performer magazine: august 2015

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PERFORMER MAGAZINE AUGUST 2015 3

VOLUME 25, ISSUE 8

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HOME RECORDING6. Home Studio Construction Guide

10. Plan A Home Studio Budget

12. Home Studio Acoustics

14. Soundproof Your Studio

16. Home Studio Building Experiences

18. Lessons Learned From Home Studio

Construction

20. How To Convert A Shed Into A Studio

22. What They Dont Tell You About Home

Studios

24. Bang Gang Walks Us Through His

Home Setup

28. Darwin Deez Takes Us On A Tour Of

His Home Studio

30. 5 Pro Tools Tips For Better Recordings

32. How To Choose a DAW

34. Do You Need A Control Surface?

36. Incorporate Compressors In Your

Recordings

38. Performers Guide to Audio Plug-Ins

40. The Myth of Hi-Res Audio

42. Record Killer Vocals at Home

44. The Importance of Springsteens

Nebraska

46. PreSonus Studio One 3 Review

48. Flashback: The TASCAM Portastudio

Betsy Webber

Matt Douglas

The

issue

4 AUGUST 2015 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

ABOUT USPerformer Magazine, a nationally distributed musicians trade publication, focuses on in-dependent musicians, those unsigned and on small labels, and their success in a DIY environment. Were dedicated to promoting lesser-known talent and being the first to in-troduce you to artists you should know about.

MUSIC SUBMISSIONSWe listen to everything that comes into the office. We prefer physical CDs, cassettes and vinyl over downloads. If you do not have a physical copy, send download links to [email protected] attachments, please. Send CDs to:

Performer Magazine Attn: ReviewsPO BOX 348Somerville, MA 02143

CORRECTIONSDid we make a heinous blunder, factual er-ror or just spell your name wrong? Contact [email protected] and let us know, cuz were big enough to say, Baby, I was wrong.

EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONSIn the words of our esteemed forefathers at CREEM: NOBODY WHO WRITES FOR THIS RAGS GOT ANYTHING YOU AINT GOT, at least in the way of credentials. Theres no reason why you shouldnt be sending us your stuff: reviews, features, photos, recording tips, DIY advice or whatever else you have in mind that might be interesting to our readers: independent and DIY musicians. Who else do ya know wholl publish you? We really will...ask any of our dozens of satisfied customers. Just bop it along to us to [email protected] and see what comes back your way. If you have eyes to be in print, this just might be the place. Whaddya got to lose? Whaddya got?

Volume 25, Issue 8

Breathe it in do you smell the odoriferous aromas of burning tubes, hot transistors and melted eardrums? Well then, welcome to the wonderful world of home recording!

The issue youre currently fondling in your grubby little paws is all about our favorite pastime: recording music. And what better way to create art than in the comfort of your own home? We know a lot of newcomers to the recording game can be intimidated and scared off by the mountains of gear options and setup issues inherent in designing ones own home studio, and quite frankly, it can be a bit of a scary proposition.

So, where do you start? How about here. We promise to make the prospect of creating your own home studio space not only less scary, but even pretty fun. Trust us. Well teach you the basics on planning a budget, constructing your space, soundproofing it properly, choosing

the right hardware and software, and well even throw in some tips and tricks to get you up and running (and making better sounding recordings than you ever thought possible). Weve got guest articles from some of the top studio pros around (not to mention the folks behind Pro Tools) and theres even a sneak peek at the new Studio One suite from our friends at PreSonus.

Toss in some home recording history and vintage gear for good measure, and youve got one helluva jam-packed issue. What more do you want for free?

Howdy, yall!

Benjamin Ricci, editor

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performermag.com /performermagazine @performermag

PO BOX 348Somerville, MA 02143

CONTACTPhone: 617-627-9200

Fax: 617-627-9930

PUBLISHERWilliam House

Phone: [email protected]

EDITORBenjamin Ricci

[email protected]

DESIGN & ART DIRECTIONCristian Iancu

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTBob Dobalina

[email protected]

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSAustin Potter, Bardi Johannsson, Chris Devine,

Christopher L. Wanta, Darwin Deez, Dash Wilson, Eric Lichter, Jay Frigoletto, Jim Stafford, Jon Lewis, Jordan Tishler, Mark Waldrep, Matt Douglas, Rob Nolfe, Rob

Tavaglione, Simon Sherbourne, Steve Vercelloni, Steve Wytas, Torbin Harding, Warren McQuiston, Zac Cataldo

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERSChris Saunders, Bardi Johannsson, D. Wilson, Matt

Douglas, Torbin Harding,

ADVERTISING SALESWilliam House

Phone: [email protected]

2015 by Performer Publications, Inc.All rights reserved. No part of this publication may

be reproduced by any method whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher. The magazine

accepts no responsibility for unsolicited recordings, manuscripts, artwork or photographs and will not return such materials unless requested and accompanied by a

SASE.

Annual Subscription Rate is $30 in the U.S.; $45 outside the U.S.

P.S. seriously, we should be charging for this.


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So you want to build a home studio? I own Night Train Studios in Westford, MA, a 1,000 sq. ft recording studio that I built in 2003 (thats a 12 x 15 Control Room, 12 x 18 Iso Room A, 12 x 10 Iso Room B, 6 x 10 Iso Room C, 4 x 6 Iso Booth D and a 9 x 12 Lounge). Its in the walkout basement of a 40 x 25 addition I built on my home. Ive had lots of musicians ask me after recording in my studio, How much would it cost me to build one of these in my basement? As a licensed building contractor, Ive learned to never answer that question too quickly, because the first number you give sticks in peoples heads. But here are some ideas to be thinking about as you plan your dream home studio

HEATING & COOLINGJust like other rooms in your house, your

studio will need heat in the winter and probably air conditioning in the summer (an uncomfort-able musician is not a happy musician). Your control room, especially, is going to heat up quickly with all the gear and people coming in and out, so youll at least want to plan for air condition-ing in that room. If youre building in a garage or detached building, you might get away with air conditioners in the windows in the summer but you will still need to heat the spaces. Can you zone off of your existing HVAC system or will it need its own system? Can you get away with electric base-board heat? Consulting with licensed plumbers and HVAC experts is a smart idea. In my studio, I was able to create a zone off one of my existing forced air systems so that I could get heat and AC without needing a new furnace/compressor. To reduce airflow noise, I used flexible insulated duct

that runs to each room in the studio (remember: youll need a supply and a return duct for each room and that can take up quite a bit of space so plan accordingly).

LIGHTING & ELECTRICALYou will probably want to run a sub-panel off

of your existing main electrical panel; in my case I ran a 60amp sub panel off my 200amp main panel. Youll need at least one 15amp circuit for outlets to power computers, guitar amps, outboard gear, etc. (I suggest 2 20 amp circuits for this). Make a list off all the gear you have (and plan on acquiring down the road) and estimate the wattage each one uses. Dont forget that musicians will be bringing in their own gear (and that sometimes means big amps that draw a lot of power). Each amp in your circuit generally equals 100 watts of available


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How To Build A Professional Home Studio

Construct a Great Space & Choose The Right Gear

power, so a 15amp circuit can handle about 1500 watts before it becomes overloaded. I also would try to keep your new electrical wiring at least 12 away from audio lines that you may be running in the walls and ceiling. If electrical lines do have to cross audio lines, have them cross at 90-degree angles to reduce interference.

Lighting should be on its own circuits. A rule of thumb for old school light bulbs was 3 watts per square foot, but things are changing fast, with new CFL & LED bulbs reducing lighting watt-age drastically. Whatever you do, make sure you plan to have plenty of light. I recommend having at least a couple of different lighting options for each space (wall sconces, track, switchable lamps, recessed) each with its own switch. That way you can adjust for different moods easily. In many

states, homeowners can do their own electrical work (which will be inspected by the local elec-trical inspector once before you close the walls and then at final inspection). There are many good books available for do-it-yourselfers, and I recom-mend The Complete Guide to Home Wiring from Black & Decker. Hiring a professional to do the job is always a smart idea if you arent sure youre up to the task.

FRAMING & WALL/FLOOR COVERINGWhenever possible, you want to minimize

parallel walls in your studio. So unlike regular construction where everything is square, you want to try (if possible) to have at least one wall in each room at a slight (7 degrees or more) angle. In my control room, one wall is elliptical, which looks and sounds great (but was very difficult to build,

so I dont recommend it unless you enjoy wetting sheetrock to get it to bend).

