The Home Recording Studio

The home recording market has grown exponentially in the last decade. Advancements in computer technology and the development of music recording software have brought professional quality recording capabilities to the home studio.

So why is it that most home recordings do not sound anything like those done in professional music production studios? The answer lies mostly in the lack of professional recording experience, understanding of professional recording techniques, and how to build and use a properly designed, acoustically treated recording environment.

A professional recording engineer with a minimum of equipment and resources will create an infinitely better recording than the amateur would in a state of the art music production studio. Music production and engineering is an art form as much as the study of any instrument.

But don't dismay! There is a tremendous amount of help out there for you. In many ways, it is easier now than ever before to learn professional engineering skills. The goal of this section and the pages that follow, is to cut through all of the misinformation. This way you can focus on the most important and fundamental concepts you need to learn.

So How Does This Translate to My Studio?

The focus of the articles that follow is to help you to understand how professional recording studios are designed and used. Each concept will then be translated to the home recording environment. You will learn how to best implement these concepts into your own home studio setup.

Over the years, I have helped many songwriters, composers, and musicians design and build home studios that best suited their needs. Each studio was custom designed to fit their workflow habits, technological capabilities and budget . The primary focus was to make the studio as transparent as possible to the creative process. Every ounce of energy spent on technical problems takes away from the creative workflow. Simple is always best!

Where do I Begin?

If you are building a home recording studio, it is important to understand how you create music. Write it down on a piece of paper if necessary. Then design a logical step by step process that allows you to set up and work quickly when a creative idea strikes.

If you have little or no experience, this process can be overwhelming at first. There are countless recording software packages, microphones, interfaces and gear to wade through. What do you really need in your studio? The articles that follow will address these issues and many others.

It's important to embrace the recording process one step at a time. Starting simple is always the best advice. It's easy to learn and grow from simplicity. I would often create and laminate sheets with a step by step guide for clients that were computer phobic. Once they got used to the process, we could easily expand on their knowledge by adding solutions the problems that arose.

If you want a more thorough explanation of professional music production studios. Click HERE to see how professionals do their thing. As always, there is no amount of knowledge that will take the place of experience. You must repeat the process over and over again to get it. Remember, there are no failures, only opportunities to learn how to make the next recording better than the previous one!

Select from the following links below to learn more about home recording and how to make your studio the best it can be.

Home Studio Design Part I

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