How to Build a Home Recording Studio for Beginners
By Max on Apr 6, 2008 in Home Recording
If you were to go out today as a novice and buy a complete PC home recording studio, there are many things you will need to research before you buy. And once you’ve chosen a product, research it again. To get you started, however, I have these tips and tricks on how to build your own home recording studio..
A Computer: Home Base For Your Recording Studio
Assuming you will be using a windows platform, you should look at an Intel CPU with dual core and decent speed. The chip set on the motherboard is not necessarily a priority, but I would recommend staying away from Via or SIS as these tend to not perform that well when working with audio.
Lots of RAM!
When it comes to RAM, fill up with as much as your pocketbook can afford. RAM is the biggest bottleneck in every computer as the door everything has to step through in order to get to the CPU. I suggest 2 gigs or better, which shouldn’t set you back too badly. Never use Intel Celeron CPU’s or AMD Sempron CPU’s as these will make any media creation impossibly slow.
For your hard drive use a SATA with the 3Gb transfer rate, after first making sure your motherboard supports that rate. You will write a lot of information to your hard drive very quickly when recording. If you’re able, use two drives–one as your master hard drive and a second one just for recording purposes.
You will also want a large monitor to work with multiple applications simultaneously. All in all the computer will probably cost you between $800 and $1500 if bought as individual pieces and you are able to work with the hardware yourself.
Audio Interface
The next thing you will need is the sound card (audio interface). I recommend the EMU 1212m if you want a PCI based card and are on a budget ($100-150). You will need to buy an Analog to Digital convertor to get full 8 input abilities from this card though, so look at the Behringer ADA8000 and pick up 2 optical cables to run between them.
If you have some money to throw around and have a firewire port on your system look into the PreSonus Fire Studio ($400-600). These all offer amazingly good quality a features.
Recording Software
In order to record sound you will need specific software. Here you have thousands of choices, but I will highly recommend picking up Steinberg’s Cubase ($200). Others out there will cost more and are simpler to figure out, but you will quickly discover that your recordings will sound better through Cubase. If you are really on a budget, download a program called Reaper. Currently it is a free multitrack recorder, mixer, MIDI tool, looper, and editor with decent sound.
Not necessarily needed but considered convenient is a digital or MIDI mixer to interface with the recording software. I suggest the Behringer BCF2000 ($200) as it is very affordable and reliable.
Preamps
Now it’s time to plug your guitar into the sound card. This can be done by a few means, one of which is plugging directly into your sound card’s preamps, if able. If you chose the setups like I mentioned earlier you are ready to go. But I would highly recommend using at least one Art Pro Channel ($320) as it offers much better mic preamps than most preamps built into sound cards and comes with a compressor which will help you keep the input level under control. From there just hook into the sound card and you’re ready to rock.
Get a Quality Microphone
For the best beginner’s mic, pick up the EV/Blue Cardinal ($200), at least one Shure SM57 ($100), and maybe a few AKG C1000s’s ($200) for overhead recording. You could probably record everything through the Shure SM57 but your recordings will suffer. Make sure to pick up a few boom mic stands and at least one “popper stopper” and plenty of cables.
As far as FX go, your recording software will generally come with some good stuff built in. Remember to use a compressor after the preamp and before the recorder. This will prevent your signal from clipping and screwing up a great take. If you went with the Art Pro Channel, you’re in luck as it comes with a pretty good one.
Cables
This leads us to our next area–cables. Sure you should use all Mogami or Monster cables, but $20+ for a five foot cable is just ridiculous. Blue makes some great mic cables, so pick up at least 2 of those. If you go with another brand, at least use Mogami or Monster cables for your essential connections (cables to the speakers, signal processors, or any long runs) as the cheaper ones are not reliable. Any cables that you use for plugging in an instrument can be done using simple LiveWire or budget cables.
Sound Proofing
Sound Isolation is very important. For newbies with a spare room, craft foam with starch water painted on them after hanging, is acceptable for lining the walls with. If you’re serious and can’t afford time spent on police calls for noise disturbances, Auralex is a great resource for the professional stuff. Their stiff foam is easily hung on walls to prevent sound from bouncing, which causes reverb.
Studio Monitors
Monitors (or speakers) are the next big thing. These come in 2 real forms, powered or non powered. I would recommend beginners get powered monitors like the Alesis M1’s ($300 for the pair) or you can use a standard stereo receiver and normal speakers, though it’s not quite the same. With monitors, you want their sound to be “true” or uncolored. This means that they should produce exactly the same frequencies (at the same levels) that you are sending them, which is impossible. So you want them as flat as possible.
Headphones
This leads us to headphones, which you will use to test your recordings and for rough mixings. When choosing headphones, same as with your studio speakers, you want a flat response. Also you need the kind that hug your ears. Probably the best headphones I’ve used for basic monitoring are some cheap 20 or 30 dollar generics I bought from Guitar Center that don’t bleed out. This means when wearing them, you don’t hear much outside of them.
Now you have all the equipment, what’s left besides your recording space? Well, how about a comfortable chair that you will pretty much be glued to? I have actually bruised my tailbone from sitting in a bad chair for 20 some hours while mixing, so I suggest just as much research goes into a chair that fits you as your equipment.
Finally, If you plan on recording a band, it’s best to use 2 rooms if possible. Keeping the speakers in the same room as the equipment is bad for obvious reasons. But once you have your space, and all the equipment mentioned in this article, you are ready to rock, roll and record your way to artistry.
