[...]

During my own stay at this precious site I have often gotten "org-noted" by people consulting me on what gear they should purchase in order to get them started with home recording. In fact, I've gotten so many of these personal mails in my mailbox as well that I finally decided to write somekind of an article that deals with these issues (with my own regrettable writing style that is). As I feel that giving advice to people on how they should spend their own money touches also some ethical aspects, I don't think I can give any definitive names of models that you should get with your hard-earned cash (or welfare coupons). However the following basics should cover some home recording basics, free software links and general considerations on the nature of musical gear. I am not a professional in these matters, altough I used to make my living by engineering demos, audio for tv-series and other pretty redundant stuff that nobody who dreamt once of becoming a rockstar thought would end up doing. The following consists firmly of personal opinions, altough they are based on a decade of personal experience on buying amd utilizing pieces of musical gear (some of which has been brilliant, some utter crap) and a personal tragedy that is the ambition of getting your musical ideas recorded by professional standards - with what is always going to be an insufficient amount of gear for such applications. You can't get absolutely everything yourself, but you can at least get some of those items you will need, and then proceed from there by using your mind in a very logical way on what you should get next for your setup.


It's Really all about the Money

First, as hinted already in the paragraph above I will try to take into account that anyone just starting out is going to have a very limited budget at their disposal. So easily, the most crucial piece of advice is going to be: DON'T WASTE MONEY on the first product that jumps in front of your eyes. It just happens to be the case that more than your talent people are going to be after the contents of your bank account. That's not to say a respectable store clerk at an audio gear store would not be impossible to find, but for the most part if they are going to make a sale with something they are not going to put down the features of some item that can do all these wonderful things that you could have only dreamt of being able to do with a plastic box barely the size of a soda can.

Consider what you can do with software for completely free and buy what you can't do with the free stuff already available. Personally I've gone for the "buy only analog if possible" -ideology for the hardware purchases recently, but this will end up costing you a whole lot more in the process and frankly speaking I don't think it's a concern for the novice in any other sense than saving money by the way of not consuming it on "stupid crap" that you cannot get sold in the used marketplace as effectively as you would do with analog gear. The bottom line however is: you can save considerable amounts of money if you do your reading first on the units you are considering buying and try to accomodate your needs as much as possible to the software side of things. It's pretty basic reasoning all in all.

To getting started you will most likely need just your home PC for the recording part. You might have read all about this already - it will conveniently function not only as the multitrack "recorder", but also as the effects unit, editor and it can do absolutely everything that is labeled as "digital" in the market place for the various gear. If you see a piece of unit that is digital technology, it's not going to be able to do anything that your home PC wouldn't be able to do - and in most cases the PC performs it better, and often also just for the price of the electricity used. A digital unit contains just a (typically rather modest) processor inside it and if your PC already has one that is more likely several times more powerful why get the external box? There are of course aspects of accesibility and physical limits of user interface to be considered, and if one chooses to also gig with the same gear then by all means get the digital hardware unit. It only makes sense in that context - otherwise you've just been most likely lead on.

So find first about whether what you are considering purchasing is analog or digital. This is most likely a concern to you only when buying for example guitar effects boxes or something in that vein, altough it does exceed over to the synthesizer area as well. However real analog synthsizers are out of most people's price range (I just got one recently, ending up costing me several thousand euros, which is an insane amount of money of course by the rest of the society's standards for something that produces merely beeps, glitches and some buzzing). And just for the record, buying a pricier Macintosh instead of PC is not going to make your music sound any better. Neither is a mac going to give you any more processing power than a PC - this can be achieved with designated DSP cards, but it's not really a matter of the main processor architecture. In my own personal opinion the lead of Macintosh in the recording business over PCs ended already in the early part of this decade and God knows why this debate is still going on in some quarters. There are people who will still insist otherwise, but it's up to you what you will choose to side with. The Macintosh in the studio where I worked myself blew up after just one year of use, altough my home PC made up of the cheapest components imaginable has lasted for almost 6 years now (altough I'm keeping my fingers crossed).

Basically what I am saying here is that there really is not that much difference between the operation and the reliability of these two platforms available. Altough I have to say that Linux, being the third option, really isn't the most suitable for pro audio production if you are considering using it yourself. There is currently even no real audio / MIDI -sequenceer available for Linux (Ardour only does audio).