You want to separate your control room sonically from the room(s) that will have the musicians tracking in them. To do this you want to create dead air cavities. One way to do this is to frame your walls using 2 x 6 floor and ceiling plates and stagger the studs, so that when air pres-sure moves the sheetrock on one side, it doesnt directly move the sheetrock on the other. Another way is to build a wall like you normally would and then after you sheetrock, build another wall half an inch away (of course youll only be able to get sheetrock on 3 of the 4 sides). In my case, I built double walls and also doubled the sheetrock, so there is 2-1/2 inches of sheetrock and 7-1/2 of dead space between the control room and the


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iso booths. The drummer can be rocking out but in the Control Room it sounds like hes down the block. Of course you will want to use fiberglass insulation in all the walls and ceiling cavities.

Will you need to see the talent tracking in the iso rooms? If so, youll need windows two dou-ble glazed panels installed out of parallel to each other works well. And if your talent needs to see each other in different iso rooms, youll need slid-ing glass doors. Plan sight lines very carefully. Also, the higher the ceilings, the better nine feet is nice, try not to go lower than eight if you can; theres nothing worse than low ceilings. If you are building in a basement, keeping sound from going up and keeping foot steps above from echoing down into your studio is hard to avoid.

Plan on doubling the ceiling sheetrock with acoustic clips in-between, so that the two sheets are not rigidly attached to one another. Sheetrock walls and ceilings do not generally sound very good, so youll want to apply carpeting and other acoustic treatments (hanging tapestries or acoustic clouds, for instance) to certain sec-tions. You can build simple acoustic wall and ceiling treatments by making wood frames, filled with fiberglass insulation and wrapped in a nice fabric. Some floor areas can be carpeted, but its nice to have some wood floor to give a room a live sound you can always add throw rugs to adjust the amount of liveliness. Again, if any of this

sounds out of your league, plan on bringing in a professional to help.

PERMITSIn most states youll need to submit your plans

to the local building department for approval for any type of major renovation (read: permit fees and inspections). If your plans involve build-ing walls, hanging doors, running electrical and HVAC and you arent a do-it-yourselfer, then Id recommend bringing in professionals. Work that would take a hobbyist months can be accom-plished in just weeks by professional tradesmen. Building my 1,000 sq. ft, six-room recording stu-dio took me about five months, and Im a licensed builder!

CHOOSING GEARThe first question you need to answer before

you head off to the store is, What will my typical tracking arrangement be? Will you be recording traditional rock bands, string quartets, singer/songwriters or all of the above? You should deter-mine how many channels you will need to record simultaneously. If its a typical rock band, then 16 channels should do. If youre recording 13 piece funk bands, then youll either need more channels or youll want to break up the tracking sessions into rhythm sessions, horn overdub sessions and vocal overdub sessions. A digital mixer will be one of your more expensive purchases I recom-mend buying one that has built-in compression

so you dont need racks of outboard compressors. The mixer will either directly plug into your DAW (Digital Audio) via FireWire/USB or you will need to purchase an audio interface to go between the mixer and the computer. If this is all foreign to you, then talk to a professional; things are chang-ing fast in this area. Working with a pro-audio sales person or a studio owner can save you lots of headaches.

MICROPHONESDepending on what kinds of musicians you

are planning to record, you will need microphones and lucky you the days when only super expen-sive microphones would do are over. Now there are dozens of high quality microphones well within reach, the only problem is that you will need at least as many microphones as the chan-nels on your mixer and each microphone has its own purpose. Large diaphragm condenser mics (usually some of the most expensive) will handle tasks like vocals, acoustic guitars and horns. Small diaphragm condensers are well suited for drum room overheads, acoustic guitars and strings. Dynamic microphones will be the work-horses for drums and guitar amps. In addition to the mics, you will need to budget for high quality XLR cables (I recommend getting different colors so that micing drums is easier) 20 feet is a good length. You will also need a plethora of different kinds of mic stands some for singers, some for micing amps, drums, etc. I recommend getting


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Especialized clip-on mic holders for drums, oth-erwise you might have a difficult time with mic placement on the kit.

HEADPHONESYoull need a range of quality headphones

and a headphone amp with multiple outputs and inputs so that each musician can hear while tracking and overdubbing. Drummers tend to do well with closed cup phones, while many singers prefer open ones. Budget at least $100 per pair and try to mix it up so that you dont have six pairs all the same. I use aux sends from the mixer to give each musician his/her own headphone mix. I cant stress this enough all the gear in the world is useless if the musicians arent getting really good headphone mixes, so dont skimp on this step.

WIRING, MONITORS, SOFTWAREAll the wiring for the microphone inputs

and headphones should be wired in the wall with jacks in each room to make connections. The cost of these specialized XLR and1/4 TRS outlets, as well as the shielded audio cable, can add up quickly and take some fine wiring and soldering skills. Youll need a good set of monitor speak-ers that youll want to mount with adjustable mounting brackets to the walls near where youll be mixing. The type of audio software for your DAW first depends on whether you are going to be MAC or PC based and then on preference and budget. You can spend as little as a few hundred bucks on professional DAW, but dont forget about additional plug-ins for reverb, compression, soft synths, etc. Even if your software comes with most of what you need to get started right out of the box, it wont be long before youll want drum loops, better sounding strings and other plug-ins. Budget accordingly.

WHERE TO SHOPI love shopping online at stores like Musicians

Friend and Sweetwater. There you can read reviews and compare prices while wearing your pajamas. Ebay and Craigslist are great resources for cheap gear, especially if you know what youre looking for. Used gear is a great way to get more bang for your buck, and well-maintained micro-phones or monitor speakers can be found at a fraction of the cost of new gear. Realize that you will be learning what works best for your studio as you begin working in it. Often what seems like a necessity at first turns out to be something that sits unused in the mic closet. Start as small as you can and expand as you learn what works best for you. Dont believe all the hype you read about every product some gear has earned its reputa-tion in the industry but much is marketing glitz. Read recording forums and reviews and talk to other professionals whenever possible to glean gear tips and recommendations.

FURNITUREMake sure you budget for at least one comfy

couch and some durable desk chairs. As engineer/producer, you will be spending a lot of time on your butt. The band will also be spending much of their time bothering you in the control room. Its best if you keep them as far back from your workspace as possible, preferably nodding off in comfy couches rather than leaning over your shoulder, second-guessing your every mouse click. Just kidding, guys.

INSURANCEWill you need insurance? Yes bad things

happen and youll sleep much better knowing that if something goes wrong (like a break-in or a flood), youre covered. Usually you can add the studio equipment as a rider on your existing homeowner policy. Remember, you are going to have expensive equipment in your home studio. Depending on where you live, a security system and additional locks could prevent a thief from taking off with all your hard-earned gear.

FINAL THOUGHTSI worked for many years in studios in Boston

and L.A. and I made note of the things I liked and the things I didnt. Wed all like huge rooms to work with, but few of us have the luxury of huge Abbey Road style halls to work with. Set up a

drum set in a small office and see what makes it too tight. Is it better in the bedroom where there are two more feet on one side? I have four iso rooms in my studio, but we generally only use two rooms for 90% of the work we do (and my tiny iso booth hardly gets used at all). Could you live with two bigger iso rooms instead of three small ones? Could you have one big iso room and use gobos to divide the drums from the guitars? My biggest advice would be to visit some studios first and pick their owners brains to help you figure out what you need and what you dont in your dream home studio.

And as you finalize your studio, keep in mind that you and your artists should be as comfortable and relaxed as possible. The studio space should incorporate colors, artwork, lighting and design to maximize creativity and reduce stress. Recording is a science, but its also an art and should be fun. Good luck on your quest for a dream studio!

ABOUT THE AUTHORZac Cataldo is a licensed contractor. He is also a musician and owner of Night Train Studios in Westford, MA and Black Cloud Productions, a music publishing company that licenses music for film, TV, software & commercials.


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Ive been involved in the music indus-try for ten years, and it all started with the dangerous combination of being in an indie band AND going to a recording school at the same time. I knew just enough to get my band famously terrible independent record-ings that eventually led to BETTER recordings that led to INCREDIBLE recordings once we finally got a proper record contract and budget. Ive learned a lot along that journey, and producing out of the comfort of a spare bedroom has never been more enjoy-able and creative for me.

