The 5 Key Home Studio Components - TheRecordingRevolution.com

hey everybody Graham here from the Recording Revolution calm hope you were having an excellent week today I want to talk about the five key components to a solid home studio I know we have a lot of different varying degrees of engineers that follow this website or this channel in YouTube so we have people that have been doing this for many many years I have a lot of professionals that are following this they just enjoy seeing some different ways of working or some different tips and a lot of you guys even suggest great tips alongside whatever I'm suggesting which is awesome but we also have a lot of beginners a lot of people that are just getting into home recording maybe you're seasoned musician maybe you're seasoned live sound guy but you're moving into the recording world and there's a lot of information out there about home recording this kind of why I started this website because there's too much information and a lot of it's confusing so I try to streamline it to make it helpful for people that just want to actually make music that sounds really really good and get good at this craft so today I want to address the beginners but this will also have something for you seasoned guys to kind of keep in mind what's really important in a home studio we get lost on different components and different pieces of gear but really there's only my mind five key elements to a kick in home studio they're going to look different in everyone's studio but the components are the same so let's run through them real quick I'll give you some examples to think about and the point of this video is to simplify get you thinking about do you have all five of those components and are using them to the best of your ability and if you're confused about something else it's not one of those key components maybe you can set it aside for a moment make sure you got those five Rocking number one your computer it's the most important thing these days recording mixing it's all going in the box it's all going to computers I know it's not a hundred percent there I get that but this is the most cost effective way to be able to have a 32 track 100 track console in your bedroom for recording and mixing you don't need tape machines you don't need reel-to-reel you don't need a mix or you don't need anything in the computer so your computer platform is most important are you Mac or PC are you laptop or desktop you are you old or new now you can get started on probably the computer you're watching this on right now you can definitely probably get recording and mixing on that computer how far you'll be able to go I don't know if you're just doing acoustic guitar in a vocal demo couple of tracks four five six maybe ten tracks you could probably get working right away with what you have if you want to record things that are going to have more than that like 30 tracks 40 tracks you're going to want to mix a lot of complex stuff do a lot of editing that kind of stuff you're going to you're going to find the limitation of your computer pretty quickly so what you want to do is work as much as you can on what you have till you max it out and you'll realize man once I get 20 tracks in or once I get a bunch of plugins in you'll know that limit trust me I've hit that limit before it's frustrating but the good thing is computers keep getting more affordable multi-core processors are just more and more common and you can just do outstanding stuff on your computer so take stock of what computer you have I don't care if it's Mac or PC I don't really swing one way the other I'm a Mac guy that's what I use but I have friends in the industry that I work alongside that do professional stuff on PCs and they don't like Mac's they prefer to work in the PC platform so work with what you know okay but you have to start there because that will determine what your number two thing is so pick your computer laptop or desktop I don't think it really matters these days because laptops are insanely powerful I do a lot of mobile recording I'm tracking no problem on a laptop I've mixed on laptops they're pretty pretty powerful you just get more bang for your buck on a desktop you just kind of do so and you know that you sacrifice portability but pick your computer I would say this max out the RAM as best you can Ram is totally going to help especially if program's move 64-bit and they all move that direction RAM is cheap it's a cheap way to keep your computer fresh but get as many cores as you can and as much RAM as you possibly can but you don't have to get the top-of-the-line computer computer leads you to number two software what platform recording or mixing wise are you going to use okay so this is your using Pro Tools are you using logic or using studio one or using Cubase or using Nuendo are you using FL studio or you're using reason I mean the list goes on of what you could possibly use some of this decision might be made for you by your computer choice all right some programs are Mac only some programs are PC onlys like sonar is PC only logic is Mac only a lot of programs like Pro Tools Cubase to do one or both platforms so you have options there start with your computer pick a piece of software now what software should you go for it depends there are some that seem to be geared more for certain types of music and certain ways of working but honestly I've worked with almost all the DAWs out there and they're all pretty awesome they all can do a lot of the same things they're all going to be able to be your tape machine you'll be able to track tons of tracks they're all going to be your audio editing software it allows you to splice things up fix drum timings guitar timings tune vocals all that kind of stuff and then they all allow you to mix so you can have your virtual mixer you can have plugins and most of these are coming with awesome stock