Setting up a basic home recording studio
Dr. Biju Raju
Making music as and when you want to – that is a dream for many amateur musicians like us. Some of us are into Karaoke music also. Most of these backing tracks are now available online too. Backing tracks are available for guitar players also. So all you need is a decent PC and software that can put your music together and mix it up to sound like the original…well… almost like the original. Let me share with you my experiences in setting up a home studio. There was no other area at home where I could put up this studio. So I added this feature to my PC in my bedroom. One can’t really call it a quiet room as my son is just one year old and my wife’s favorite shows on TV usually coincide with my recording sessions!!
The Hard part of it
You will need some pepped up hardware for running your PC well so that it can double up as your workstation as well as a 16 or 32 channel mixer. I am not talking about very costly PC cards or accessories. Make sure that your PC has a good processor. I use a Core 2 Duo processor from Intel. To support the processor, the RAM [Random Access Memory] should be at least 512 MB. A 1 GB RAM will be excellent. Have a good capacity hard disk – say 80 GB or more for storing your creations.
Next comes the most important part of the hardware – the sound card. A sound card handles many jobs at once. At any given time it's expected to be recording audio from a single or multiple inputs, playing back audio from sources such as audio from the hard drive, and doing it all in a synchronous manner. These requirements are steep and often leave an ill-equipped system at a grinding halt [Courtesy SoundBlaster]. In order to create a more direct path to the hardware, and also make the hardware more responsive to the software's needs, the Audio Stream In/Out (ASIO) technology was developed. ASIO has made its mark as the driver standard for delivering low-latency transfer of digital audio. This means that hardware supporting an ASIO driver is able to deliver low-latency recording and monitoring to hard disk. The low latency made possible by ASIO, for example, allows you to sing into a Microphone and hear your voice going through software and hardware effects with virtually no delay in the signal. Too much gizmo?? Alright… no more tech stuff.
I use an entry level sound card from Creative called the Sound blaster 5.1. It is good enough for a basic home recording studio and though it does not have the ASIO technology, the latency is not significant when you are recording and playing back. However, the latency becomes bothersome when you apply real time effects to either the voice or the instrument plugged into the system. That means if you have plugged in your microphone and are singing into it without applying any effects, say echo or reverb, then the voice can be monitored well. But if you have applied a real time effect, as you sing, the voice is processed by the software and the effects are applied before the sound is sent out through the monitoring speaker or headphone. Now the sound card has to be perfect to keep pace with all the digital processing to take place. Otherwise, the voice seems to come a shade later and that can affect your timing while recording. So if your sound card does not support ASIO technology, then the recording will not sound well because it is difficult to keep time with the latency which causes the lag in the voice reproduction.
No ASIO card, no problem. It is better not applying real time effects to the track you are recording. Why?? The track is recorded with the effects already processed and in case if you did not like it, it is not possible to remove the effect. But if the track is recorded as it is without applying the real time effects, then after the track is recorded, one can add as many effects as possible. And because the digital data is recorded as it is without any additional processing, the processor will be able to keep pace with the music and there will not be any lag.
For a vocalist, a good microphone is a must. Get one you can afford without burning a whole note on your wallet. I am not a vocalist, but I like to sing along when I play my guitar. So I went in for a mic which was less than Rs. 500/-. But I got a decent guitar (Fender Squier) and a Zoom processor 505 II, an entry level processor and a small squier amp – all for Rs. 16000/-.
The Software
The audio software I like to use is Mixcraft. This is a simple software for excellent music creation [Acoustica, the company making the software has its slogan shouting –“Software should be easy to use”]. I have also used Cakewalk pro to record the songs. It is excellent software but a bit too complex. The technique I use is called overdubbing. The concept is simple. Record the first track. While the first track is playing, record or dub the second track over it. Again, while playing the first two tracks together, overdub the third track. Finally after all the tracks have been added, the next step is to mixdown these tracks to sound something better than cacofonix’s concert.