BE MOBILEIve recorded so many bits and

pieces on-site, while traveling, and winging it. Half of these sessions

make it on the final recording. With a budget. Why? The TAKE beats the

SPACE. The first lesson is that being

mobile is more important than that tricked-out Trash Can Mac Tower. I know multiple Grammy award-winning producers who are tracking in the back of tour busses with killer bands because thats the availability of the working musician today. I know multiple guys who have a travel kit that contains an API Lunchbox and a MacBook. My 3-year-old MacBook has upgraded everything and I am nowhere near running out of DSP. Being porta-ble creates more possibilities. And who doesnt like multiple revenue streams?

FUNCTION OVER FORMDo NOT spend money on looks to make your

space better until you have all the gear to sound incredible. Ive tracked vocals in functional closets that ended up charting on the radio. Its NOT about aesthetics; its about how good it sounds when you push PLAY. The chain in that particular closet was a Reflexion filter to kill the closet, a tube condenser, a BAE 1073 clone and UAD plug-ins. The closet was the least

How to Plan A Home Studio Budget


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How to Plan A Home Studio BudgetAnd Learn The Hierarchy to Your New Purchases

important piece of that chain. The song was #1, the producer #2, the singer #3, the gear #4, the SPACE dead last.

LESS IS MOREIn ter ms of inputs. I dont k now a

sing le producer in Na shv i l le who tracks

t heir dr ums in-house. They m ig ht track some au x i lia r y percussion or use a couple ex tra inputs here a nd t here, but I dont k now a nyone who rea l ly uses much more t ha n t wo k i l ler inputs at a time. P ut your money where you track most a nd focus on one (maybe t wo, tops) g reat musica l m ic cha ins. Rent a space for your dr ums; t he rea son you ca nt get k i l ler dr um tones is because youre competing w it h st udios t hat have invested $500k+ into t heir gea r a nd space a nd work in t hat env ironment

E V ERY DAY t wea k ing t heir tones. W hy in t he world wou ld you wa nt to tr y a nd replicate t hat? Rent t he space. A nd f ind a k i l ler st udio dr um mer to have on-ca l l if t he one in t he ba nd sucks.

DONT DO TOO MUCHThe best recordings youre trying to

compete with are done by MULTIPLE people who are A LL better than you, so why are you trying to be a Swiss Army Knife? As a guy that is a natura l control freak, I have to limit myself on each project. If Im producing, I will NOT mix/master. If Im the mix guy, I will NOT do any production work until my mix is money and only if the song REA LLY needs it. I will not be involved in mastering unless Im getting a two-mix, etc. If the best guys in the industry wont touch multiple parts of the process, why do you think you

can? I know it s a ll related to budget, but you arent getting better gigs because your beauty reel sounds one-dimensiona l. Suck it up and make pennies on a few projects to be able to afford proper mix/master. The qua lity will start to show up, and the qua l-ity of clients will start to show up! And who

here wants a better voca list to track on their next project?? THIS GUY.

FINAL HOME-STUDIO PURCHASE HIERARCHY

Heres the order in which Ive purchased my gear over the years. Its not perfect, it certainly had hum-ble beginnings, and please dont do it all the same way, but itll give you an idea of where to start/where the priorities should go. Keep in mind I had NO money; I was in an indie band! And Im a producer so I lean more towards having toys vs. having mics.

PC laptop Pro Tools LE and Mbox Focusrite pres! Woo! Sony-Pro headphones Cheap condenser mic (mine was an AT4040)

Waves Diamond Bundle Melodyne - critical for any serious pop production External hard drive for backup

More cheap mics - small diaphragm con-denser, dynamic, FET

Reflexion Filter - my space sucks, this helps. Waves CLA Vocal Plug-In

THIS IS WHERE I ESSENTIALLY STARTED OVER

UAD Apollo MacBook Pro Studio Speakers (Tannoy Reveals)

Latest Pro Tools Native Instruments (not ultimate!) 3rd party unique instrument packs Upgrade RAM

Nicer Mics - ribbon, tube condenser vocal mic Acoustic paneling - bought most of these 3rd

party 3rd party plug-ins - UAD plugs (Unison

NEVE!), Plugin Alliance, Addictive Drums

NEXT ON THE WISH LIST Upgrade Native Instruments Solid state hard drive More 3rd party plug-ins Possibly an analog mic pre, but I do love the

UAD Unison. Just want something crazy warm

There it is. If I had to do it all over, Id start with the UAD Apollo, MacBook, and Sony Pros. Then again, UAD didnt exist when I started

Some trial and error here but Im getting to a good place creatively. I have a couple great inputs, a bunch of toys and candy that keep me fresh and musical, and definitely last, a fairly dead space that is appealing and inviting to cli-ents. Happy creating!

ABOUT THE AUTHORJon Lewis is the lead singer/songwriter for the Minneapolis band Hyland and now pro-duces projects out of his home in Nashville. Follow him on Twitter at @HylandJon.

Being portable creates more possibilities.


ACOUSTICS

Setting up a home studio holds the promise of creating your own great-sounding music any time the inspiration moves you. Its exciting to buy new gear, claim a spare bedroom or basement, and embark on the production of your next mas-terpiece. If youre like many home recordists, in your excitement to get started, you may not have paid as careful attention to the acoustics as you did to the rest of the recording chain. If the sound of your room is lying to you, theres no way to make good choices for processing and balancing your music. If you cant hear it, you cant fix it.

SOUND ACCURACY & ISOLATIONThe two issues to consider in the control

room are the accuracy of sound reaching your ears, and prevention of noise from leak-ing into or out of your room. Similarly, in the recording space you want a true sound

to reach the microphone, and isolation from adjacent spaces to prevent external sounds from polluting the recording, or your sound from interfering with the activities of others.

Isolation can be achieved in two ways: mass and de-coupling. The more mass a wall has, the less sound is transmitted. Mass Law is a rule of thumb that for every doubling of mass, transmission loss (TL) increases by 6dB. If a wall with one layer per side of dry-wall (GWB) stops 33 dB (TL33), increasing the mass to two layers per side would yield TL39, and doubling again to four layers per side should achieve TL45. It becomes evident that using mass alone can quickly get big, heavy, and expensive.

The best solution is to use mass in con-junction with de-coupling, which eliminates the physical connection between rooms.

Since sound transmits more efficiently in solids (e.g. wall studs) than in air, building a double wall with independent, parallel rows of studs will increase TL without extra mass. Adding insulation to the cavity in-between further increases TL, as does spacing the

How To Set Up Your Studio For Sound Success

Performers Primer on Home Studio Acoustics

Tiago Cassol Schvarstzhaupt

Monitor triangle


ACOUSTICS

walls farther apart. That TL39 wall with two layers of sheetrock per side can improve to TL57 when you put those layers on their own studs spaced an inch apart with insulation inside.

Double walls should have sheetrock outside only. Adding a layer to an interior side, even though increasing mass, creates a triple-leaf system that actually degrades performance, especially at resonant frequen-cies. If youre curious why this happens, look up mass-air resonance and coincidence dip in your favorite search engine.

Double wall construction is often imprac-tical for home studios. A simpler alternative is to use resilient sound isolation clips. RSIC-2 clips are a great option with hat channel (fur-ring strips resembling the shape of a hat when viewed from the end) holding the drywall.

DONT BE AN ISO FOAM DUMMYHanging foam on a wall for soundproof-

ing is a fools errand. This will not increase transmission loss. Soft materials, like foam, fiberglass insulation, rockwool etc. serve only to absorb sound within a room, prevent-ing ref lections and reducing ambient sound. While ineffective for isolation, carefully placed absorption is essential for a controlled and accurate listening environment.

SPEAKER SETUP IS KEYBefore addressing room treatments, lets

go over some general guidelines for setting up speakers. A common technique is to arrange monitoring on an equilateral triangle with one point being the listening position and the other two points being speakers aimed at the listener at 60 angles. Symmetry is important. You dont want to be twice as far from the left wall as the right, or rotated with one speaker farther from the front wall than the other. Try to keep some space between speakers and walls. Direct sound, following a straight

path from speaker to ear, mixes in undesirable ways with ref lections from nearby surfaces such as walls, tables, and mixing consoles.

The ref lected path, from speaker to wall to ear, is longer than the direct path, result-ing in a copy of the sound arriving just after the original. Sound is comprised of alternat-ing higher and lower pressure, or in electronic transmission, positive and negative volt-age. When a delayed signal combines with the original, one may be cycling positive, and the other, negative. These energies work against each other, reducing level at certain frequencies (destructive interference). Both signals being in a positive cycle results in reinforcement at some frequencies (construc-tive interference). Neither case is welcome because it changes the frequency response of the sound from your speakers.

