Home Recording VS Studio Recording

[alongday]

hey all, i know i'll be posting a lame thread if i would ask which of the above would be more favourable.

rather, i have a question, should I stay home and settle for a cool edit pro program and

having to build a simple home recording system (for an acoustic setup) would probably need your mic and mixer yea? which adds up to about $500 per say?

OR

I can get a simple USB mic that cost at most $200.

OR

should I just head down for a studio recording?

I have to admit, i'm not too good with mixing, but simple recording i've done for years. now i've an acoustic duo ready for recording but i'm not too sure if i should purchase the home recording stuffs and just do it home or do a studio recording.

the question is, which would be more financially smart?

Matt

 

[Ardentash]

Home studio i guess.get a condensor mic,pop filter.. mixer i think no need.. then use adobe audition of stuff,to get rid background noise and edit till studio quality.. think can be compared with studio recording just that studio recording uses mixer and the room totally have no noise one.

 

[blueprintstudios]

1) http://tinyurl.com/diyrecording - you don't exactly need a "mixer".
2) After a bro to bro talk with your wallet, you must ask yourself what do you aim to achieve from this recording? how well do you want to present yourself or is it just about getting the songs recorded down and letting ppl hear more music than recording. (take note if the recording/mixing is poor, consumers have low threshold for local musicians)
3) If your budget is $200, Line6 Toneport UX1 + a dynamic mic would probably be more financially friendly.
4) if your budget is $500, do consider the highly rated Zoom H4n.
5) If you head down to the studio, please do your research @ http://tinyurl.com/recordingstudios , and understand that Recording / Mixing & Mastering maybe charged seperately and amount to a few hundred for a song.
6) As musician, should you decide to go with moving on to focus learning on mixing, you gotta understand there's a reason why musicians stay creative with the song writing, studio geeks focus on recording/mixing/mastering, and managers/p&r/label do all the boring black'n'white. "this is why I do this and you do that" rule.
7) I used cool edit for 11 years now. means you're using PC. and it also means you need to learn PC maintenance. as a musician , do you really have the time to be a singaporean (study/work/NSetc),musician (jam/gig/songwriting/recording), audio engineer (recording/mixing), computer technician (audio/video/heavy graphics editing/gamer are forms of PC abuse as compared to the average office user. you gotta have some troubleshooting knowledge when shit happens, which explains why most musicians are on macs) and other of your commitments?

 

[alongday]

Think I'll just stick to home recording then..
What is a pop filter?
And what does the line6 toneport do?

 

[alongday]

oH and how much would a dynamic mic cost anyway? Any wallet-friendly brands to recommend?

 

[XLayaR]

The line6 products are great for home studio recordings. Try the Affordable and practical.

Pop filter is that netting you always see vocalists in MVs use in front of the mic.

And don't think of getting a condenser, unless you wanna pick up your aircon's fan rotation and lotsa other unwanted noise.

Shure sm57, 58....good mics, had a chance to use em live and sounded not bad. If I remember its like 170?

 

[XLayaR]

Blueprint, bro I know what you mean man. I'm working/learning sound engineering now and sometimes I'm so afraid I get sucked into the technical aspect of it and loose my musician side. It's like learning a different language then forgetting your mother tongue.

 

[alongday]

Wow,didn't know there's so much to do a recording. Yup damn amateur here. Anyway,so with a budget of about 250 what can I get? And where to get it? So sorry for being so troublesome man. Huge step for me as I've always been recording with my mum's 1/4inch jack karoke mic.

And whew, I almost got myself a condenser

 

[gutturalpiss]

6) As musician, should you decide to go with moving on to focus learning on mixing, you gotta understand there's a reason why musicians stay creative with the song writing, studio geeks focus on recording/mixing/mastering, and managers/p&r/label do all the boring black'n'white. "this is why I do this and you do that" rule.

But of course, this world has always had Autodidacts and Polymaths. And not everyone are/can become either.

Also, since manufacturing has become cheaper and technology is far superior to anything in the 80s, almost every teenager now has (1) a band and (2) a home studio. So why not you?

 

[blueprintstudios]

before i get mistaken for discouraging anyone to learn mixing while being musician. mixing is addictive and you may at least want to be aware that if your original aim was to be a musician, don't stray blindly and neglect. I totally encourage everyone to have the experience of basic recording so to know what kind of standard to deliver and what to expect otherwise I'd never bothered to type that DIY recording FAQ.

sneakpick :

What is a pop filter? <-- reduces sibilance. P,T,F,S,etc. puffs and blows.

line6 toneport is an audio interface. pls read http://tinyurl.com/diyrecording

dynamic mic cost anyway? <-- anywhere from $10 - $300 depends on what kinds.

