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Home Studio
Do It Yourself
THERE’S A BIG LEARNING CURVE
When I began recording in my home studio, it quickly became clear that there’s a big learning curve to the craft of recording. Experience is the best teacher, and there are no shortcuts, but while your results won't sound like a big budget record, you may be surprised at how good it can sound with a little effort.
Understand that when starting out, the equipment you use will not be the limiting factor - your lack of skill and knowledge will be. Bottom line: Don’t overemphasize the importance of the equipment. Learning how to use the equipment that you do have will be a huge factor in creating a good recording. That said, the equipment does matter, and you don’t want to buy a bunch of junk equipment when you’re starting out unless it's just a gap filler. Less is more.
Do get some good equipment that can grow with you, and learn to use what you do have well. For me, the problem when starting out was that I didn't even know what equipment I needed or what approach I needed to take.
When I began recording in my home studio, it quickly became clear that there’s a big learning curve to the craft of recording. Experience is the best teacher, and there are no shortcuts, but while your results won't sound like a big budget record, you may be surprised at how good it can sound with a little effort.
Understand that when starting out, the equipment you use will not be the limiting factor - your lack of skill and knowledge will be. Bottom line: Don’t overemphasize the importance of the equipment. Learning how to use the equipment that you do have will be a huge factor in creating a good recording. That said, the equipment does matter, and you don’t want to buy a bunch of junk equipment when you’re starting out unless it's just a gap filler. Less is more.
Do get some good equipment that can grow with you, and learn to use what you do have well. For me, the problem when starting out was that I didn't even know what equipment I needed or what approach I needed to take.
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CATCH A BEAUTIFUL SOUND AT THE SOURCE
(also known as "YOU CAN’T POLISH A TURD")
Much of what I learned from recording professionals was to “catch a beautiful sound at the source.” My initial misconception about recording was that expensive equipment was the key to great recordings. Certainly having great equipment helps, but no amount of great equipment can repair a bad initial recording of a poor performance.
“You can’t polish a turd.” Much of the magic in music is capturing a great performance, and capturing it accurately. I subsequently learned this lesson several times. If you’re recording and ever find yourself saying “that take is close enough, we’ll fix it in the mix” you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. First, it’s a lot of work to try to fix it in the mix, and secondly it’s always just a fix. It’ll never be as good as it could be if it was just done right the first time.
A good recording starts with a great recording of a great performance. There’s no amount of “magic” that can bring a dead acoustic guitar back to life or fix the sound of the drum kit.
With that in mind, I learned it made sense to spend efforts and budget in areas that would allow me to capture recordings accurately on the front-end… and that means having some good microphones and microphone preamps.
(also known as "YOU CAN’T POLISH A TURD")
Much of what I learned from recording professionals was to “catch a beautiful sound at the source.” My initial misconception about recording was that expensive equipment was the key to great recordings. Certainly having great equipment helps, but no amount of great equipment can repair a bad initial recording of a poor performance.
“You can’t polish a turd.” Much of the magic in music is capturing a great performance, and capturing it accurately. I subsequently learned this lesson several times. If you’re recording and ever find yourself saying “that take is close enough, we’ll fix it in the mix” you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. First, it’s a lot of work to try to fix it in the mix, and secondly it’s always just a fix. It’ll never be as good as it could be if it was just done right the first time.
A good recording starts with a great recording of a great performance. There’s no amount of “magic” that can bring a dead acoustic guitar back to life or fix the sound of the drum kit.
With that in mind, I learned it made sense to spend efforts and budget in areas that would allow me to capture recordings accurately on the front-end… and that means having some good microphones and microphone preamps.