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The Home Studio Pt I
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The Home Studio Pt. I – The Benefits of Owning Your Own Home Studio. by Michael Elsner
The benefits of owning a home studio far outweigh the inherent costs associated with setting one up. Today you can easily build a pro quality project studio for just a few thousand dollars. However, I want to focus not only on the benefits of having your own home environment to record in, but also how important it is to learn to get pro results from it.
My decision to build my own home studio happened in 1996 after I had recorded my first record with a band that I was in. After months of rehearsals and saving every penny we had, we secluded ourselves in a studio in Woodstock, NY, confident that we would immerge with our masterpiece. After a few weeks of tracking and mixing, we had an album that sounded nothing like us. Because we had no prior recording experience, we were completely at the mercy of our engineer who was also the ‘acting’ producer. If we’d have had more knowledge of the recording process, we could have retained more control over our ‘sound.’ It was at this time that I vowed to never let this happen again. I decided to learn how to engineer and produce my own recordings on a pro level. By learning how to fully produce and engineer my own recordings, I’ve been able to record and produce numerous records as well as write and produce songs for television and film, all right out of my house at very little or no cost.
With your own home system you have the power to create whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want. Simply put, you’re in control. You can spend as much time as you need finding your ‘sound,’ re-arranging that hit song, creating the perfect mix, experimenting with different melodies and lyrics, etc. The possibilities are endless, but you no longer have to rely on someone else to see your vision through. You’re in control of the whole process, and that is the most satisfying aspect of having your own studio to create pro sounding recordings.
Today it’s much easier and more cost effective to build a recording setup than it was 10 years ago. So, what would you need to put together your own project studio? A basic list would include the following.
- Computer (preferably a desktop model with a fast processor and much RAM as possible) - Recording Program (ie: ProTools, Digital Performer, Logic, Nuendo, etc…) - Interface (this is how the audio gets in and out of the computer) - Pro Quality Studio Monitors (preferably bi-amped models) - Dynamic Microphone (for mic’ing electric guitars) - Condenser Microphone (for vocals and mic’ing acoustic guitars) - Pro Quality Preamp (Preferably one that includes EQ and Compression) - An assortment of cables and of course a good set of headphones.
I approached this record in two stages. Each stage consisted of 5 songs, and the approach for both stages was exactly the same. For each song, I started with an idea and an arrangement which I recorded on my ProTools system either to a drum loop or click track. When I had the songs recorded in their most basic form, I went in to a ‘real’ studio for an evening to track drums. Once the drums were recorded, I took the files home where I was able to play more with the arrangements. All the overdubs (guitar and bass tracks) were recorded over the next 2 or 3 months at my home studio which allowed me to sit with my ideas and make any necessary changes. The final instrument that I added was B3 organ.
I recorded guitars using a variety of microphones including a Shure SM57, Audio Technica AT-4033, and an MXL V-69. Many of the guitars were also recorded using a POD. The bass was recorded direct. All these signals were sent through a Presonus Eureka preamp before going into ProTools. The B3 was recorded at my B3 player’s house using two SM57s, running into a ProTools Mbox system.
Being on your own time frame also allows for quite a bit of ‘spontaneity’. While I was working on phase one of “Stained Voodoo,” I was also producing a record for another artist. I had brought a saxophone player in to play on some of his songs, and before he left, I asked him to play on a song I was working on. His performances became the verses for my song “Voodoo.”
Another example of this spontaneous situation is the song “King It Down.” I was working with a keyboard player on another project and at the last minute asked him to play some wurlitzer on one of my funkier songs. What he played created such a different feel from what I had started with, that I went back and re-recorded some of the guitars to play around what the wurly was doing.
The song “Kayleigh’s Dream” took me a few days to get the acoustic guitar sound that I was looking for. I did quite a bit of re-writing and re-arranging on this song after the drums had already been laid down. These are things that I would not have been able to do if I was paying for a studio by the hour.
The mixing process also took place in the home studio environment. This allowed me to live with my mixes for a few days, and then make the necessary changes, live with them some more, and make even more changes. This process happened numerous times as I would compare the mixes to those of some of my favorite CDs. This is a perfect example of the benefit of time that you have by owning your own project studio.
So, as you can see, the benefits definitely outweigh the initial cost of setting up your own home studio. I hope this gives you some inspiration to look into building your own recording setup and producing your own recordings.
“Owning your own studio puts the power of your creation into your own hands.” www.michaelelsner.com
If you like this article, maybe you'll like this one too! Recording and the Formation of a Song
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3/17/07
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