The easiest way to determine placement of treatments to absorb early ref lections is to grab a mirror and enlist the help of a friend. While you sit at the listening position, your friend places the mirror f lat on the wall, mov-ing it until you can see a speaker. Center your treatments there. Sound and light travel in waves and ref lect in similar ways (angle of incidence equals angle of ref lection), so the mirror shows the first ref lection paths from your speakers to your listening position. Ceilings, f loors, and consoles also can be a source of unwanted ref lections.

TRAP THAT BASSLow-frequency absorption, or bass

trapping, is essential in small rooms, and acoustically speaking, any room in a house is a small room. Standing waves are a particular case of constructive and destructive interfer-ence between parallel walls causing certain frequencies to either ring or all but disappear at specific locations (anti-nodes and nodes). One node will exist exactly half-way between the front and back walls, so its best to have

your listening position in front or behind the half-way point.

The poor bass response in un-trapped rooms contributes to many home studio mixes having problems in the low end. If you are missing bass at your listening position, youre probably in a node. It may seem counter-intuitive to trap bass when you dont have enough, but thats exactly what to do. The missing bass is caused by sound bouncing between two walls, with the low pres-sure in one direction combining with the high pressure in the other, thereby cancelling each other out. If you trap the bass, it wont bounce back, eliminating the cancellation and restor-ing an even bass response.

The simplest bass trapping is a thick porous absorber in the corners or on the back wall, often called a super-chunk. The classic material for these and many other absorptive treatments is Owens Corning 703 semi-rigid fiberglass boards in a frame covered with Guilford FR-701 fabric. The thicker the panel, the better the low-frequency absorption. Leaving a small space between panel and wall also improves low fre-quency performance. Four-inch panel depth gets you into the lower mid-range, but for real bass trapping, youll need it to be several times thicker.

These techniques wont turn your home into Abbey Road, but theyll help you get the most out of your gear and ears, presenting your music in the best possible light.

ABOUT THE AUTHORJay Frigoletto is a recording columnist for Performer whos covered such topics as Compression, Limiting, Equalization, Reverberation,Digital vs. Tape Delay,Active vs. Passive Electronics, Speakers & Crossovers, Tubes vs. Solid State, Microphones, Mic-Pres and Phantom Power, Phase and Polarity, and finally, All About Decibels. For more info please visit www.promastering.com.

Double Wall Construction


SOUNDPROOFING

This brief article is designed to give some basic ideas about soundproofing your home studio. I personally have built three studios from the ground up and learned a lot as I have done so. There is a wealth of information including Sound Control Tables (STC) and a great variety of sound control products available online and I encourage you to check further, after reading this, to find the best combination for you.

Soundproofing is a term most often used to refer to the reduction of sound pressure

(sound level). Controlling sound levels is essential to the operation of a studio. It may be that you need to control the volume of the sources that you are recording with respect to your neighbors or it may be that you are trying to reduce the sound levels from outside of your studio so as to not interfere with your record-ings or, more likely, both. There is nothing worse than tracking that perfect vocal only to have a motorcycle roar by and ruin it. The key is to eliminate sound transmission as much as possible through your walls, f loor and ceiling.

So, where to start?

WALLS & FLOORINGIdeally you are building your studio

as new construction. Doing that, you can design your walls from the outset for sound-proofing. But, if you are converting existing space, there still are steps you can take to control sound levels. Lets first look at new construction.

If you are on a slab, your finished f looring

SOUNDPROOFING 101

Eileen Kane


SOUNDPROOFINGneeds to be de-coupled from the slab. You

can do this by f loating the f loor. To do this, you build a false f loor that rests on rubber pads spaced evenly throughout the design. That way the concrete wont transmit the sound because the f loor is decoupled from the slab. If a f loating f loor isnt practical then isolate the finished f loor from your slab with a rubber or rubber cork mem-brane. Definitely not as good as the f loating f loor, but you will benefit over no isolation at all.

It is very important to also isolate or de-couple your f loor from your walls. This can be accomplished by attaching rubber under the bottom plate of your walls. There are products specifically designed for this or you can go to a f looring supplier and buy a roll of the rubber/cork material used under carpets to control noise in apartments and cut that into strips. That same material is great under the finished f looring in your recording room and control room, too.

Next, lets look at the design of your walls; thats where your biggest challenge is. Here is what I did in my current studio and it has served me well. There are two walls separated by 1 of airspace. Each wall is insulated with rock wool (you can get this from an insulation supplier).

Each wall also has a double layer of 5/8 drywall with the inside double layer (facing the recording room) separated (de-coupled) by Resilient Channel. Additionally, between the wall studs and the first layer of drywall is a 1/8 rubber membrane. Pictured is a borrowed diagram showing most of these ideas using their 440 Sound Barrier product instead of the double 5/8 drywall I used.

CEILINGSFor your ceilings, I suggest a double layer

of 5/8 drywall attached to your rafters or trusses and insulate it. I used blown insu-lation with a factor of R-36. Finally, use an acoustic sound barrier sealant. This applies like caulking and helps seal the gaps at the bottom of your walls and other places you may have gaps. Note: Here is an important tip unrelated to soundproofing but an important element of studio design: make sure no two walls are parallel. This helps eliminate stand-ing waves in your recording room.

CONVERTING EXISTING SPACESIf you are converting an existing space,

you should try to incorporate as many of the

steps above that you can. Building a second wall, inside of your existing wall, will serve you very well. If you cant do that, attach resilient channel to your existing wall and then add your double layer of drywall. Glue them together with Green Glue (acts as a de-coupler) and attach with screws. Adding additional drywall to your ceiling will be necessary also. Green Glue that as well to de-couple the new layer from the existing one.

ACOUSTICAL TREATMENTNow that youve done your soundproof-

ing, it is equally important to do some acoustical treatment. This is for another article but here are the basics. Leaving your walls with the smooth painted drywall will result in a space that wont sound very good; sound waves will bounce all over the place. There are a number of methods to use, from sound control blankets to attaching carpet to installing curtains or using acoustical treatment products like those from Auralex. Typical treatments include installing absorbing bass traps in your corners and adding absorptive panels spaced as needed to dampen the live-ness of the room, but not remove desired ambience. In many cases, you can send your room specs to acoustical treat-ment manufacturers and they will suggest designs incorporating their products.

Good luck and happy recording!

ABOUT THE AUTHORJim Stafford is the owner of Eclipse Recording Co. in St Augustine, FL. For more info please visit Eclipserecording.com .


EXPERIENCES

Ive spent the greater part of a decade putting together a home studio. Its been a labor of love and a test of sheer will. Ive thought of giving up entirely - and just letting the pros do it. However, Im finally getting to the point where Im making recordings that I can be proud of. The most important thing that Ive learned is that gear really isnt important.

Dont get me wrong - obviously you need a microphone, a DAW or a tape machine and few other things to actually make records - but theres a fine line between what you need and what you want. Dont ever trust that feeling of want; its deceiving and gets in the way of writing music and making recordings. If you start thinking things like, If I could just get that Neumann microphone my voice will sound so much better! Or, If only I had a Neve console my mixes will sound like the big studios and then people will buy my music! STOP.

I was fortunate to attend a college that had an excellent recording program. I was able to experiment with different pieces of classic recording gear including API con-soles, AMPEX tape machines, EMT plate reverbs, Buchla synthesizers and lots of vin-tage microphones. It was overwhelming to say the least. But thinking back on those years in college, I learned the most from the people that I had met - especially my fellow students. Collaboration can be an invaluable source of learning. Sharing mixes with other people and having it critiqued can provide you with a wealth of new perspectives and lead you to better hone your craft.

Listen to the recordings that inspire you and think about what qualities are meaningful to you. Is it the tone of the mix? Is it the timbre of the vocals, the guitars or the drums? Is it the simply just a good song? Find whats meaningful

to you and emulate it in your own music. Try and find interviews with the producer(s)/engineer(s)/artist(s) that made that recording and learn from them. Often times youll find out that its creative microphone placement - not the microphone itself -thats responsible for that sound. One of my favorite recordings, Bruce Springsteens Nebraska was recorded using only a 4-track cassette recorder, two Shure SM57 microphones and an Echoplex. With a modest amount of recording equipment, input from others and a lot of feeling, you can make bril-liant records that are meaningful to both you and your listeners.

