Home rec basics
Introduction
This is guide to buying recording equipment and its basic principles. This is just an intro - there are links to sites that will give you additional advice, including equipment reviews, at the end.
Read on for:
Buying new equipment
Buying from overseas
Buying second-hand
Signal chain
Levels
MIDI basics
"Keep it to a minimum. When you get studio gear, you wanna buy the latest model of this, the latest version of that and you get a lot of stuff you don't need."
Wookie
Buying New Equipment
It's a buyer's market so if you shop around you can always find someone who'll give you a discount.
You'll often find that you save more money if you buy a package of two or three items at the same time or if a product is about to be discontinued.
If you're buying discontinued gear though, make sure it's not going to cause compatibility problems for you later on down the line.
If you can, try and check things out mid-week when the shop will be quieter and someone who knows what they're talking about can give you some time and answer any questions you may have.
If you're buying a mic, take along a singer or a rapper to try it out in the store and if it's monitor speakers you're purchasing, walk with a commercial CD you know well to use as a reference guide.
Most shops will do mail order so you're not just limited to shops from the ends.
Make sure you give an address where the goods can be left if you're not there - even unemployed brethrens come in handy sometimes!
Many shops offer a home trial period so you can exchange the item for something else if it turns out not to be right for you.
This is a good way to try out equipment.
Hooking the gear up to your set and working with it will give you a much better idea of whether it's right for your set up than a quick demo in a shop will, although it's ultimately more hassle if you do decide you don't want it.
"Speak to the sales assistants in the stores. They generally give good advice."
Jaimeson
Producer
Buying from Overseas
Buying abroad is often cheaper than the UK but you'll have to wait for the gear to be shipped to you and if you have to send it back for repair or return it's long.
You could be without it for quite some time while it's fixed and shipped back.
Also phone calls to chase your gear could be more expensive.
Although it can be a good bet, if you're buying from the U.S, keep in mind that you'll have to add international shipping and import tax to the basic price.
Also, remember that the US uses a different mains voltage to the UK .
Some items will work fine but don't assume this. Make sure you check carefully with the manufacturer BEFORE you plug anything in.
In some cases, changing the voltage over can just be a matter of flipping a switch on the back of the machine.
Other equipment will require a whole new power supply and that will add to the cost so check with the manufacturer before you order.
Buying Second-hand
Music shops often sell off things that they've got in part-exchange for new gear quite cheaply but they'll still want to add a fair amount of cash to cover their overheads.
It might be worth paying the extra money just to know that if the gear doesn't work, you can take it back.
You have a legal right to do this, unless the shop points out the fault to you before you buy.
There are loads of places to buy from individuals. The small ads of most music mags are filled with secondhand gear.
Many of them offer free ad space for readers to sell their old equipment, so there's always loads to choose from.
Then there are free ad papers like Loot and online auction sites like e-bay.
As a rule, things with moving parts are not as good a buy as equipment like computers and even electronic components have a limited life so any gear more than about 7 years old is probably best left alone.
Most owners will clean their gear before selling it and this may or may not be to hide heavy usage so if you're unsure try looking at the parts of the equipment that are hard to get to.
Check all switches and knobs for crackle and other signs of wear.
If there's a manual, the condition it's in can be a giveaway. You can polish up a metal panel but once a manual is well-thumbed, there's not much you can do to make it look better.
Some items like DAT machines can store the amount of usage they've had for maintenance purposes.
You can usually check the figures by holding down combinations of the front panel buttons so check the manufacturer's website before you go along to buy.
"Buy cheaply. Second hand stores have lots of bargains. Check free ad papers like Loot for price comparisons or music equipment magazines for price listings for secondhand goods."
Jaimeson
Producer
Signal Chain
The most important aspect to recording great vocals is the signal chain.
This means the room (vocal booth), the mic, cables, signal processor and the recorder (probably your PC's hard disk).
Try and spread your budget across the chain as it doesn't make sense having cheap components alongside quality ones.
Remember, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and when it comes to recording vocals this couldn't be more true.
Levels
Before recording any audio the first thing to do is to get a level.
Initially this will only take a couple of minutes but it will require some further adjustment.
This is because singers, rappers and any kind of vocalist will usually give a bit more when you tell them you're recording, rather than just getting a level.
Always record from the moment they walk into the booth but don't tell them, because their warm up is often the best take before they start to feel 'red light' pressure.
There are two types of signals. 'Line level' is a standard level for electronic instruments: things like drum machines, synth modules or the line outputs from guitar amps that you plug straight into the mixer or recorder without needing a microphone.
Line level signals are generally pretty easy to set up because you control the levels from the instrument's front panel buttons.
Microphone levels require more work.
The same mic will give more or less signal level depending on the type of instrument it's placed next to and two different types of microphone placed near the same instrument may give different levels too.
To compensate for this, microphones are put through a device called a mic pre-amp or signal processor.
This is designed to cope with all of these variables and can bring all the different signals up to a similar level.
Unless you buy a dedicated mic pre-amp or signal processor you'll be using those built into your mixer, recorder or computer sound card.
"The best way to get quality vocals is to use a vocal booth and a great mic but if you can't have both aim for a decent mic and stand."
Jaimeson
Producer
MIDI Basics
O.K quick history lesson - get a strong coffee so you don't fall asleep.
When synthesisers were first invented they were unable to communicate with any other piece of studio gear.
Although they were a real advancement, you had to play them in 'live' because they were not able to be sequenced and the more synth sounds you required the more synths you needed.
A common language was needed and in the same way that the internet linked up the worlds computers, MIDI is the language that has linked up all the parts of the studio.
The introduction of MIDI created a lot of advantages.
It meant you could use the keys of one synth to control the sounds of another.
That meant you could have a big rack of keyboards but only one of them needed to be in the ideal playing position - the rest you could put wherever you liked and control them remotely using MIDI .
That's why most studios have one keyboard - sometimes called a MIDI controller.
You can buy sound generating modules without keyboards - usually known as synth modules - and control them all from one master keyboard.
This made sound modules a lot smaller and also cheaper because they didn't need loads of keys.
You can record MIDI into a device called a sequencer.
It will register every key press and release, together with how hard you pressed the key and can also record any changes in the sound that you make as you play, like pitch bend and modulation.
The sequencer records the MIDI information that a synth module needs to re-create the performance.
This means you can record a solo using a piano sound and then try playing it back using different sounds to fit the feel of the track.
You can also edit the performance in a way that's not easy or almost impossible to do if you tried to play it in 'live'.
Bad notes can be corrected and you can use a process called quantising which can arrange every note to an exact time.
Notes, phrases and whole choruses can also be repeated. We look into sequencers in 'How to... Home recording equipment'.
"I started off writing songs and playing keyboards. I'd play guitar and percussion and learnt instruments like that."
Adam F
More... from How to...
Home recording equipment
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/1xmusic/recording/homeequipp01.shtml
Buy music software
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/1xmusic/recording/softwarep01.shtml
Choose tracks for a demo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/1xmusic/recording/whatrecordp01.shtml
Press CDs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/1xmusic/distribution/cdsp01.shtml
More... from elsewhere
Magazine: Sound on Sound
Advice for studio owners, equipment reviews and articles on the industry in general. Very friendly forum and gear review archive on their website
http://www.sospubs.co.uk
Magazine: Future Music
As Sound on Sound but more dance orientated
http://www.futuremusic.co.uk
Magazine: Pro Sound
Professional trade publication
http://www.prosoundeurope.com
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites
(c) BBC 1Xtra 1XMusic 2006
