![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/JanFeb-2012-gear-feature.jpg\" "\\"JanFeb-2012-gear-feature\\"")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nAn insider\u2019s guide to creating a home studio\u00a0<\/strong>that\u2019s right for you \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Not so long ago, recording in a studio was a pricey ordeal. A musician or band had to select a studio, ensure it had a quality engineer\u2014and because the meter was running, hope to capture the necessary tracks without breaking the bank. Enter the digital age: Now nearly anyone can set up a quality studio right in his or her home. Sure, there\u2019s gear to acquire, but once those essentials have been purchased you can create, record and tinker with your music all day long. Plus you can customize your studio environment to suit your personal creative requirements.<\/p>\n While having your personal Hit Factory down the hall is a fantastic asset, building it\u2014and using it effectively\u2014can be challenging. Where do you begin? What gear do you need? Just as importantly, what don\u2019t you need? We turned to experts John Cuniberti and Mike Brown for help. Cuniberti is an engineer and producer who works with artists like Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar and Dead Kennedys, and who has helped build numerous home studios. Brown, the owner of Cleveland\u2019s Lava Room Recording, is a producer and engineer who has worked with the Ramones, Garbage, Paramore, Velvet Revolver and many others.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n CUNIBERTI: Most rooms in homes and apartments have parallel walls, which can cause sound problems\u2014the walls produce standing waves that can boost at certain frequencies and dip in others. The way to reduce that is to place materials on the walls that absorb or diffuse sound. For most home studios I use 3-inch fabric and rockwool panels made by GIK Acoustics. They\u2019re affordable, look better than acoustic products made out of foam, and can get the sound of a room under control.<\/p>\n BROWN: For home and commercial studios, mood and ambience are also important. People respond to colors and lighting\u2014and creating the right mood can free you to perform and record at a higher level.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BROWN: To dampen loud elements like guitars and drums, you can buy modular isolation booths that can fit inside a room. But they\u2019re often too expensive for many home studios. Properly designed walls can be great for soundproofing\u2014and there\u2019s a fountain of information on the internet about constructing walls if you\u2019re up to the task. All materials are available at Home Depot. The most expensive part of constructing a custom studio space is the labor. If you can do it yourself, you\u2019ll save a lot of money.<\/p>\n CUNIBERTI: Without building custom walls, sound is going to escape through walls and windows, and under doors. Commercial studios are basically rooms built inside rooms, so you\u2019ve got multiple walls and a lot of air between the drum kit and your neighbors. In an apartment, you don\u2019t get that. Your best bet is to record when they\u2019re not home\u2014or buy them a pizza.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n CUNIBERTI: If you\u2019re doing vocals, you can buy acoustic barriers from Primacoustic or RealTraps that block unwanted sound and reduce room ambience. If you have windows in your room, double-paned glass is a must for keeping street sounds out of your recording.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BROWN: The Shure SM57 goes a long way when it comes to basics. For everything from drums to guitars, that\u2019s the main all-purpose mic you need.<\/p>\n CUNIBERTI: I\u2019d recommend a mic with adjustable response patterns\u2014one that can be set to cardioid, bi-directional and omni. The Telefunken R-F-T series are great for vocals and acoustic instruments, and are quite affordable. And if it\u2019s in your budget, a ribbon mic like a Royer R-122 would be a great option.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BROWN: I\u2019m a Dynaudio fan, but I\u2019ve beta-tested a new Genelec series of monitors that self-tunes to your room. You run a white noise program through them and they adjust to suit your listening environment. Without proper construction in your home studio, you\u2019ll always have standing waves and weird nodes, but having monitors like those will let you adapt to the room. They\u2019re more expensive than some other monitors but cheaper in the long run than custom construction.<\/p>\n CUNIBERTI: A lot of studio monitors that sound good in showrooms are hyped in the highs and lows because people respond better to music when it\u2019s got a lot of top and bottom. But that\u2019s the last thing you want in your monitors while engineering a record. Look for a self-powered monitor like the Dynaudio BM 6A that allows you to adjust frequencies on the back of the speaker.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n CUNIBERTI: In general, monitors need to be away from walls and corners. Use an equilateral triangle between the monitors and your listening position, and place rubber or foam isolation pads under them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n CUNIBERTI: You want a professional pair that doesn\u2019t overamplify high or low frequencies. If you\u2019re mixing records in your home studio, use those headphones to listen to albums you like and then use them for references as you mix your own work. Spending $500 for a pair of Sennheiser HD 650 headphones may seem like a lot, but you can get excellent results.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BROWN: I\u2019ve been working a bit with Keyshia Cole recently. She\u2019s running Pro Tools at home with a Control|24 console. She has super-nice mics and preamps, and everything she\u2019s recorded sounds on par with what you\u2019d get from a pro studio.<\/p>\n CUNIBERTI: Joe Satriani records all of his demos in his home studio, using much of the same gear we use in the commercial studios we record in. Some, like Sammy Hagar, build personal studios not located in their homes. His studio [Red Rocker Sound] has a large control room and isolation booths. He and Satriani recorded the last Chickenfoot album there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n CUNIBERTI: Since miking a loud Marshall stack isn\u2019t always an option at home, Satriani uses a \u201cspeaker simulator\u201d box made by Palmer. He can use any of his amp heads without a speaker connected, and record direct to Pro Tools. With headphones he can wail at 2 a.m. without bothering anybody.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BROWN: Ninety-nine percent of pro audio and video work is done on Macs. PCs are cheaper but they\u2019re more susceptible to viruses. If you\u2019ve ever had your system shut down by a virus, you know it\u2019s a catastrophe. Pay a bit more and get the right computer.<\/p>\n CUNIBERTI: I\u2019m working with two recording artists now, George Cole and Girl Named T, who are both buying iMacs with 27-inch screens and the Mbox Pro bundled with Pro Tools 10. With a good mic and headphones, that is one powerful recording and mixing system.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BROWN: If you put someone with 20 years of experience in any studio, they\u2019ll do well. Most with home studios lack that experience, so even if you buy the same equipment as a pro studio and have a finely tuned room, it won\u2019t necessarily sound the same. It\u2019s always important to remember that half of any recording studio is the engineer.<\/p>\n \u2014Michael Gallant<\/strong><\/p>\n REC ROOM An insider\u2019s guide to creating a home studio\u00a0that\u2019s right for you \u00a0\u00a0 Not so long ago, recording in a studio was a pricey ordeal. A musician or band had to select a studio, ensure it had a quality engineer\u2014and because the meter was running, hope to capture the necessary tracks without breaking the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[4211,4198,4210,4197,4205,4207,3396,10157,4206,4212,4213,3185,4195,4193,4209,4214,4194,1196,4200,806,4215,817,4201,4192,4204,4196,4208,4202,4203,4199],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6850"}],"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=6850"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6853,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6850\/revisions\/6853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How do you prepare a room?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How do you insulate?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What about outside noise?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What mics do you recommend?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How about monitors?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How do you position them?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What about headphones?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Which artists use home studios?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How does Joe deal with volume?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Do you recommend Mac or PC?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Can you get pro results at home?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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