ABOUT THE AUTHORAustin Potter is a Philadelphia transplant from Olympia, WA. Hes a huge analog recording fanatic, and as such produces all his music in his home studio. For more info please visit tapesandtubes.com.

Dont Let Gear Overwhelm Your Home Studio

How To Make Meaningful Music On Your Own


LESSONS

FIND A MENTOR (WHETHER THEY KNOW IT OR NOT)

The Internet is so rich with archival foot-age and interviews that researching an artist that appeals to you has never been easier. I have always been a huge fan of Brian Eno (pictured) as both an artist and producer. The lesson that I got from listening to Enos work in combination with reading about him was that experimentation was key.

I have developed a work process based on the concept of ambient loops. I use my home-made loops to trigger a rhythm base upon which I write original compositions featur-ing guitars. The loops can be preserved or discarded depending on how the overall writ-ing process goes. Sometimes the loops stand alone independent of anything else.

IT MAY SUCK AT FIRST BUT IT WILL GET BETTER

I have always been an advocate of record-ing everything. I rarely pick up a guitar unless I am in a position to record and capture what happens next, because it wont be there the next time I plug in. Ive learned that lesson the hard way. Record everything and revisit. Be in a constant state of editing. An idea will find a home somewhere down the line and the presence of what can be perceived as work product will promote progress. Have choices. Quantity will get you to the quality.

DO NOT BE INTIMIDATEDOnce you become familiar with the tech-

nology, it will be there to work for you. Your goals should be both vast and selective at the same time. Mastering the basics of clipping, panning, and levels will inf luence everything that you do. So figure out how to get a basic sound recorded, and dont look back. Lasso the technology and make it work for you.

GIVE IT A DAYOne of the most important lessons that I

have learned over the years, especially now that I am getting older, is to let a new record-ing/idea sit once you have captured the essence of it and saved it. My artistic mood varies dramatically from one week to the next, and I have had some great success in

variety of not only compositional content, but more importantly, mixes. Im constantly sur-prised by my prior decision-making process and I rarely if ever can remember the idea I recorded the week before, so its a constant process of rediscovery for me.

DO NOT DWELLAlways move onto something else once

you have achieved a certainly level of sat-isfaction/quality with an idea that you are working on. Approaching it from a different angle upon return can only benefit the expe-rience. Establish a work process that allows

you to bounce around to multiple projects at once.

MOVE OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

I am a musician who has taught myself to play multiple instruments by ear so that I would simply have something to record, so I dont really have a comfort zone. I do not read music but I have mastered the basic language of the notes on the neck of a guitar and that has allowed me admission into a world of col-laboration and artistic freedom that I never would have imagined 10 years ago.

I made the leap to a DAW running Propellerheads Reason through the Balance audio interface two years ago out of neces-sity. My Zoom 1608 was fritzing out and my old laptop lost its battle against time, so I took that as a sign that is was time to move on. It took a while for me to find the sweet spot with the new technology but once I did, it has been an amazing experience. I dont regret wait-ing, but now that Im here I feel like Im home. My entire catalogue has benefitted from the transition.

LOOK FOR ALTERNATE SOUND GENERATORS

My iPhone has been the single most important artistic tool available to me. No boundaries as to what can be done when sounds generated from Bebot or ThumbJam are looped, enhanced, and manipulated.

TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

I have posted over 100 original composi-tions to SoundCloud over the past few years and enjoyed the music of my peers immensely. It is a wonderful outlet for home recorders and for listeners. I have also participated in many wonderful collaborative projects that have added a voice to my extensive instru-mental archive and given me courage to go out and explore my voice.

ABOUT THE AUTHORSteve Vercelloni is an artist and avid audio recorder living in Long Beach, CA. His most recent work is featured at soundcloud.com/steve-vercelloni .

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Im a jazz saxophone player that doesnt really like to play jazz all that much. I like singer-songwriters, soul music, rock bands, weird string bands, folk music, and electro pop. Cannonball Adderley, Jan Garbarek, and Ornette Coleman got me into the saxophone. Singers and songwriters got me into songs and records. But I never wanted to be a Clarence Clemons. I like being a part of a section. Most bands cant afford to tour with a horn section, so I got into making sections happen in the studio. Enough people in my widening circle of musical colleagues (most recently The Mountain Goats, Hiss Golden Messenger, Bhi Bhiman) wanted me to put together woodwind parts for their records that I thought it would be worth the investment to build a studio where I focused on just that. So thats what I did.

My wife and I bought a house in downtown Raleigh, NC two years ago that had a detached workshop in the backyard, and I renovated the crap out of it. I ran super clean power to it, installed a powerful mini-split heat pump/AC sys-tem, insulated it with dense rockwool, replaced the window and door, installed tongue and groove flooring on the vaulted ceiling, created a slatted wall to give the room some acoustical dimension, and finished the existing yellow pine floors. To give it a more cabin-like vibe, I built a small front porch with an overhang. The total project took about six months, though it probably could have gone faster if we hadnt had a baby in the middle of that, and we didnt exceed our budget of $10,000 by all that much.

Why is this an economically viable route to take, you ask? Normally, if a woodwinds player gets called to do a session in a studio they would get paid a rate either based on the amount of time spent or by the song. If Im in a professional studio for a full day, I usually get between $200-300. A totally fair rate. The idea behind my studio is that I could charge similar rates for my services as an instrumentalist, but the artist/producer wouldnt have to be spending their valuable studio time for my portion of the project. I dont feel like Im pull-ing money away from established studios because,

How To Convert Your Shed Into A Revenue-Generating Home Studio

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How To Convert Your Shed Into A Revenue-Generating Home Studio

in a lot of cases, an artist would either farm it out to someone like me or just not have horns/ wood-winds at all. With my arrangement, people can still have affordable, orchestrated instruments without impacting their budget too much.

Are you wondering about quality, now? Are you skeptical as to whether or not I can produce studio quality recordings in my shed? Well, I was worried about that too. Obviously, the qual-ity of the recordings matters a lot. I didnt want people to be able to tell that I wasnt in a million dollar studio. My approach to achieving this was simple: after playing in some amazing studios I figured out which sound I liked the best, made a note of what the signal chain was (mic, preamp, converter), and then bought that stuff.

Now, this equipment gets expensive. I figured Id start out with a few choice things and go from there. I like ribbon mics on my saxes, so I have a decent AEA ribbon mic, paired up with a Great River preamp, and sent into an Apogee interface with decent converters. Those items cost me roughly $3,800. I steer the ship with Pro Tools and a souped-up Mac Mini. And it all works great. I recommend also having a good dynamic mic, like an SM7 or an RE20, and a midrange large-diaphragm condenser mic like a Mojave MA-300. As far as preamps, start a 500 series rack. Great quality stuff that you can add on to later at a rea-sonable cost. Not everyone is willing to invest in quality home studio gear, so if you do, you might even be able to make some money renting it out.

I buy pretty much everything on an online stores credit card, and keep an eye out for zero interest specials. The minimum payments will have the balance paid off in the zero- interest time frame. Financing $5,000 over 24 months is only around 200 bucks a month, which can be covered with just one session. Thats how I deal with equipment expenses.

The renovation expenses were a combination of gifted money, savings, and credit cards. All of which are paid off now. Other than my monthly credit card bill for equipment and maybe a

slightly inflated electric bill, the studio doesnt really have any overhead.

Though theres an economic reason for hav-ing this studio, my priority is having a space where I can be creative on my own terms. This is not a luxury item for a full-time musician. It is a necessity. When Im not working on a wood-wind part for someone, I can write, practice, and experiment. The more Im able to do those things for myself, the better Ill be at producing great work for other people. Creativity and consistency are the greatest assets for an instrumentalist and session musician. But if you can also have a kick-ass little studio in your backyard, all the better.

ABOUT THE AUTHORMatt Douglas is a trained jazz saxophone and woodwinds player who floats between the jazz world and the world of singer/songwrit-ers. He continues to live and work in Raleigh, North Carolina as a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and songwriter. For more info visit www.mattdouglasmusic.com.


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If only we could record whenever we wanted, didnt have to pay outrageous studio fees and we could try all our ideas without someone holding us back, then wed have it made. After all, it is most every musicians dream to own a studio and achieve a creative complete-ness isnt it? As a musician who became a studio owner and is now no longer a performing musician, I know these ropes and let me tell you - they can tangle and pull you off course.

Conventional wisdom: Recording in our own studio will bring us closer together.Reality: Its more likely to cause stress and arguments. Whether your band is a straight-democracy, democracy with a veto power leader or a front-centric titular leader, you may find that achieving group-think isnt made any easierin fact, its often harder without the leadership (and tie-breaking) of a hired producer/engineer.