plugins check out the video I've done on mixing with stock plugins it's pretty much all you need to get going a lot of the Preferences software comes with either what you've grown up using what your mentor used what you used in college if you went to school for this or just sort of the visual way you like to work okay so I use Pro Tools because I grew up using cakewalk products I did a little bit of selling sonar for a little bit and then when I went to college the whole studio there was Pro Tools so I wanted to buy Pro Tools rig so I could take sessions back and forth and the studios I've worked with all use Pro Tools so in my professional track before I was just doing my own thing it helped me with collaboration it's what everyone was using I've been using it for over a decade and I know it like the back of my hand so what that does for me is it allows me to get out of Pro Tools thinking and get into music thinking that's what you want is you want to know a piece of software so well that all you thinking about is making that vocal sound awesome bringing that mix in tightly getting that kick drum to pump getting this song to be exciting whatever it is for you don't want to be thinking about shortcuts or thinking about menus so any piece of software you're going to have to learn but pick one that fits in your budget that fit with maybe the visual style style you like to work if it makes sense to you roll that if you already own a piece of software and you're debating should it get a different dot like if you don't know that dog very well why don't you learn that first before you shop around all the dogs people say they sound different I know the math underneath is technically different I get that coding can do different things it's all about conversion and digital but honestly once your conversion has happened it's in the box how it processes it is more of a math thing and less of a sonic thing from my experience so I wouldn't say there's a dog out there that sounds better for your mixes I kind of think that's a waste of your time pick a dog that you know that you're familiar with it allows you to get to work the da da W digital audio workstation synonymous with your recording or mixing software so you got to pick a computer that you're going to rock out want to max out the RAM and the cores as best you can but fit it in your budget I've been working on laptops for years I've been working on IMAX for years built you know I don't even have the top-of-the-line Mac don't need it pick a piece of software learn it please learn it you'll realize it can do way more than you think it could three is your audio interface this is huge this is like your converters and your mic preamps and your monitoring all in one box okay this could be a USB device this could be a FireWire this could be thunderbolt down the road this could be PCI to your your desktop this is your box that replaces your mixer you don't need a mixer you don't need external mic preamps you just need one of these boxes that have mic pries on the front of the back they have some jacks in for your guitars they have line inputs for keyboards they have headphone outputs so you can work on headphones they have line outs for your monitor speakers down the road it's a simple box anywhere from a hundred bucks to thousands of dollars they all do the same thing they take analog sound convert it to a digital sound or digital signal excuse me to fire over to your computer on a USB or firewire connection or whatever it is so that you can manipulate it in the software this is huge because this is going to be your your centerpiece of your studio this is what you plug in I got mine behind me I'm using something from Focusrite it's a liquid sapphire 56 I got a review of it on the site but that big box just does the same thing as my smaller boxes I've done over the years it just has more inputs and more outputs they all do the same thing in essence it's just how many tracks do you need to record it once how many outputs will you need for monitoring so if you're getting snoo to this you probably just need a two channel interface that's what I recommend all the time to mic pries maybe two inputs at a time so you can do a vocal in a guitar at a time you can do a stereo drums with your recorder man or something you can do stereo piano whatever you have all those options to you and then you can overdub record the rest of the band one at a time all of the same two inputs buy one of these boxes and move on don't worry about how expensive it needs to be they're all making great converters they're all going to do a great job they're all going to sound better than the boxes did 20 years ago so please just buy a box that gets good reviews that fits your budget and has the number of inputs you need and go to town so your computer your software your audio interface which is also your converters then what you need is a microphone right he's at least one good microphone to capture audio I like to recommend a large diaphragm condenser microphone this is like your typical studio vocal microphone if you think about that singing into the side of it it's usually a cardioid pattern you can get one of these for $100 or less there's a ton of great brands that will make $100 large diaphragm condenser mic go buy one and make every track with that thing record your vocals through it record your acoustic guitars through it mic up your electric guitar amp wood through it put it on drums for recording drums with one mic check out my video on that you can cord a whole drum kit with one mic that same mic use it for a bass cap use it for violins use it for percussion if you want to do that use it for anything you can think of because you can over dumb all you need is one $100 mic to get started if you can't make a record with that then you need to go back to the basics and figure out how to do that then maybe you can add more microphones