Why You Should be Recording Music at Home

If you are a passionate musician and enjoy writing your own material, you’ve probably thought about recording your music. For many, this means forking out money for the time at the recording studio, which can be quite costly. The other option is to set up your own mini-studio at home, which can be a better option for various reasons, obliviously with the right collection of Home Recording Gears. In this article, we’ll be looking at reasons you should be recording if you aren’t and why you might consider buying the equipment yourself.

It Offers Perspective on Your Sound

If you’re serious about your music and you’re wanting to develop your sound to be the best it can be, the recording is basically a must. Often your voice will sound totally different when you hear it recorded - this is quite natural. A similar thing happens when you’re playing an instrument and sometimes it can be helpful to step outside the music and listen to yourself to pick out things that can be improved or polished.

Home Recording - Easy Progress Tracking!

Recording yourself can be a great way to keep a track not only of how much you or your band have improved as musicians but the evolution of your sound. This can help motivate you as you look back on how you sounded a year ago or more and how much you’ve changed and learned in that time. So, if you are a beginner at audio recording then you can check out the top audio recording devices for beginners. Often when learning something, you don’t notice how much you’re improving as time goes on, and recording yourself allows you to get a sense of this.

It’s Not All That Expensive

Surprisingly, you can pick up recording equipment of reasonable quality quite inexpensively - and with the wonders of technologies and computer software these days, you can likely mix it too without too much trouble. Now the only concern is how to set up a home recording studio with cost efficiency.

If you’re super serious about recording and you’re past the point of playing around and experimenting, you might have to pay a little extra for a near-studio quality sound ($1000+) but when you think about the fact that it’s a one-off purchase of home recording gear and you have the equipment to play with forever, it’s quite reasonable. Compare this to pay per minute at a studio, where the hours can really add up as you fiddle around with your sound, and it’s really a no-brainer.

Time Flexibility

When you pay for studio time, you are essentially working on a fixed schedule. You can’t stop, take a rest or grab something to eat unless you want to pay more and truthfully, you probably won’t be working at your own pace.

With your own home studio, you can take your time and stretch out recording sessions, working around your own schedule. This improves your chances of a successful record.

Develop Other Skills

When you have your own home recording studio, you will naturally pick up other skills in addition to your musicianship. You’ll develop knowledge of electronics and you’ll learn how to get the best sound, properly mix your recordings and other tech skills.

How to Set Up a Cost Effective Home Recording Studio

It’s the dream of many musicians to be able to write and record your own music for your band at home but for a long time, it wasn’t possible to do so unless you had mega millions to spend. Thanks to the advancement of different technologies, personal computers and the ease in which you can put your songs up online to sell, the home recording industry has never been bigger or easier to get into.

If you are a beginner on the music scene and are looking for an affordable entry into recording your music at home, there are a number of different solutions you can use to help you get a great quality recording without breaking the bank. In the past, the only available options were cassette tape multi-track devices, but with the advent of the digital age, you can now record, edit and playback your songs on hard drive recorders or your personal computer at reasonable prices.

The essential components of recording music at home

One of the most essential things you will need is a microphone or a number of microphones for your recording. A good voice microphone such as the industry standard Shure SM58, available at many guitar shops in Melbourne to start with for a professional microphone that will last forever. A boundary microphone is a cheaper option to pick up your drum kit, as dedicated mics for each drum may set you back an arm and a leg.

A recording medium is needed to record your music, as well as a mixing board to manage your levels and inputs from all of your instruments and microphones. Multi-track recording devices such as the BOSS BR-80 are where many beginners start as they often contain 4, 8 or 12 separate tracks to plug instruments into, which is a great option if you want to record your band live.

Multi-track recorders offer a cheaper way to home recording, as they not only contain a micromixing desk to get your levels but also a place to record or edit your music. Many multi-track recorders offer different mediums to store your recordings onto, with hard drives being the best for maximum storage capacity, as well as ease of use.