Digital recorders such as the Zoom, Fostex etc. are a waste of money in the case you do not plan to record outside your home (of course they're usable if you have to record a gig, or as in many households, there exists other people who wish to use the computer for their own activities). It would be like buying a second, less powerful PC with dodgier interface next to your other one that is perfectly capable of everything you need due to the sheer processing power of modern desktop and laptop computers. A laptop you can also take on a gig with you, even if it will be less convenient to stomp on than an Electro-Harmonix pedal. Of course, if you feel something is "cool" enough that is always a reason enough to justify its purchase - just don't go overboard with it.


Don't Dismiss the Free Software

It's up to you what you will end up using as tracking software (too many options to list here, altough you can read more about them, just make sure the program supports the VST plug-in architecture), but here are also a few direct links to some free software for your PC that you can already test out if you want to. They will give you some idea and then you can move from there to commercial products when you choose to.

Here is a free recording program that is expandable with the VST plug-in format:

http://www.reaper.fm/

A great number of VST plug-ins (effects, dynamic processing and software synthesizers that you use "inside" the VST host such as Reaper or any ) are found / listed here:

http://www.kvr-audio.com

(For great free synthesizers try: rgcAudio Triangle 2, Daichi Synth1, Superwave P8, e-phonic Invader, ers Iblit, 4Front E-Piano module, Smarelectronix ASynth & Smartelectronix GalactiX. A good free sampler would be something like a Massiva CyberFREE. Altough there are a number of other options as well.)

All of these you can of course play from a MIDI keyboard attached to your computer via a MIDI cable (attachable also directly into your joystick port, so a pricy "MIDI interface" is not always needed at all). The good news is that softsynths are just as good-sounding as any hardware synthesizer module that goes for under 600 euros / dollars in the store, if you ask the opinion of yours truly. The trick is actually to use the additional effects in the right manner. The case just happens to be that the main selling point on digital hardware synthesizers is often that the preset sounds have a lot of impressive echo / modulation effects patched on them that will make people jump into buying the product, even if the synthesizer section of the pact would be rather modest sounding. You can always impress folks with additional effects see, it's the oldest trick in the entertainment business, starting already with the case of ancient Greek theatre. What sells these products to people is most often a simple delay effect, coupled with additional sparkle from the resonance knob on the filter section. There is no reason you couldn't achieve or boost these features afterwards on your computer.

Here's also a few rather good free effects plug-ins just for sports: Anwida DX Reverblight, Glaceverb DX, db-t Tempo Delay, the Kjaerhus classic bundle (this should be your first freeware download, btw), Paris EQ, plus the mda bundles that have been very popular for years, and for a good reason. Weirder plugins are also available by the drones (try for example dfx Destruction pack or Ohm Force Frohmage), but these cover some basic applications to get you started. You can find the links to all the aforementioned programs for downloading them by using the search engine on www.kvr-audio.com (or Google for that matter). KVR has been the most encompassing database on these matters for years, and is usually the first place where many will head first when finding info about plug-ins.

I am myself unfortunately quite out of the loop with drum machines, but you won't find yourself needing a hardware drum machine for anything these days as most others would argue as well (again, the cheap microprocessor with the clumsy user interface argument applies here). A good software application would be, for example, leafdigital leafDrums2(http://www.leafdigital.com/software/leafdrums/). Altough this isn't a plug-in per se, but an old-fashioned standalone program instead. Yet leafDrums is actually far more versatile and sensibly designed as most commercial products. One only has to wonder why so many applications for instance impose limits on the amount of importable samples on this field when there certainly should be more than enough processor speed available these days? LeafDrums for one doesn't have such a nice "feature" programmed into it to "save the hassle" of actually making the user to decide the amount of sounds he wants to use on his productions. In the case of commercial products especially, whenever the program imposes some limits on the user that really do not need to be there it's time to look elsewhere.

