If you've looked at some of our photo's you might have noticed that "the studio" started out life on our dining room table. For whatever reason, we can get a good room sound out of this area so that's more or less where it all started. Of course the hutch full of dishes didn't really go a long way to ensuring that we got "clean" sound (a must for instrumental bands) so something had to go. Since the dining room does see some use, we decided to move the studio to unused room in the house. This has had its good and bad points but it had to be done.
By the way, before all that gear on the dining room table was actually used, Fred was recording us with a budget portable cassette player. Considering the quality of the recorder and mic in it, we actually got some decent sounds from it. The drawback was that I had to learn to shut up while we were recording live. Something I have a problem with as it turns out.
The First Studio
The First studio was in a spare room (9 x 11) so there's not a lot of room. For example if or when we had to shoe horn in a full drum set and mic the whole thing it could get interesting. To say the least.
As soon as we started recording with a DAW (digital audio workstation), we immediately took outputs from the backs of the amps. The sound we record is not dry, it's wet. Very wet. I mean after all, it's surf music isn't it? So in the traditional sense, we started breaking all the rules right off the bat.
Initial Equipment
We used a Powerbook G4 Macintosh 1.5Ghz/2G/60 gig HD. For the first CD, we used this equipment:
• Behringer FCA202 - Firewire Audio 2 channel Interface
• Behringer UB1204FX Pro - 12 channel mixer
• Tripplite Power Isolation Transfomer (we had a wicked ground loop problem)
Because there are two of us playing at the same time, we had to both record at the same time on the same track. Mixing suddenly becomes very difficult since a single track contains both instruments. As in it's tough to control levels for playback!
Soon we had a better idea of what we wanted to do, I started assembling a mixer concentric studio setup. I sold off all the previous stuff and started to accumulate new gear. Until I purchased the new iMac, I had no idea how dim the G4 laptop display was. Hence it got retired.
20" Aluminum iMac - 2 gig of memory (mid 2007 model iMac)
• APF PS 4x4 PDS - Power distribution rack unit (got rid of the ground loop)
• Behringer B2031A Truth Monitors
• Behringer MDX2600 two channel compressor
• Behringer Ultragraph FBQ3102 (31 band EQ)
• USB MIDISport 8x8 (MIDI I/O)
• Neutrik 48 plug patchbay
• AKG 271 Studio Headphones
We finally out grew the old studio for both room and quality. In April 2009 we moved into a 14 x 15 room. The room is finally big enough to swing the proverbial cat in. I made a whole new rack cabinet and desk for the recording/mixing side of things. Works much better than the old cramped setup by far.
Software
We use Digital Performer 7 exclusively. Why? Because I can navigate around quickly and efficiently. Mostly because I took a lot of time to learn it. It is not "pretty" to look at.
"Home Studio" Observations
The following studio thoughts don't acknowledge the fact that if you don't start with great source material, i.e. the musicians ability and sound, you can't make a great sound. I think it's a fact that a great player recorded on cheap gear will still sound better than a poor player on great gear.
For anyone thinking of setting up a home studio to "save money", all I can suggest is that you probably won't be saving much in the way of money. Audio recording equipment is not cheap and contrary to what you might think, you usually do get what you pay for. We noticed a world of difference between the Behringer FCA202 and the Echo AudioFire 8 for quality recording. Which is not to say that the FCA202 is junk, it's not and actually works very well. The Echo AudioFire just works better. Much better.
The same holds true for the AudioFire vs the Apogee Ensemble. The Ensemble is, to start with, easier to set up and use. Sonically, the Apogee has better A/D converters and you can hear the difference if you A/B the two units.
Secondly, you've probably noticed that I even used a Mac portable at one time to record with. There will be those who say that you need some special computer for this sort of work. Or you need a Mac or a PC. A computer is a tool. It just happened that I had a spare Mac laptop. If I had a spare PC laptop, I might have went that way. Use what works for you. We now do all our recording with the cheapest iMac there is and it works just fine.
Before buying any audio gear (or software) ask people about it. Read reviews, compare spec sheets. Download a demo if it's software. Search Google for information! In other words, do your own research! Don't rely on some two paragraph review you read on Epinions.com. Talk to people who actually use the stuff you are interested in.
For example, I read everything I could on the Echo AudioFire (all I wanted was a firewire audio I/O interface). When I finally got it, I was surprised to see it default to a cue mix set up. You have to run software to configure it other wise (set input levels/mutes and so on). Thus everything has a learning curve.
If you're under the impression, as I was when I started this little "fun studio" project, that mixing a song would be a "piece of cake", you're doomed. I always sort of thought recording/mastering engineers were over hyped. Having now done the whole process myself from recording to mastering, I can say that these folks are worth their weight in gold! What they do is NOT easy, except possibly to them. True, they might make it appear easy, but it's a whole art/science in itself.
I would suggest educating yourself by reading books, talking to others to learn from their experiences, attending seminars (even online ones), and quite literally being a sound info sponge. Once you learn something new, TRY IT! Push it, shove it, see if that technique or idea works for you or not. Learn to think a bit out of the box. Learn your gear.
One thing that I didn't do initially that I would strongly suggest is to A/B mixes to see what effects/eq/etc help or hinder the sound. For example, you might have two different compressors. Set them up so you can easily flip from one to the other while you are mixing so you can hear the differences. While the difference may be small, there will almost always be something. We A/B everything that comes into the studio now, from effects pedals to you name it. In short, know your gear and how to make it work best for you.
Lastly, there are always those folks who insist on passing judgement on any piece of gear that they consider is below their standards. They call it budget gear. Behringer is usually mentioned. As in "friends don't let friends use Behringer", or something akin to that. The simple truth is that any company will make good/great products and budget gear. At least if they want to cover the spectrum of the market and stay in business.
The difficult part to wrap your head around is that if you have nothing to compare it to, how would you know? That's why I keep insisting that one has to A/B gear to see which is better. When you find something better, the next problem is to determine if it's "X" dollars better...:-)
The last fact, that I mentioned at the onset, is that good audio recording gear is in the class of "you get what you pay for". I won't mention that if I'd bought good gear in the first place, I could have saved money by not buying "upgrade" gear in the interim and would have had better sound from the get go. True, more initial outlay, but cheaper in the long run.
So visit those music stores, read reviews, compare spec sheets, test out those control surfaces, listen to those near field monitors and then...plunge. If you're lucky it will be at a price you can afford...but most of all, I hope you'll have as much fun as we've had on our journey...