Listen Closely

It goes without saying that in order to create a great sounding recording you need to have a good set of ears, but your ears will only be as good as the audible devices they are listening to. So a reliable pair of monitors (speakers) is a must as well as an excellent pair of headphones. While many computer speakers do sound exceptional when listening to your media player or dvd's they are not designed for recording purposes. In order to create a well balanced and uniform mix, the monitors need to be partial to a zero frequency atmosphere. That is to say, when you are listening back to recorded tracks, you should be hearing the best possible reproduction of sound without adding EQ's or effects, through speakers that are designed with that in mind. Low noise (or no noise) monitors that let the engineer hear exactly what is happening in the mix through a naked sound wave.

While there are numerous brands on the market that will do the job, you need to ask yourself a few questions before dropping down loads of cash on gear.
1.) How big is the listening environment you will be working in? - This will decide on which size monitors to purchase, the bigger the room the larger the speakers.
2.) Do you have a dual channel power amp? - This will decide whether you need to purchase powered monitors (the speaker cabinets will have their own amplifiers built in) or unpowered monitors in which case you will need to have a dual channel amp to power them (wattage and ohms play a factor here).
3.) What is your budget for this expense? - After all this will most likely be the deciding factor for the above as powered monitors are more expensive than unpowered but if you need a power amp that will be an added cost as well. Size also weighs in on the overall cost.

After asking myself these questions and doing a lot of comparison shopping online (this is a great way to narrow down the field of choices), I purchased myself a pair of Alesis M1Active monitors 320USB. They are perfect for my situation. Self powered, compact and very versatile. These monitors allow me alternative analog to digital inputs in the back (an added feature I did not consider) as well as USB connection to my PC. Most importantly the sound is amazing given the size of them. As far as price goes, $99 US for the pair.
As a matter of fact, it took over a month to get these shipped to me due to the fact that demand was higher than supply. At first listen one might say, "oh my PC surround sound set up is much better than these", but after close attention to detail is given one will hear things that were unrecognizable before. Just listening to mp3 files at 320kbs will offer ear candy to songs. Acoustic guitars will pop out in tunes that didn't exist before, tambourines suddenly feel like someone is standing beside you and rattling away, background vocals while still distant in the mix are actually distinguishable from the main vocals. These are all qualities you want from your recording monitors, but don't discard your pair of Altec Lansings just yet, they will prove to be useful later when all the mixing is complete. That is when you want to hear your songs through every imaginable device possible; mp3 players, home stereos, car cd players and pc speakers will give you the final say in whether your song is complete. Stay tuned for future blogs on that topic.

Unfortunately I have not yet purchased a quality set of headphones that will allow me to listen to my recordings discerningly. I do own a pair of Numark 125 phones (came with my Nady mixing console) that are descent but in order to achieve my goal of quality recordings on a budget I will have to take the financial plunge, do some research and purchase a pair of high end (as in quality & price) headphones that can accomplish what I need them to do. Noise elimination in a zero frequency atmosphere. I will post my results as soon as I make my decision on this.

Review, Sychronize and Execute!

Let's review what I have so far.

To start with I have my instruments that I wish to record; electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, keyboard and of course vocals. "What, no drums?" you ask. Unfortunately I'm not much of a drummer but I can program a mean drum machine, so to cover the percussive side of my songs I will be using a 24bit version of the Alesis SR-16. A great and reliable recording tool not to mention writing aid, perfect for small home studios such as mine. Yes there are some better sounding DM's out on the market and within a decent price range, however I am very familiar and comfortable with the programming of this machine. Besides I own two of them so I might as well make use of them.

After the instruments comes the analog to digital converter (please refer to my "To Begin, Let's Convert" post). I will be using the Tascam US-122 for this task. All instruments and vocals will plug directly or indirectly (I will explain this in a later post) into this device for transfer to..........

.....the computer (see "Give Me Power, Give Me Speed" post). Which will in turn record and store all that is performed in the form of WAV files to the hard drive. I say WAV files because it is the most common format used in home recording mostly because files can be saved in 24bit. Most likely you will have a choice as to what format to save as. Personally I recommend WAV for it's universal recognition especially between Mac and PC platforms.