down the road but you just need one to get started it's going to need phantom power but your audio interface will have that the 48 volts hit that button your mic will work alright the fifth component and final component is monitoring and I recommend people start out with a pair of headphones a pair of studio headphones right so big ole cans that go over your ears I prefer closed back you can have semi open or open back but I prefer closed back meaning no sound escapes the side of it it's a little less natural sounding in your ears then say like an open back or semi but it's great for tracking because then you have click track or stuff in your ears that you're listening to as you're playing and overdubbing it won't bleed into your microphone and then they're great for mixing because if you're in a room that's untreated if you just got started and you haven't put acoustic treatment on your walls and you haven't set up your desk in the optimal spot you can still get to work with a pair of closed back headphones slap them on then you don't have the room involved in your sound and you can get working on recording and mixing yeah it's not natural yeah I get that the stereo image is a little crazy wide then compared to speakers it never stopped me from making records you just learn it now I've got a couple of posts on the blog I've got a podcast we talked about can you mix on headphones as simply recording podcast com you can check out some of those tips on how to get the most out of your headphones but anything under the hundred dollar mark hundred dollars or less you can get a good pair of studio headphones and get working no problem that's where I would say to start down the road of course you want to pick up a pair of monitor speakers that way you can reference headphones and monitors you're going to get better mixes faster and you won't you know tire your ears as quickly but what I'm talking about is the five key components you need a solid computer that has plenty of RAM and isn't just jacked up with other software you can be your main computer you can get on the internet with it I don't really care about that just make sure it's clean and powerful and has plenty of RAM pick a piece of software and don't look back they're all great options I have friends in the industry making records on Logic Studio one sonar Pro Tools Cubase all of them so pick one roll with it and learn it computer software audio interface grab a box that fits your input and output needs and your budget you can't go wrong with almost any brand these days to really pumping out great sounding boxes pick up a microphone large diaphragm condenser to start if you can't afford that or you already have something like an sm57 a dynamic microphone we've looked at that in recent weeks of how awesome that mic is it can get the job done on almost anything that's another great option there a lot of them used on eBay and finally pick up a pair of studio headphones you don't have to spend more than a hundred bucks to get a good pair of headphones people would disagree with me but it's okay we can all have our own opinion but those are the five core elements of a kick in home studio my studio is basically those same five elements just a little bit bigger I need to record a drum kit with eight mics for a lot of the bands that want to have multitrack drums so my interface has gotten bigger to accommodate that I have more microphones to accommodate the same thing with drums most everything else I just use one microphone I have speakers I have two sets of speakers I reference someone real mid-range II speakers my main KRKs I've got a couple of pair of headphones that I use same thing as the headphones I've worked on headphones before I use Pro Tools I've used it for over a decade it's the same piece of software I've been using and my computer that's changed as my needs change I have a couple when I take on the road for mobile recording one and mix on here and as those get outdated or as I need more power I could always upgrade them but you don't need to upgrade that often because again these things are ridiculously powerful especially if you started this 10 years ago like I did on a computer that wasn't meant to be a recording computer I was still making records then somehow they sounded halfway decent so it's possible today those are the five key elements think about what you have in your studio do you have all five you probably do if you're getting started those are the five things to think about don't worry about price don't worry about brand just pick something that fits in your budget this seems to get decent reviews it's going to work great for you the rest of it comes with using it and learning it so hopefully that helps you guys throw it out any questions or comments you have on the video or the blog let me know maybe what you're using in your studio any suggestions and tips you have on those core elements and again I'm always here to try to answer questions so please keep them coming on the blog that's the best place to reach me you can email me directly through the blog at the Recording Revolution comm I'll promise to read that email at some point and get back with you when I can thanks for watching I hope you have a great week we'll talk to you soon

Channel: recordingrevolution

Views: 1,069,440

Keywords: home studio, computer, mac, pc, laptop, desktop, imac, ram, cpu, cores, software, DAW, pro tools, studio one, logic, cubase, nuendo, reason, fl studio, digital audio workstation, audio interface, focusrite, saffire, USB, firewire, thunderbolt, microphone, mic pre, converters, analog, digital, large diaphragm, condenser, vocals, acoustics, guitars, drums, percussion, piano, sm57, headphones, krk, monitors, speakers, tips, tutorials, recording, mixing, plugins, stock pugins

Id: eaYNM7p6Z5s

Length: 15min 36sec (936 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 29 2012