First off, you’re going to have to gather some basics. Once you have your band, you’re going to have to find some space. Try to get a room that’s "neutral." This means the room should interfere with the sound as little as possible, so that what you record is as close to the actual playing as you can get it. If your room has an unnatural tendency to echo sound and bounce it around, it might not be the best place to record. This means the bathroom is out, no matter how nice you sound in the shower. Conversely, if your room deadens the instruments too much, this will create problems in mixing later, when you’re going to be tweaking the track to try and make up for the flatness or the room’s sound. It may suit you, once you get to recording often, to try padding the walls with foam to get the least bit of bounce in control. While acoustic-grade foam is a bit pricey, egg-crate type foam (to keep the sound from bouncing too uniformly) sold by foam manufacturers has been known to work with a good degree of success.



Another factor you’re going to have to consider is noise. Pick a location that’s far enough from anyone who might want to call the police on you when you do start bashing away with the rest of your band. Also, try to keep it well within working hours.


Next up, you’re going to need hardware. Now, the mere mention of hardware may make you cringe at the possible expense, but if you’re really serious about making music, you can think of it as an investment. Despite having to lay some money out to begin with, you’ll save loads by staying out of a pro studio. You’ll be much less pressed for time and you may even find yourself enjoying the process. If you so choose, you could even go into offering recording services for profit and let the project pay for itself.



First off, you’re going to need a computer to do your mixing on. Now, just about any computer that was built or bought brand-new within the last half decade will probably work quite well for the purposes of home recording. If you’re in a pinch, a laptop with a good spec sheet may even work. That being said, any computer that’s to be used for recording will benefit from more RAM, a faster processor and LOTS of hard disk space. Audio recording is a resource-intensive process, and you’re going to have to have a computer that’s up to the task, or else you’re going to be sitting around for what feels like forever, waiting for your machine to do its thing.



After the computer question has been solved, you’re going to need the hardware to get the sound from the instruments into the computer for editing and mixing. You have a few options. Firstly, if you aren’t picky, you can start out with plugging your instruments straight into your soundcard. All you need is an adapter to make the large connector on your guitar fit into the small stereo connector on your computer’s line in or microphone plug, and you can get going. There may be some issues with audio volume or sound quality, but if you’re just dabbling or starting out, this isn’t a bad option to try.



If, however, you want more versatility, better sound, and more input, then you’re going to need a digital recording interface. These devices allow you to record multiple audio tracks so that you can lay more tracks down. The sound that you’ll be able to get from this is much better since you’ll be using hardware that was made with the sole purpose of recording. If you’re looking to go this route, Options such as the Behringer UCA 202, M-Audio Fast Track and the MBox 2 Mini all offer great sound quality, easy USB plug and play, a price tag less than P2,000 for the UCA 202, to about P16,000 for the higher-spec MBox.



You’re now going to have to consider how to lay your audio track down. The microphones you see used on-stage and by motivational speakers and TV hosts everywhere are known as dynamic microphones. They will suit your needs, and coupled with either a connector or a digital recording interface, can offer ok sound. If, however, you really want quality, you’re looking for a condenser mic. These are much more sensitive than the dynamic ones, and don’t take rough handling quite as well, which makes them more of studio mics than performance ones. While condenser mics were once out of reach pricewise to the home recorder, now, all you need is a USB port, less than P4,000 and a quick trip to your nearest music store, and you can get a superb USB condenser mic such as the Samson C01U to record your vocal track (or other instruments, in a pinch) with.



Recording and mixing will require you to do a lot of listening. For this task, a good pair of headphones will be essential, so you know how the instruments sound before putting them together. As I have always said, get the best sounding headphones you can afford. You can find a good pair for a few thousand pesos, but the upper limit is in the hundreds of thousands. It’s not necessary to blow your whole paycheck on headphones, but a good pair can spell the difference between laying down a great track, or putting down scratchy, flat music. You’re going to be spoilt for choice here, but all the major brands offer something in this category, so try them out, being careful to take comfort in to account along with sound, and you’ll do great. Just trust your ears.



That takes care of the basic hardware setup. It’s not as expensive or as difficult as people may think, and while the pros have access to much more specialized equipment, they also do it for a living, so don’t feel short-changed if you don’t have the same toys just yet.






Despite having to lay some money out to begin with, you’ll save loads by staying out of a pro studio, you’ll be much less pressed for time, and you may even find yourself enjoying the process. If you so choose, you could even go into recording for profit and let the project pay for itself.



businessmirror.com