/design.  

You also didn't tell us whether or not the guitars were electric or acoustic or if the piano is a real piano or an electric keyboard.  It makes a difference.  Good piano microphones cost several thousand dollars while an electric keyboard can output the piano sound directly into your converters.

Give us some more info.

Answer 3

I just got my latest issue of the Music123 catalog yesterday.  There is some AMAZING stuff out there now for the home studio.  Look at www.music123.com  and look around.. they have a great catalog, too.

Answer 4

I suck at home recording studios

Answer 5

I assume you have a computer already.  

A good mic is very important.  Maybe more than one mic even.

I would also suggest some sound proofing to limit the reverb of the room a bit.

Answer 6

In general you won't be using more than two or three mics at a time, so I would get a four track mixer. This gives you the best control over each mic, including a bit of reverb, level, etc. I tend to only use two mics at one time, so this works perfectly for me.

The L + R sends from the mixer need to go somewhere, so you have two options... either a good sound card, or a USB / Firewire interface. If your computer can support USB 2.0 or Firewire, this is essentially the way to go. Get an interface (or sound card) that can take two inputs, or a stereo line in, which is basically the same thing, although you'll have to set your software to record the L to one track and the R to another. Ideally, being able to record at 48khz at 24 bits is ideal. You don't need to go up to 96 khz... this is overkill for a home studio, and may actually degrade the quality of the audio if your computer can't handle it. 96 khz bitrate also takes twice the space of 48 khz, so consider that, too.

You can just use an interface/sound card if you absolutely need to use more than 2 mics at once. I prefer using a mixer because I crave as much control as I can get. I've seen interfaces that have up to 16 ins (Tascam). This is crazy, but if you really feel you need it....

Get an interface and/or mixer that supports phantom power. With phantom power you can use condenser mics, which are really good for capturing delicate treble detail that dynamic mics can't really accomplish. They can't be used live, and they're a little more delicate than dynamic mics, but dynamic mics just can't capture a piano or voice like a condenser. Try doubling them up, ie, one of each, then blending the results. Good stuff.

A studio-quality pair of headphones is a pre-requisite. I create a scratch track when I'm recording, then have everyone overdub it while listening to the track over the headphones, one at a time. It's slow, but I get the best sound quality that I can from a home environment.

Your computer should have at least 1 Ghz processor, 1 Gig of Ram, and at least 100 Gig HD.

If you are running Windows Vista, then I sympathize with your pain. Vista sucks for pro audio and recording. I strongly recommend that you optimize the snot out of it before you start recording. Many of the "features" that Windows loaded into it can hose a recording... or CD burning... or video/CD rip...

Very quickly, I suggest the following (google if you don't know how to do it): Give yourself administrator privileges, disable UAC, Superfetch, Readyboot, ReadyBoost, Windows Update, windows defragmenting, and definitely Aero and as many other graphics options as you can. Each one takes up memory and processing power! Then google "Black Viper Vista" to find a list of services that you can disable. Be conservative and only take out the ones that you really have no need for - if you aren't sure, don't disable them. I put many of the services I'm not sure about on Manual. Disable Remote Access! Finally, I recommend disabling Windows Firewall and loading a 3rd party firewall like ZoneAlarm. Windows Defender doesn't work well, but you don't *need* to disable it... just get two (repeat TWO) other antivirus and malware utilities. I like Spybot S/D, Adaware, and a few others. Oh yeah, they're free. Good stuff. Norton sucks. I disconnect the internet when I'm not using it, because a lot of Vista programs and services like to talk on the internet, and that's something you don't want happening in the middle of a sensitive recording. Make sure you update your computer's drivers, as well as Windows if you've turned the Update off. Or turn it back on for a day every now and then, then turn it back off.

Doing these things has taken my bloated POS Vista that couldn't burn a CD without glitching and wouldn't record well to a rather bare bones but moderately efficient recording machine.

Okay, that's that.

Saul