Home Recording Studio

                    

  

The above diagram shows a simple arrangement for a home studio. You might be wondering why should you bother about setting up you own home studio!   

This might seem like a very difficult feat to achieve considering the fact that people, especially artistes expect every recording studio to be fully kitted with all the high standard gadgets and equipments usually seen at PRO studios.

The truth remains that you don't really need all those expensive equipments to take your vocals or record your instruments...nor create beats. I want to assure you that you could put together a simple recording arrangement that can rival any PRO Studio production, quality-wise; once you know what you are doing.

Recording a successful song requires absolute concentration and sufficient time for creativity to truly bear on the project. Depending on a PRO Studio can be very expensive, and you might have enough time to actualize all your imaginations for the project.
The first two stages of music production does not really require sophisticated equipments. All you really need would few impute devices and a quiet environment... like your basement, or you can simply wait till it's night and everyone is asleep; no nice!

These are the stages mentioned: (1) Sequencing  & (2) Voicing.

These two stages of production can be taken care of with the simplest equipments in the market. And I am going to show you how to put them together to work for your music career. And guess what, two or three artistes can come together and set up a mini recording studio for themselves and for friends. It would only encourage creativity and FREEDOM!

The Seven major components of every recording studio are:

• A computer
• Keyboard
• Audio Interface/Sound Card
• Computer Sequencer e.g., Cubase, sonar, FL studio
• Microphone
• Connecting cables
• Monitor Speakers

Beyond these components, any other addition to the family is purely for enhancement of production  and multi-tasking. But I can authoritatively tell you that with the above mentioned items, you are ready for production.

WHY YOU SHOULD SET UP YOUR OWN STUDIO?

    

Think of the freedom of being able to record at impulse; to wake up at any time and put your imagination to work…mindless of some management watching over your shoulders. No more getting furious with the engineer for delaying the rendering or mixing process. I am talking about absolute FREEDOM… and of course, in CAPITAL letters.

I remember back in 2005 when I was able to set up my first recording studio. It was a very wise decision, because it enabled me to mature musically. I decided hey! ‘Why don’t I make some money with my new found skills’? I started demo production for friends and sundry; soon I made back all the money I had put into setting up my home studio, and also had featured in more than 60 tracks. This is because I had all the time to perfect my voice takes.

Well, that was a digression over there. But nevertheless, it might also encourage you to know that you could also start recording young artistes who can’t afford dope studios…for a fraction of what it would have cost them.  Thereby, making back your initial investment.

Now back to the matter of the moment- Setting up your own home studio-

Here we go:

Your Mixerless Home Studio (use a Laptop or Desktop)

This is a very simple Home Studio arrangement. It is ideal for HIP HOP, Dancehall, R&B, POP and all forms of electronic and dance music. Solo artistes or small groups can work perfectly with this; also it is for recording acoustic guitarists, ‘synthesists’, vocalists and song writers.

All you will need are:

• An Audio Interface (either the Firestudio Mobile or The Motu Ultralite)

(Both of them are very cheap but effective Audio Interfaces: AI)

• Firewire cable
• Microphone
• Keyboard controller
• Active Monitors
• A fast Laptop or desktop
• …and of course, the Computer sequence (cubase, sonar, FL studio)

With as little as N170, 000, you could acquire all the above items. Give me a call if you need me to configure or purchase them for you. You can easily get every one of them at the famous Alaba International market in Lagos state, Nigeria. (BB PIN: 25EB6027 : Twitter:@abusamuel: Facebook:www.facebook.com/2tytenigeria) Feel free to contact me.

Notice that I didn’t mention a Mixer or a Sound Card among the needed items. For our simple Home recording studio, we shall be using Audio Interfaces instead of expensive sound cards.

Why?

Simple: The Firestudio Mobile will work with Macs or PCs.  You can plug in your guitar and mic on the front panel and connect a synth in the back.  This interface is rich in inputs (8 analog, stereo s/pdif digital) but only has 2 outputs, which is nearly perfect for a mixerless approach.  Finally, you're going to be recording at 24 bits, just like many PRO studios.

The Firestudio Mobile:

MIC:

Any cheap microphone will do: Your studio Project B1 will be just perfect.

The studio Project B1

KEYBOARD:

You can get a fairly used keyboard from your electronic market; just ensure that it is MIDI enabled. You don’t really need an expensive keyboard since all you will need it for is just to punch notes unto your Computer synthesizer.  

Monitor speaker:

For the Monitor speakers, the Behringer MS 16 does wonders. You could also complement it with any passive speaker…just to act as your “live” player.

MS16 behringer

COMPUTER:

One very vital component here is the Computer you use. It is important that you have a very fast and powerful processor configuration; a dual core, 500GB, 2GB ram will do just fine. Computers are available also in the fairly used market, but if you can afford it, get a brand new one. You don’t want compromise on this part of the project.

studio computer

Computer Sequencers:

Last, but in no way the least, is your computer sequencer. Computer sequencers are software that allows you to record midi and audio into tracks, which can later be edited and integrated into the final work. The impute devices like the Microphones, Keyboards, Guitars and other musical elements can only come together as a common entity in the computer, only by a sequencer. There are so many of them out there now, but there are some very popular ones. In later discussions, we shall be taking them, one after the other to discuss and illustrate how best to use them. The three very popular ones are as follows:

CUBASE

SONAR cakewalk

Fruity Loops Studio

HOW TO CONNECT THE COMPONENTS:

Connect Firewire cable from firebox to computer. 

Mic to XLR input.  Keyboard controller to any USB input.

Active Monitors on the main outs. 

If you have a keyboard or module with sounds then it connects to the firebox line inputs 3 and 4 on the back.  

 If you have a keyboard with no USB use the onboard 5 pin MIDI jacks.

Very easy, isn’t it? Once you have all these components properly configured, you are ready to start recording at home.

REMEMBER:  

• The Firestudio Mobile will work with Macs or PCs. 
• You can plug in your guitar and mic on the front panel and connect a synth in the back. 
• This interface is rich in inputs (8 analog, stereo s/pdif digital) but only has 2 outputs, which is nearly perfect for a mixerless approach. 
• Finally, you're going to be recording at 24 bits, just like many PRO studios.

That will be all for now, but be here again next week to learn how to record audio and midi into your computer, using your home studio arrangement. Please leave a comment and you can be sure that I will get back to you. And i shall consider your suggestions or questions in my next discussion.