Let's start (music prod./recording on a budget series)

(please note *= Recommendation)

Let me just start by saying that things have changed dramatically since I built my current setup.
My soundcard cost me 700$'s and it was considered an affordable alternative to the Protools Digi 01.
Today for that much money you can get a decent *M-Box with Protools LE for around 200$'s

Throw in Fruity Loops (which you can Rewire through Protools) for about 150$'s and you can make your beats.

Of course you can always trade out Fruity for Reason which costs around 240$'s or so. And you would still have money left over for a half decent mic.

The only reason I can logically see for not going with the M-Box are
1/ You want more than just 2 inputs.
2/You prefer to use a particular DAW (Nuendo, Sonar, Logic)
3/You want access to the plethora of plug-ins available on the other DAWs
In which case you already know what you need/want.


My point is that setting up a home studio on a tight budget is the easy part.
What I will be covering in this series are those little tips that will take your productions from amateur to entry level/pro.

Part 1 Recording: ( I probably don't need to say this but always use a pop filter when recording vocals and condenser mics need phantom power)

Microphones:

Sure SM 57/58:
Every major studio and live music venue has this mic in its collection and so should you.
Considered the Swiss army knife of Microphones, run these through a decent pre-amp and you are going to get something that you can work with at the mix stage.
Don't know what mic to use, or you need one more mic in your setup then this is the answer.
You can normally find these guys second hand for 50$'s



Audiotechnica:
Gone are the old problems with build quality. Any of their wide diaphram condenser mics will work as an entry level vocal mic.

Behringer B2 pro:
This is the only Behringer product I would ever reccommend. This company is plagued with bad build quality mostly because they reproduce other company's gear with shoddy/cheap parts.
They tried to re-create the Rode NT2 here and fell short. Instead you get a wide diaphram condenser mic with the sonic charactersitics of the Sure SM 58/57 and the pattern/pad settings of the NT2. Accidently, Behringer created a decent workhorse microphone. You get the SM 58 sound with all the advantages of a pattern switchable condenser mike (with pad). And it's dirt cheap. You can see why I like these things, I use them alongside or instead of SM 58/57's.



*Rode NT 1:
I could go on forever with this list of passable entry level mics but the truth is that the best mic in this category is the NT1. This is the mic you will most likely find in the home studios of the guys working at Recording studios. Dollar for Dollar this is the best mic you can get if you are on a tight budget. Sure it is missing the pattern switchability of the old NT2 but the sound quality and its affordability make it my top pick of "affordable mics".

Isolation:
The other day one of the Zombies asked me how he could set up his mic so that it didn't pick up street noise/ computer noise etc. well here is your answer.

Isolation booth:
Basically you build a room within your room which is well insulated and as air tight as possible.

Sound Traps:
Insulation converts sound energy into heat energy, you can create panels full of insulation (normally rockwool) which you can place strategically to help isolate your microphone.

*Mic Thing:
SM Pro Audio makes a device called the mic thing for about 200$'s that acts like a sound trap and mounts around your mic.

Pre amps:
If you want to play with the pros you need a decent pre amp.
That said at this price range they all suck. You are better off trying to compenstate for a lack of decent preamps in the mix than buying a crappy one and ruining your signal chain.
Lucky for you guys the M-Box has a half decent Focusrite preamp built in.

Recording Monitors:

DIY:
There are alot of online resources for designing and building speaker boxes. If you go this route stay away from using cheap components. Instead aim to create something that compares to the speakers found in high end studios. If your research/work pans out you can save between 25% to 40% building your speakers yourself, however you will still have to find a good amp to power your creations which could easily cost you more than if you bought a smaller self powered box.

NS 10:
People call these things "the standard" studio monitors, which is why they go for so much on ebay. The truth is Yamaha made an entire NS series that the NS 10 is part of as a high fi line.
You can find cheap NS 10's (albiet without the words studio monitor written on them) If you look through HiFi networks instead of recording studio networks. Other companies that made HiFi speakers that were later adopted as studio monitors include Realistic, JBL, Fostex, really you just have to do your homework on this one.
Remember the old studio monitors are not shielded so keep them away from your computer screens and for best results they should be teamed up with a good amp (which unless you are lucky will cost a pretty penny).

*KRK:
I have to say that Behringer Truths are garbage. I know alot of musicians that own these things and once I had the misfortune of bieng hired by one of them to go into his home studio to help him with his mixes. This happened before I had access to a studio with a pair of KRK's.
Sure Fostex used to make a decent self powered 6" monitor but for a little bit more money you can get some KRK's.
I agree with the critics that argue that the 8" two way monitors that KRK make are too boomy, If you really need a two way 8" box then go with the Mackies. KRK's 6" drivers are the goldilox "just right" monitors for the budget studio. Not only do they sound accurate. They also have a suprising amount of low end for a 6" driver at an affordable price.

Notes on Recording Technique:
(at this point you should be realizing why it took me so long to put this series together...this post is loooong ;P)

Record at 24 bit:
Today memory and RAM are so cheap that there is no reason not to record at 24 bit. Budget home studios used to record at 16 bit (CD quality) but the only way to get a half decent recording using this method is to record as close to digital full scale (0dbfs) as possible meaning that not only were their recordings inferior but chances were that they were also distorted.

The sample rate arguemnet:
The studio "standard" (there are no real standards in this business if you ask me) sample rate is 96 khz. Some people argue that if you can, you should use a higher sample rate; others argue that the CD standard 16 bit 44.1khz is reached cleaner by recording at 44.1khz, and others believe that the mathametical minimum for a good recording is 48khz.
Having worked at all 3 sample rates I will save you the time you would waste experimenting with this and just tell you the truth based on my experiences.
48khz does sound a bit "rounder" to my ears than 44.1khz and 96khz does sound microscopically "smoother" than 48khz but not so much that it warrants the massive increase in the audio file size. I doubt if I did a blind test I could tell the difference really. I might be able to see the difference on a scope if I trained to do it.
What really matters is the way that you go from 24 bit whatever khz down to 16 bit 44.1khz in the mastering stage.
The simple way is via an analog conversion:
This technique takes all the math out of the equation, just play the music out of your sound card and re-record it at 16 bit 44.1khz at the end of your signal chain.
Otherwise you can do the conversion "in the box" however there are only 4 programs (in this price range) I would trust for doing this.
Protools, ideally with Pow-R dithering plug-ins.
Sonar (which comes standard with Pow-R dithering)
Sound Forge
Wavelab
But more on mastering later...
Part2 music production coming soon.

peace,

One Love.