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The Right Computer Setup for Home Recording
No matter which computer platform you choose , the stuff that you find inside your computer plays a major role in determining how smoothly (or how less-than-smoothly) your Digital Audio Workstation [more…]
Home Recording Audio Interface Basics
You will need the appropriate hardware to transfer recorded sound into and out of your computer. This requires a device called an audio interface. Audio interfaces are available with three types of connection [more…]
Home Recording PCI Audio Interfaces
PCI is the old standard for getting audio into and out of a computer and has an advantage over the other interface types because of the fast transfer speed of PCI technology. This type of interface isn’t [more…]
Home Recording FireWire Interfaces
FireWire interfaces connect to the FireWire port in your computer. FireWire ports come in two varieties: FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 are inexpensive and are available on laptop computers as well as desktops [more…]
Home Recording USB Interfaces
USB interfaces for home recording come in two varieties: those using USB 1.1 and those using USB 2.0 (and before too long, USB 3). These are handy because most computers have at least one USB port. These [more…]
The Right Home Recording Software
When setting up a home recording system, you should always start by exploring the software you want to use. Whatever program you decide to use will work better on one type of computer compared to another [more…]
Researching Home Recording Software Programs
If you already own a computer and you want audio-recording or sequencing software to go with it, do the following research on the software that interests you: [more…]
Popular Home Music Recording Software Programs
When setting up a recording system, it's important to begin by exploring the music software you want to use You can choose from numerous music-production software programs, including the ones in the following [more…]
Studio-in-a-Box Home Recording Software Systems
Integrated mixers/recorders/effects processors, studio-in-a-boxes, were once quite common (computer-based systems have over-taken them in the last few years). Cassette porta-studios, first introduced in [more…]
Popular Studio-in-a-Box (SIAB) Home Recording Systems
Many of the major recording manufacturers make studio-in-a-box (SIAB) systems which are useful to the home recordist. Check out these companies and compare the specifications of each unit: [more…]
Home Recording System Types
You may think that you need to spend a ton of money to get everything you need to set up a home recording system. Fortunately, a lot of home-recording systems are available that contain many of the components [more…]
Making Sense of Sound Mixing
For most home recordists, the process of sound mixing is what turns their mish-mash of musical tracks into a song. Mixing involves the following steps: [more…]
Mac or PC for Home Recording
Whether to buy a Mac or PC is a hotly debated topic among home recordists. Most professional studios used to favor Macintosh computers for recording audio. PCs were thought to have too many bugs to work [more…]
Efficient Home Recording Studio Setup
One important thing to keep in mind is that you need to be comfortable in your home recording studio. Get a good chair and set up your workstation to be as easy to get around as possible. The first illustration [more…]
Portable Home Music Recorders
Many home music recording systems can be portable, but if portability is your main concern, then you can choose from a few really cool options, including the following: [more…]
Analog Home Recording Systems
So you find that you gotta have that analog sound for your home recording systems, but you don’t want to (or can’t) deal with the expense of a complete analog system. Well, you’re in luck! You, too, can [more…]
Home Recording Vacuum Tube Stuff
Vacuum-tube microphones, preamps, compressors, and equalizers and other home recording equipment have been around for decades. In fact, before solid-state [more…]
Home Recording Studio Types: MIDI-Intensive
Are you a one-man band? Do you prefer to program a home recording performance rather than to play it? If so, you may want to have a MIDI-intensive studio. The advantage of the MIDI studio is that one person [more…]
Home Recording Studio Types: Live
Thirty years ago, when a band wanted to record, the members all went into a studio together, set up their gear in one large room (with maybe a few dividers between them), and played as if they were at [more…]
Audio Connectors: 1/4-inch Mono/TS Analog Plug
The plug on a cord that you use for your guitar or synthesizer is an example of a mono 1/4-inch analog plug. The mono part of the name refers to the fact that you have only one channel through which to [more…]
Audio Connectors: 1/4-inch Stereo/TRS Analog Plug
A stereo/TRS (short for Tip/Ring/Sleeve) 1/4-inch plug looks like an analog stereo headphone plug. The tip is the end of the plug, the ring is the small middle section located between the two plastic dividers [more…]
Audio Connectors: XLR and RCA Analog Plugs
You’ve probably had a chance to see and use a variety of analog connectors. There are XLR and RCA analog plugs as well as the 1/4-inch. [more…]
Digital Connections for Home Recording
Digital audio equipment is a recent invention, and as such, no one standard has emerged. Because of this lack of standardization, a variety of digital connection methods are on the market, only a few [more…]
Home Studio Setups: Audio with Some MIDI
The most common home studio setup includes one or two MIDI devices connected to a digital recorder and one or two microphones plugged in to record vocals or an instrument. The following illustration shows [more…]
Home Studio Setups: MIDI-Intensive
The MIDI-intensive home studio setup has numerous MIDI devices hooked up to a mixer and a microphone occasionally plugged in to record vocals. The system shown in the illustration features a computer running [more…]
