![\"home-rec-gear-feature\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/home-rec-gear-feature1.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nOver the past few decades, the home studio has gone from a novelty to an extravagance to a staple of modern recording. Today nearly anyone can capture pro-studio results without ever leaving their home. In fact, much of the music we hear every day began in repurposed basements or spare bedrooms.<\/p>\n
But with new production gear hitting the streets daily, outfitting a recording studio can become a confusing\u2014and pricey\u2014affair in a hurry. Investing in the wrong studio monitors or microphones can quickly eat up any home studio budget. Questions abound: Where do you begin? What gear do you need? What gear do you not need? What are the home recording essentials?<\/p>\n
We posed these questions and more to expert C.J. Vanston, a veteran producer, songwriter, keyboardist and engineer who\u2019s toiled countless hours in his own personal studio\u2014and has worked with such artists as Prince, Bob Seger, Joe Cocker, Steve Lukather and Def Leppard. Plus, his film soundtrack and composing credits include This Is Spinal Tap<\/i>, A Mighty Wind<\/i>, Best in Show<\/i> and Sweet Home Alabama<\/i>.<\/p>\n
How did you start recording?
\n<\/b>I\u2019d been in cover bands as a keyboard player back in Michigan, and I got hold of a TEAC four-track Portastudio that I\u2019d bring onstage. I was so fascinated by this multitrack format and the ability to overdub parts. I watched this technology develop from reel-to-reel and cassette into what it is now.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your studio like?
\n<\/b>I have a studio that\u2019s separate from my home now. It\u2019s 2,000 square feet, but it\u2019s still a personal studio. We mostly record in the control room. It\u2019s a small but well-designed acoustic space, which is still very rare for personal studios. A lot of guys just get an office, set their stuff up in there, and expect to get pro results. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any real line between a pro studio and a home studio. It\u2019s really about the guy running it.<\/p>\n
Why build a home studio?
\n<\/b>A home studio lets you make lots of mistakes and not have to write a big check for it. I\u2019ve seen it\u2014a new artist comes to town and wants to get all these great players together and take it to Capitol Studios with a video guy to tape the whole thing. At the end of the day, they\u2019re dropping $15,000 for the day. And no matter what, it\u2019s a crapshoot\u2014you have to take what you get. Yet you can use that same money and put together a home studio that lets you make mistakes, and if something doesn\u2019t turn out, you can change the groove or rewrite the chorus. If you\u2019re not making mistakes, checking out options and turning down ideas, then you\u2019re not trying hard enough.<\/p>\n
What can one accomplish at home?
\n<\/b>You can get a lot done in a home studio. For instance, I work with Christopher Guest of Spinal Tap. Chris is a very accomplished musician. I set him up with a Logic system in his studio, and now he\u2019s able to demo stuff, post it in Dropbox for me, and we get a lot of work done that way. The guitar part that\u2019s in the theme song for HBO\u2019s Family Tree<\/i> is what he did in his home studio. Another example: I\u2019m working on a new album with the band Toto. Each guy is bringing in stuff from his own home studio, and it sounds amazing. These parts are all going to end up on the record.<\/p>\n
What are the limitations?
\n<\/b>Recording drums\u2014that\u2019s when you hear it right away. I hear guys do great guitar stuff and programming to create cool songwriter demos, but very rarely do I hear someone mic up drums in a home studio and make them sound great. That takes special talent, a lot of experience, and the right equipment. Vocal production can be tricky, too. But lots of people will take a record right up to that point. Then they go into a professional studio to replace programmed drums with real drums.<\/p>\n
What gear should you invest in?
\n<\/b>One of the most important things is a good mic pre[amp]. I use a Universal Audio 6176 channel strip, and it sounds amazing on everything. But I have Neves and other nice pres as well. That said, I\u2019m not attached to a boutique or vintage microphone idea. I use a Shure KSM44 for almost everything I do in some capacity. I got a call once from Michael McDonald\u2019s manager asking what I used to make his voice sound so good, and he could hardly believe it was this $700 microphone. So it\u2019s not the price of the gear that\u2019s important but rather choosing the right gear. It\u2019s also important for musicians to pick a platform that matches what they\u2019re doing. A lot of people go with Pro Tools, because that\u2019s what everyone knows. I think programs like Logic, Digital Performer, PreSonus Studio One and Ableton Live are way more flexible for musicians.<\/p>\n
What shouldn\u2019t you buy?
\n<\/b>I\u2019ve seen people spend a lot of money on super-expensive speakers, and let me tell you, it\u2019s not worth it. JBL just came out with this new monitor, the LSR308. They\u2019re stunning and sound great out of the box. I thought, \u201cOh great, here\u2019s another $3,000 pair of speakers.\u201d But I didn\u2019t care, they sounded excellent, so I said I\u2019d take a pair. It turns out they\u2019re $250 a piece.<\/p>\n
How about acoustic treatment?
\n<\/b>It\u2019s usually completely lacking. Your average home-studio guy may be able to figure it out, but I don\u2019t really think they should. It\u2019s the sort of thing where you want to call an expert. You can\u2019t beat actually having an expert come into your room. If I want guitar on a track, but I don\u2019t play guitar, I\u2019m not going to try to learn it. I\u2019ll hire a guitar player. Acoustic treatment is a real voodoo science. Even if you read up on it, you probably won\u2019t understand it. One more thing: Acoustic treatment doesn\u2019t have to be ugly either. I recently saw some treatment by a company called Lamvin\u2014it was beautiful and not that expensive either. If you\u2019re serious\u2014if you think you\u2019re going to make money by recording\u2014you need to invest in your room.<\/p>\n
Any other advice?
\n<\/b>One of my dear friends was [late producer] Greg Ladanyi, who used to put on a pair of headphones with a long extension cord and walk around the room while the band was playing and move mics\u2014looking for the hot spot where they sounded the best. He could hear what the mic sounded like on each instrument and saved lots of time that way. Your headphones have to sound great. If I were putting together a studio today, I\u2019d start with the headphones. Your money comes from making musicians comfortable enough to play their best, and if they can\u2019t hear themselves or each other, then the magic you\u2019re there to capture simply doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
\u2014Phil Selman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Open Rec Discover the essentials for creating a stellar\u00a0home recording studio Over the past few decades, the home studio has gone from a novelty to an extravagance to a staple of modern recording. Today nearly anyone can capture pro-studio results without ever leaving their home. In fact, much of the music we hear every day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[7635],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15170"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15175,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15170\/revisions\/15175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}