sound engineer tips

article 3 - building the dream home studio

Studio Man at Home

This month Studio Man returns with a report on the progress of building his dream home... studio that is. 
Take it away Studio Man...

Hey Audio Man, thanks for having me back!

I can't help but think that aspiring musicians and recording aficionados have finally come into their own. Fifteen years ago, if you didn't go pro - laying out thousands of dollars in a high-tech studio - you just couldn't get a quality recording or demo. And that was just for tape and vinyl. 

Today's consumer tech-friendly world makes it possible to produce a finished CD-quality product in your own home studio.

It's the digital revolution that's allowed the average Joe to achieve these results (and put a lot of audio studios out of business). You can even burn as many perfect CD copies needed without too much time, effort or expense. In the old days I couldn't burn a CD with a blow torch!

The key component driving this trend is the stand-alone Hard Disk Recorder.

Generally they look a lot like a cassette recorder but they do so much more! The hard disk recorder has mixing facilities built-in. The fundamental difference is that the incoming signal is digitized and stored right on to a hard drive. On playback the information is read from the disk and converted from a digital signal back into analog, all in a fraction of a second, and at a fraction of the cost.

These products don't actually require many extras, which makes them highly portable. Most of them also include digital effects so you don't have to budget for extra reverb units or effect racks.

Going digital will also allow you to do multiple track bounces with no sound quality loss and, unlike the cassette, you often have the ability to painlessly rewrite a riff. You can even cut, copy and paste segments of audio. This means that you could record your chorus backing vocals just once and then copy them to other locations in the song - is your imagination working overtime yet?

Today's home studio technology has improved to the point where you can seamlessly combine the roles of Engineer and Musician. Hey, maybe you can be the world's first Enginician!

Back to you AudioMan.

Thanks, Studio Man - another great article. And I learned something - if I work really hard I could be the world's first Musineer?

Now we know why you spend so much time in the basement - which of course is where you've been putting together AudioLink's low, low pricing on our line of Home Studio products - on sale now - many at 25-45% off list!

ARTICLE 1: Recording with Boundary Mics
ARTICLE 2: Music Rehearsal at Home
ARTICLE 3: Back To Top

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