Log In
Members
Home
Add Reply
Add Topic
Topic RSS
5:47 pm
June 10, 2011
Offline
QuoteI'm just curious how many of you record in a home studio vs hiring out to a commercial studio? When I bought my farm there was a large room built into the barn (actually it was the former owners grow room!). It has 13 foot ceilings, 14 feet wide and 29 feet long, so needless to say it became my music room. Back then I wasn't planning on turning it into a recording studio, so I did the unthinkable sin of hanging carpet on the walls to stop standing waves and played away. Over several years, my equipment grew, and I started getting into recording my own stuff and before I knew it, I had a pretty decent recording set up, gear wise anyway. I've done a few CD's that turned out fairly well, but I have always fought getting a good vocal sound.
I have always known that the room can be just as important as the equipment used for recording, and I kept telling myself that "someday" I will build a real control room, vocal booth, sound treatment, etc...... Uh huh, yeah, someday!
Well, the shit hit the fan this past week! I have been working very hard on a new CD, and it was taking way to much time, getting way to frustrating, and my fans are getting tired of waiting. I walked into the studio one morning and it hit me......Jeezzus you stupid moron, you still have carpet on the walls! I didn't even fire up the equipment. Instead I tore my studio apart and redid almost everything. I now have more of a "live end-dead end" set up, did a ton of experimenting with monitor location to get the sweet spot, paying very close attention to sound reflections, organized my equipment racks in a sensible and easy to use manner, repaired cables, and did some much more effective sound treatment to the walls. (Anybody need some carpet that hasn't been walked on for several years?!)
Yesterday I finally got back to recording, and what a difference! I re-did the vocals and remixed one of my new songs, and I was pretty surprized at how much differently I eq'd everything, especially the vocals. Now that I can really hear what is coming from my monitors without the room messing it all up, I easily found the troublesome frequencies that had been causing me so much grief. The cool thing is that it didn't cost me hardly anything but some time to put things right, and the improvement was incredible. This will be enough for me to finish my current project, and then I plan on adding on the control room and vocal booth that I have been thinking about for way to long!
I wanted to share my experience with any of you who might have home studios and are not getting the results you wanted. Treating the room really is very important, and it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg either!
What would a jam session with Gordon Lightfoot, Collective Soul, and Damien Rice sound like?
Check out Greg Parke and you’ll have a pretty good idea!
10:31 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Thanks Greg,
I'm terrible when it comes to pushing nobs. the last home recording I did was on a cassette 4 track. I'm all about producers. But that sounds like a great tip. I definitely like to hear the sound bouncing off of hard surfaces myself as apposed to carpet. I like to picture the room something was recorded in when I listen to a record.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
11:48 pm
March 12, 2012
Offline
I record in my apartment and every time I do I have to dampen the sound of the room down, remove clocks, turn off the fridge, block a few vents and a few other things that look ridiculous but have to be done for the sound! Then it's all about getting a decent sound with mic-placement and getting into that zone where I can get a few good takes vocally and guitar-wise together. Then I may or may not overdub other instruments myself or I get others in. I'm not always fully happy with the outcome but I suppose we all find our own way of doing things!
4:56 pm
June 9, 2011
Offline
Not to change the subject too much, but the guy who recorded my first couple of demos used to do something cool with acoustic guitarist/ singers where he would cross microphones at a certain angle to represent the angle that is most common for people's ear canals.
Essentially the mics were representative of the human hear so that source tracks were being picked up the same way they would if you were sitting in the same room with the artist.
Anyone else ever heard of this?
9:43 pm
March 12, 2012
Offline
Yes I have. There's a few ways of doing it. One way is what they call an xy pair which can be at 60 or 90 degrees to one another, but they actually go so far as to have dummy heads with mics in their ears to really recreate the listening experience!
10:06 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
WEnda Reilly said:
Yes I have. There's a few ways of doing it. One way is what they call an xy pair which can be at 60 or 90 degrees to one another, but they actually go so far as to have dummy heads with mics in their ears to really recreate the listening experience!
Wow, that's really cool.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
9:42 pm
April 22, 2012
Offline
Definitely understand where you're coming from with your studio. I have a pretty heavily treated studio but I adjusted my monitor positions just a touch the other day and it made a huge difference. Do you have any bass traps? Probably not as big a deal in a larger room like that but standing waves kill a lot of basement/bedroom mixes. If you're mixing anywhere near the walls you still might want to consider corner bass traps. It could help tighten up your sound even more. I bought mine from here:
http://www.gikacoustics.com/gi.....traps.html
You can also build them yourself with rockwool.
