Regarding an inexpensive but effective Home Recording Studio, the first thing to do is to carefully go over your budget, because once you get going it will be the little bits and pieces that can nickel and dime you to death. Know how much you can safely spend without putting yourself into financial jeopardy. So many people talk about getting Financial Backers but that isn’t always the best answer since they will often want the lion’s share of any rewards plus interest until the debt is paid back in full. Backers are also very impatient about repayment and don’t want to hear excuses as to why you had to pay your Rent before you pay them! When it comes to Bank loans, the Banks usually look at the Music Business as if it were smoke, something that you can see but cannot touch or hold in your hands.
They are very practical and cautious when it comes to giving out money for the Music Industry despite the incredible amount of money that is generated every year from it. Unless you have a lot of collateral to back such a loan, wait until you can show regular income from your initial endeavors first. Thinking big is fine, but starting out small and wisely is the best policy in putting together your own studio. The terms “Starving Artists” and “Starving Producers” come from the usual way of supplying your musical interests by means of a Day Job until you can wisely transition from one to the other. Almost everyone does it and there is no shame in admitting it. Only the most obnoxious of Industry Professional will criticize you for it.
The next subject to ponder is what you will use your home studio for. Is it for your own solo material, a Band, or are you planning to take on clients? Each situation can vary greatly depending upon the quality and workload you are seeking from your studio. As an example, I have worked, Managed, Recorded and Produced in 7 Recording Studios ranging from simple but effective equipment in a basement, all the way up to a current multi-million dollar Recording Facility here in Connecticut. Please note that as you move up in the degree of Studio you work in, your abilities, ears, and skills also need to improve dramatically! But the good thing is that if you start out small and determined to succeed, and keep an open mind to learning from others, you can eventually develop into whatever level you wish to as long as you can handle it. Recording Schools are invaluable for learning the Recording Industry, but they are not inexpensive, so you may wish to invest in books and videos about recording first. They can be purchased from many local Musical Instrument stores and national chains, including mail order.
Another option is to try to develop a relationship with someone experienced that can act as a Mentor, it can be invaluable to you and that person can help to further advance your career with their knowledge and influential assistance. The rule of thumb is that everyone in the business knows somebody else in the business at higher levels of power and success. But as with any Professional in any field of business, be respectful, honest, humble, tactful, and become an “invited guest” as opposed to a character that they will regret knowing! So after figuring out what level of experience you are at now and what you wish to use your studio for, it is time to start making a shopping list. If you are a beginner or even an experienced veteran, the best choices would be either a good home computer with lots of memory since there are many great programs that you can purchase along with the proper interface equipment, or purchase an all-in-one Recorder/Mixer/CD Burner unit. My suggestion is that when it comes to efficiency and cost effectiveness, the all-in-one units are outstanding and can create some wonderful results if you take your time to study and learn the functions, and then practice with them. The better ones are advisable and can range from approximately $800 to around $4000 to purchase. These units usually include extremely useful options and functions such as built in effects and editing programs, processors, mixers, and CD burners that can be very expensive if purchased separately. Since technology has improved so much over the years, these types of units can sound as if you recorded in a full blown recording studio. While they won’t replace a Professional Recording Studio with all of the bells and whistles, not to mention seriously sound-proofed recording rooms, you can purchase and own the all-in-one units for much less than the cost of recording a full CD of songs in a major studio.
To give you an example of this, while I often work in a big studio, I have my own Roland all-in-one unit and record my own clients I Manage, Song write, and Produce music for on it. This way, I don’t have to worry about paying for recording time costs or high utility bills that go hand in hand with a big studio. I can take as much time as I wish or that my clients need without watching the clock and can still get the results I want without the added pressures. Since I do know what I am doing and have a lot of experience recording and Producing, I recorded my Country Artist “Miss Marie” Wuhrer’s first CD “Bad Reputation” on it and it received airplay in approximately 75% of the US and many Record Label inquiries to boot!!! So the all-in-one units can be quite cost effective while returning professional quality results, and they are also very portable if need be. Portability can be a major plus! The next issue on the list is to get some very good recording microphones and perhaps a few stage microphones for good measure. Consider a minimum of a vocal and an instrument microphone. The recording ones are Condenser microphones and they require phantom power to operate them, which is simply a low voltage power source from 9 to 18 volts. This can come from putting batteries in the microphone or is usually included in the all-in-one units as standard equipment power supplies. The stage microphones are called Dynamic microphones and just require connection to a preamp or mixer channel input. Never run phantom power on dynamic microphones or you could easily and quickly damage them or the power source itself. Remember, if you plug the microphone into the unit and it doesn’t work in any of the channels as is, then you probably have a condenser microphone and must press the “phantom power” button to turn on the phantom power unit so the microphone will operate. Most decent condenser microphones have a Led light that comes on to show when it is in operation.
