Buying Advice - Tips on Equipping a New Studio, or Updating Your Existing Studio
As a home/project studio owner you actually have an ADVANTAGE over professional commercial studios.
A commercial studio has to equip itself with a huge range of equipment, staff and expertise to accommodate the huge range of customers that are likely to be coming through the doors, in contrast a home/project studio only has to worry about having the right equipment for the owner!.
It is important when equipping a new studio to think about what you are likely to use your studio for, this sounds obvious but it is the main problem that people have with their studios.
For example: If you are only going to record acoustic guitar and vocals, using a PC based sequencer, it really is not worth you buying a large mixing desk. Much better sound quality can be achieved by buying two preamps, eq's and compressors for a lot less money.
Think about what instruments you are likely to record, how many musicians you are likely to be recording at once, how loud the instruments are, how much space they require etc.
One of the oldest debates in the world of audio production/recording is whether to buy a PC or a mac.
Every PC user will tell you that a PC will do anything a mac can do, and any mac user will tell you that a mac will do more than any PC could ever do.
What is the truth?
Well, over the past few years the gap between the two platforms has become a lot smaller, and each platform has its own advantages and disadvantages, but the main fact is that either platform is more than capable of being the basis of a wonderful home studio.
Once you have determined the main use(s) of your studio it is now time to invest in the best equipment you can afford to get these instruments recorded.
There are three core pieces of equipment that all studios should start out with they are:
1. Recording system (Usually PC/mac nowadays with suitable sequencing software)
2. The best quality reference monitors that your budget will allow
3. The best quality microphone that your budget will allow
With a good microphone, good speakers and a good recording system it is almost impossible to create bad recordings as long as they are operated in a suitable manner.
Where possible make your setup as simple as possible, do not overcomplicate things by being tempted to fill your rack with cheap inferior units just for the sake of it.
Remember, one high quality preamp/compressor is much more useful than a 28 channel cheap mixing console, if you only want to record vocals.
Do not buy excessive amounts of auxiliary equipment that you can only imagine using once in a while, instead, invest your money in the bits that you will use the most. CONTINUE
