The DIGI is a very popular and quite powerful interface for home studios looking to record a small band at one time while the m-Box series is wonderful for the studio owner who only needs to record one or two musicians simultaneously. The Pro Tools LE software allows up to 48 tracks of recorded audio.
Macs have always been popular and the Intel-based Macs now run these programs much better than their ancestors. Many Windows-based machines also handle Pro Tools extremely well.
However, one should check the Digidesign support website in order to make sure that their Windows machine is compatible with Pro Tools. Another very important factor is the RAM in the studio computer. One reason is that Pro Tools LE is dependent on the computer and not the audio hardware to process many of its functions, including the operation of effects plug-ins like reverb and compression.
Digidesign heavily recommends against this and so do other audio recording hardware and software manufacturers. One reason is that the system drive needs to be busy running the program and not have the extra chore of simultaneously processing digital audio files. Another problem is that audio files are huge and will rapidly fill up the hard drive. Because rather than having a half-dozen power cables sticking out the back of your rack from each unit….
Now that the rack and the power is taken care of…. Which you will get by adding a multi-channel microphone preamp to your setup. Another common variety of this device is the high-end single-channel mic preamp, which studios often use on vocals or any other particularly important track in a mix. To see which models I recommend for both single and multi-channel preamps, check out this article:.
NOTE : Whenever buying a multi-channel preamp, you must also make sure that you audio interface has enough line inputs to accommodate the extra channels. Once you have plenty of input channels to work with…. Typical headphone amps offer stereo outs for anywhere from sets of headphones.
Advanced headphone amps…can send multiple tracks of audio to personal mixers for each musician, allowing them to individually control exactly what they want to hear, without affecting what is heard by everyone else. And in studios that can afford one, this added functionality can make the entire recording process much easier for everyone involved.
Sometimes in advanced studios, engineers need to compare how their mixes sound over a variety of playback devices. To accomplish this task, a tool known as a monitor management system is used…. Which allows engineers to switch back and forth between different speakers with the push of a button.
If and when you ever need this in your studio, check out this article to see which ones I recommend:. Which for many of us, is simply not possible. Home recording is expensive enough without having to buy a dozens of instruments as well. The solution to this common problem is of course… virtual instruments. The biggest problem with virtual instruments is…. Not only is it no-fun …. While virtual instrument drums might be good enough for some…. Today, they can sound almost as good, and in some cases even better than a real acoustic kit.
The stereotypical fantasy which initially sucks us into the world of recording is…. Crafting your latest masterpiece on the massive analog mixing board of your million dollar studio. Because in this reality, mixing is usually done on a computer keyboard and mouse. Which to be honest…kinda sucks. More importantly, it slows down your workflow, and makes it much harder to perform some of the more advanced mixing techniques, such as automation.
The solution to this problem is of course, a control surface , which is essentially a MIDI controller designed to mimic the look and feel of the analog boards from decades-past. To see which ones I recommend, check out this post:. However, the fact is that top engineers will spend thousands of dollars on premium plugins…. Which are somehow better than the free ones. If you do have some skills, they can make a BIG difference.
At this stage in the game, with the gear you now own…. Well once you reach this point, the standard solution to turn to is a snake cable like the one shown in the picture. By combining several individual cables into one, snake cables allow you to dramatically clean up the look of your studio, and more importantly…. They keep your cables permanently organized, so never-again will you need to trace-back an entire length of cable through a tangled web just to find out where it leads.
The only problem is…most snakes are designed for much larger rigs than a typical home studio, and it can be difficult for beginners to find the right one for their purpose. Do you know what can happen during a recording session when the power goes out? Which is why anytime a computer holds important data, it makes sense to use an uninturruptible power supply UPS. Essentially functioning as a back-up battery, a UPS gives you several minutes of power to shut down your computer safely in the event of a blackout.
Now unlike every other item on this list, which should be added in sequence…a UPS is one of those items you can add at virtually any time. In the studio, where cables sometimes extend as long as a hundred feet to reach their destinations…. And direct boxes solve this problem by taking an unbalanced instrument level signal , and converting it to a balanced mic level signal ….
Which can then be sent for several hundreds of feet if necessary, while gathering virtually no noise at all. Because of the fact that most audio interfaces and microphone preamps have at least 1 or 2 direct box channels built-in….
At this point with the new additions we just covered, your studio should be good enough to record bands and possibly even charge clients for your services. But since many of you are at least curious about it, I might as well give you a few examples of how pro studios differ from amateur ones.
Hidden within your audio interface , and many other devices in your studio…. Another little-known device hidden within virtually every digital recording device is…. The master clock aka word clock, aka digital clock. In most setups, the audio interface clock defaults as the master , and the others as slaves.
Meaning one clock leads, and the others follow. Long before the days when mixing was done with software plugins…. These days many of those units cost several thousand dollars each, and offer only 1 or 2 channels. Well the answer is… yes you would. Because according to many of the best ears in the business…analog gear still sounds better than any plugin.
Would I recommend it in most cases? Not really. But all that stuff is pretty far outside the scope of both this article and this website.
Dedicated Home Studio — which is typically a room in your house used solely for recording, that includes both studio furniture, and acoustic treatment. Semi-Pro Studio — which can be either at your home, or a different location, and typically includes the equipment necessary to record multiple musicians simultaneously.
Pro Studio — which is typically located at a commercial facility, and includes whatever tools necessary to produce professional results in the most efficient way possible. And anything more will probably just confuse you. Computer These days, since recording studios are almost ALL digital… The first thing you obviously need is a computer. Let me give you a handful of examples:. If you have only one microphone available then you don't waste time comparing characteristics between several microphones, you just get on recording with what you've got.
If your studio has limited space to move a microphone around in then you'll most likely have one spot in which to record in If you only have a single gain pot on an interface and not a full-blown outboard channel strip then hey, all the better for getting tracks down quickly Plug-ins that wife uses in her simple studio are, like the gear she uses, fairly modest. These are great value for money and dead simple to use. Those are all the tools she needs to mix a great sounding song. She has become really familiar with how these plug-ins sound and work because she has a limited choice available.
My plug-in folder is the polar opposite of a modest collection with nearly plug-ins in total. This can be an absolute pain in my side when I'm mixing. I often have way too much choice and opportunity to pick the wrong tool for the job In my mothership studio I use a 16 in and 16 out Avid Pro Tools interface.
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