The Home Recording Studio Guide

Welcome to HomeStudioZone.com!

HomeStudioZone.com, the Home Recording Studio Guide, is now three years old! When I originally built this Web Site, my original idea was simply to document and pass on what I have learned about recording music of all genres in my home studio. I have recorded bands, solo artists, classically trained musicians, and many very talented amateurs. I've worked with musicians who want to record a full CD, an EP, or just one song. I've even helped out by recording some tracks of my own on their songs if that's what they want. Overall, I've met some really good people and some great musicians - and I've had a lot of fun working with all them. There's something about like minded musicians that creates a lasting bond between them that you don't often see in other industries.

If you are looking to record yourself, or your band, and of course you are within reach of my studio in South Orange County, California, contact me. You'll find that my rates are very reasonable - I just really enjoy working with talented musicians.

You can also check out my site and listen to some of my recordings at www.reverbnation.com/homestudiozone.

Space

This web site will deal with a lot of the fundamentals of building and using a home studio for music recording. The first thing I'm going to recommend you do, only because I didn't and I'm constantly re-arranging, adding audio equipment, rewiring etc, is to plan your physical work space. You will probably need a layout consisting of three distinct parts; one for your music recording equipment (PC, audio effects rack and so on), one for your musicians and all their gear, microphone stands, guitars, keyboards, amplifiers, drums etc., and somewhere convenient to store all those precious items such as audio and midi cables, audio signal processors, connectors, microphones, CD’s, manuals etc. Lastly, bear in mind that you will constantly be buying new stuff, so leave room for expansion. Here's what mine looks like today; it'll probably look quite different in a couple of months!

Recording Hardware, DAW and Audio Interface

iTunes - The Best Audio Player and Burner

Your recording studio should, If at all possible, have a computer dedicated to the music production process. The way that your home studio will get audio into the PC (and the recording software) is through an audio interface that converts the analog audio signal into a digital one. The one that is already built into your computer will probably be a single input/single output device working at 16bit/44.1KHz, which is the format used for CDs (16bit at 48kHz is used for DVD's!). However, this approach will almost certainly prove to be a severe limitation for audio production in many ways, so you will want to consider an internal PCI audio card or an external audio interface box connected to your PC via USB or Firewire. You can now record multi channel audio, carry out audio mixing and audio mastering, connect and control MIDI devices,add audio effects and audio compression; and do it with a much higher quality.

MIcrophones

You'll Need a Decent Selection of Microphones!

The topic of microphones used in a home recording studio is a science all to itself, but for basic voice or guitar recording, you don’t need anything too elaborate or expensive. You really can’t go wrong with a dynamic microphone such as the Shure SM57 to mike up your amp. For vocal recordings, or acoustic guitar, I would start with a condenser microphone such as the Rode NT1-A or Audio Technica AT4040. Recording Drums requires a mixture of the two.

Monitoring and Acoustics

Get all your Sheet Music here

I'm also covering the topic of monitoring. This is where you listen to what you are recording, or what you have already recorded. There are two elements to this subject; the monitoring device; studio monitors or studio headphones. Good studio monitors in a reasonably passive acoustic space will give you by far the best rendition of your mix, but it will certainly be the most expensive solution. You might need to carry out some acoustic treatment of your home recording studio to eliminate delays and reflections, and set yourself up with some decent studio monitors. Closed cap headphones are fine to use for tracking or audio editing, but can give a very false translation of your final mix.

Recording Software, Effects and MIDI

Steinberg's
Cubase

The recording software is a central element of your home recording studio. This is where you will carry out your recording (tracking), audio editing, mixing, mastering and Midi control. It will contain your software based audio equalization (EQ), effects processors, audio compressors, signal processors. If required, it will be able to use VST Instruments and VST Plugins and will be your central Midi Sequencer. So it’s pretty important that you get this bit right.

Recording (Tracking), Mixing and Mastering

I'll also give some ideas on how to Record (Track), Mix and Master your music. These parts of the process are mixtures of art and science and can turn good recordings into great ones - and vice versa!

Getting Your Music Out There

So now you have your song, EP or CD and you want to share it with the World; what options are available to you? You can produce physical CD's, mp3's for dowload, or both. These days there are a number of resources available to you. I use both CD Baby and TuneCore, (but there are more). Both allow you to distrbute your music in both ways. Check them out.

This is just the start. There’s much, much more to consider when creating your own home recording studio; read on!

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