How to make a home recording studio?

If you produce pod casts or enjoy recording music at home then building a home studio is now a possibility thanks to falling hardware costs. In this article we'll give you a step by step guide to building your perfect studio setup.

Decide which room you are going to use

Building a home studio is all about reducing noise. There is no point in buying top of the line recording gear and the best recording software if you are going to be plagued with external noises. Think about this when deciding where your studio will be located. If you have a room next to a busy road then this should be avoided. Internal or cellar rooms are ideal.

Soundproof your room

Whether you want to get involved in digital music recording or pod-casting, the next stage is to minimise the amount of echo in the room. Hard flat surfaces reflect sound, so break up the flat surfaces of the walls with acoustic foam or even egg cartons.

Decide on a computer

Many professionals use Apple Macs as the centre piece of their record studio. Regardless of whether you decide to go down a Mac or PC route, it is best to locate your computer out of the room and run display cables to the monitor in your studio. This will limit the impact of noisy fans.

Invest in a good interface

Even with the best microphones and best software in the world, if it's connecting through a bad sound card, the fidelity of the signal will be lost. If you want to make music or pod-casts on a computer, invest in a quality audio interface. Sound cards for recording will have built in analog to digital converters and will have a range of high quality inputs.

Buy your microphones

If you are a music enthusiast then you may be a fan of analog sound. Valve amps and pre-amps are regarded as being the ultimate in recording equipment for some musicians. Microphones
Regardless of whether you want to get into analog recording or are happy with solid state and digital recordings, you will need to pick the right microphones for you. Shure produce a range of good general purpose mics, but specialist mics should be considered for certain musical instruments and voice over work.

Learn the ropes

Borrow some books to learn studio basics and best practices for creating audio recordings. You will need to tweak your gear and play around with settings to get the best sound. Be sure to use quality headphones and monitor speakers. Home audio recording is a hobby in itself for many people. To begin with, buy entry level home music recording equipment. As your passion grows, you will learn more about the equipment and can upgrade individual parts as you learn more.