***The Official Home Recording Studio Thread***

[easyrider]

I'm in the process of Building a Home studio...This time Semi-Properly. The space has been used for a Home theatre in the past but I can't justify having two Home cinema's and my gear needs a permanent home setup ready and all plugged in ready to go.

(Iv'e even bought some "Persian" rugs)

I have guitars drums and amps and stuff stored up and its a shame not to have a space where I can go and flick a switch and play and record stuff.

I still play guitar everyday but I want a space dedicated to it...And I want to get back into using protools etc...

I know there is a dedicated Gear thread..But I wanted to start a more specialised thread to share ideas etc...discuss your recording setups and post any questions I may have...

I'll post some pics tonight of where I am currently with the project. But feel free to post your Home recording setup's as any advice and ideas will be greatly appreciated.

 

[easyrider]

Workstation




Listening sofa



Another Bass Trap



lamp




Acoustic Panel



More acoustic Panel



And more acoustic panel




Bass Trap


Bass Traps installed.



New Heads and Moongel



Shure Beta 52A



Bit of a rack



Acoustic Panels made by me





Shure SM 57

 

[easyrider]

SM57 on snare



Needs more acoustic treatment but the room is now sounding sweet.



Pro Tools



Lavav Lamp



Adam A5X monitors...Simply amazing.



Roland F130R

 

[easyrider]

I'll post a picture of my set up at the weekend when I'm in front of it. I have no acoustic treatment because it's all currently in my Dad's house which I'm sorely missing but below is my set up.

2013 15 rMBP
Apollo Twin Duo
JBL LSR305 monitors
AKG Q701 along with various other cheaper headphones
Blackstar HT-1R
Blackstar HT-dist pedal
Some behringer pedal.
Sansamp
AKG Solid tube condenser
sm57
sm7b
Fethead

I use protools currently (12.2 vanilla) with more plugins than I can remember, haha.

I don't have the facility to record drums unfortunately so I mostly use Superior drummer for drums.

Below is the last thing I recorded a while back. This was before I got the blackstar combo so the guitars are sims, I'm hoping they'll sound a lot better with the cab.

https://soundcloud.com/projectmay

Look forward to some pics mate

 

[easyrider]

You're a bit late -

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18382253&highlight=studio+startername_dimple

Not really what this thread is about....Its not a Dimple advert thread...

Its a place for posting Home studio recording setups etc...with pics

 

[easyrider]

So was that but only 5 people were interested.
Hopefully you may get more.

Things have moved on since 2012

 

[easyrider]

I'll take some pictures tonight..But its work in progress

Building a studio is tricky...Much more tricky than a Home Cinema !

 

[easyrider]

I don't really have a home studio as such, it's kinda what I do for a living. I've built two fairly high end studios for my employers which I get to use when I want.

Happy to offer any advice if anyone wants any.

Great post some pics etc...I'm sure I'll be bending your ear mate

 

[easyrider]

Spoiler

Hardly a home studio, and I know the monitor placement is terrible, but it's the best I can do in the tiny space I have in the back room. The view immediately behind me would show my electric bass, upright bass, electric upright bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and not forgetting the obligatory uke of course, there's not much room in there!

I got some isolation pads under the monitors since this pic was taken, that made a bit of a difference. Next I think I'm going to have to get some treatment on the wall behind them, but not sure a) where to start and b) if my wife will appreciate it!

That's the ticket..Its a Music creation space and it rocks mate

 

[easyrider]

Thanks mate, it does me alright, and as you say it's my own little creative space.

what monitors are those?

I need to get some...Torn between the krk rokit 6 and the presonus eris 5

 

[easyrider]

Ha-Ha! In that case I'll have to post a pic of mine too, which exists at one end of our living room... no, I don't even have a room of my own although we are hoping to move next year, so that is going to change.

It's all pretty basic and inexpensive stuff, but, I run Reaper on a Laptop as my recording device, connected to an Edirol/Roland USB interface. I record mostly acoustic instruments (flutes, whistles, cello, violin, guitar and all sorts of other stuff I collect) but also have a Novation synth and and E-MU Shortboard. I've a StudioProjects B1 large condenser and a matched pair of Sontronics STC-1S as my mics. I would never call myself a musician, but I get what I want, which is a sort of acoustic, ambient stuff that goes with my visual work, of painting, photography and film. I do love the process of recording and messing with sounds via a wealth of plug-ins and external apps, which is great fun.

Anyway I'll sit here feeling green at you guys nice setups.. Lowe that is just not fair

Good luck with your build easyrider

Thanks mate look forward to some pics of your setup

 

[easyrider]

Nice mate....it's got mojo

 

[easyrider]

I know you've posted those pics before Lowe and said where it is but which Uni is it again?

On a mic'ing up point I went to watch a band the other week at a local pub called The Jokers and their drum sound was to die for.
I then noticed one of my ex drummers floating around and messing with their mixer so at the end I commented on the amazing drum sound.
He said "Check out all the mic's on each drum", I said "Oh, I can't see any!" and he informed me that the one condenser over the drum kit was doing all the work.
I know the theory behind it because Stuart Copeland of the Police worked that way in the studio, just two condensers over the top and if all the drums are tuned perfectly then the mic's pick up a perfect sound instead of each drum being mic'd and you make the sound on the mixer..
Forward to this weekend and he was there at our gig setting up his magic condenser and to be honest the drums sounded awesome and during the first set I was able to get out front and they sounded really good.
At the end I said I was impressed, setting up would be way easier so how much?
Only £1000

What mic ? I'm in the process of sorting my drums mic wise...