Conventional wisdom: Well save money.Reality: If you record very frequently, youll end up saving significant cash. But, qual-ity gear is expensive, whether hardware or virtual, and studios are notorious for nickel-and-dimeing you to death. Youll likely spend

way more than you would in a studio for your first full-length, break even on the second and start saving on your third.

Conventional wisdom: Then well record a lot, to save lots of money.Reality: Recording is a big pain in the ass and theres plenty of obstacles in-between your vision and prolific productivity. Youll only seldom record due to health issues, com-puter issues, plug-in nightmares, neighbor complaints, waiting on more crucial piece of gear and the big onethe lack of urgency created by always having a studio available.

Conventional wisdom: We will reach new heights of creativity.Reality: Yes, youll get plenty of opportunity to fix mistakes and enjoy endless do-overs, but more creativityno. Your left brain and your right brain will likely feud enough to prevent that (if your unruly band mates dont), assuming youve got the deep chops often needed to achieve creativity in a tech-nical world where freshness is elusive.

Conventional wisdom: Well record every-thing from free jams, to rehearsals, to demoswell never lose another good idea again!

Reality: Its hard enough to be on-time, in-tune and always ret to go without having to babysit the laptopand set-up mics, make rough mixes, distribute files to the gang, do DAW/OS updates, etc. Youll record every-thing for a month and then that routine gets old surprisingly quickly.

Dont get me wrong; a little personal dis-cipline goes a long way towards beating the distracted artist syndromes described above. It is possible to have fun and save money if you have an extremely stable line-up, tightly aligned artistic goals and employ realistic expectations. If thats a bit too much to chew, try starting slowly with a simple rehearsal recording set-up and then graduate to the demo recording level. You may find that provides the requisite artistic freedom, without the life-consuming hassles of being a computer-tech/musician/engineer/producer/entrepreneur/coach/marriage counselor

ABOUT THE AUTHORRob Tavaglione owns Catalyst Recording in Charlotte, NC (www.catalystrecording.com) and is a freelance writer/reviewer/columnist/blogger for the pro audio industry.

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Bardi Johannsson of Bang Gang Takes usBehind The Scenes of his Icelandic Getaway

HomeStudioTour


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When I was in college I only had a gui-tar, a Kurzweil keyboard, an ATARI 1040ST, headphones and Cubase. I wrote most of my first Bang Gang album on that setup. I did scratch vocals by singing in the head-phones as they could somehow sense noise as a microphone. I then went to a studio and synced the computer with tape, and recorded everything from the sequencer on the tape and did vocals on top of all that.

Now 20 years later, I have my own studio with a lot of more stuff in it. During my first record

deal I got screwed by an Icelandic record com-pany so I set my goal that in my late 30s I could record what I wanted, when I wanted, in the best quality available and would not have to rely on anyone. I have always been into experimenting with sounds and liked working with all kinds of instruments and sources. I recorded sounds in

nature and tweaked them, made beats with my feet, hands and mouth and made them unrecog-nizable with an effects chain.

Now my studio is built around instruments and gear that are essential for me. I have little by little been cutting out things I dont use. Also, I have been using fewer and fewer plug-ins. It is so nice to have a clean track with all EQ and fx recorded - making decisions before, rather then trying to figure out afterwards in a plug-in mess. I have Pro Tools HD X that is the core of my recordings. Two sets of speakers, ADAM

S3XH and Mackie HR 824. When I write music, produce and start mixing I use the ADAM as they have a soft and fat sound. Then I end in the Mackies. Basically what you hear in the Mackie speakers, you will hear anywhere else. I think I would choose them if I could only have one pair of speakers. Maybe with a sub added.

Essential Yamaha SK 50D and amps

Kiss doll and my first EP and two of my best friends: Keren Ann and Henrik Singapore Sling

I keep my studio quite dark, so it always feels like evening...


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RI can record everything except live drum kit and strings (if they are more then one at a time). Normally I use my Neumann M149 plugged in an Avalon vacuum tube, so it goes through two amps. In an addition, I have a Shure SM57 through an EMI pre-amp. My guitar pedals are combined with a chain of distortion and effects. Normally I just use two distortion pedals and the reverb of the amp when I play guitar. Sometimes the Boss Slow Gear pedal gets on there and some others, as well. It is when it comes to keyboard recordings when I start to put the whole effect chain together. Recording keyboards through guitar pedals in a guitar amp is a lot of fun and weird things start to happen, sonically. I did a lot of that on the new Bang Gang album The Wolves are Whispering. Also most of the drum machine in the track The Sin is Near is recorded through a guitar amp.

The songwriting process varies for me. Sometimes the songs base is written on a gui-tar or piano with vocals, and sometimes I start making a sound universe and then work on vocals afterwards. Recently, I started using only outboard echoes when mixing and producing. I plug each instrument either through the Chorus Echo or a Korg Sampling Delay. I think 75% of the delays on the new Bang Gang album are the Chorus Echo.

When I record guitars, I always try a few different guitars and sounds for each part. Then afterwards I do freestyle sessions where I play around with noise. After that I choose which sounds fit best and go through all the freestyle sessions to pick out weird sounds or clusters that can bring the right ambience to the song. Most of the time I record more than less; sometimes I record an instrument even if I am 90% sure it wont work, but since there is the 10% chance it might work, I have to try it so I wont have any regrets. It is better to regret what you have done rather than what you havent done.

My guitars are mostly Fender, but then I have a Les Paul for sustain reasons. Also an old Rickenbacker that I use for most of the solos. The synths are a combination of essential synths, SH 101, Yamaha SK-50D that I have used as a organ sound on the last three albums. My song Inside from the album Something Wrong is mostly an SK-50D and a Fender Rhodes. Then I have two Roland vocoders that I mostly use for high range string sounds and sound effects. Then I make strange sounds with my mouth through the vocoder and it brings something special.

I also have a POG2 that I used on some of the guitars in the song Sabazios O. It makes the gui-tar sound synthesized and strange. In the guitar solo on My Special One you can hear distorted guitars double-layered in two octaves, with dou-ble layered harmonies. On top of that I put the

guitars through a vocoder and there is one layer of that also.

For bass recordings I usually plug directly into a Focusrite Trakmaster Platinum. I have three different basses that cover all spectrums. A Hofner if I want a retro sound where the bass stands out, a Rickenbacker for fat low frequen-cies and a Fender Jazz Bass for melodic lines. Sometimes I add a delay on the bass to get a more ambient feeling, if that fits.

I feel like todays engineers are often in a hurry and think that they can fix the sound afterwards. Little-by-little, I was going in this direction too, but then I noticed that most often it takes more time and effort to fix something that doesnt sound right, than to actually re-record it properly with the right sound. Now I try to get good takes with all the effects from the beginning. Also, I have been fortunate to have drummers that sound good on takes, so I dont have to treat the sound so much to make it large and fat. It seems like some musicians think that if you play loud in a studio, it will sound loud on a record. But that is not always the case. The softer you play drums, the larger they sound on a record.

In the past I have used a lot of reversing and pitch-shifting afterwards. For example, in the song A Lonely Bird I am using both normal and reversed guitars in the beginning. Sometimes I also use a trick I learned in my film work, and that is to pitch-shift a sound and play it with the origi-nal to make it more fat.

I always keep my studio quite dark, so it always feels like evening. In the winter we actu-ally have 16 hours of darkness here, but in the summer it is reversed. If I dont feel the difference between day and night, time becomes abstract and therefore it is easier to get lost in a timeless space. Also it gets more moody when it is dark and it fits my music very well. If I am recording more ambient tracks, I like to play on them late evenings or night as my mind gets more float-ing at that time and I feel that the space in music becomes more [pronounced].

Then I have three guardian angels in my stu-dio. It is a whip I got from my friends for my 30th birthday, a Kiss doll that sings Crazy Nights and an ABBA jacket I got when I was young.

ABOUT THE AUTHORBardi Johannsson is an Icelandic musician, composer, writer, TV show host (of the sur-realist Icelandic TV show Konfekt), clothing designer and film director. He is mostly known for his work with the groups Bang Gang, Lady & Bird (a side project with Keren Ann) and Starwalker, a collaboration with Jean-Benot Dunckel. For more, follow him on Twitter @banggangband.

