Zaryo - Singers HOME RECORDING STUDIO

Print Email

A home recording studio allows you greater flexibility in terms of time and control over the end-product. The question now is: what does a home recording studio require and what is the suitable equipment?

Home Recording Studio

Posted by Katriona on 01-11-2011

Home Recording Studio

Computers have become a standard piece of equipment in every household and software for semi-professionals is much improved. In fact preparation for professional programmes are suitable for a regular PC allows today's musicians to build their own home recording studio at a (relatively) low price.

How to equip your home recording studio
You need to plan your home recording studio with care. Remember - your financial outlay may be quite small, but it's still quite a bit more than a regular computer. Don't make any rash decisions about buying equipment that may be cheaper than all the rest. In the end, you'll find yourself doing a lot of extra work; and the opposite is also true - don't buy super-professional equipment that you'll have no use for.

So, before you start spending money, do a thorough checkup of what's available. Take your time to learn and try different things. Find a friend who already has a home recording studio and learn about the programmes. Try putting a program on your own computer for a trial run and play with it. If the lack of professional equipment becomes boring, then it's time to start looking around to see what's available.

First of all, consider your budget. Look around the shops, search the Internet and most importantly - consult with the pros. Make an orderly shopping - home recording studio list. Remember that there's no need to buy the most modern equipment, in fact it's probably better to buy things that are known and recommended. Buy equipment with a known brand-name so that your own operating system will continue to provide updates on your computer. Also take into account that you should leave some money aside so that you can fix up your entire home recording studio environment. Make room for the music equipment and most importantly, make sure the acoustics are great. Buy professional acoustic sponges.

What does a home recording studio consist of?
First of all you need a good, strong computer - one that is multimedia friendly. Suit your computer details to the sound deck and not the opposite. First of all, find the best professional sound card that you can afford and don't forget to checkup how many audio outlets it has, and if it has midi outlets.

A good computer for editing needs to be a powerful computer! It should have a mother board from a well-known manufacturer of sound decks, at least 512MB, a good screen card, 2 rapid hard discs with a large capacity: one for the programmes and the other for saving recorded material. You can theoretically do with one hard disc, but two are better. And of course there are other components: a disc deck and burner (DVD is better). The professional software gives higher quality but is harder to learn. The semi-professional programmes are more user-friendly, but the quality level is a bit lower. In addition, it's pretty certain that you'll need to add a plug-in that will enable you to add virtual music and effects.

In order to build your perfect home recording studio, you'll need speakers, a mixer, recording equipment, midi equipment (midi=communication between musical instruments or between the instruments and the computer). For professional sound editing you need professional speakers that are intended for recording studios. Those speakers provide an exact sound picture on monitors. Regular home speakers aren't good enough because they 'improve' the music that you hear. A regular control keyboard is usually good enough for a home recording studio. For control - you can buy a control board with knobs and feeders, but take into consideration that the mouse is generally enough.

For those of you with a tight budget - checkup the option of buying high quality home recording equipment, but not all of it that can be upgraded later on. That would be better than buying average equipment and changing it all later.

Join Zaryo Now!