Home recording, producing music at home?

In this section we will briefly explain everything about Home recording. In other words, the art of recording at home. Why would you do it? What do you need? And what exactly is it? All questions that will be answered below.
It is very nice to see more and more home studios emerge. Musicians who play one or more instruments are increasingly experimenting with their own studio. One takes this slowly and keeps it small. The other builds up a professional studio over time. Everything is possible and everything is possible. And the nice thing is that with the right software and a good set of ears you can go a long way.

Why would you record at home?

Recording at home is not only a lot of fun, but also very functional. For example, you can record at home when you are rehearsing. This way you can immediately listen to your own practice. The advantage is that you will always hear more than while playing itself. You will see faster progression in your own game. In addition, you can record at home to forward ideas to your fellow band members. You can invent and record parties. This way the band knows exactly what you mean before the rehearsal. A step further is the recording of demo recordings. These are recordings at the initial stage of the final release masters (final product on cd / spotify / youtube / etc). With a demo recording, the producer gets a better idea of ​​how the end product should be. Then you have the musicians who make the release masters from start to finish in their home studio. Then you create your own end product from an empty project.

What do you need to build your own home studio?

You need several things to build your own home studio. This all starts with a good computer. Make sure your computer has enough RAM. This ensures that your computer does not freeze during recording or mixdown. The software you use makes intensive use of your working memory. So don't be fooled by this. Then you need software. This software is often referred to as your DAW among producers. Your “Digital Audio Workstation”. This software replaces the old tape and track recorders of the past. You can record all your individual instruments here. Subsequently, this is also your digital mixing console / mixing table. You can also mix / edit your songs in this software.

Essential equipment

If you have these two things, you should have another device that allows you to plug the instruments or microphones into your computer. We call the device you need for this an “audio interface”. This is a box that turns an audio signal into a digital signal. It transforms your analog sound to your digital workstation. You can only record acoustic instruments such as a piano or a drum kit with microphones. If you want this, you need extra microphones to record on these instruments. You connect the microphones to the audio interface. Now of course there are hundreds of different microphones and even more different placement techniques for the microphones. If you want to start producing, it is important that you have at least 1 good microphone. preferably a condenser microphone with a large diaphragm. I'll spare you what this is. It is a good, versatile option for all-round starting work.

One last tip!

What is always nice to know is a tip from the greatest producers in the world. The summary is: “you produce with your ears”. You don't need the best stuff. You have to be able to continuously achieve the best with the least things. Only then are you ready for new stuff.