Let's also be as honest and direct in regards with the software most people are using - yes, a large bulk of it is illegally downloaded, and it's very easy to acquire such software with filesharing programs. For such things I can't however provide direct links, that is something you would have to found more about yourself (and whether that would even be considered illegal in the country you are living in, chances are it could be perfectly legal as well). A commercial sequencer IS going to be a lot better than a free one, that's for granted, and that is what you will most likely end up using. Personally I use just an old copy of SONAR 2, and do not see any reason why I should uppgrade as it covers all my audio and MIDI tracking needs. Neither do I want to "come up with new needs" just because the times "have moved on". In fact, most tracking / sequencing software reached a good level of sophistication already at the early part of the decade and in many cases the newer products are just rehashes of the same thing with more colourful graphics and some features that should have been built into the original version to begin with (such as Logic notoriously lacking more undo layers than one for almost a decade, until it was finally implemented on the "platinum" version). Yay for capitalism.


Audio Interfaces - So that you can Record Audio in the First Place

One thing you will ABSOLUTELY NEED however is a decent audio interface before trying to do any real-time processing, such as using plug-ins for effects or software synthesizers. You CANNOT expect to record music properly with an integrated soundchip that came with your computer, they are too slow and sound very bad almost without an exception (hiss, no high-end, inexplainably bad preamplifiers, overall non-compliance with other drivers). Some newer Soundblaster models should be already enough for novices who just want to make their first recordings, but for example an M-Audio card (70-250€/$) will do the trick a lot better. There are better brands out there as well, but something in that price range will suffice granted that your motherboard will function properly with the product you've just purchased (so consult the dealer whether there's a return policy on the audio interface in case it just refuses to interact with your PC properly, it's too often the case that they fail to co-operate with the PCs made up of bulk parts - naturally there is no such problem with a Macintosh computer). Personally I would recommend getting something from a well-known manufacturer instead from a smaller when when it comes to audio interfaces so that it is going to more widely compatible and tested out with a larger amount of software and hardware. All of the so-called "semi-pro" cards today are also capable of rather low monitoring latencies, so that you won't hear the annoying delays between pressing a key on your MIDI controller keyboard and getting out of the software synthesizer programmer as you might have had in the past. If you've never experienced this firsthand and do not know what I am talking about, just trust me, you don't want that.

But this would be basically your first step anyway, get something enough powerful you can record the audio with. Early USB cards used to be unfortunately somewhat buggy, gaining a lot of bad rep, altough firewire is always the safer bet in that regard (for example the RME Hammerfall line has been a rather popular firewire choice). Plain PCI should suffice though for most of your needs however - again, additional digital connections are not going to improve the quality of your music to a degree that anyone would be able to really hear it without having something else to compare it to. Also, the computer itself doesn't need more than 256 / 512 of RAM and a rather modest processor (1Ghz+) regardless of what some people will attempt to tell you. I have no idea how the various individuals I've discussed over the years have managed to mess up their setups to the point that makes them voice unsubstantial and rather ridiculous statements such as, "you will need at least 1Gb of RAM to record more than four tracks of audio"(!), but hardware conflicts and not using a proper audio interface are the main culprits to blame most likely. Also take into consideration that a slow video adapater may also introduce pops, clicks and stuttering to recorded audio, altough this is again more of a problem of the past and has been sorted out in today's computers. A more powerful system and OS will always get you more tracks to record however, but if a computer with those specs could easily pull of a 64-track production six years ago, how many more tracks are you going to need to fully materialize your symphonic aspirations?

You don't necessarily need a mixer in your setup these days, like you did in the classic period of audio engineering, but it will help routing the signals more conveniently and being able to control the volume levels without an additional amount of hassle - as one tends to get very tired of that "additional amount of hassle" very quickly. Spending money on a mixer just because it has a huge amount of channels you won't need is the stupidest thing you can do in regards with gear purchases. You'll always have to also consider where in your "bedroom studio" you are going to place all that gear so that it is the most convenient to use. You will run out of desk space sooner than you realize and spending money on rack equipment and the appropriate new furniture to go with it is going to add up to the costs surprisingly much. Also take into account that cables, plugin adapters will quickly become rather expensive as well. It's not unfair to say that even your average homestudio can have 100-300m of cable running around and all across it, and if mere three metres of quality cable can easily cost over 10 euros you can do the math yourself. And no, the jacks do not need to be gold-plated.

Often a clerk in an audio hardware store might ask you mysterious questions like, "do the inputs of your mixer need to be all balanced?". Just answer, "not necessarily". Store clerks often tend to try to confuse the customers in order to appear more tech-savvy themselves by spitting out arbitrary trivial garbage. Personally, I respond to such behaviour by taking my money to some other place.


