How to Build an Efficient Home Recording Studio
by Timothy Daniel Moore

Choosing the right place in your home to build a recording studio:

If you are married and have children, forget it! (I'm just kidding babe). No, really, if you can afford it get a wood or metal shed and put it in your backyard! Finding the right spot should not be that hard to do; you already have one in mind. It might be as simple as an unused closet (if there is such an animal), or a spare bedroom. It should be quiet and away from the outside air conditioning unit. The electrical wiring needs to be properly grounded to prevent that 60 Hz hum. Your chosen area should be large enough that after installing sound dampening materials it is still large enough to comfortably accommodate all the equipment, musicians, engineer, and instruments you plan on recording.

An important factor to consider before building your studio is finances. Finances will determine the options available to you, not the quality of your product. Take into account equipment you don't currently own, but will need. Cables, USB sound cards, microphones, external hard drives, or extra RAM are a few items often overlooked.

Things you won't need, but thought you couldn't live without are a mixing board, external hardware such as equalizers, compressors, gates, limiters, and effects, MIDI synths, and giant speakers. Everything in the modern recording environment can be done using software; with the exception of inputs. That's the reason for the external sound card.

The most simple set up for recording is a laptop using its built-in mic and DAW (digital audio workstation) software. If this is your situation, great. You can record anywhere in the world for as long as your battery will last.

Some Materials You Will Need:

The most easy and cost-effective way to get good recordings is to make your room dead. You should be recording everything dry to begin with anyway and placing effects and processing on your tracks afterwards. Making a room dead means that the room has no sound of its own. There is no ambient sound being reflected off the walls, ceiling, or floors. To do this go to Wal-Mart and get the king-size egg crate foam pads for beds and hang them on the walls and ceiling. It does not have to be perfect. In fact, the less perfect and the more bumps, the better.

Required Equipment:

If you are going to be recording electric instruments you will need an external USB sound card with a pre-amp. This will give you low latency with the ability to listen back in real-time. It's a good idea to have plenty of good quality cables and connectors. If you're a do-it-yourself kind of a person cables are simple to make. Get some 1/4" to 1/8" (3.5 mm) headphone connections also. They are cheap and come in handy.

If you are just recording vocals and composing the rest of the instruments in the virtual environment, then you don't really need anything else. If your built-in mic just does not do it for you, then I would suggest buying a quality USB condenser mic.

Software Suggestions:

Selecting a DAW is a very personal decision. You will be spending a great deal of time in front of it, so you need to be satisfied with its performance and the companies support. Most have a demo version, or a trial version available for download. Send out emails to find out how quickly they respond and the depth of the response. Personally I use Sonar X1 Producer from Cakewalk. They are the pioneers of digital audio workstations and I have used them for close to 17 years. But I suggest going to Amazon and searching for DAWs. Read all the customer reviews with filters on. Keep a list of those which impress you, then go to their websites and download demos or trials and put them to a test. There's a big selection of them. I would also recommend doing the same when seeking out plugins.

Rockoetry Inc. is my pseudonym when I'm recording music. You can find out more about me at: http://www.rockoetry.info

 
 
 
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