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Your Home Recording Studio Info Newsletter
As smart home studio recording enthusiasts we shouldn’t approach the recording process thinking we need all the latest pieces of gear just to make our music sound great. We can do that by using some good gear (not always expensive), even if it’s outdated with some new gear along with it.
Your most valuable tool for your studio is your ears. Whatever you’re doing in the studio let your ears tell you if it sounds good or not. Be honest with yourself every step of the way and you’ll do it right.
Assuming you’re like most of us with a home studio these days you’re recording digitally on some kind of DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) wether it’s a computer running an audio software recording program like Pro Tools, Logic etc., or a multitrack recording machine or keyboard workstation of some kind…
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Your Studio Recording Equipment Essentials:
Good Reverb Processor – Doesn’t really matter about the room you’re using for your home studio, you need a good reverb machine to create your own room sounds. There are some classic models available and there’s a bunch of crap out there too. Since the 80′s one of the top reverb units was the Yamaha SPX90. It’s successor the SPX2000 is even better. So try and find a used SPX90, you’ll love it… if you can’t then go for the new version Yamaha SPX2000 which is at the higher end coming in at about $1150. For around $200 you can get a decent Lexicon MX200.
Compressor/Expander – Another very important tool which will help you take your recordings to another level. You don’t hear anything on the radio that hasn’t got some kind of compression on it, and most pop music has a LOT of it. Many compressors will have an expander built in but if you wanna get totally crazy you can get a separate one!
Monitors – You need a pair of speaker monitors,. We hear the term room “accuracy” a lot when talking about studio monitors. Ideally you want a pair that does not put their own color or inflection on your sounds… you want them to be neutral and accurate.
Since I titled this the 7 Essential Tools for a home studio I won’t include a bass woofer here but at some point you will be looking into one. Meanwhile, having some monitors that can cover a decent low end frequency will be enough. You can get decent monitors for a couple hundred bucks that’ll give you frequency coverage as low as 45-50Hz.
Two Microphones – a condenser and a dynamic.
As good a condenser as you can afford because to record good sounding vocals will always be top priority so get a large diaphragm condenser mic for the job. Next is a good all-round dynamic mic that can cover a number of jobs… one of your best choices is the SM57 Shure and it’s cheap!
Mixing Board – You can get away without a mixer if you’re just recording yourself doing a track at a time, but if you’re doing drums and a group you’ll need a mixing board to have control over all the different sounds. I’m talking about a real mixing board beyond your virtual mixer to give you more control over your sounds and signal levels. This also gives your entire sound more character and depth than if you’re working strictly in the virtual domain.
Quality pair of headphones – Working in a not-so-perfect acoustic room when tracking you’ll get a lot out of using good headphones. Never get carried away on a mix with them though! They’re good to get focused on individual things like EQ, reverb etc. Today there’s a lot of really good headphones available.
Direct Box – You won’t get a good sound by plugging in a guitar straight into your mixer but if you go thru a direct box first you will.