Screen shot of Mixcraft software – You can customize the tracks with pictures for easy identification. Click on the Speaker icon to listen to my version of La Bamba
Oopps…, I forgot. Prior to mixing down the tracks, one can add effects (like delay or reverb / phaser) or add an equalizer to each track and balance the bass and treble or even better; have a 30 band equalizer to fix each frequency to your satisfaction. There is also an option to have effects for the final project. The concept of mixdown is simple. The levels or volume of each track has to be adjusted to sound well leveled out. None of the tracks should be sounding very loud or very low. It should sound just right. That takes a little practice. My method is the tried and tested; trial and error method. After multiple mix downs you can finally get a good one.
 Screenshot of Beatcraft
I use software from Acoustica for the drums – Beatcraft. [I don’t have any financial interest in any of the products mentioned….SIGHHHH!!!!]. This is an easy to use software for the drummer. Both Mixcraft and Beatcraft have preprogrammed loops and sounds which can be downloaded from the site and these can be used to make real professional music.
Another fantastic software for the beginner is Audacity. A powerful sound editor with lots of effects and also has a good noise removal option. Check it out. And the best part – it is a shareware and is free. You just have to download and install it.
Let us get connected!
The sound card has an input and an output. Usually the inputs are 2 – the line in and microphone inputs. The outputs are for the speakers or headphones. The usual connections are shown in the diagram.
Few tips for the guitars – If effect pedals are used, then keep the guitar volume high. Connect the guitar to the processor and then the output of the processor to a volume pedal (if one is available). The output of the volume pedal can then be connected to the line in input of the sound card. If the volume pedal is not available, then plug the output from the processor into the line in input and adjust the volume using the volume control (playback/Recording control on the taskbar or advanced volume control on the control panel). This is my preferred setting, but finally it all boils down to tring different settings till you get the tone sounding perfect.
The usual connector jack of the guitar cable does not go in the soundcard input. You will require an adapter which is easily available. That adapter will convert the guitar cables jack into a smaller one - similar to the one on the headphones.
Noise reduction is an important aspect in the recording. If one is using Mixcraft, then there are various noise gates available. But I have found editing the track in an external editor (option available in Mixcraft) little more easy. The best editor I have used is Adobe Audition. Once this option is selected, the then the track is opened automatically in Adobe audition. In audition there is an option for noise reduction. The first step is to capture the noise profile. Normally a track’s wave pattern will have a smooth or straight line profile in areas of silence. In the presence of background noise, there will be a wave pattern corresponding to the noise. Select only the noise part and then capture the profile. Once this is done, then the noise reduction profile has to be applied to the entire wave. What the software then does is that it removes that profile from the rest of the track thus making the track clean!!
That is in nutshell on how a small home studio can be setup. There is a small learning curve, but with a little time you are going to be a maestro. This is how I made my home recording set up. I am sure there are better ways to do it. So please do send in your feedback. It will be a learning experience for everyone.
You can check out few of my home recordings
You Tube-Tunnel of Love-Solo - Dire straits
You Tube-Mariachi -Desperado-Solo - Los Lobos
You Tube-Sultans of Swing - Guitar Solo – Dire straits
You Tube-Hotel California - Plugging the Unplugged - Eagles
La Bamba(MP3)
 Let us hear from Greg Birkel from Acoustica….
We've redesigned the interface of Mixcraft 3 from the ground up, including options to customize the look and height of each track. The new sound library feature provides hundreds of royalty-free loops and sound effects. We've also added support for ASIO, which can reduce recording latency with sound cards that support it. The new FlexAudio™ option allows you to visually time stretch sounds. Acid™ and Apple Garage Band™ loops are now supported and you can beatmatch or change the key of sounds. We've tried to make Mixcraft 3 extremely powerful, yet simple to use. If you've used other digital audio mixing programs, you know how complicated they can be. Mixcraft 3 was designed with the musician in mind.
Greg Birkel
Director of Customer Care
Acoustica
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