The Essential Ingredients For Your Pop Masterpiece (the vocals and.. uhm, too much bass)

For recording vocals, what you are going to need is usually a good condenser microphone (expect to pay over 300-400€/$ for a decent condenser) and a preamplifier to go with it as well. A proper preamplifier is just as irreplaceable as the microphone itself, as it will bring out the subtler characteristics your condenser microphone is capable of capturing with its diagram - altough you will have to get into such things as room acoustics as well when laying down vocals (out of the scope of this very text however). Condenser microphones also need additional "phantom power" to operate, and premplifiers can provide this. Mixers also have microphone preamplifiers built into them, but the ones in the budget range (Behringer, Phonic, Alto, Yamaha and so on) do not sound that exceptional for the most part, even if they WILL definitely do the job. Don't buy into all the industry garbade about this or that brand being completely unusable, as even the budget brands have improved their products considerably over the last years and audio snobs basically just always need something to look down onto. Mixers are especially an easy target as - well - they really don't do anything to the sound when used properly according to some common sense, taking care the levels are always recorded at sensible rates. Your vocals are not going to sound "dull and lifeless" because you happen to be using a Behringer mixer with compromised preamps - I'd rather search the fault in the signal chain from the person to whom the lungs and the throat that produce the vocals are attached to.

There was a snide remark once made on the old rec.audio.pro usenet group that instructed the innocent information-seeker to "get a vocal instructor" instead of giving an opinion whether a Rode or an AKG microphone was going to do the job better than the current one he was using. I have personally recorded dozens and dozens of aspiring young groups during my "professional" project studio days and I can safely assure you as well that a good vocalist will sound just as great on a typical Shure SM58 through a mixer preamp as on a tube microphone through a Focusrite unit. Also a small piece of advice for the international reader: if you cannot pronounce English properly, that's the first thing you should consider improving before jumping into getting a class A premplifier to "enhance the characteristics of your voice". Accepting that you just can't pull off a good vocal yourself is usually the hardest part for most one-man-band projects. Get someone else to do the singing if your own voice doesn't please you enough.

Aside from microphones the trap homerecording enthusiasts most frequently fall into is the absence of decent playback equipment, so they just simply don't hear their own recorded music correctly. That's the saddest part of the whole thing: you are inevitably going to need a decent set of playback monitors as well if you desire to have an audience for your recordings that exceed the demoing phase. They won't make the music sound any better for the person to whom you are selling / giving away your music, but you just can't expect to be able to mix on a pair of home stereos, period. You will inevitably find out that it sounds completely, even shockingly, different when playing back on different sound systems outside your own house. The problem is agitated with each additional effects layer or a mastering stage with boosts and cuts that alter the original recorded signal somehow. A mastered pop record sounds relatively good on all soundsystems because it was also monitored with a good set of speakers while mixing and mastering it. Expect to pay at least $350-1000(/€) on monitors. It's also a good idea to get a pair of headphones for an alternative medium to preview the recordings before taking them outside your walls.

Altough I will give that the home stereo system WILL definitely suffice for the learning phase, and I would recommend NOT buying anything fancier before you've become familiar with the other aspects of the recording process (such as operation of software). If you choose to distribute your own music, speakers with a so-called "flat response" are a necessity. Bass levels can be especially troublesome these days as people have gone crazy with bass during the last decade (I think it's telling of something of the condition of the society where we live in actually). This can be a very troublesome aspect for the person who is supposed to take care of the mixing duties - how much sheer insane bass do the speakers at the other end push through their cones? The amounts can vary incredibly much, and make some records that aren't done by proper engineers unplayable on some systems as bass levels tend to grow POTENTIALLY. Some other speakers may have easily end up providing three times more low-end than your own ones when playing back your own tracks, and that's just because you had no idea all that bass could be there as you didn't hear it at home yourself.

