From the Outside In
WHY CLARITY MATTERS
Knowing where distortion creeps into your signal is the first step toward removing it—and vastly improving your sound
We all want our recordings to sound like the Big Guys’ studios Downtown. Ocean Way. Trident. Muscle Shoals. Hit Factory. We want that big sound, that clean, clear, driving, high energy, smooth, alive, and…
START WITH THE ROOM
Everyone wants you to start building your studio with gear—here’s where you should start instead, if you want the best sound!
This article is aimed at beginners—people new to this great adventure of home-based recording. But to the readers who have been doing this for a few years: stick with me, there’s plenty here that you can use too…
GEAR FOR YOUR STARTER STUDIO
So you have a good-sounding room. What should go into it, and why?
In the predecessor to this article, we concentrated on the first and most important part of any Startup Studio: the room. Now we can finally get to the gear that goes in the room, starting with the second most important piece of the puzzle: the monitors…
Maintenance
SIMPLE COMPUTER UPGRADES FOR THE RECORDING MUSICIAN
The Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) is the centerpiece of the modern production studio. While many current Macs and off-the-shelf PCs are content creation capable, purchasing or building a machine specked to handle the demands of multi-track audio, sample libraries, and large plugin counts (not to mention video editing) is the road most of us will travel.
KEEPING THE TIGERS AWAY
An ounce of prevention beats a ton of angry clients.
Once upon a time, a New York policeman, riding on a city bus, noticed that the gentleman sitting across from him was behaving oddly. Every block or so, the man would pull a salt-shaker out of his pocket and sprinkle a few shakes of salt out the window. The policeman watched for several blocks, until finally his constabular curiosity got the best of him….
THE STUDIO TOOL BOX
The tools you need in your studio...
What does your studio tool box look like? No, I don’t mean the software tools for your DAW, but real-life tools like screwdrivers. If you are like most personal studio owners, you probably can find your sequencer install disks faster than you can find a screwdriver. After all, who needs a screwdriver anyway when what you really want to do is record that vocal one more time…
THINGS FALL APART
Electronics will eventually fail. Learn how to protect yourself.
All electronic components will eventually fail. Mortality and deterioration are inevitable, but there are ways to postpone them. We’ll start by looking at the reasons behind equipment failure and then we’ll look at ways you can protect yourself…
Studio Infrastructure
AC POWER HANDLING
All about the electricity powering your studio.
Nothing in the recording field gathers as much misinformation and just plain nonsense as AC power issues. I’ve seen people spend huge amounts of money on power conditioning just because they thought they should—believing that they’d solve problems that, in fact, are totally unrelated to power issues…
AN OUNCE OF CURE
Studio setup considerations to prevent grounding problems and more.
Usually we collect a pile of equipment and over time figure out how to put it all together. The only exception I can think of would be that you’ve just won the lottery and are out to buy everything you’ll ever buy at once. In reality, people don’t get to plan their studios…