Some more advanced multi-track recording devices allow you to hook up to your home computer for added mixing options, as well as providing live recording and effects provided by a DAW or digital audio workstation.

Going fully digital for your home recording

Some musicians prefer to skip the physical recording multi-track device altogether and opt for a completely digital solution on a computer. The use of DAWs has increased in recent years with many professional recording artists using their home DAWs to record and release music. For the best recording quality, stability and compatibility, a computer audio interface such as the Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 or specialist soundcard are often required to reduce any latency issues or delay you may have when recording your music.

These can be relatively cheap to acquire and do not need advanced knowledge of how they work to operate them at a professional level. There are many free DAW programs available to download, and with the addition of millions of plugins and VST apps such as Guitar Rig for added effects, you might find that switching to a home computer to record all of your music will set you free to worry about writing the music, and not the pain of finding the right cable to record onto your multi-track system.

Top 5 Audio Recording Devices For Beginners

If you’re passionate about playing music, whether it’s your own or someone else's, it’s only natural that you’ll want to record yourself and get another perspective on how you’re playing. Recording your own music is a lot of fun and it’s something that every musician must do - it enables you to experiment and improve your skills considerably, as well as being able to mix and add new instruments and sounds into your music.

For those that are just starting out and need some advice on the best and more convenient recording devices, the team at Guitar Paradise have got you covered. Check out our shortlist below and as always if you have any further questions don’t hesitate to give us a call!

 

1. Your Phone/Laptop

Technology is at a point now where you can get a decent sound quality by using computers and smartphones. In fact, chances are the hardware you’ve got currently will get the job done. Mac computers are a favourite with musicians the world over and if you’re just starting out and aren’t ready to invest a huge amount of money into recording straight away, we’d probably recommend investing in a MacBook.

Recording this way couldn’t be easier, although without additional software you’re mixing options will be limited - you’re looking at a simple recording of what you’re playing and little ability to do much else.

 

2. Mixing Software

More than likely you’ve got the hardware and you can get a basic, listenable recording from your computer - but the next step is investing in special software designed to handle various tracks of recorded audio at once. There are some inexpensive options including Apple’s Logic Pro and Audacity, which is actually free.

These programs will enable you to record and then take these recordings and stack them on top of each other to create a single audio track.

 

3. Audio Interface

As has been mentioned, computers can take care of the actual recording part of the process. Basically, every computer that’s on the market today comes with what is needed to record and you’ll usually have a mic and line input. But the quality of sound is quite low and if you’re serious about recording your performances and your music, an audio interface allows you to do so.

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 Basically, it stands as a middleman between your instruments and your computer, converting these sounds into a digital form that your computer can understand. Electrical instruments can be plugged directly into the Audio Interface and from there into your computer.  One that we’d recommend is the Duo-Capture (UA-11) which costs only $109.

4. Microphone

The majority of instruments can be plugged straight into the audio interface, which ensures the best sound quality. However, if you’re relying on a computer to record vocals, you’ll more than likely notice a mix-match in the quality of the sound and background noise is sure to be a factor. Once you have some experience recording and want to take that next step with your equipment, a microphone is the best way to go.

A microphone is designed to give you a better sound quality for all vocals and acoustic instruments too. Different branded mics are appropriate for different purposes, however, if you’re after a good all-around vocal microphone for signing - the SM57 Instrument Microphone is the pick of the bunch.

 

5. Headphones

At this point, it’s a good idea to consider a dependable pair of studio headphones to make sure you’re getting the most out of your recording sessions and can pick up on the strengths and weaknesses of your mixes.

It will take some getting used to, but your ear will start to get a sense of which audio tracks need to be higher or lower and what needs to be added. Headphones enable you to do this. Keep in mind that they vary greatly in price - for an expensive pair you’re looking at thousands of dollars. But to start off, you can get the job done with headphones that cost less than $100. The Samson RH600 models are a good choice.