Application 8: Setting Up Your Own Home Recording Studio

Application #8: Setting Up Your Own Home Recording Studio

This is really a niche application, but one with appeal to a lot of musicians out there turning your home computer into a digital recording studio. Whether you play in a band or are a budding composer, this is the low-cost way to put your songs on disc. (Setting up a complete home studio is a lot less expensive than even a single day in a professional recording studio.)

In this type of setup, you use your PC as both a mixing console and hard disk recorder. As shown in Figure 11.3, You connect your instruments or outboard mixers to your PC, typically through a MIDI or USB port. You then use digital studio software such as Cakewalk (www.cakewalk.com) or Cubasis (www.steinberg.net) to create the mix and record the sounds on your hard disk. After you've created the final mix, you burn your music to CD. It's really as simple as that.

Figure 11.3. A typical home studio setup centered around your personal computer.

Well, actually, it's not that simple. First, you'll need to upgrade to a high-end sound card that can handle high-speed, high bit-rate audio recording. Then you'll need to add one or more MIDI interfaces to your PC. Your new sound card might include a MIDI interface, or you might need to buy a separate audio interface box, which adds a variety of MIDI and audio connectors in a separate unit, typically connected via a separate card or USB port. (Audio interface boxes were discussed in Chapter 10.)

tip

You won't find sound cards, interfaces, and software for musicians at your local computer store. A better place to shop for these professional audio products is the electronics department at any large musical instrument retailer, such as Guitar Center or Sam Ash Music, or at an online music retailer specializing in recording gear, such as Midi Warehouse (www.midiwarehouse.com), MTLC.net (www.mtlc.net), or Sweetwater (www.sweetwater.com).

You'll also need to beef up your PC, to some degree. Recording large digital files in real time is processor-intensive, so you'll need a fairly fast system to ensure error-free recording. Any newer machine running at 1GHz or better should do the trick, and you'll want to have at least 256MB of RAM on board, as well.

Another necessity for home recording studios is a very large, very fast hard disk. I recommend at least 40GB of storage with spin rate 7,200 RPM. (Most professionals go for a SCSI drive, as well although that isn't necessary for most home studios.)

You might also want an external mixer, a signal processor or two, and at least one MIDI keyboard/synthesizer. In addition, some digital recording programs can utilize a second monitor; they display the recording data on one monitor, and the mixing controls on the second.

Still, it's not as expensive as it sounds, especially if you already have a MIDI keyboard. Here's an upgrade checklist:

"Mike Sez"

Although there are all sorts of equipment available for home PC recording, I particularly like those units that connect to your PC via USB such as the Tascam US-428 mixer (www.tascam.com). These units supercede your PC's internal sound (eliminating the need for a new sound card) and provide a MIDI interface, all through a single, easy-to-configure USB connection.

Upgrade Checklist for a Home Recording Studio

40GB or larger hard disk, with 7,200 RPM spin rate (see Chapter 4)

Fast CD-R/RW drive (see Chapter 5)

256MB or more RAM (see Chapter 6)

High-speed, high bit-rate sound card with MIDI connectors (see Chapter 10)

Audio interface box (optional, see Chapter 10)

Outboard USB mixer (optional)

Studio-quality powered speakers (optional)

Second video card and monitor (optional; see Chapter 9, "The Big Picture: Upgrading Video Cards and Monitors")

Digital piano or synthesizer with MIDI Out jack

Home recording and mixing software

THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM

When it comes to upgrading your system for digital audio playback and recording, here's what you need to remember:

• Most newer PCs come with all the hardware and software you need for basic audio playback and recording no upgrading necessary.

• Whether you're downloading music from the Web or listening to live Internet radio, you need a broadband Internet connection for fast downloading and optimal playback.

• The best digital media players let you listen to digital music, rip songs from CD, and burn your own music CDs.

• To burn your own CDs, you need a fast CD-R/RW drive and a large supply of CD-R discs the kind that are certified for audio playback.

• To connect a digital keyboard or audio recording equipment to your PC, you need a sound card with a MIDI connector or a low-cost MIDI adapter to connect to your PC's game port.