Condenser microphones are extremely sensitive and can pick up stray noises in the room so be careful when they are on during recording as to not have a very noisy environment you are working in. While it is crucial to “clean” your recorded tracks one-by-one of any stray sounds such as breathing noises BEFORE you mix them into the final result, there are times when you can’t remove excessive noise and must accept it or do the track over. Keep it quiet around you and you will save yourself a lot of time and trouble. All microphones have sensitivity specs, and to avoid a lengthy explanation here and distortion when you are recording, look for a microphone that has a 40 decibel or higher rating for sensitivity. This way, if you have a loud singer you won’t overdrive the microphone easily and get distortion in the vocal tracks. Next, you have to determine where you are going to record, especially if it is in your home. Most studios are in the basement areas and require deadening of the room to make it quiet for recording. When using an all-in-one unit, you can do most of your recording directly into the mixer/recorder without worrying about the noise you or others are making, it is all very quiet. This is especially true when using a drum machine instead of an actual Drummer and live drums! Except for vocals and live drums, you can record a full song in a bedroom while your family members or roommates are in other rooms and they won’t even hear you doing it! If you do designate a specific area, your recording room should not get too hot or too cold, and dampness is not good for any electronic equipment so be careful. When going for the cheap but effective recording studio, you can put up heavy rugs on the walls or use other deadening material to quiet down the room accordingly. Whether you are making a formal recording studio or a simple one, always remember to use Non-flammable materials to deaden the room to avoid a potential disaster.
To continue with our list, I recommend getting good headphones for yourself and some spares for others to use, as well as a headphone amplifier that will run multiple sets of headphones. For the best results, you should use the same brand and model closed back headphones which are essential for recording with live microphones. Semi-open or open-backed headphones allow the sounds coming through to be picked up and fed back into the microphone and recorder. The more isolation the headphones offer the better. Last in the chain would be a pair of powered studio monitors for playback and mixing. The best ones have the Bass ports in the front so they can be used in any location if necessary. The ones with Bass ports in the rear require a reflex action off of a wall for sound quality and this may not be practical for a home studio. As with all of the equipment I mentioned, there are many good brands and models out there and the costs vary greatly. Be ringer, Samson, and Event make some great units for home studios, and the bigger the Bass speaker i.e.: 6 or 8 inches, the better the quality of the sound you’ll get in final mixing and playback. I don’t recommend getting subwoofers until you really know what you are doing and can get a great mix on regular speakers. If you cannot mix on regular speakers, then adding subwoofers won’t help the final product and usually makes it sound horrible. And if while you are mixing your final product the dogs in your neighborhood are howling and running for cover, then Turn down the volume and back off on the Bass and high treble frequencies. If you blow out your hearing, it is gone forever. For optional equipment in your arsenal, a fairly inexpensive boom box is a great tool to have after making a mix. When I finish a mix of a song, I usually make both a CD and a cassette copy of it and play it on a good stereo, a cheap boom box, and a car radio just to see if it sounds good and fairly consistent for quality. If it sounds good on all of them, then I know that I have a good mix for the final product. I also have a separate stand alone CD burner that I can use to make copies while I am using the all-in-one unit for other songs and projects, rather than tying up the unit’s built in CD Burner for making multiple copies other than a Master copy. They cost from $200 to $500 or more, but I find it invaluable for my needs.
Other than some patch cords, spare microphone cables, telescoping microphone stands, music stands, a good comfortable rolling chair, decorating your recording room to taste, and some blank CDs to put product on, you should be able to get some very good results with your projects at a reasonable cost with these recommendations. As your skills improve, you can always upgrade your equipment and studio to fit your needs and dreams. Think toward the future career you are seeking and not just for showing off! I’ve seen some very basic equipment outdo some much more expensive setups. The main goal is to concentrate on getting good results.
Besides, as you begin to make your fortune, you can hire professional studio designers and builders to create your dream Palace. And please don’t forget to cover yourself legally if you are a Studio for hire. Write down ALL recording dates and notes about what transpired during them rather than relying on memory or hear-say, keep track of expenses compared to profits, and write down on the receipt you give the client that the final product is what he or she asked for and accepted as complete and both you and the client need to initial it. This is extremely important for every situation, but especially when a client wants to keep bad musicianship or singing on a project that you would never have kept yourself even if you were tone deaf! Once that client takes the product from you and lets friends and family criticize it accordingly, You will be blamed for letting it get out of your door like that and not the client for wanting it that way and refusing your subtle hints to change it during the recording session such as uncontrollable laughter or vomiting. If that client later chooses to sue you to get his or her money back and it goes before a Judge or Jury with NO Music Industry experience or taste, your note on the signed, dated and initialed may be all that saves you from getting ripped off and having to pay back what you legitimately earned. Good luck to all of you and God Bless. Wayne I. Johnson-Wildcard Music Productions and Artist/Model Management-Waterbury, Connecticut