Guitar pedals

Speakers, Gainsbourg and a whip

Synths and Keren Ann


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My first home studio consisted of a tower PC running a MIDI sequencer, a Korg DW-8000 synthesizer, and an Akai S-2000 rack mount sampler. I made drum n bass with that setup in my teens. I used to download breakbeats off the Internet using the family computer, cut them up in Cool Edit, and transfered them via floppy disk to the sampler. I saved my allowance for months to buy that sampler. It could do anything the beloved MPC-2000 could do, but it looked like a VCR rather than a spaceships control console. I got the S-2000 to save money, and saving money is high on the list of reasons to record at home.

These days, the price of studio time is always relative to the price of a new laptop in my mind. And these days, a laptop running Logic comprises the sampler, the synth, the sequencer, the four-track, and a boatload of effects and digital sound processing. So theres another reason to record at home: the tools for composition come in the same box as the recording gear. Now lets say youre a strong-headed Aries who likes to be in charge and not have to compromise with anyone else. Youve just accessed the third reason to record from home: complete autonomy. Oh yes, and no hourly rate to worry about. Infinite time. I spent two-and-a-half years writing and recording my debut album at home in my Lower East Side apartment. Thats kind of a long time.

My heroes at the time were Animal Collective and Ariel Pink, lo-fi DIY masters whose homemade sounds created an emotional

intimacy in the music. Im talking about the debut albums of both artists. That first Animal Collective album is mixed with so much treble, you can almost hear their hearing damage. But the compositions and the performances are so full of magic and integrity that the lack of audio fidelity just adds to the story and to the uniqueness. The lo-fi quality makes it sound authentic. I personally try (within reason) to capture sounds with fidelity. But I always know that any failing in that area only serves to increase the authenticity of the artifact, to the right ears. Theres a lot to be said for Quincy Jones amazing productions, but theres also

something magical about Michaels home demos. Thats another great thing about home studios: the opportunity to learn by doing. I dropped out of college after my sophomore year for two main reasons: a) you dont need a degree to be a musician, and 2) the way I learn things is by diving into them headfirst.

One of my favorite experiences as an

autodidact was the ear training I did right

around the time I quit school. I sat with my guitar and honed my ability to identify each chords harmonic function within a song. With a simple guess-and-check method, I began to collect and recognize the sound of IV chords, as opposed to the sound of V chords. It was hugely satisfying to listen to Fine Young Cannibals She Drives Me Crazy, and be able to correctly guess that the chorus progression is I-IV-vi-V. To this day I use my hard-won familiarity with chord sounds to diversify my compositions on each album and ensure that I am not accidentally traversing the same harmonic pathways over and over because I-IV-V in C sounds the same as I-IV-V in F. I

couldnt tell you what key the FYC song is in. I dont think its relevant! Right, so how is all this chord stuff relevant to recording at home, then?

There is so much to learn about engineering, mixing, mastering, etc. There is always more to learn. And there is always more music making to do. And life is not just about one or the otherjust learning or just doing. Just learningthats like a technician who reads every manual,

8.5 Reasons Why I Record at Home and You Should Too

My favorite approach is to learn while doing, and its the most intrinsically rewarding part of

recording at home.


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but never even turns the power on. Just doingthats like a carpenter hammering away, oblivious to blueprints and how to read them. My favorite approach is to learn while doing, and its the most intrinsically rewarding part of recording at home.

At a professional studio, its polite to let the engineers handle the engineering. You might walk away with a nice recording, but you wont learn anything about engineering if youre being professional in there. I make records at home and maybe theyre good and maybe theyre liked by some people. But even if they arent liked by anyone, I still gain experience and knowledge along the way. And that makes it easier to devote myself to such an unpredictable career path. It makes it easier to accept my life. It gives me skills for when my 15 minutes are over.

So what if Im preaching to the converted? In that case you just wanna know what gear I use. So Ill tell you. For my debut record released in 2010, rhythm guitars were played through a Crate G10 practice amp, eBay value about $20. Vocals, guitars and percussion were miked with an AT-3035, which I bought used for about $200. The preamp for everything was a Behringer Eurorack 802 mixer. I tracked the record on an old tower PC, pictured in the liner notes, using Acid 4.0. Mix bus processing involved a lot of Waves L-series Limiters. On my second album, I used a Shure SM-7B, the Michael Jackson mic, for all the lead vocals. The preamp for everything on album number two was an Apogee Duet 2. I tracked everything that wasnt sampled at home in Logic and sent the songs off to be mixed professionally (also in Logic/Pro Tools). This record featured a mix of my Hiwatt Custom 50 amp miked with an

AT-4047 condenser mic and amp simulators from the AdrenaLinn III.

On my new album Ive used the AT-4047 for all but two of the lead vocal tracks, again using the Duet 2 for the preamp. For the other two lead vocals I used the holy grail of vocal mics, a U47, during one day at a real studio. The AT-4047 cost me about $600. The U47s cost around $10,000. Maybe check out my new record and see if you can guess which songs feature the fancy mic. Its surprisingly hard to tell! I always would have wondered about that U47 though. Im glad I got to try it out.

ABOUT THE AUTHORDarwin Deez is a New York-based independent musician. His third album Double Down is due out this September on Lucky Number Records. Follow him on Twitter @darwindeez.

Chris Saunders


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1) Manage your working space with Memory Locations

You probably already use Memory Locations as markers, but did you know you can also use them to create custom views in your session? Memory Locations can remember which tracks are shown, track heights, zoom settings, and also the layout of Pro Tools windows 1 . For example, you can store focus views of different instrument groups. 2 shows a memory location that recalls FX return tracks and uses a Window Configuration to open the reverb and delay plug-ins. Shortcut tip: To recall a memory location from the keyboard, press period on the keypad, then the location number, followed by period again.

2) Save Time with TemplatesPro Tools professionals live by their template

sessions. A template saves a bunch of time-consuming setup work by starting a project with all your tracks, plug-ins, routing, groups and view options in place. Any session can be used as a template by choosing File>Save As Template 3 is a template for tracking a small band. There

are tracks ready for drum mics, a bass DI and Mic, a vocal mic, and some guitars. Each group has been color-coded and routed to a submix (see tip 3). Shortcut tip: To change to several tracks at once (e.g. set output, add plug-in, etc.) select the tracks, then hold Shift+Alt while making the change.

3) Route to TrackThere are often occasions when you want

to route a track to another track. A common example is routing the outputs of several tracks to an Aux Track to create a submix with processing on it. Other examples include creating Sends on many tracks to a reverb return, or to a headphone mix master. Recent versions of Pro Tools make this an easy task, with no need to make buses or tracks manually. 4 shows this trick being used to create a drum

master bus. The drum tracks are selected, and the do to selected shortcut is being held. In the Output Selector menu there are options for Track and New Track, as well as the Output and Bus menus. Choosing Track will let you route to an existing track in the mixer, while New Track

TOP 5 PRO TOOLS TIPS FOR HOME RECORDERS

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will bring up 5 , asking you to choose a track type and name for the submix. Everything else will be taken care of for you.

4) Elastic Time TricksElastic Time and Pitch are technologies in

Pro Tools that you may have used to warp and time-correct your recordings. Here are a couple of other uses:Audition in context:

The Pro Tools Workspace can audition loops in time with your session. Right click the audition button to see all the options 6 . Now if your session is playing, loops will be previewed in time! Change tempo of whole session:

If you want to change the tempo of the whole song and have all tracks follow the grid, do the following: First enable Elastic Audio on every audio track 7 . You can do this by holding Alt while changing any tracks mode, or you can select between polyphonic or rhythmic on a track-by-track basis. Next switch every track into Ticks timebase mode 8 . This means the tracks follow the bars/beats grid instead of

absolute time. Now any changes you make to the overall session tempo or the tempo ruler will affect the whole song.

5) Latency-free overdubbingThe audio engine in Pro Tools 11 and 12 lets

you set a very small hardware buffer and enjoy low latency when recording and monitoring through Pro Tools. Sometimes, though, you get to work on the mix, then try recording an overdub and hear a delay in the input signal. This is usually because youve added plug-ins with inherent processing latency, such as bus compressors/limiters. No problem - simply make sure that the output of the record track is routed directly to the output you are monitoring through, instead of to an internal bus. Pro Tools will work behind the scenes to make sure what you play is bang in time with the rest of the mix.

ABOUT THE AUTHORSimon Sherbourne is a Pro Tools specialist at Avid and was previously a columnist for Sound on Sound. For more info, follow him on Twitter @simonsherbourne.