This poses a really big problem that somebody should already adress in the record business, yet in a way it is also probably one in-bred tackle to tackle the thread posed by amateur musicians and engineers for the more commercial end of this specific field of life. The only workaround to this is to keep the levels even and consistent throughout the bulk of your recordings. It's definitely boring artistically, but has to be accepted. That is not to say I wouldn't have had also experienced totally lousy bass response on a pair of 1000€ Genelecs running without a proper subwoofer. It's good to keep in mind also that if you invest in a pair of really good-sounding speakers that make the audio bursting out of them sound more pleasant to YOUR ears is not going to sound as good in the compromised sound system your average listener is going to use. So it's a double-edged sword in that respect, and there's some amount of navigation in the darkness to be expected no matter how experienced you have become at your mixing chores.


Guitars and Keyboards

Hardware keyboards are naturally very easy to get recorded, you don't need anything more than the soundcard of your computer and the unit itself. Just plug them in and start playing. The hardest part as known has however always been getting to record the guitars so that they don't come off as godawfully bad-sounding as possible - this is an area where you will have to find somekind of inevitable compromises when recording at home. Traditionally in the studio environment rock guitars are recorded by placing a microphone in front of the amplifier in a 45 degree angle and turning up the volume REALLY LOUD, which cannot be done at home quarters for the various obvious reasons.

Thus we have emulator options for it.

However, I've personally come detest the sound of digitally re-created amplifier tones over the years (such as what you would find on the very popular Line 6 POD guitar recording device, or various others) and a better option would be something genuinely analog like a Hughes & Kettner Tubeman (http://www.hughes-and-kettner.com/products.php?mode=prod&id=11), or a Tech21 Sansamp product with some additional effects (plug-ins work fine for recording, and can be added afterwards). A good basic guideline also for guitars is that you should probably leave the tone creation part of the signal chain for an analog source, whereas you could just as well choose digital for the additional FX . However it's completely up to the aspiring guitarist, many people still choose to go the POD route nevertheless, altough there's a growing number of people who find especially that very unit unacceptable in tone quality (basically the biggest problem is the distortion, which cannot be simulated satisfyingly due to technical reasons and cognitive traits of the human mind, but I cannot go into technicalities here). A POD or a similar digital unit can be fine for i.e. guitar solos, but I've personally found that for rhythm guitar playing it will most likely just start to irk you after some time (I sold mine almost as soon as I got one sometime around 2001 when they had just appeared at the marketplace, and many others did the same). Try a software amplifier emulation before paying any money on a harware unit though, if you insist on following that path.

There is nothing that beats a properly miked-up amplifier though. Maybe a Marshall DRP-1, but I'll leave that to the ones who are ready for the REALLY exotic things.


Analog vs. Digital

In general, even if the emulation marketplace is saturated with products galore, one tends to get bored of the digitally emulated sound very quick. That's why all those old classic analog products of the 60s and the 70s are still considered the most desirable and way ahead the digital world in terms of tone and character. They were created because their creators, like Leo Fender or Bob Moog, wanted to make a good-sounding product they could be proud of, not first and foremost because the company wanted to make a shitloads of money by exploiting people with limited resources and modeling already existing gear by applying a modest EQ response curve and calling it an amplifier or a synth. However, my personal view is that an expensive GUITAR is not a necessity tonewise for recording, as you can alter the recordings afterwards somewhat on your computer, but it will be of course feel nicer to play. But like always, stay away from the absolute cheapest item you can find.

As for the analog / digital debate I can give you that as PURCHASES the analog units will most often retain their value for years to come. A digital synthesizer workstation from the 90s with all the bells and whistles of the time would go today easily for about a hundred to two-hundred euros or dollars used, whereas originally it would have cost several thousand. One can only wonder how long are the latest batch of do-it-all workstations such as the Fantoms and the V-synths considered hip and worth of the thousands people are willing to fork over for them now - a beat-up old analog synth like the Minimoog from the 70s without any trace of the advanced signal processing features still on the other hand go for some two-thousand euros or dollars these days (and you can expect the value to only rise). Analog just often sounds better, because it's not attempting to be something else than what it is.

That doesn't mean there wouldn't be an awful lot of almost religious garbage printed on the sheer greatness of analog gear constantly. Products are often sold with rather vague and meaningless adjectives such as "warm" to describe their "retro character". Sound cannot be properly attributed with a word that bears no real-world connection to the phenomenons it is associated within common use of language. More likely manufacturers and audio enthusiasts tend to come up with such expressions in the lack of better words for a character of tone that never existed really in the first place for anybody to witness. What most people associate with "warmth" is mostly just a lack of high frequency sizzle and some distortion in the lower registers, but as a word it's totally inappropriate to describe anything "genuine" about the sonic character of a something that just produces some clipping and a decreased amount of brilliance in favour of murkiness. Some modern units utilize valves in the design merely for show - one popular unit even featured only a small lamp behind the glass vacuum tube in order to appear like it would be overdriven!

