Back in the day, recording used to be a convoluted task , requiring specialized equipment and engineering by highly experienced technicians which included contributions of musicians, songwriters, vocalists, arrangers, publishers, engineers, and, producers. As time progressed digital recording technology has vastly narrowed the performance and price gap between semi-pro demo and pro gear tools and now the time has arrived making it possible to actually record professionally at home with a laptop, desktop or any other dedicated home recording device. Before jumping too far ahead of yourself, understanding the following categories of – Room Acoustics, Studio Monitors, The importance of VST plug-ins, and Knowing Your Daw will put you well on your way to a professional sound from home.

• Room Acoustics:

The truth is, most people are recording from home in either a bedroom or a  living room these days. The whole reason for recording at home is price and convenience. Having a professionally treated room at home is pretty remote in my opinion. Fear not,, because there’s many things you can do to achieve a competitive sound in your bedroom! With a small budget there are plenty of little things you can do to get rid of some of the stuffiness from the walls and ceiling. You would be surprised at what just a few pieces of Studio Foam could do to your room. The Acoustic Wedge Soundproofing Studio Foam Tiles are cheap ($32) and do the job well. If you don’t have a big budget you can order them over time. These pieces come in a 2x12x12 (12 Pk) which is a pretty good bargain. Knowing the sound of your room and where to place the damping material will put you on your way to a decent sounding room. Don’t forget to make sure your monitors are at ear level when mixing.:)


Using tools like T-Racks Spectrum Frequency Analyzers will help you make better eq decisions in your room with out having to rely so much on your ear. The best way to use a frequency analyzer is to import one of your favorite tracks or favorite artist songs into the analyzer, take a careful look at the spectrum, and see where the bass -mid range – and treble falls. The analyzer will hear things that you can’t giving you better input on how to move forward with your room eq. More importantly, knowing the sound of your room is critical. You need to listen to your favorite music in this room all the time and train your ears to your room! My favorite Spectrum Analyzers is IK Mutimedia’s T-Racks 3. It comes fully loaded with the Spectrum Analyzer and is a superb mastering suite!
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• Studio Monitors and Tuning of speakers:

There really are tons of studio monitors out there from which to choose from. In my opinion, it really depends on how well you know your speakers and your room. Bass range control seems to be one of the biggest problems I encounter when talking to my fellow producers. If you’re producing tracks with a lot of bass and kick like hip-hop and R&B, it’s probably best to have a decent sub-woofer to help push through those low frequencies. You need to hear them well in order to make balanced adjustments. I’ve learned that when I have the sub pushing heavy on the bottom end, I’m not adding too much bass in my tracks. Still again, knowing your room and listing to your favorite tracks will help you achieve good balance. I like the Yamaha HMS-80M studio reference monitors because they give me accurate bass distribution and they don’t color the sound too much. I gives me the actual real sound with no adjustments. I believe it’s important to here the “true sound” in order to make better mixes. It also has room control gain switches for +-2db treble, midrange, low cut frequency, and flat.
You can get here.
       

• Importance and Advantages of VST Plug-ins:

Plug-ins are an essential part of any computer-based recording system. In fact, even the most expensive and pro studios have a heavy arsenal of VST plugs. Plug-ins allow one to process the sound of their instrument in an almost infinite variety of ways which can range from basic effects such as delay or reverb to special tricks such as raising complete volume of a track( compression), changing pitch of an instrument, vocal tuning and much more.  The sound of your home recording can be totally manipulated with the use of vst plugins. Companies like waves, Izotope, and Antares have mastered the creation of such plugins. They have even managed to model state of the art analog processors such as the API and SSL.  I keep a huge arsenal of izotope plugins ready and on the go in my studio.

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• Know Your DAW!

Knowing everything there is to know about your preferred DAW is just as important as which DAW you’re using. There is a great many software applications to choose from but it all boils down to what you know about what you’re using. Take a little time every week to find out something new about your preferred application. Through my years as a producer I would always utter the words “if only I knew that before I finished the record”! I have made it a habit to learn new things about my DAW and this has boosted my production workflow considerably.

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-Jackiem Joyner