My First 6 Weeks Setting Up a Home Studio

Six weeks ago I wrote about my love for home recording studios, and about my intention of setting up my first studio in a decade. Many of you left helpful advice and great comments. Thanks! That six weeks has gone quickly, and some progress has occurred.

Producing music is one of those hobbies or passions that takes a lot of time and a lot of money. There is the time and expense taken to get the audio gear, the time taken in mastering how to use it, and then the really fun time spent in making music.

Here is where the last six weeks have taken me.

Finding a Place for My Gear

My first job was to find somewhere to set up my gear. At the same time I was looking for a better place to set up my desk, so I put them together in a corner of the large room we are using as a parents’ bedroom and lounge room – our ‘getaway’.

The computer on my desk is used for work as well as audio. It is a fairly good laptop on a stand, plugged in to an external keyboard, mouse and 24-inch monitor. Next to it is a Behringer UB802 mixer for plugging in my instruments. Because I haven’t had an audio interface, I’ve plugged this into the laptop’s line in. The resulting recordings were a little noisy and not of great quality—but they weren’t as bad as I expected.

At the end of my desk is my M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 keyboard. It’s getting a little old, and I’ve become frustrated by the D key above middle C which regularly gets stuck. I’m considering buying a new, smaller keyboard.

I also wanted to set up my Roland SPD-11 Octapad, but I haven’t been able to find its power adaptor since we moved a year and a half ago. I’m sure that adaptor is in a box somewhere, but I bit the bullet and bought a new one.

It also looks like I might get a separate room for my office and studio in February next year when my second son moves out to go to uni. That is, unless one of the other kids claim the room first.

Experimenting with Software

In the early stages—before I settle down with a particular DAW—I hope to experiment with as much audio software as possible.

I had an enjoyable weekend experimenting with my son’s software and gear. I found some excellent virtual pianos for Reason and Logic, and the sounds inspired some new tunes. I often find that the sound of a good instrument seems to write its own music. We recorded the part as a MIDI sequence in Logic, and added guitar, pads and flute on other tracks. Besides being impressed with the virtual instruments, I found the software excellent and easy to use.

After that I experimented with some Linux audio software. The next weekend I recorded the same piece into Ardour, an excellent Linux DAW. My first challenge was to audition the sounds as they were being recorded—I wasn’t routing the instruments directly to the speakers. It took a few minutes to find the setting, then all was OK.

Ardour is great at handling audio, but at this stage doesn’t handle MIDI. That’s OK, as Linux audio programs play well together—Hydrogen, an advanced drum machine, and Rosegarden, a MIDI sequencer, perfectly complemented Ardour.

But I wasn’t so impressed with the virtual instruments available for Linux. ZynAddSubFX and QSynth seem to be pretty good softsynths—and there are more that I haven’t tried yet—but I couldn’t find a piano for Linux that I enjoyed playing. If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments.

I haven’t experimented with GarageBand on our Mac yet—that’s next on my list.

To Click or Not to Click

When I recorded the piano piece at my son’s place, we used a click track. I was surprised that I recorded the track in one take, and found it easy to play in time with the click, playing just in front of or behind the beat depending on the feel I was after.

I haven’t always found it easy to play with a click, and think the difference must be because of all the live playing I do these days. I’ve learned to listen. In a live context, listening to the other musicians is essential, and this skill must also work with click tracks.

When I recorded the same piece at home, I decided not to use a click track—the piano part is slow and sparse, and a little ad-lib. I enjoyed the freedom of playing without the click, and finished by slowing to a rall. The trouble came when I recorded my guitar over the top. As the piano slowed down, I felt like building up when I played guitar. Because the piano part was so sparse, I missed the cue to slow down. That wouldn’t have happened if I played to a click.

What do you think? Do you always play to a click, or do you sometimes prefer the freedom of not using one?

Tapes are Noisy

My wife went on a holiday for a few weeks, and I took the opportunity to get out some of my four-track cassette tapes. Actually, I don’t own a four-track recorder any more, so I listened to the stereo tapes I mastered to. I couldn’t believe how noisy they are!

I was embarrassed to hear a very loud and distinctive hiss. This may be partly due to the age of the tapes—I recorded them in the eighties—and because I recorded them with Dolby C noise reduction, which my current (cheap) cassette player doesn’t support. But most of the noise would have been caused by the 1980s equipment.

Those tapes make my appreciate the advances in audio quality we’ve had over the last few decades.  Fortunately I was able to get rid of a lot of the hiss using Audacity’s noise reduction feature.

Choosing an Audio Interface

The most important first purchase for my new studio was an audio interface. I wanted to make the right choice, so did lots of research, got a lot of advice, and asked myself questions, including:

• Should I get a USB or Firewire interface for my laptop, or use a desktop computer with a PCI interface?
• Should I buy a cheaper interface to get it sooner, or take longer to save my money to get a higher quality interface?

I decided to get a Firewire interface, and not to get something cheap and dirty. I decided on the Focusrite Saffire Pro 24, which is a Firewire device with fairly good preamps.

After ordering the device, I had to wait a long two weeks before it arrived. It came this afternoon, and I am putting off playing with it to write this article. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Next Steps

From here, I’m planning to record, record, record. I’ll spend time recording each weekend, and try to find some time during the week as well. It will take time to learn to get the best out of my new equipment.

I’ll also keep exploring more audio software. My next stop will be Apple’s GarageBand, which may be more simplistic than I need, but should be worth exploring anyway.

In time I hope to post some tracks on AudioJungle. I’ll let you know how I go.