Introduction

Every week someone asks us for advice on buying audio and music recording equipment. Most of you appear to want to carry out similar creative and technical tasks. Because recording live bands requires multiple mics, pre-amps, a foldback system and of course a large acoustically controlled space, such recording sessions are normally carried out at large or medium sized commercial facilities.

Therefore, we'll base our recommendations on the equipment required for typical "project" studio. We've specified equipment that is capable of producing professional standard result (in the right hands, of course). We'll specify minimum equipment requirements and some extras which are useful if you can afford them.

The room

Before we get onto the equipment you will need to consider your recording environment.

Control and live?

Here are a few questions you need to ask yourself ...

• Will you need a separate live recording area (perhaps just a small booth) or will you do your mic recording in the same room as the equipment, using headphones to monitor on?
• Is the room you intend use on a busy road?, in which case double glazing will be necessary.
• Do you have neighbours above and/or below? Sound isolation between floors is usually poorer than between buildings.
• Can you connect the electricity supply for the room onto its own independent mains ring away from noise inducing devices with thermostats, such as fridges and boilers?
• Can your arrange your monitors so that they are firing down the length rather than narrow width of your room? You'll have less problem with standing waves if you can.

Furniture

• Have you considered the importance of a good supportive and comfortable chair or two and furniture that will allow you to arrange your equipment for best sound quality and ease of use?
• Can your monitors be positioned 1.5 to 2m apart in the near field with the tweeters at ear height?
• Can the top of your computer screen be at eye level?

DAW

As the center of most recording activities, we need to specify a computer system separately. Computer recording and sequencing systems are commonly referred to as DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations), and combine a number of elements together to produce an integrated system.

Component	Minimum specification
Power supply & fan	The quietest models you can afford. You need to keep the noise down
Internal hard drive	72,000rpm. 500Gb+. eSata or IDE connection
External backup drive	72,000rpm. 500Gb+. USB 2 preferably FireWire (800)
DVD-R / CD-R drive	-
CPU	Fastest most powerful you can afford
RAM	4Gb
Connectivity	4 USB (preferably USB 2). 4 FireWire. Ethernet (preferably wired)
Graphics card	Anything that can support at least a 24" monitor
Monitor	20" but 23-4" is better (obviously!)
OS	Mac OSX or Windows XP. Check Vista driver compatibility first with any audio interface and controller keyboard you plan to buy.
Mouse	A really good ergonomic and comfortable optical mouse to suit you
Cable modem or similar broadband connection	4Mbps preferably 8-10Mbps
Disk repair / de fragmentation application	-
Red book audio CD creation application	Roxio Jam, Waveburner, Steinberg Wavelab, Sony CD Architect/Sound Forge, Bias Peak are all good options.
DVD / CD data burning application.	Nero, Easy CD creator, Toast are all good options.
Audio sequencer application	Logic Pro, Cubase, Sonar, Performer, Alberton Live are all good options.
Additional instrument and effect plug-ins	Optional and up to you. If you have Logic Pro you can get along fine without the bundled set
Audio interface	USB 2 (preferably FireWire) connection to the computer and needs to include ... Compatible driver for your OS XLR mic in with phantom power (preferably 2 for stereo recording) and gain control 2 x 1/4" jack line ins Instrument (guitar) in Direct stereo (no latency) monitor out on 1/4" jacks or phonos with volume control Headphone output with separate volume control S/PDIF or Toslink digital in/out MIDI in/out
Controller keyboard	4-5 octave with MIDI or USB connection

 

Monitoring (speakers)

Professional monitors are desirable in professional studios for their wide and flat frequency response, wide dynamic range and durability. Project studios can get away with a good quality amp and pair of hi-fi speakers. Not too cheap and not too expensive will do. Just remember you will need to listen to a lot of music (CDs) on them to get to know them and you will need to test your mixes on as many alternative systems (iPods, car stereos, radios, friends systems, club PAs) as possible.