I want simple

Thinking sm57 on snare another on Tom and two overheads

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb14/articles/rode-m5.htm


And Shure Beta 52a on the bass drum

 

[easyrider]

Dimple - University of Wolverhampton

There's a lot to be said for the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method of sound engineering, and I'm a huge fan of it for live work. A single (or pair) of overheads along with a kick drum mic to add depth can be more than enough. You do have to be a little careful with positioning since you can run into feedback problems, but it will give you a far more 'natural' sound than individual mics.

The AEA R88mk2 mic in the pics above is incredible for doing that. Not so good for live use though really, bit delicate for such jobs.

http://www.wesdooley.com/microphone/legacy-series/r88-mk2

It's $1795

 

[easyrider]

Pics incoming of my progress so far...Absolutely no acoustic treatment!

Simplish setup for drums that works pretty well:

Audix D6 on kick.
SM57 x2 on snare (top and bottom)
MD 421 x3 on toms (though 57's can be used if money's starting to get tight)
Sontronics STC-10's x3 for cymbals and hats.

That gives you a pretty good 'close' mic sound. But, it lacks depth - as pretty much any close mic recording does with drums. Ideally you need a room mic as well. There's a great technique that Clint Murphy shared not that long ago that requires a pair of AKG 414's (or similar condensers) that have an omni pattern. You place them a couple of meters or so away from the kit as a spaced pair, but have them pointing at the floor and the ceiling rather than the kit. Ideally you'll have a nice wooden floor and high ceiling for this. You then take the recording of the kit, stick it through an 1176 and smash the living whatsits out of it - super high ratio. Add a little bit of low end EQ, and then blend that fairly quietly underneath your close mics. The result is a much more natural sounding kit, that's also grown a pair.

There's a video showing my recreation of it here:

http://www.recordproduction.com/rec...ding-wolverhampton-university-andrew-lowe.htm

We don't have a wooden room, so we put plexiglass underneath the mics to help the sound bounce around a little bit. The audio on the video is purely the 414's, not the sound mixed together, so yes it's a little bit on the boomy side. The idea was to show how you can be inventive to get around having a less than ideal room rather than the final result in this case. Some other guys recreated it and took the door of the frame and put that under the mics!

Cheers for the info...Ive got quite a low ceiling but I do have 2 x PZM's I might have a play with...Mic the snare bass and tom up close then use the two PZM's as "room mics"...The fun is is the experimenting when I get it all setup.




Drum Corner



Lava Lamp (got my priorities right)



Fender Blues Deluxe



Fender Champ XD



Drums again



New Piano still to move it in.

 

[easyrider]

But, you have rugs man, and Persian ones too, so you're already going in the right direction
.

 

[easyrider]

I have been looking at the Rode M5

http://www.rode.com/microphones/m5

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb14/articles/rode-m5.htm

They seem a good buy at 129 for a pair...I have been looking at these for cheapish Overheads...and they come with a 10yr warranty...

As I say I'm still sourcing Mics so the cheaper the better but I don't want to buy Tat..But want decent sound quality. With the look to maybe upgrade down the line.

The would be useful for recording my acoustic in stereo aswell....(seem a bargain for the price?)

http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and...CjwKEAjw1f6vBRC7tLqO_aih5WISJAAE0CYwNDDverVe7***bu8W8c_BIb8B2bEcxwOYYkzp15V5xxoCsVvw_wcB

 

[easyrider]

Rode make some decent mics for the money. Can't comment on those specifically, but would imagine whilst they'd be ok for OH duties, I doubt they'd give much warmth and richness with an acoustic guitar.

I'd probably look to save up some more and get something a bit bigger to be honest. One of the things I've come to realise over the years is that the most important parts of the recording chain are the start and the finish; i.e. the instrument and the mic at the start and the monitors at the end. Everything else is helpful, but not entirely essential to getting a good recording. Don't get me wrong, a nice preamp console and ADC/DAC is great, but it's not where you should be putting your money to start with imho.

I have a Rode NT1 so I could use that for acoustic Guitar recording.

So for around 200 what would you suggest for some Drum Overheads mate ?

 

[easyrider]

The high ceiling open room trick is of course Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks" which was recorded at the bottom of a wooden stairwell at the Headley Grange with the spacious thumping effect coming from the acoustic properties of the room captured with two Beyerdynamic M160 microphones in stereo hanged at the top of the stairwell on the second floor. It is by far the most sampled and reused drum sound in history, used by anyone from Beastie Boys, through Enigma and Bjork to all digitally mimicked drum sound in some of Joe Bonamassa recordings and live peformances ("Albion" live, "Black Lung Heartache" studio version - very old-England-folk Zeppelin track on its own)

For context

 

[easyrider]

As said - have a look at the Sontronics STC's. The STC-1 and 10 are broadly similar, but the 1 has switchable capsules.

http://www.sontronics.com/stc1.htm

They're 100 quid each, or the STC-10 is about 85 quid. Lifetime guarantee as well which isn't to be sniffed at. These wouldn't be too bad for recording other stuff too - and would combined with the Rode could make an interesting Mid/Side combo on acoustic guitar

Cheers...I like the look of them and being UK designed is kinda funky