How to Build Your Own Recording Studio at Home
Podcast Episode #47
In this podcast Worship Artistry guitar instructor Jason Houtsma and Worship Artistry bass instructor Daniel Ornellas discuss starting a home studio.
What are the absolute must-haves? Where do you start? What should your expectations be?
Comments
Digital modeling microphone.
Submitted by loopinit on May 20, 2017 - 5:25pm.
I am hearing great things about this new microphone. The ability to model the frequency response of the greatest microphones in the history of radio.
https://townsendlabs.com/products/sphere-l22/
Pro Tools is incredibly overrated and overpriced as a DAW.
Submitted by loopinit on May 20, 2017 - 5:37pm.
Where it once was revolutionary, Avid's unwillingness to evolve the user interface into something more logical has driven me toward other DAWs. Couple this with an undeservedly high price, and it's no wonder many professionals have moved toward DAWs from companies with customer focused business models.
SM7
Submitted by ericrudd on June 7, 2017 - 12:45pm.
I'm glad you mentioned this mic. I have used this treasure for decades. What makes this mic so great is it takes EQ well...so you can add that top end on your female vocal you mentioned during your podcast. It's just so smooth. One thing to bear in mind is that it is a dynamic mic and has low output...so if you are using a noisy preamp it might be an issue.
"Buyer's market"
Submitted by ericrudd on June 7, 2017 - 12:50pm.
It's that buyer's market that ultimately motivated me to back out of engineering full time.
My own home set up
Submitted by Benjamin Crum on January 19, 2018 - 7:07am.
I've always personally just used XLR female to a 3.5mm male adapter for my microphone (for acoustic instruments, percussion, and vocals) and then a 1/4" female to a 3.5mm male adapter for electric guitars and bass. From that I just go straight into my MacBook and run it on garage band. As cheap as my setup may be, I've found that I can get a better sound on my recordings than some other people I've met with better equipment. The obvious tradeoff is I have to invest a bit of time setting the compressor, noise gate, EQ, reverb, and echo, but I've always managed to get the sound that I want. With garage band you can also go through and essentially write the track for any software instrument except it isn't user friendly and eats up time though the piano tracks I did that way turned out to be awesome. I think in terms of home recording equipment you really have to take into consideration how much money you want to spend and how much time you want to spend while recording. If I had the money to really improve my setup I would because, as it stands, it takes me at least six hours to set up, record all of my separate tracks, and then tear down followed by anywhere between two and four hours of fine tuning the finished product.
A small upgrade that makes a big difference
Submitted by Jason Houtsma on January 19, 2018 - 9:26am.
I've recorded on GarageBand for years and I couldn't believe the difference between that and Logic. It's well worth the $200 if you can swing it.
USB Microphones?
Submitted by LandenHenrie on January 22, 2018 - 11:29am.
I'm 16 and I really want to start recording music at home and I'm totally clueless..so thanks for this!
What do you think about USB Desktop Mics? I've heard that mics like the Floreon BM 800 and the Blue Spark Digital Lightning work great and are affordable but do you think I can record music professionally with them?
Resource List?
Submitted by james on February 17, 2018 - 10:54am.
Great podcast and some very useful tips for recording in a home studio.
Where can I find the list of resources mentioned during the podcast?