Back in the old days (around ‘Nam) recording at home was a new miracle. You could actually hit record on a device and capture sound in your own home. Your eyes would light up just like Thomas Edison did when he first invented audio recording. Fast forward to 2005. It’s now completely affordable to outfit a fully functional recording rig in your home for the price of a high quality,Self Home Recording vs Paying a Recording Studio Articles American made guitar. While the price of getting into home recording is much cheaper than it has ever been before, it’s still a lot of money. Is setting up a small studio worth the price? What are the pitfalls of trying to record yourself? Would you be better off just paying a professional recording studio to do the job for you? Hopefully, I’ll answer these questions and more.
What It Takes
You are going to need a lot of knowledge, gear, time, and patience before jumping into the recording studio world. I was a computer nerd half done with a degree in electronics when I jumped into the recording world. I understood electronic basics and had run live sound numerous times. I totally understood how to operate a mixer/console. So all I had to do was jump into the recording portion, right? ….Well, it turned out that there was quite a learning curve to go from an empty room to the creative process (which is the fun part) and walk out with a finished cd in hand.
I had no idea how much time I would spend cursing Windows alexisshv streaming at streamrecorder.io audio drivers, failed hard drives, out of sync audio files, clicks and pops, unwanted distortion, etc. Truth be told, I went from an average computer user to a computer master in that couple of monthes it took me to work out all the kinks in my system. That’s right. It took me a few monthes before I was ready to record my first band. It was that tough. That was in 2001. Maybe things are easier now. I’m guessing that you’ll still have quite a road in front of you.
After you get your rig fully operational, you are still going to have to learn the software. I would HIGHLY recommend that you buy a DVD and a book to teach you the software that you intend to use. I could have saved myself hundreds of hours of headaches if I would have just read the stupid manual and had a little instruction. I learned a lot by tinkering (which may be your nature too) but there is no point in learning things the hard way if you don’t have to. On my very first recording session, I had my manual in my lap. You could only imagine how stressful it can be if you have 5 guys staring at you while you desperately push buttons on something you barely understand. I’d say it took me a good 3 monthes of everyday tinkering before I felt comfortable using the software for basic recording. Keep in mind that I wasn’t trying anything advanced here. No crazy editing, no fancy automation. In fact, I had very little understanding of audio when it came down to early reflections and multi-tap delays. I’m talking about just getting the stupid song onto the computer.