So a good piece of advice to get "that vintage sound" would be to first try shelving some of the highs of an audio track with plain EQ before jumping into the analog bandwagon. If that solution doesn't work out for you, you will most likely have to start searching for those rare soviet tubes from the 50s preserved in an atomic shlter somewhere in order to achive that pristine tone from the times "when everything was better".

Indeed.

Now, psychologists could write an endless amount of studies on the neurotic / hysteric / obsessive search for the ultimate tone so common amidst the hordes of musical gear collectors. You're never going to be perfectly happy with anything, accept that guideline already from the beginning. Musical gear is nothing more than one category of material possession(s), and you will have to seek for your fulfillment in life from other areas of your daily existence. The search is always an on-going one, unfortunately. There are always other alternatives, but those I will leave to people who write the lyrics for emo songs for further discussion.


Finally

In that spirit, the only proper piece of ultimate advice I can give anyone in regards with their gear purchases is a rather vague one, but probably the one I hope you will keep in mind as long as you will be involved in the processes of making music. It's simply, "go with your instinct", just like with the rest of the matters in your life that you've come to value the most. For example, ff it looks like a piece of cheap plastic to you, it is not very likely that the manufacturers of the unit put any real effort into it and are just after your money. Such units will always also lack any resale value when later you'd want to sell them off in the used gear marketplace (guitar multi-FX processors are probably the most common example of something that are sold as all-encompassing units, yet what nobody seems to want on the exchange lists). Personally I tend to shun away completely from products that are described as "emulations" - think of it this way, the original products these modern emulations are based on were not themselves emulations of anything so they could not fail at mimicking being something else than what they are. The emulation category too often falls into just being an approximation of something that they just cannot be due to plain physical reasons. Think of them as printed photographic posters of real paintings, the difference is often way too huge to this day to be acceptable. But it's still essentially the same idea of the same formal characteristic's of the original piece, and that in itself can't be totally worthless either. Sometimes the emulations are even so bad that they will start to have a life of their own outside the intended use. The TB303 bassline generator is a classic example of this, whoever thought that thing was going to replace a real bass player in the band setting must have been out of his mind - yet the invention almost single-handedly created the modern techno genre.

So this does not mean only expensive and better built units are usable (far from it), but rather get something that you WANT for yourself. If you have a bad feeling about something, simply don't get it. Humans have a very developed sense for such things and you should simply trust your impressions - gear is a yet another field for the "work of love" in that sense. Besides, the manufacturers of quality gear today have all adopted certain aesthetic standards to attract a certain branch of potential buyers, so even the plain looks of some unit are a good giveaway of its quality.

And always, READ about everything beforehand. The internet is your best friend - altough it will also shape into your worst enemy as you will sometimes find that with the time invested in the information gathering process could have been used as well to work on the actual music instead. A good user review on some site like Harmony Central is not always worth that much, as people tend to like everything they buy at first. I'd rather glanze at such pieces in order to find more about the FEATURES of the products - and especially what OTHER brands the reviewers are comparing the units to. Also, magazine reviews tend to be even more suspicious and second-to-none in terms of honest opinion - they are often given the gear free for testing purposes and very few feel compelled to write a totally negative review due to that aspect alone. How can you really adapt a neutral mindset in that kind of setting?

Unfortunately the very last thing I can mention about is a very negative one, but you'll have to face with it sooner or later. It's just that most likely RECORDING MUSIC IS NOT GOING TO BE FUN. The fun part is the creation, the songwriting and the playing part, exactly what got you into the whole thing originally. The technical part of it on the other hand can be very stressful at tomes and there's a good reason why artists pay the professionals to do it for themselves. Seen all those names on a Jennifer Lopez / Hil(l)ary Duff / (insert arbitrary pop singer here) -release? Most of those people really have been needed in order to make the record sound like it does, it's not just irrational expenditure. And you should always expect to have a lot of software and harware problems along the way, they WILL cause you inevitable periods of frustration and bad mood swings when all your free time will go on correcting some garbage that malfunctions in your recording setup. Hopefully the good moments will balance it out in the end, but there's an ever-growing number of people who really have just given up because they've realized they can't do it all themselves. It will take years to learn this trade and I am myself still learning as well (this is just something I've chosen to write after having had so many requests on additional info on the basics for such things), altough you will also come to have some good inspiring results very quickly with the possibilities offered by modern technology.

