Build a Home Studio on a Budget
A few months ago, Electronic Musician had an article "Build a Home Studio on Any Budget" but their bottom budget was my top budget. This is my answer to that column.
While I was building my home studio I was doing a lot of research, but nothing really clicked. I didn't know what I really needed. Now that I have everything in place, things are beginning to make more sense to me. I hope to pass on some of that understanding to you.
Following are some of the options that I ran across while putting together my studio. This isn't a comprehensive list, and it's not a feature-for-feature comparison, and everything is written through the subjective eye of someone with my needs or needs similar to mine. All prices mentioend are street prices.
Use navigation on the right to get around this lengthy article.
Following are a few scenarios, a few types of people who would want to start a studio with an overview of the kind of things each person would need. Once you've figured out what you need, click through to the areas that interest you and then check out the scenarios at the end.
A Band
Each member of the band can bring their own instruments & sounds, so sequencing isn't necessary. What you need is a lot of inputs with at least a few microphone inputs. Maybe an external mixing board to combine multiple sound sources into fewer tracks for recording. The board will probably also have a few mic pre's allowing you to buy a less expensive A/D converter without Mic Pres.
They'll probably want to be able to record drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, horns, strings and vocals simultaneously onto seperate tracks, possibly both direct & mic'd versions of the bass & guitar, and have the ability to overdub parts to add things they couldn't live or to fix any mistakes they may have made the first time around without forcing the whole band to replay the song.
A "One Man Band"
A one man band is typically a singer, guitar/bass player, songwriter, keyboard player or some combination thereof. This also covers two person and three person teams of instrumentalists and vocalists whose main concern isn't getting a whole band into the computer, but different instruments piece by piece, and adding sequenced tracks for drums, keyboards, strings, etc.
They'll need fewer inputs because they don't need to record a lot of instruments at the same time, but they will need the ability to sequence, so sequencing software, maybe looping software, and a keyboard will be necessary. Maybe they'll already have a keyboard with a large sound library that they'll want to utilize either via MIDI or just plugged in to an instrument input.
Mobile Recording
This studio is designed to be taken on the road to capture live performances and to capture ideas while on the road. The number of inputs necessary is variable depending on the need, but the heart will be a laptop and a Firewire, USB, or PCMCIA based A/D converter. The software is also variable. If you're recording bands, the rest of the setup is simlar to the Band setup above, if you're recording your own ideas on the road, the the One Man Band setup is closer to what you need.
Next: The All In One Option
Special thanks to David Lemire for his contributions.
page first created on Sunday, December 08, 2002
© Mark Wieczorek