Which now brings us to the brains of the operation, The Recording Software. This is the force that will sort all the hoopla out, make some sense of it and tell it what to do, where to go and how to do it. Where sound engineers once had no choice but to be offspring of octopi like creatures, with eight limbs hovering over a 64 track mixing console operating dozens of sliders, knobs and dials at once. There is now only a computer keyboard, two hands and LCD Monitor to work all the same magic. Ah technology, gotta love it.
There are literally dozens upon dozens of recording software packages out there the most popular being Digidesign's Pro Tools. And while this is an exceptional piece of program coding, I do not believe it is the only choice you have when it comes to professional sounding home recordings. For this project I will be using Steinberg's Cubase 5 - VST32. Once again I can only say that it is a software that I am familiar and comfortable with and is in my price range. Time will tell if the results are what I am looking for in a finished product.
Note that the software image I have inserted is Cubase LE not Cubase 5. This is the software that came with my Tascam converter and I took some screen shots for example. As soon as I start my recording projects I will post some Cubase 5 screen shots. They are very similar programs in look but LE is a bit more simplistic in feel and abilities. Not a bad program to learn on by any means.

I will get into the nitty gritty of using the recording software in later posts as I start my projects. There is a lot to this bundle of goodness. Not only do you have the power of a 32 Track recording console at your fingertips but buried beneath is a digital sequencer able to control many things at once, making live digital recording a wonderful MIDI experience. And you thought I was crazy for using a drum machine.

Give Me Power, Give Me Speed

THE GREAT PLATFORM DEBATE


There is a lot of hubbub when it comes to recording music on whether or not to use a Mac or a PC. I have been fortunate enough to have used both operating platforms for this very purpose at one time or another and while old school digital engineers (as if digital is that old) will argue that there is no alternative to a Mac for recording music, I will say that at one time that statement held true. However, PC's have come a long way in the last 5 years and can now stand up to any Mac on the market in power, performance and stability and in some cases far surpass them. So now it is more a matter of cost and loyalty. Which platform are you more comfortable with? How much do you wish to spend? In my case it was a no brainer, I needed high performance at a low end price and I'm very comfortable using the Windows platform. I have built my system from the ground up, buying each component separately and assembling it all to make a custom PC. This alone saved me hundreds of dollars and gave me a high end computer system that can be upgraded further if the need arises. If you are more comfortable with the Mac platform and can afford the price, then by all means continue to go that route. I will not try to pursued you in any other direction. After all, the whole recording digital era began on Apple computers in the first place.

COMPUTER SPECIFICATIONS

All tracks that you record will be saved in 24bit WAV file format on your computer. Resulting in the need for a large Hard Drive given that each file (or track) will take up about 100MB of space and each song will average between 3 and 10 tracks. That's roughly between 300 and 1,000MB per song. So a 160GB (1GB=1,024MB) drive should do the trick and give you enough room for aprox 160 songs. It will take some time before you fill that puppy. I personally have a 200GB Hard Drive that I use just for storage and another 200GB Hard Drive that I run all my software and OS from. This is recommended due to the large quantity of data that will be written to and from the recording drive. By having two separate Hard Drives each one can work independently from one another and increase system performance dramatically.

Next is speed which is acquired through the CPU (Central Processing Unit). Operating systems like Windows XP and Tiger OSX are resource hogs, meaning the more processing power you have the more they will use. Recording software is no exception so the more you can acquire the better off you will be. Personally I use a 3.0GHz Pentium 4 with Hyper Threading Technology I would recommend at least a 2.4GHz if you want decent performance from a single core processor. Although many newer PC's now come with dual core or quad core processors which should have more than enough power for this purpose.

Another contributor to the speed and stability of your system is RAM (Random Access Memory) and as with the other components, the more the merrier. I have maxed my system out with 4GB's (4,096MB) but more modern systems today will allow four times that amount ( I can only dream of a system with 16GB's of RAM - drool ). High performance gaming RAM is recommended if you plan on using a lot of effects plug-ins while mixing your tracks.

Another component you may want to consider is a dual CD/DVD Recorder which would allow you to transfer your finished songs onto CD-R's or recordable compact discs which you could then play in any model CD player. Handy when you want to hear how things sound in different environments such as a car stereo. You can also store large amounts of data on DVD-RW's (rewritable dvd discs) for back up of your files and songs. As far as graphics are concerned a standard 128MB card will be fine for this application unless you plan on editing video & audio in which case a 512MB or 1GB card would be much better suited. Also make sure you have USB 2.0 ports (usually come standard nowadays).

Overall my base system cost me between $600 - $700 US to build. This excludes my monitor(s), keyboard, mouse and speakers. With those included my PC still cost me less than $1,000 US. Not bad considering this same system would have cost me roughly $2,000 retail and if it were a Mac G5 about $3,500.

The image on the left is of my custom PC along with a list of it's components:

Pentium 4 - 3.0GHz Processor (hyper-threading technology)

200GB SATA Hard Drive (main)

200GB SATA Hard Drive (storage)

4GB DDRAM (PC 3200)

CD/DVD Recordable Drive

*Windows XP w/SP2 Operating System

1.44MB Floppy Drive (optional)

8 USB 2.0 Ports

2 1394a Firewire Ports (optional)

1 Ethernet 10/100 Port

512MB ATI Radeon X1650 Graphics Card

*Note that I am using Windows XP as opposed to Vista for an operating system. I like it that way and if it ain't broke don't fix it.