Any wallet-friendly brands to recommend? <-- Behringer,Samson

Condenser mics are fine for you but you just gotta turn off anything and everything that has noise before you start to record.

budget of $250 = topup abit more for gst i think , get a zoom H2 ? but what will you be recording exactly?

Xlayar : yeap, i learn alot of other side stuff from computers/video/etc I tend to remind myself my main focus is audio haha. everything is just so addictive when you're on the learning stage.

 

[alongday]

Thanks again for your help. I'll probably be recording acoustic set ups or random bass riffs on my electric bass. Yeah, considering the toneport by line6 any idea how much is that and where to get it?

 

[alongday]

Oh yeah, and a friend of mine was telling me about external soundcards. Would that be a better alternative instead of the toneport?

 

[blueprintstudios]

you're welcome. Acoustic setups would mean you don't need much channels (like 8 inputs to record drums) it's not my practice to serve info directly to people but since you're new.
looking at the citymusic year end catalog .. your budget of $250 - Pod Studio UX1 ($190) you're down to $60. which isn't enough to get a decent mic like SM58 (around $130) for vocals. and excluding the costs of an XLR cable.(around $20?), if this is so I'd resort to 2ndhand gear for more efficiency if I were you. cos even Line6 Toneport UX1 doesn't have phantom power.

you may wanna try increase that budget further to $375 and get the Zoom H4n instead for future upgradability (with an external mic) + portability.

P.S : Line6 Toneport / Zoom / Presonus etc, all these "Audio Interfaces" are actually external soundcards.

 

[alongday]

thanks so much man... yea i'm really new to home recording. just been playing music all along.

i actually got a second hand deal for a shure 57 for 100 bucks... i haven't bought it yet though.

that coupled with the zoom h4n would work?

why shouldn't I be using the built-in microphone anyway? and where can I get that product? sweelee?

 

[alongday]

oh city music, right, got that down. haha. so that coupled with the second hand shure 57?

 

[soft]

sneakpick, the H4n has a built-in stereo mic. Quite good for recording acoustic stuff. Maybe you can try that before getting more microphones.

 

[alongday]

yup, i've spent time reading the specs for the H4N. awesomeness! I'll probably get it this thursday! (gonna force my mum to make a christmas gift out of it). haha
anyway, thanks everyone for your help! i'm on my way to do my first proper, not-karoke-1/4inchjack-mic recording! thanks again!~!

 

[blueprintstudios]

do share with us the results =)

 

[alongday]

do share with us the results =)

Thanks for all your help, I indeed got the Zoom H4N.

it's crazy. for the price you pay,it's awesome.

so i promised a review, and here's one... well, i've only used it for a couple of hours today to try it out. . with my lack of experience in home recording, this is what i can tell you guys/

The condensor mic picks up everything (pretty much expected)..picked up my aircon sound.. had to play guitar in sweat. but the whole overlapping stereo mics really cuts any possible latency. really enjoy the multi-track recording function (though i'm not too sure how versatile it can be), but for a handy recorder to do layering, mixing, panning, volumes and effects, it's quite a bit. it even helps it mix it down to a mp3 file. basically, it's a edit program squeezed in that little box..and yes, squeezed into anyone's low budget home recording (like yours sincerely).

it has a headphone jack too. so do a quick recording at home and take that little box out, do ur editing and mixing on the mrt if you want!

the jack fits both XLR cables and instrument 1/4inch jack input. haven't tried plugging in the XLR cable, but did plugged in on the 1/4inch jack, basically recorded what would be out from the amp. thing is, because it's so overly sensitive, all the noises are picked up. some editting or noise reduction from any editprogram should do the trick.

my conclusion, for $375 and a supposed pair of earphones from city music (they told me it ran out of stock). it's an awesome buy, and saves anyone lots of trouble running cables, wires, and compatibility issues when you get a maybe like a toneport instead.

Eat batteries like free, but run it on a 9V adapter (Given free!) and it's good.

comes with lotsa stuff to start, like the mic holder thingy, the wind shield, a carrying case, usb cable, adapter, 1gig SD card.

i'll recommend this to any musicians keen to do their own little recording. worth the buy. i swear. now christmas sale!

 

[blueprintstudios]

if i recall right, it eats cheap batteries like free. my recommendation is go get Sanyo Eneloop. thats what I used for my H2 + H4.

you shouldn't play your guitar in too much sweat. just turn off the aircon right before pressing the record button.

sounds good all in all!