Home Recording Setups

I think it would be interesting to hear a little bit about home recording setups. We can talk about equipment, advice, and resources. Anyone have a good setup? Affordable? I'd love to hear what anyone recommends for home recording!

Tags: Home, recording

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Permalink Reply by Edd Gryder on August 1, 2009 at 2:46pm

Latency is the number one cause of clicks. Having your audio files on the same hard drive as your operating system is another cause of problems related to drop outs and having a slow hard drive that has a low on board memory count also causes problems. Often, just reducing the bit rate and resolution can cure a lot of these problems especially on computers that are low powered and not specifically used a s recorders only.

Hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by Josh Powell on August 1, 2009 at 9:12pm

I'm currently using a 1/4 to 1/8 plug to record my guitar into my Mac running Garageband. But I plan on getting Pro Tools, POD Studio UX1, and maybe Reason, to record the final version of my album.

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Permalink Reply by Genghis Khan on August 4, 2009 at 3:19pm

I'm still using an old knife to cut my own vinyl records........I will say this, recording fast solos with this method sucks.

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Permalink Reply by Dustin the "DrunkPunk" on August 12, 2009 at 5:11am

I've found that a leather awl works much better than a dull old knife.

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Permalink Reply by Genghis Khan on August 12, 2009 at 1:03pm

I don't think awls are MAC compatible?????

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Permalink Reply by Dustin the "DrunkPunk" on August 12, 2009 at 11:52pm

Nope, PC only. Looks like you'll have to switch.

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Permalink Reply by Genghis Khan on August 13, 2009 at 11:48am

...naw, I'd rather shoot myself in the head.

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Permalink Reply by Genghis Khan on August 13, 2009 at 3:51pm

As for the M-Audio stuff I would stay away from the lower priced stuff. It's quality/price ratio is kinda off IMO.
Make sure you computer is up to snuff, nothing crazy but it keeps problems/freezing from halting your recording.

For on the "go type" stuff I use this, it was 50 bucks on ebay and works with either Mac or PC.

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Permalink Reply by Jesse Barney on April 8, 2011 at 12:17pm

Come. Check out our home recording workshops at music villa!

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Permalink Reply by Sunny Acres Studio on April 8, 2011 at 5:02pm

As mentioned in pretty much all prior posts... M-Audio is a great way to go when it comes to a small budget. Now that M-Audio and Avid are working together its a perfect way to get Pro Tools in your hands for a small price. I've been using the Profire 2626 interface in my setup and haven't run into any problems thus far. It's got 8 Octane preamps that give you plenty of channels to mic up a drum kit. The flexibility to route signals and even expand the interface is always a plus.

I'd say the best investments I've made to my studio are a solid computer (preferably made by Apple) and a top of the line external hard drive (I've got a Glyph rack mount external HD that works great). Before I invested in the hard drive I had so many different file corruption and noise issues that ended up screwwing up so many sessions. A few hundred bucks invested in a hard drive made for sound recording saves you a ton of trouble... because really, each track you record is best saved as clean and unscathed as possible.

Nice monitors are always beneficial too... since its good to actually hear a good flat representation of what you're doing in your DAW. I've got some Mackie MR-5s that have worked well for me and they didn't break the bank. Not the flattest monitors you can find but once your ears understand the dynamics and frequency spectrum of the monitors you learn to recognize what you're actually hearing.

As for mics... 57s can carry you pretty far for a $100 a piece... A few 57s will cover your snare and toms as well as your guitar cabs. I've also got a Sennheisser e609 that works like a 57 but is a little bit brighter. I usually use this to mic the bottom of the snare and as another mic on a guitar cab. A good kick mic is something worth getting in my opinion. The Audix D6 is fantastic for the price. I haven't really formulated an opinion for overheads just yet... I have some Audix SDCs that do the trick and were about $150 for the pair. An LDC for vocals works for me... and in most cases, you get what you pay for.

I've become sold on the MXR-80 DI for tracking bass. You can squeeze plenty of good sounds out of it and with a little Pro Tools tweaking you are set. However, this DI does not have the ability to fix a crappy sounding bass guitar.

Lastly, in my opinion, it's all about the musical gear you're using to make the music... bad drum heads and crappy solid state digital amps will never sound good, even with the most expensive mic in front of them. As a guitar player originally, I can't help but gag everytime I see a "guitarist" with one of those nasty digital amps with the LED numbers on the front. TUBE AMPS! But that's just me.

C.J.

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Permalink Reply by Jesse Barney on April 10, 2011 at 1:11am

Room treatments before monitors!!!!! Your last paragraph is great. The formula is this: Great song, great performance, great product, no matter the gear. The greatest gear and studio in the world can't make a crappy song and a crappy performance sound good. Listen to your favorite records from the 60s and earlier to hear what I mean...