The first demos you have recorded will always give you a nice rush, altough it will get tedious soon when you start learning about how to hone what you've just recorded. The essential part is to remember that you wanted to make music, because you wanted to MAKE MUSIC. Focus on that, personally I lost my interest in that part completely for a rather long period when I went to work in a recording studio some years ago, and forgot all about the FUN part and the opportunity to seek out an alternative to boring daily existence.I had so many difficulties recording my first demos that oneday I noticed I'd already gathered so much information on these matters already that I could just as well start taking money for it and go work in a studio environment.

To put it bluntly: do whatever you really want with your music, as you are recording it at your own home there isn't going to be anyone telling you how it should sound to reach some sort of select audience. If you want to do 70s bouncing funk, do 70s bouncing funk by all means and don't worry about whether you are going to get signed because of the genre choice you've made. However, you ARE going to need at least SOME of the same tools that those musicians were using at that given historical period. With your gear purchases your apartment has probably turnt into an unlivable mess in ten years of time anyway, since it's going to filled with technical gadgets you just "had to have" at one time. But then again, has anybody else come up with a better way to kill some time during your lifetime that otherwise would most likely be just plain dull?

Thank you for your interest.


[...]

[P.S. - The key to getting good, impressive gear with your limited money is also to save on stupid shit that people tend to spend their money on otherwise without too much consideration (namely alcohol, taxi rides and so on - in other words, expect to skimp on the lifestyle other people who do not have home recording aspirations are perfectly free to follow)].
[Edited 8/12/07 3:08am]

BOW DOWN AND RESPECT THE NOVABREAKER

Thanks so much for the time and effort put in to produce this for us novices. Very Much appreciated

I'm just lazy, it's easier to write something like that once and for all than writing a tailored answer for each person asking basically the same things with different wordings. Those are just opinions though, especially the pc vs. mac issue is where people are divided. That's just my stand, and I didn't call them bad computers or anything. Being just a cheap-ass myself, I'm myself most concerned about not directly influencing people to buy products that cost considerably more than some other options.

However, people are naturally free to spend their money on absolutely whatever they want to. I hate the "brand libelling" thing that is very common on some audio gear forums (i.e. the "Behringer sucks -phenomenon"), especially as people seem to have no firsthand experiences with the units they are putting down. Trying to make people feel quilty over their purchases is pretty low, in my opinion.

I guess I should have titled this one something else though.

novabrkr said:

well its appreciated. And it gives me a point at which to begin. As u say, its about exploring things and finding what works for you (without getting ripped off in the process). Nice one.

Thanks, that is a whole lot of useful information! Will definately start looking into some of this stuff...

Having written all of that, 50% of my own demos / homerecorded releases sound like crap.

Oh well, at least I think I've tried to do a decent job with other people's records that I've messed with.

"Uhm Jari..."
"... yeah?"
"TOO MUCH BASS"
"uh, sorry".
[Edited 8/20/07 10:05am]

thats a very good article novabrkr.

one thing i would add is that if anyone ever records anything with any gear bought and decides it may/could/will be used in the final product, then have a good backup system in place. (copy to seperate hard drive, copy analog to pc, copy to minidisc/ipod/tape etc)

i lost a couple of hard drives with a lot of stuff on, that i cant even think of replicating again - i spent so much time on them. (one song in particular gets me very depressed!). please do this, i know it takes time and may spoil what you got into music for but if you value your music, you will.

finding a decent mic is almost impossible...

especially when your a dynamic singer, But the preamp/interface does do wonders,
You can have a shitty interface and your vocals will sound horrendous,
but if you have a semi high end interface it'll sound decent.
I recently got a Motu and cleared everything up, after that im getting an AKG
and its a wrap for now until i can afford a Neumann, which will be never...