Hello again, as some of you might know from my previous post (here) i’m here to bring you my advice on music production, songwriting etc..an this week I want to focus on home setups.
A good friend of mine Random Impulse recently upgraded his home setup after signing a pretty hefty publishing deal (click to view it here) so what better way to start with what he did wrong…i’m kidding (tho he did get tiles on the floor which is one of the most reflective surfaces you can get, you want absorbant not reflective)
Random, real name Jovel, was lucky enough to have learnt from many peoples mistakes in thinking that more equipment equals better songs, music etc. This is not true at all, the most important piece of equipment you will ever own is your brain. As without your ideas or creative genius there is no point having anything else.
Everything else should be there to help you convert them ideas floating about in your head into actual music. So, first up…
Step 1 – Computer: You need something to record, arrange, store and edit the parts of music/audio you play. Best way to do this? a computer. They are affordable, and with the right software you will be able to do exactly what we just mentioned.
Everyone has the big debate of PC vs Mac, but lets just say there is a reason why im a good 95% of music studios you will see an Apple Mac as the main computer. We could argue why all day, but in short the simple fact is that you want something reliable, an if for some reason something should start playing up you want a fast easy way to get it sorted. One thing any PC owner can’t argue is the fact that Apple’s repair/customer support service with computers is unrivalled by any other company.
Top tip: Apple offer a monthly payment plan for most of their equipment/computers, click here for more info.
Step 2 – Software: Owning a computer will not instantly mean you can make music on it (well, unless you have a Mac which comes with Garage Band, but thats just another bonus of a Mac). What you need now is the correct software.
I’ve spent years of having people argue ‘this software is best, no this blah blah’ and honestly, having used most of the different ones out there, the answer to which is best is….what ever one you enjoy using the most. Yes people, it comes down to personal choice…some do things others can’t, others do things differently, but at the end of the day something like Pro Tools which is considered the best for mixing and recording, might not inspire you to actually create the music in the same way that Reason does.
No one can say you are any less professional for using something like Fruityloops or Garage Band because at the end of the day its all about what you do with it. In terms of getting the basic song down, use what you enjoy using an that you feel lets you get your idea out as much as you possibly can.
Top tip: Most programs such as Reason, Ableton Live etc offer demos. Download these from the official sites and try each one out before purchasing to know if its the right program for you. Though the two most commonly used are Logic and Pro Tools.
Step 3 – Speakers: If you’re using a laptop/macbook etc then chances are it will have built in speakers, but what you will want are a decent pair of speakers that let you hear what is REALLY going on with what you’re creating. I used an old pair of HiFi speakers, my old motto was ‘If they are loud, they are good’ however this is really not the case.
I used to mix my tracks at home where they sounded great, then take them to a friends house an play them on their speakers only to realise the bass was so high you couldn’t really hear the song properly, or the vocals would sound ok at mine but then be too quiet at a friends etc.
The best way to tackle this problem is to get yourself a pair of professional studio monitors that will let you hear a significant amount of the frequencies heard within the human hearing range (click here if you want to understand this more) so you will have a better understanding of what to expect elsewhere. (I’ll do a post soon on why getting a good mix is for your song is so important, and what you can do to help/recover your mixes)
Top Tip: The KRK Rokit series (as seen here) are becoming hugely popular by home studio users as they have a great low end response showing some real bass power, yet are pretty affordable. Myself and Random Impulse both have a pair.
Step 4 -Interface: This is quite hard to justify to those that don’t understand what a good audio interface does but basically if you want to get high quality vocal or instrument recordings, this bit of kit is essential for plugging in a Microphone, Guitar etc.
Back in the old days Microphones and such would be plugged into a mixing desk where you would then control how much signal was recorded, making sure the inputs were not distorting, yet high enough to be of good signal quality.
Nowadays, these little beauties have the power to bypass having to own such expensive equipment and still have high quality inputs that plug straight into your interface and get sent straight to your computer via USB or Firewall.
Though this is not all they do, most also help process some of the audio goings on with your software, allowing your computer to relax a little more. This is very important when you have a lot of things going on in your songs.
Top Tip: Myself and Plan B started out with an M Box many years back and its still the chosen brand for me today. Keep in mind how many inputs you would want (most of the time you’d never use more than 2 with a home setup) and make your choice of this selection here.
Step 5 – Microphone: Back in the days the microphone you would see most in home setups would be a Shure SM58, mainly because they were affordable and did the job (to a point). Even the mighty Wu Tang used an SM58 on their 36 Chambers album. However, nowadays more professional studio Mics have become more affordable. The SM58 is a directional mic, used for live performances because it mainly pics up vocals going straight into the mic, cutting out anything else around the singer to avoid feedback. However when recording vocals at home you won’t have to worry about other instruments apart from your voice, so here’s when you want to go all out to record as much of whats going on as possible with what is known as a Condensor Microphone. For those of you wanting to understand this more, read here.
Top Tip: You can have a great computer, software, interface and more but without a decent microphone your vocal recordings can only go so far in terms of quality and clarity. If you plan on having vocals on your track, add a good microphone to your shopping list.
Step 6 – Midi Controller: This bit of kit is what will help you rapidly get those ideas out of your head and into the computer. A good midi controller (depending on what one you purchase) will let you have control of your virtual instruments and play keys, drum pads etc, and some even let you have simple play, stop, record buttons etc. So instead of looking for that damn cursor each time you want to simply start recording etc, you just hit a button.
I’m not even going to beat around the bush here, the M-Audio Axiom to me is by far the greatest controller on the market. I have used the 49key version since its release and now, like Random Impulse I have a Pro version.
The Axiom has great feeling keys, drum pads an the all important time saving shortcut keys which you can assign to control most things in your software. I’m not even going to go into any others, just buy this.
Step 7 – Cables: Forgotten by most, many overlook how important good cables are, but imagine if you had a flash car, nice wheels, great engine etc, but it was all held together by string. Now you have an understanding of what kind of equipment to buy, respect it all enough to connect it properly, cheap wires are cheap for a reason. Avoid signal loss or interference and put some money aside for the old faithful professional cables.
And thats pretty much it, for now…get the above and you will have a very good starting point for a good home studio. In a later post i’ll cover things such as dealing with room acoustics and building yourself a budget vocal booth…two things Random Impulse needs to cover so we might do a little video about it.
Feel free to leave any questions in the comments section below.
Semothy
.jpg)