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If youve never used Pro Tools before, or if its been a few years since you tried it, you should check out Pro Tools | First. Its free and includes most of the features found in the full version. Its also a great way to learn this industry-standard software for writing, recording, editing and mixing music and audio used by the top pros to produce music tracks and soundtracks for movies.

The idea of a free version of Pro Tools isnt new. Avid released Pro Tools Free in 2000 with eight audio tracks to allow users unfamiliar with Pro Tools to check out a reduced feature set version of the software. The current version of Pro Tools software is available for a free 30-day trial, but requires an iLok to run. So whats different about Pro Tools | First?

Pro Tools | First has most of the same features as Pro Tools. The notable differences are the track counts, with Pro Tools | First having up to 16 mono/stereo audio tracks, 16 MIDI tracks and 16 Instruments tracks for a maximum of 48 tracks, compared with hundreds of tracks for Pro Tools. You can save three projects to the cloud but you can also work offline.

Pro Tools | First comes with more than 20 Avid plug-ins including the virtual instrument Xpand!2, with thousands of instrument presets. You can also purchase low-cost plug-in bundles specifically designed for Pro Tools | First from the in-app Avid store.

Avid has also published a six-part video series, Get Started Fast with Pro Tools | First, to help you learn the basics of creating great music tracks. Give it a try and download it now from the Avid website.

ABOUT THE AUTHORAndrew Wild is the Segment Marketing Manager - Music & Education at Avid. For more information, please visit www.Avid.com/ptfirst.

Get Pro Tools for FREE Pro Tools | First


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How To Choose The Right DAW For Your Home Studio


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WHAT IS A DAW?A fancy haircut, 23,000 Twitter

followers and national television exposure are less crucial to an artists success than customizing an original sound design by choosing the proper DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). I am a professional music producer called Anything But Broke with over ten years of music business experience. I work with top-tier artists like Stacy Jones, Nappy Roots and Soopa Groop. Many producers lack a comprehensive definition of what DAW means because the term DAW encompasses a majority of the recording studios components. The computer, digital software and audio interface are all vital parts of the digital audio workstation (DAW). Exploring the basic ways to determine which DAWs are right for individual projects will best benefit the recording process of any producer or DIY musician.

THE RIGHT HARDWAREPicking the correct laptop or desktop

computer to produce music is a starting point for any aspiring producer. Specs to consider include the sound card quality, amount of RAM and core processing units that will determine the quality of sound when it comes time to record and master a hit song. Macintosh and PC platforms are both capable of making great music. Mac users tend to want to work within parameters while PC users want to customize all aspects of the computer. Laptops are best for DJs, solo-musicians and producers looking to make beats for vocal performers. Being able to make music anywhere you go has its advantages. DJs might want to tweak a song before a big performance, solo musicians can record new songs while on tour and beat makers can adapt their beats onthe-f ly to complement vocal performances instantly. Desktops are better at capturing sound than creating it artificially through electronic signals. Therefore, desktops are best for analog producers, sound

engineers and film recorders looking for a more realistic feel to their music or sound.

THE RIGHT SOFTWAREHaving a limitless number of programs

and plug-ins to create music can become problematic for producers. While amateur producers might swear by the legitimacy of free programs including Audacity and GarageBand, they will not produce industry quality sound. Professional producers including Skrillex use programs such as Ableton Live Suite 9, Logic Pro X and Pro Tools 12 to create their records. Dont be fooled! These programs are not equal. Pro Tools has been the industry standard for a long time and has no intention of being dismissed simply due to the fact that Ableton Live Suite and Logic Pro are not standalone programs capable of creating industry quality songs with out help from plug-ins such as virtual instrument programs like Massive from Native Instruments or Sylenth1. Often professional producers use iZotope 6 or Ohmicide to create specific sound designs that can create an artists signature sound.

THE RIGHT STUDIO GEARThe last pieces of essential equipment

will be a mixing board, studio monitors and studio headphones. While many people get lost in the glitz and glamour of these final pieces of hardware its important to snap back to reality when making purchases for your home recording studio. When it comes to recording studio mixing boards for the highest-quality masters, Solid State Logic creates great analog soundboards that come with warranties ( just be prepared to drop considerable amounts of cash).

Digital boards can be just as good or better than analog ones depending on the person using its experience and utilization. If these mixers are too expensive at around $20,000 for a home budget, producers must come to

terms with the fact that they might not need a pro studio mixing board to create their music. In fact, the producer might be better off with a simple control surface or more affordable compact mixer, or renting a commercial recording studio to record live instruments and vocal performances. You can even outsource mastering services at affordable rates while keeping your DAW small at home for basic songwriting sessions.

Most importantly, studio headphones should never change the EQ of the song playing through them before they get to the producers eardrums. Brands such as Beats By Dre and Skull Candy only bass-boost songs and can throw off the entire mix of a track that is already bass heavy, drowning out the treble and middle frequencies before they reach the producers ears. This results in a bad mix - period. Audio-Technica makes great studio headphones at an affordable price that wont change the EQ of the audio being processed. You want your studio cans to be as f lat as possible without any sound coloration the same goes for studio monitors.

After understanding that a producer can be infinitely creative when choosing the right DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), its time to get down to the hard facts. DAW encompasses a full spectrum of hardware and software for the producer to create a masterpiece. After all, you never heard people say van Gogh had a superior paintbrush to all of the other painters in the world. At the end of the day a bad song is a result of a bad artist, bad producer or bad songwriter. Only in perfect harmony can a great song be written, produced and performed to create something lasting that resonates with listeners.

ABOUT THE AUTHORChristopher L. Wanta is the C.E.O. of Sacred Ghost Records LLC. For more info please visit www.sacredghostrecords.com.

How To Choose The Right DAW For Your Home Studio


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In the good old days of analog recording, when something needed adjustment on the mix you reached out for a fader or knob and not the mouse. Somewhere along the way someone decided that doing all the work in one box work was the way to go.

If you are limited on space or are using a laptop for portability, then you most likely do not need a control surface for that rig. However, if you have a stationary system, you should read on.

A control surface is the digital version of the old analog mixer in many ways. Instead of grabbing the mouse to tweak this or change that you reach up and move a sliding fader, push a button or twist a knob.

Most control surfaces on the market allow the use of the HUI mode (that is short for Human User Interface). It is a standard protocol much like MIDI in that allows different programs and hardware to talk to one another. Most DAWs use this protocol.

These control surfaces allow you to adjust data and not the actual sound. That being said, the majority of them have absolutely no audio capabilities at all. Just think of them as another piece of outboard gear.

Most control surfaces today use standard MIDI connections and some use the faster USB connections. Speed is the main difference but the functionality is very similar. So we are going to focus on functionality and not the connectors.

Some keyboards out there allow you to do some limited work to your music via MIDI. These are not in-depth enough to be considered serious for this purpose, so lets look at a real control surface.

Ill start by discussing the Mackie Control Universal (often referred to as the MCU), which is pretty much considered a standard for recording, from home rigs up through pro level studios. Most functions will translate into other control surfaces like the Behringer BCF-2000.

Do You Need a Control Surface for Your Home Studio?


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A quick first look at the MCU leaves the novice scratching his or her head. It looks like a plain 8 or 9 channel mixer with a bunch of knobs and buttons on it. To most, this first look is way too confusing and they move on. But you need to dig a little deeper, especially with the amount of money you can spend on them.

Those sliders actually can access as many tracks as you have. You can slide electronically either a channel or a bank of 8 at a time left or right. So whether your mix has 8 channels or 48 channels or more, you can use this board on them all. Does that make it more useful sounding now?

At the top, above the channel strips, are LCDs that tell you which channel you are on as well as other important track information. You can set the record state, mute and solo for each channel as well as pan and volume with the slider.

The master section had dedicated areas and buttons that allow you to do automation, change parameters on your plug-in, set in and out points, and adjust loops. You can even scrub back and forth to find an exact location. Yes, just like an old analog tape machine where

you could free spool the reels to get where you wanted to be and you could hear what you were doing, as well.

You can swap between the edit window and the mixer window with the click of a button. You can pop from one marker in the timeline to the next quickly and easily even if you are not on the edit window.

Another huge plus of a control window is the transport. Just like old tape decks, you have buttons for rewind, fast forward, stop, play and record. There is even a feature that gets you to the start or the exact end of the tracks. This is a huge time saver to any of us doing recording. Trust us, physical transports are great.

Yes most of these things can

performer magazine: august 2015

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