Published on June 23rd, 2009.
Author: Gary.Rebholz
Category: Audio Articles, Recording.

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Has this ever happened to you?

You get excited about setting up a home studio. You start doing some research so you can make wise decisions when it comes time to buy the gear you need. You immerse yourself in the industry trades, major audio recording websites, recording forums, and the blogs of “professional” audio engineers in an attempt to find out what gear you need. Soon afterward, you give up your dream of ever being able to create high-quality recordings in your own studio because everything you read says you need a lot of expensive gear that adds up to way more money than you have in your budget.

NOTE: This is the ‘Introduction’ part of a series of articles we’ll be covering on the Home Studio & Budget topic, so stay tuned UPDATE: Link here for part two.

Of course it’s happened to you.

The better question is probably, “how many times has this happened to you?” It happens to every one of us who’s ever tried setting up a functional studio in our bedrooms, basements, garages, or wherever. When the experts define the “cheap” home studio solution as one with a price tag of $15,000 to $25,000, they instantly close the door on an awful lot of us! But I’m happy to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way. As the title says, you don’t have to be rich to have a great home studio.

Let’s face the facts though; you are going to have to spend money to get your operation up and running. That’s the tough reality. But the good news is that there are lots of creative solutions that can help you keep the cost down to something that hopefully you can manage even on a tight budget.

Another reality: the less you have available to spend on gear, the less likely you are to record and produce something that sounds like it was recorded in a pro studio by expensive engineers and producers. But that doesn’t have to stop you from creating really great-sounding recordings that you can use for everything from high-quality demos, to CDs that you sell from the stage, to MP3s that you can post to your website for sale and download.

It’s all a matter of keeping an open mind and looking for tools that can help you get the job done at a price you can afford. You’re already on the right track as a reader of the articles and reviews that you find here at traxmusic.org. You can learn a whole lot here about quality software and equipment that can help you get the job done and still keep the price tag down.

Another important aspect is the ability to set aside your preconceived notions about what a home studio has to look like. Shelve all the purist roadblocks that might keep you from utilizing techniques and equipment that, while perhaps not the “real thing”, get the job done with excellent results. A most obvious example is recording your electric guitars through an amp simulator instead of trying to figure out how you can record that screaming guitar sound through your real amp without making your neighbors homicidal.

I’m constantly surprised at how many musicians let completely self-imposed and unrealistic requirements stop them dead in their tracks. They say they want a home studio worse than anything they can think of. Yet in reality, they don’t want it badly enough to accept the fact that they can’t use all the same gear and techniques a pro studio would use and thus they need to get creative. If you can’t afford to control the reflections in your room with thousands of dollars worth of pro-grade sound proofing and absorption materials, then you have to be willing to make do with whatever materials you can afford.

But, I hear it all the time:

“Hey man, I’m not going to compromise my work by accepting workarounds like amp simulators and carpet pads instead of using the real thing!” Well that really depends upon how you look at it, doesn’t it? Sure; who wouldn’t use the best if they could afford it? But you probably can’t or you wouldn’t be reading this article! If you let that fact stop you from recording in your home studio completely, well haven’t you made an even more egregious compromise?

No; you don’t have to be rich to have a great home studio. What it really requires is an open mind, some creative thinking, and hard work. Good luck with your quest to make really high-quality recordings in your own project studio!

– Gary Rebholz

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