home recording vs. studio recording

[iwantdigimon]

Hi guys,

whats your opinion about this? in terms of quality of sound, cost and hassle.

Anyone done home recording before?

 

[sf1102]

I haven't done neither but I'll give my opinion... Sound wise, studio will beat house recording hands down because studios are built for that purpose unless you have a sound-proof room and good equipments at home, which I suppose most people don't. Cost wise...it should be obvious. Hassle? I guess it's much more convenient to stay at home and do the recording rather than going to a studio, especially if you're bringing your own stuffs there instead of using the studio's equipment.

My conclusion is that you get what you pay for I guess. It depends how serious you are about the recording. If you're just doing it for fun then home recording wiould be enough. But if you're pretty serious about this and can afford it than studio recording would be a good choice.

 

[iwantdigimon]

thanks.. must first assess the pros and cons before i consider on anything..

 

[pianomankris]

I've worked in recording studios (session work), and tried my own home recordings.

I've talked to sound engineers a lot about this, and the unequivocal reply is that there is no point in spending a lot of money for home recording gear - best to buy the basics and go with them.

Some people spend in excess of 10,000 (UK pounds i mean) on home equipment - which seems like a lot, but it's just a huge waste of money, as the best home equipment is nowhere near the quality of studio equipment.

Prime example - microphones - home recording -the shure sm-58 - about £100; studio recording - top of the range neumann mic - £2300

And that's just the mic.


The last studio I was in had a Mackie desk worth about £500,000, running on radar (also a lot of money), plus all the usual suspects e.g. lexicon reverb unit, eventide harmonisers, antares pitch correctors etc etc




So - in a nutshell - go cheap with your home gear, as trying to capture the studio sound is almost impossible on a tight budget, and even if you do spend a fortune on home equipment, it will still be nowhere near the standards that can be achieved in a studio.

Either that or save your money and go into a studio.




Listen to some takagi masakatsu (e.g. the track 'girls') - that should show you that the greatest of gear isn't necessary - it is more about the creativity of the individual using the gear.


If you are looking to just get some ideas down, then just buy a half decent condenser mic and run it into your computer with a little soundcard (e.g. the alesis io2) into cubase, and that should be enough (cubase has reverb/compression etc).

I once took an old John Williams classical guitar CD and ran it through cubase (added reverb etc), and the sound was phenomenal.




If you are only wanting to record just the one part, and aren't multitracking, then (seriously) get a little dictaphone - preferably a digital one with a USB connection on it. This way you can archive your ideas, and refer to them at a later date. You could also add effects when your idea is on the computer if you used cubase, or an equivalent program (e.g. you could add some reverb, some compression, normalisation etc etc). This could be the modern equivalent of Beethoven and his notebooks.




PS I have some photos of some studios I have worked in somewhere on my computer - i'll try to find them to show you the average amount of gear the typical studio will have.

 

[iwantdigimon]

hahahahahha okay! hahaha im quite sure i wont spend 5 figure sums on equipment! i just wanna know whats it like if I do it through some software, thats all.

Anyone tried the line6 toneport before?

 

[Whitestrat]

If you find this: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6946036 acceptable, then rest assured that doing a home based recording is fine. This was done with a guitar, into a PODXTLive, into PC. No amps, no pedals, nothing. The software used was a simple wave/mp3 editor.

Of course, I'm assuming you're doing this for fun. If you want to do this professionally, I think you at least need a more competent audio interface and software.

 

[a beautiful world]

line 6 toneport is fine. it comes with ableton live bundled which will give you a few midi tracks to play around with for your drums and bass, and a couple of organ sounds. it's only got 4 midi tracks which isn't fantastic, but it's enough to give you a basic rythm section.

gearbox sounds are passable as well, and it sounds ok with an sm58.

a cautionary note to that though, is that you have to at the very least get the models with pre-amps. without them, you won't be able to capture dynamics and your recordings will sound flat.

you can check out some of the stuff i've done on a toneport at www.myspace.com/jonlaumusic. cheap soft synth (cakewalk's sonarpro, 5 years old already), and using the in-house guitar patches. if you're just recording ideas or a hobbyist at entry level, i think tone-port's a decent buy.

if you want good demo quality though, as pianomankris has said, nothing beats a good studio recording. to get good stuff, especially in music, there's no way out of paying

 

[hadi]

yeah me done home recording before.

To hear the end-product you can listen to "Razor Blade Smile" at my band myspace www.myspace.com/fallofmirra

 

[iwantdigimon]

If you find this: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6946036 acceptable, then rest assured that doing a home based recording is fine. This was done with a guitar, into a PODXTLive, into PC. No amps, no pedals, nothing. The software used was a simple wave/mp3 editor.

Of course, I'm assuming you're doing this for fun. If you want to do this professionally, I think you at least need a more competent audio interface and software.

this sounds just great! one thing though, the drums, how do you put them in?

 

[iwantdigimon]

yeah me done home recording before.

To hear the end-product you can listen to "Razor Blade Smile" at my band myspace www.myspace.com/fallofmirra

This sounds terrific as well! Which software/tech did you use?

 

[hadi]

This sounds terrific as well! Which software/tech did you use?

for this song i used cool edit pro....

 

[iwantdigimon]

for this song i used cool edit pro....

Where'd you get this software? its recorded into the comp using?

 

[hadi]

I used line 6 toneport UX 2 to record with the software.

 

[nunob]

what are you planning to record? full songs with drums and such?

i'd say to not spend too much on home-recording gear... as what pianomankris has said. your money can be better spent elsewhere (new pedals... better guitar gear!)

but one good thing about home-recording i think is that it forces you to learn, on your own through research google and whatnot, the basics of mixing and using recording software, which in my opinion is a good bit of knowledge to have as a growing musician, as your ears will start to appreciate (or dislike) certain sonic and dynamic qualities of recorded music in a more definable way than before.

so i say... go for it! get the toneport, its really good enough for most things. add an sm57 or 58, and you're all set. here's what i did with toneport, two songs for my cousin's band:

www.myspace.com/abjectpoetrysg

("make things right" is line6 gearbox software, "what's left for us" was miking up a guitar amp, both through toneport)

it isn't the best of things, as i'm not good at mixing, but i hope that helped!

 

[iwantdigimon]

I used line 6 toneport UX 2 to record with the software.

and the drums? its inside the toneport or software?

 

[fibredrive]

drums you could look to Toontracks EZdrummer for a cost effective solution, short of recording your own drummer...