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Home Studio
Do It Yourself
My Home Studio: This section is designed to explain some of my thoughts when deciding how to build it, and also some personal observations on what I learned.
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Microphones:
1 Neumann TLM103 - large diaphragm condenser
1 Shure KSM44 - multi pattern large diaphragm condenser
2 Shure SM-57 - great all purpose dynamic mic
1 Sennheiser 441 - high end dynamic mic
1 Marshall MXL 2001 - large diaphragm condenser
1 Marshall 603S - small diaphragm condenser
4 Audio Technica drum mic kit - dynamic mics
1 AKG D330 BT - dynamic mic
Tip: In microphones, favor quality over quantity when you can. The most expensive microphone I purchased - the Neumann TLM103 was probably the most often used mic I had and gave a sparkle to sources like vocals, acoustic guitars, and drums that most other mics couldn’t touch. It simply produces a better quality recording and is a “go to” mic for me in many cases. I found the relatively inexpensive Shure SM-57s good for lots of things also. The Shure KSM44 is a new addition and I haven't had a chance to get to know it yet.
That said, there were several times when I ended up tracking with all or nearly all of the microphones at my disposal - even if it was just for the scratch vocal. My suggestion is to get enough mics to do the job required, but realize there are probably going to be a few mics that you'll use a lot more often than others, so feel free to put a disproportionate amount of you mic budget there. Particularly on vocals, acoustic guitars, and drums I think you’re likely to notice the benefit of better mics, and you’ll likely to be able to use those better mics on a lot of other sources.
1 Neumann TLM103 - large diaphragm condenser
1 Shure KSM44 - multi pattern large diaphragm condenser
2 Shure SM-57 - great all purpose dynamic mic
1 Sennheiser 441 - high end dynamic mic
1 Marshall MXL 2001 - large diaphragm condenser
1 Marshall 603S - small diaphragm condenser
4 Audio Technica drum mic kit - dynamic mics
1 AKG D330 BT - dynamic mic
Tip: In microphones, favor quality over quantity when you can. The most expensive microphone I purchased - the Neumann TLM103 was probably the most often used mic I had and gave a sparkle to sources like vocals, acoustic guitars, and drums that most other mics couldn’t touch. It simply produces a better quality recording and is a “go to” mic for me in many cases. I found the relatively inexpensive Shure SM-57s good for lots of things also. The Shure KSM44 is a new addition and I haven't had a chance to get to know it yet.
That said, there were several times when I ended up tracking with all or nearly all of the microphones at my disposal - even if it was just for the scratch vocal. My suggestion is to get enough mics to do the job required, but realize there are probably going to be a few mics that you'll use a lot more often than others, so feel free to put a disproportionate amount of you mic budget there. Particularly on vocals, acoustic guitars, and drums I think you’re likely to notice the benefit of better mics, and you’ll likely to be able to use those better mics on a lot of other sources.
Microphone preamps
My approach was to get a few channels of higher quality microphone preamp and use those as often as I could on critical sources, but also have enough channels to record a full band.
I needed to be able to mic several amps and/or acoustic guitars (often in stereo), drums (depending on your approach this can take a lot of mics), and a scratch vocal. I generally recorded bass and keyboard using direct lines, so I didn’t need a mic for those.
I decided on:
- Sytek MPX 4AII 4-channel mic preamp (higher quality clean mic pres), and
- Mackie 1604 mixer pres for whenever I was recording more than 4 tracks. The new 1604 has 16 mic pres.
Sometimes when tracking I also put a Symetrix 488 dyna-squeeze 8-channel compressor between the mic-pres and the recorder to help keep signals hot without coloring the sound very much when tracking sources that might have unpredictable volume spikes. It applies soft compression across all recorded tracks and keeps me from worrying about clipping while still letting me get good strong signals. To this end, the Focusrite Octopre is appealing to me now with it's compression features.
My approach was to get a few channels of higher quality microphone preamp and use those as often as I could on critical sources, but also have enough channels to record a full band.
I needed to be able to mic several amps and/or acoustic guitars (often in stereo), drums (depending on your approach this can take a lot of mics), and a scratch vocal. I generally recorded bass and keyboard using direct lines, so I didn’t need a mic for those.
I decided on:
- Sytek MPX 4AII 4-channel mic preamp (higher quality clean mic pres), and
- Mackie 1604 mixer pres for whenever I was recording more than 4 tracks. The new 1604 has 16 mic pres.
Sometimes when tracking I also put a Symetrix 488 dyna-squeeze 8-channel compressor between the mic-pres and the recorder to help keep signals hot without coloring the sound very much when tracking sources that might have unpredictable volume spikes. It applies soft compression across all recorded tracks and keeps me from worrying about clipping while still letting me get good strong signals. To this end, the Focusrite Octopre is appealing to me now with it's compression features.
Here’s what my home studio looked like after put it together to begin recording some songs that my friends and I had written
Recorder: EMU Paris DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Paris is no longer manufactured, but it is a PC/hardware based digital workstation. I eventually purchased 3 Paris cards giving me 48 real time tracks with EQ and plenty of effects processing power. This is more than I needed, but I occassionally found use for 48 tracks.
Why Paris? I was a guitar player/songwriter who wanted to record rock and acoustic arrangements and mix on a PC, and Paris was very well suited to this. It was known for great sound and for working well as a live tracker. I recorded live drums so the high number of inputs worked well for me. For things like keyboards and bass I usually just recorded those through a line in, and everything else pretty much had a mic in front of it.
Recorder: EMU Paris DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Paris is no longer manufactured, but it is a PC/hardware based digital workstation. I eventually purchased 3 Paris cards giving me 48 real time tracks with EQ and plenty of effects processing power. This is more than I needed, but I occassionally found use for 48 tracks.
Why Paris? I was a guitar player/songwriter who wanted to record rock and acoustic arrangements and mix on a PC, and Paris was very well suited to this. It was known for great sound and for working well as a live tracker. I recorded live drums so the high number of inputs worked well for me. For things like keyboards and bass I usually just recorded those through a line in, and everything else pretty much had a mic in front of it.
Monitors: I chose Tannoy Reveal Active monitors. These monitors sound excellent, detailed, and present a mix that seems to transport well to other playback systems. When playing back CDs on these - even CDs that I'm very familiar with - I hear things in the mix that I've never heard before.