In my next blog entry I will examine the different recording software applications available and which one I will be using throughout my project.

To Begin Let's Convert

As it is, I have not completely finished the remodeling of the studio but I have acquired  a majority of the basic tools I will use during this project. My budget is at a minimum for the time being so I have made a conscience decision to start small and work my way up to a more elaborate work environment when the funds become more available.

I will be using an analog to digital type of recording environment. Analog being the live vocals and instruments that I will play and digital being the computer and software that will capture and record the sounds. In order to accomplish this, an analog to digital converter will be needed. This device allows for a live instrument to be plugged directly into it whether through a 1/4" or XLR jack. The device then converts the incoming analog sounds internally into digital frequencies that are transported via USB or 1394a cable to the computer. Software which has been installed such as Cubase, Pro Tools or Cakewalk will then take the incoming digital signal and decipher it into audible sound. From here it is treated like any recording/playback device would treat a sound source by storing  it in a file form on the hard drive of the computer (usually a WAV file) instead of to tape or compact disc. You can now play, forward, rewind, loop, speed up tempo, slow down tempo, add effects and manipulate it just about anyway you could imagine. Your only limitations will in the size of the hard drive that you store your recordings to. I will get into my computer specifics in my next blog entry.
note: If you've already decided that Pro Tools will be the software you will be using, you will want to be careful when purchasing a converter. This is due to the fact that Pro Tools is proprietary to Digidesign and M-Audio converters only. It is not guaranteed to work with any other Brand of converter. Read over the requirements carefully when purchasing this or any software.

THE CONVERTER

Being that I am a solo enthusiast at the moment, I find that beginning with a 2-Track input converter will be more than sufficient for what I am trying to accomplish. This will allow me to record two separate analog inputs simultaneously (i.e; vocals and guitar) or a stereo analog instrument such as a keyboard running the left output of the device to input A of the converter and the right output to input B. Doing some price comparison shopping on the internet allowed me to find the best bang for my buck. I will be using a Tascam US-122 that cost around $199 US at the time I purchased mine. (You can read more on the specs of this device by clicking on the image).
Some things to take into consideration when deciding which converter to purchase are buffers and bit depth/sample rate conversion. These two things can ultimately effect the quality of your overall recording. Buffers work in conjunction with the Random Access Memory (or RAM) that your computer contains. Generally 256mb to 1024mb of RAM will suffice and give you a nice range of Buffers to choose from when recording (I will elaborate on RAM when I get into my computer specs later). With bit depth and sample rate conversion it is a lot more difficult to explain so I will just say that you should look for a device with a minimum of a 24 bit depth and 96 kHz conversion. With most converters this is standard. There is a more in depth article you can read here.

If you have a computer or plan on purchasing one, using the specs of your converter will give you a lot more insight to what you will need to buy or upgrade. In my next blog entry I will go over my computer specs.

Introduction

I love music.

Since my earliest memories music has played a substantial part in my life. As a toddler I remember sitting on the sofa and physically rocking back and forth to melodies that were performing in my mind. Not to any music that I heard on the radio or television, just random tunes that were manifesting themselves in my thoughts. I would hum the melodies and rock back and forth to the rhythm that, for whatever reason, was giving itself to me. Of course my parents, being concerned, brought this to the attention of my pediatrician who told them not to worry it was my way of releasing stress. Even to this day I find great relief from the everyday tribulations of life when I play my guitar or listen to relaxing music or sing. There is a great spiritual power to music whether it be easy listening, rock, classical, metal, hard core or pop. Music has the power to heal, to enlighten, to rally, to motivate and to set forth change in people's lives.

What I intend to put in place here is a bit of a journal of sorts. I've never gone to school for music or taken any courses in studio engineering. I have no clue on how to write (or read for that matter) sheet music. My credentials are simple. I have played guitar for over 25 years, performed professionally in a rock band for nearly 13 years with whom I  recorded a 12 song CD and been an avid listener of every genre of music my entire life. I am currently putting the finishing touches on a home recording studio and decided to document my projects here on this blog. Everything I learn, every mistake I make and every successful result will be logged by me in hopes that others will learn from what I have done. I will list any and all software and hardware I use and techniques (good and bad). Since I am doing this on a realistic budget I am hoping to surprise myself with better than expected results using less than top notch tools. I believe that the best tool any single recording artist can have is an ear for what sounds good and what doesn't.

So with that, welcome to my journey, I hope you enjoy the ride.