HOME STUDIO for singing

[akemi185]

Hi guys,

I've got a question for making my own home recording studio just for singing (and maybe record musical instruments).
I do not have the budget for a 48 track studio so what is the cheapest way/method to make my own home studio?

For instance, what kind of mic should I get?
and should i get a mixer?

thanks a lot.

 

[soft]

What is your budget for doing this?

 

[akemi185]

as low as possible.

 

[grarrgrarr]

do you have a computer in your room?

 

[akemi185]

yup. using a mac. i have a windows too. audition on the windows. mac - protools and studio

 

[blueprintstudios]

akemi185 :

1) do read http://tinyurl.com/diyrecording
2) get a Mixer - Not necessary. unless you have not enough inputs (submixer) or an audio interface/soundcard with no preamp.
3) usually I'd recommend get a Zoom H2 (around $270) or Zoom H4n (approx $350+) but I saw someone selling a Samson USB mic so this may be ideal to start off with recording simple stuff like acoustic guitar + vocals. you can record bass/electric guitars too but it might not pick up the frequencies as well as a dynamic mic. more information about the samson here
till you slowly decide to save up for something with more inputs and after being addicted to recording/mixing. hehehe

hope this helps

 

[jbarks]

The H4N is awesome. Get that first. I've tracked guitars with it before and they usually sound fine.

If you have the budget, then maybe an AT2020 mic.

Then move to a proper audio interface, because the H4N's overall mix monitoring latency (not just input monitoring- that's fine) isn't that good. Maybe it was my setting, but I couldn't get the tracks to play back fast enough through the H4n- ended up having to listen through my regular audio out.

 

[manlovesit]

yup and after all the fancy gears and gadjets, you might want to seriously do room treatment and soundproofing. i was having problem recording good vocals with all the good gears and stuffs not without good room treatment and esp., soundproofing and it was kinda irritating having captured all the unnecessary low and high frequencies in your vocal sounds and had hell time doing treatment. my condenser mic even captured the revving disk drives sounds during recording. i ended up building a mini vocal booth. Got good tips from soft and some other sites on this too. Just that, don't disregard room treatment and soundproofing coz, you'll soon realize how important that is. The best would be to have a vocal booth or have the vocals done in another room coz the idea is to separate the 2 as much as possible. Hey, me no expert for sure, but, those were what I encountered along the way building my mini studio. Read articles on the web, watched youtube videos, joined forums, ask questions and stuffs, and finally hands on, experiments and trial-errors before I got everything almost in place... if abbey road engineers came to check, for sure, my studio will never make it.. hahaha! but, well, good enough for me, as entry level setup.

 

[blueprintstudios]

most of the people posting enquiries in soft about recording are musicians wanting to record their originals in decent/acceptable quality. the more detailed ones go down to gearslut/other forums. soundproofing/treatment is alot of money indeed so not everyone has the luxury of space nor cash for it. it's not unimportant, just that recording can go on without it, with compromise.

 

[manlovesit]

Right. We compromise and make sacrifices. We, the majority live in hdb rooms, have no luxury for space, etc. Money doesn't come easy too. Thus we make do with things we can afford, that also means, gears within our reach, not the best equipment for sure, but when you say, 'ah can ah..' that means you have compromised. Then again, 'best' can be heavily elaborated. 'Best' in my case, fancy pro gears. Nice to have but that do not necessarily means we need it, but we want it. For room treatment and soundproofing, to me, is a must haves. Why, its like putting a chef who needs not the best but just a proper kitchen and equipment to start cooking and baking. He can't be cooking in the bathroom, but just a small space in the kitchen might just work for him. So, to me room treatment and soundproofing is kinda essential. We make sacrifices and compromise on less pro equipments, thus, we can make sacrifices and compromise on room treatment and soundproofing too. There are many sites which teach you doing it minimally, esp when we dun have the luxury for space and budget. A vocal booth can be as small as your mum's unused oven box, or your old crt monitor box. Pad it internally, etc etc, and wallah you have a functional vocal booth. It doesn't cost ur hard-earned mthly salary, but most importantly, it works. Of course dun dream of having abbey road studio in your room so do search on tips for those who dun have the budget, who are not willing to spend too much on these part in building your own room studio. Treatment and soundproofing can be cheap if u know how and if u r willing to sacrifice and compromise. Hey, I read that ur wardrobe where u keep your clothes is a good alternative too.

I compromise on my gears, and I compromise on room treatment and soundproofing. Dun get intimidated when you hear those words. There are many alternatives out there.

 

[manlovesit]

Right. We compromise and make sacrifices. We, the majority live in hdb rooms, have no luxury for space, etc. Money doesn't come easy too. Thus we make do with things we can afford, that also means, gears within our reach, not the best equipment for sure, but when you say, 'ah can ah..' that means you have compromised. Then again, 'best' can be heavily elaborated. 'Best' in my case, fancy pro gears. Nice to have but that do not necessarily means we need it, but we want it. For room treatment and soundproofing, to me, is a must haves. Why, its like putting a chef who needs not the best but just a proper kitchen and equipment to start cooking and baking. He can't be cooking in the bathroom, but just a small space in the kitchen might just work for him. So, to me room treatment and soundproofing is kinda essential. We make sacrifices and compromise on less pro equipments, thus, we can make sacrifices and compromise on room treatment and soundproofing too. There are many sites which teach you doing it minimally, esp when we dun have the luxury for space and budget. A vocal booth can be as small as your mum's unused oven box, or your old crt monitor box. Pad it internally, etc etc, and wallah you have a functional vocal booth. It doesn't cost ur hard-earned mthly salary, but most importantly, it works. Of course dun dream of having abbey road studio in your room so do search on tips for those who dun have the budget, who are not willing to spend too much on these part in building your own room studio. Treatment and soundproofing can be cheap if u know how and if u r willing to sacrifice and compromise. Hey, I read that ur wardrobe where u keep your clothes is a good alternative too.

I compromise on my gears, and I compromise on room treatment and soundproofing. Dun get intimidated when you hear those words. There are many alternatives out there

 

[blueprintstudios]

to me, where I come from, based on my works, recording goes on without treatment.

 

[manlovesit]

to me, where I come from, based on my works, recording goes on without treatment.

yup yup. you may be right and i never disagree that untreated room works too in your case, and its been proven to you. for me, perhaps, my eq's are not doing justice for me or perhaps im not doing enough justice for myself, thus i blame it on the untreated room environment.. keke..

 

[blueprintstudios]

manlovesit : I once recorded in a professionally treated room + professional gear for a change, honestly , the difference is huge only if I run a self-fulfilling prophecy on it. but as I always say, the user must always be better than the gear, I went back to location recording and realised that as long as you don't room mike or close mike, or DIY gobo/pad (flip vertical your mattress I don't care) whatever's bouncing off the sound. if it's better means it'll work. if not, during postproduction add similar sounding reverb to mix it, basically more post production work, and this "compromise" to me is pretty alright unless you're working with "corporate" artistes, then it's all "image-talk" from there on.
the consumer doesn't care about where it's recorded, bedrooms,cafes,voideck or abbey road. if it sounds good, the band loves it, the fans loves the band's music, it is right.