Headphones

You will need a good pair of closed back headphones for singers and musicians to wear when recording vocals and acoustic instruments. Good headphones are not a suitable substitute for monitor speakers for mixing although they are useful for checking panning, reverberation and the mobile (iPod) experience. We don't recommend Beyer DT100'a which are built for durability and not sound quality.

Room acoustics

Be aware that the geometry and surfaces of a space can have a big detrimental impact on your capacity to monitor accurately. Lots of soft furnishings will help, and cheap duvets hung on walls are a good alternative to professional acoustic treatments. You may find our article on reverberation useful. Or search elsewhere on the web for acoustic treatment advice.

Instruments

We have no recommendations here, except to say that recording "real" instruments will significantly enhance your recordings, bringing frequencies and timbres that can make your mixes sound, well ... more 3D! We love guitars and percussion. Even shakers and tambourines can bring a track to life.

Interconnection

Don't underestimate the cost of all the cabling you will need. Buying a soldering iron and components and learning how to create audio cables is a useful and cost effective skill. You will be able to make cables of equivalent quality to ones available in the shops but at a quarter of the cost.

You should also consider buying an 8 or 6 way fused and surge protected distribution board for your power needs. If necessary connect multiple boards in a "family tree" arrangement. Don't daisy chain them. You can look your equipment manuals for the wattage requirements. If you add them all together you should find that the total power requirements are less than a fridge or similar appliance.

If at all possible connect your studio gear to a separate mains ring from appliances with thermostats such as fridges, washing machines, boilers and heaters.

Cables you will need ...

• Mains (kettle)
• USB and/or FireWire
• 1/4" jack unbalanced (for guitars)
• 1/4" jack balanced for audio interface line inputs
• Phono to jack leads and/or adaptors
• XLR (canon) mic
• Headphone extension
• Monitor extension cable (in case you need to site your computer away from your monitoring position because of noise)
• Good quality speaker cable (but none of that esoteric hi-fi nonsense)

Equipment required for typical project studio processes

Here are our recommendations.

Process	Minimum equipment required	Recommended
Program / sequence drum parts	DAW, soft sampler plug-in with library	Some kind of drum pads and sticks like the Alesis Control Pad
Record an electric bass guitar and an electric guitar	DAW, DI box, mic cable, jack lead	Dynamic mic (Shure SM57) and mic stand for your amp/cabinet or combo
Record percussion instruments	DAW, small diaphragm condenser mic such as those made by SE Electronic or Rode, mic cable, mic stand	Stereo pair
Record acoustic instruments	DAW, small diaphragm condenser mic such as those made by SE Electronic or Rode, mic cable, mic stand	Stereo pair
Record and edit MIDI keyboard, synth and sample instruments	DAW	Control surface
Record vocals	DAW, closed back headphones, large condenser microphone (too many models to mention), suspension mount, pop shield, boom mic stand	Compressor on mic input (voice channel), music stand, SE Refexion filter
Mix with effects and dynamic processors	DAW
Create a Red Book audio CD	DAW, Red Book mastering software with mastering plug-ins (multi-band compressor, mastering EQ etc)
Create CD artwork	Photoshop and/or CMYK capable DTP program	Digital camera (4megapixels+) with a good (big) lens
Produce CD inlays	Photo quality inkjet printer, scalpel, metal ruler
Create MP3 files	DAW or iTunes (which has an excellent built-in conversion algorithm)
Upload MP3 files to a MySpace site	Safari, Firefox etc

 

This is just the beginning!

You do know that if you start down this path there will be no end to the upgrading and improving, don't you? Your partner will leave you, anyone you know who isn't involved in recording or music will get the elbow. You'll be happy as Larry when a track is going well and unbearable when it's all going badly.

Oh, and you'll spend 10 times as much on your studio as you every make out of it. Or is that just me?

Good luck!

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