Squeeze Page: http://www.thegowldclub.com | DJ & Producer Website: http://www.eleazar.ca| Kemo Treats Website: http://www.kemotreats.com | Record Label Website: http://www.eleazarrecords.com | Latest Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....tQw6fPCasY
4:47 am
June 10, 2011
Offline
Hi Greg, and welcome to the forum!
I do have bass traps, sort of, and I didn't even realize it at first. You are right, in a room like this bass traps aren't usually as important as in a smaller room with low ceilings. But I did notice that the bass was different in certain parts of the room. Then it hit me....I also use my studio as a storage room for my sound gear, including 8 large subwoofer cabinets......duh....bass traps! They work amazingly well, sometimes too well at soaking up the bass in a room.
Talk about not being able to see the forest because the trees were blocking the view!
What would a jam session with Gordon Lightfoot, Collective Soul, and Damien Rice sound like?
Check out Greg Parke and you’ll have a pretty good idea!
10:11 am
June 10, 2011
Offline
Hey gang,
I have done a lot more work on my studio since I last posted here, and it just keeps getting better. I have been lucky enough to come up with several truckloads of sound absorbing panels at no cost, other than the fuel to go pick them up. One load came from a school music room because they were the wrong color, another load came from a kids day care center that bought them and then never got around to installing them, and the rest came from a large office that was downsizing. The end result is no more reflection and standing wave problem in my studio! Besides treating the walls, I used a few to make free standing gobo's. I use a large one, about 4'x6' behind the mic when recording vocals, and the difference is very noticeable. The drawback is now that the room is treated, it really shows how much I need to upgrade my studio monitors!
What would a jam session with Gordon Lightfoot, Collective Soul, and Damien Rice sound like?
Check out Greg Parke and you’ll have a pretty good idea!
11:58 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Good stuff Greg.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
1:25 pm
October 16, 2013
Offline
Hey Everyone,
I am new to the forum...first day, so just wanted to say hi to everyone!
@Greg, If you haven't purchased new studio monitors yet I highly recommend you look into a pair of Presonus Eris E8's (powered 8 inch kevlar woofer & 1.25 inch silk-dome tweeter, 140W A/B amplifier, 35Hz to 22KHz, 105db).
They come with balanced XLR, 1/4" TRS & unbalanced RCA inputs as well as extensive rear controls over sound including input gain staging, acoustic tuning for the size of room you're in as well as how far away from walls the monitors are placed, mid, high and low cutoff adjustment to not only fine tune to your space but also simulate and test other listening environments (computer speakers, car stereo, radio, etc) without having to leave your studio. They cost about $250 each (Sweetwater).
They sound incredible. Super flat response with crystal clear highs and great bottom-end.
I actually recommend Presonus for all of their products. Many people have never heard of the company but they really know how to produce fantastic gear at reasonable prices. I have the E8 monitors as well as a Presonus usb audiobox and I use Studio One 2.5 for my main DAW.
I also have a home recording studio and do everything myself. Except for vocals, I compose and produce entirely within a computer environment (no live instruments). I have various software plugins to accomplish various instruments and any sound I can't find or tweak I just create myself. I know this is a limitation in some cases but I don't have the budget or time to hire live musicians, to learn the instruments or to rent a proper recording space. As it is, I have $16,000 invested in my equipment...lol.
I would love to hear some tips on building my own wall treatments and bass traps. My room is good for the moment but I am moving in November and the new space may present some issues (modified bedroom with hardwood).
7:16 am
June 7, 2011
Offline
Welcome Ryan. I'm pretty useless when it comes to the tech side of music. I started relying solely on producers years ago 
But thanks for sharing the info.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
Hey guys!
Just thought I'd chime in. I'm a total home recorder and I'm lucky to have a good room! One way to figure out
if you're getting standing wave issues is to listen back and forth from monitors to headphones. That way you can really tell
what your room is doing to your mix (Have decent headphones, of course!). Another thing you can do is burn your recording
on a CD and take it out to your car, a cheap system, etc. and take notes on what comes through and what doesn't, and then
take that back to your home studio and make adjustments. I've read that it's good to get to know the particulars of your
own room, so eventually it speeds up the process.
Hope this helps!!
11:47 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Thanks Jamil.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
Greg I am curious as to what did you use on the walls when you took the carpet down? I have a control room/bonus room over my garage that I do overdubs in.
1 Guest(s)
