I have a band, and I want to make my own recording studio, but I don’t know what I would need for it to be effective. I just need a list of the basic equipment that doesn’t cost a lot.
3 Responses
Leave a Comment
I have a band, and I want to make my own recording studio, but I don’t know what I would need for it to be effective. I just need a list of the basic equipment that doesn’t cost a lot.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
An accoustically effective room, for a deep sound. A high quality recording equipment, a site of recording, a mixer, etc
May 8th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
First You should to have a basic knowledge about home recording. You also need to get the picture around the essential gear. From this site may find a few help.
May 8th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
Hey Scott:
Welcome to the recording world. Several ways you can go with this. Pc based, stand alone multi-track, vintage reel to reel. (my personal preference.)
PC recording has a steep learning curve, and its best to have a separate PC that NEVER sees the internet if you go this route. Sweetwater Sound would be worth giving a call if you have a desire to go this way. Their sales staff is probably the most knowledgeable in the business.
Now.. on to some stand alone units. While some of these multi-track recorders have up to 24 tracks, a few of these are designed for the person who does it all themself. You can’t record more than 2 or 4 tracks at once. Boss and Zoom have several products like this. If all your looking for is recording demo’s, and a pretty simplistic unit, then I would recommend the Korg D888 8 track recorder. This unit is ideal for recording live performances, and if you are familiar with a mixer, then this should be a breeze. 8 tracks can be recorded all at once too.
Heres a link for the Korg:
http://www.zzounds.com/item–KORD888
Ive recorded demos for my 3 piece using this. Its yielded some good results, and we recorded right from our mixing console onto this. 1 track for kick drum, 1 for a stereo overhead condenser mic over the drums, bass/bass synthisizer on another track, 2 tracks for stereo guitar, 2 tracks for stereo keys, and vocals were sub-mixed onto another track. One drawback about the Korg is there is no onboard CD burner.
Here’s a link to where you can hear a recording from my Korg. The first song on my page, Evil Ways was done live in my studio with my 3 piece.
http://www.myspace.com/garymoser
Tascam makes a great 24 track that has 8 track at once recording, 80 GB hard drive, tons of onboard effects and editing features, and a built in CD player/burner.
Here’s a link for the Tascam:
http://www.zzounds.com/item–TAS2488NEO
For 100 more, I believe the Tascam is a much better unit than the Korg. 12 mono tracks plus 6 stereo tracks make this a very flexible recorder, capable of some very good results.
If your guitar players have their own mics for their amps, that would be less that you have to buy. Bass can be sent direct to the recorder. Same with keys if you have them.
For around a grand, you should be able to be set up quite well, provided you already have quite a few cables and mics. A set of powered monitors, such as the Alesis MM1 or M-Audio BX5A would do the trick for around 300 a pair. Home stereo speakers could be used, but I dont recommend it. For mixdown and mastering on the Tascam, there’s master compression and eq available, as well as a few other effects. It can be done!
If your bands mixer has 8 subgroups, it gets even easier, as drums, bass, guitar, keys, and vox is assigned a subgroup then sent through the sub-group outs directly to the Tascam. Nice for recording LIVE performances too!
Hope this has helped, and feel free to email me with any further questions or any assistance you might need.