Recording Music At Home On A Computer

Recording music is a amusement of mine, and I adore the affluence and accessibility of recording in my home studio. My flat didn't bulk me an arm and a leg; it's basically all done with my home computer, recording software (a agenda audio workstation, or DAW) and an alien audio interface. This commodity will explain how I record, and hopefully you can yield some of this advice and acclimate it to your own situation.
First of all, what I mostly almanac are awning songs (songs accounting and recorded by others). This makes the action abundant faster and the recording goes almost smoothly. The song is already written, and the altered advance are already established. Very little in the way of adroitness is complex on my part. Therefore, from my angle it's appealing easy. By the way, I almanac one clue at a time, usually by myself. Once in a while I'll accept anyone almanac a brace advance for me, but 99% of the time I accomplish on all of the tracks.
You see, my backbone is bound if it comes to getting creative, and aswell accepting to battle with the real-world technology of putting my account into a agenda realm. If I had to acquire my active autograph songs, I apparently would be on a abiding diet of ramen noodles and all-encompassing soda. I generally blow that I can almanac an absolute song in 3 hours or less. A lot of of the time, 2-3 hours is an adapted bulk of time for a archetypal song. I don't wish to abatement my creativity, because I can still be artistic to the point that I change instruments acclimated for altered advance and inject some of my own appearance into the song as I record. But that's not what this commodity is about; it's about the address of recording on a home computer.
Let's activate with what you'll charge to do the job efficiently. I started with a laptop active Windows Vista, and alone 2G of RAM. It lasted 6 years, and although I had my allotment of problems with it, it did the job. These days, I'm active a desktop computer with 12G of RAM, and with Windows 8 as my operating system. It's abundant easier, let me acquaint you. If you're searching for a computer that can handle the rigors of music recording, don't cut corners if you don't accept to. Abounding songs and advance were absent over the endure 6 years, because I didn't save my book and the laptop just shut down. Get the best processor you can afford, and the a lot of RAM. This will allay a lot of of your headaches, from a abstruse perspective. My computer bulk me $488 (in June of 2013). There isn't any adapted accouterments in the computer for recording; it's just an off-the-shelf box.
When it comes to active a agreeable apparatus or microphone in, you charge an interface to be able to do that. Sure, your computer apparently has a 1/8" ascribe for a microphone, but that banned the blazon of accessories you can use and how you pre-process your sound. With an audio interface, you're searching for something you can bung a guitar and a microphone into, and has a USB achievement to bung into the computer. How abounding inputs you accept for your interface will depend on how abounding accompanying advance you plan on recording. If you just like to almanac arena a guitar and singing, you apparently charge at atomic two inputs. This is addition one of those things area you could get by with less, but added inputs gives you added adaptability down the road. I in fact use my guitar pedal lath to interface into my computer. It's a POD XT Live, fabricated by Line 6, and it lets me punch in that absolute guitar sound, as able-bodied as giving me a apple-pie complete for keyboards and vocals. Depending on the recording software you get, you can sometimes actualize some air-conditioned furnishings during bond and mastering.
This brings me to the recording software, aswell alleged a DAW, for Agenda Audio Workstation. This is a abundant time in the history of audio recording, if a complete can be recorded mostly in a agenda state. Sure, some of the audiophiles out there will altercation the agenda vs. analog sound. But alone from a recording standpoint it isn't even a contest. It wasn't continued ago that band was the alone bold in town, and every flat was abased on a big reel-to-reel band apparatus in the bend of the studio. Again you had to accord with issues such as band hiss and clue drain through. Recording and bond advance of any superior was an art anatomy and the best engineers & mixers were awful approved after. I went to academy to apprentice how to do that in the astern 80's, and it's always easier nowadays. If I started home recording, I had a 4 clue carriageable Fostex assemblage which recorded on cassettes. You would almanac two advance on Side A, and two advance (backward) on Side B. If you capital to almanac added tracks, you had to "ping-pong " (also alleged "bounce") tracks. This complex demography a bulk of tracks, and abbreviating them down to one track. So if you had 3 tracks, absolute bass guitar, drums, vocals, and you capital to almanac two or added added tracks, you had to mix the three advance down to one. It's an cruel address at times, so you can absolutely accomplish abhorrent errors. Not to acknowledgment the audio abasement that happens if you carbon analog sources. Enough age-old history, now we accept the DAW and recording is a breeze.
There are abounding chargeless DAWs out there, so I would acclaim aggravating those out aboriginal afore advance a brace hundred dollars or added for a able software package. If I started, I acclimated Audacity, which is open-source software accessible for free. If you're not accustomed with software development, open-source is the agnate of a aliment compound readily accessible to chefs everywhere, and if one of them makes an improvement, they let anybody abroad accept the recipe. There are connected upgrades and appearance that accomplish this a applicable apparatus to accomplish some acceptable music. It's aswell a acceptable way to acquisition out if this is what you adore doing. So I assumption I would acclaim Audacity. But there are a ton of added chargeless DAWs out there, and apprehend the online reviews to get an authentic barometer from musicians.
If you wish accretion and whistles, you'll accept to pay for one of the pro software packages. The adeptness of the pro systems is their adeptness to handle the deluge of plug-ins, and automation that you may be absorbed in down the road. The arrangement I now use is Flat One by Presonus, and it does aggregate that I need. To be honest, I don't even use it to its abounding capability. But all I know, the controls are abundantly automatic and simple to learn. Let's alpha talking about my action for recording a song.
I generally blow that I can almanac an absolute song in 3 hours or less. A lot of of the time, 2-3 hours is an adapted bulk of time for a archetypal song. If I get an afflatus or a appeal for a accurate song, I'll aboriginal get a archetype and accept to it. I apperceive my capabilities and whether I can accomplish all of the parts. Sometimes I accept to airing abroad from a song because of articulate range, or complication afore I even try it. The affliction case book is if I almanac a few advance and again apprehend I'll never accomplishment the song. The 3 instruments I use are electric guitar, electric bass, and keyboards. My boom advance are played on the keyboard. I bung aggregate (including the microphone) into my POD, and ascendancy the furnishings through that. Again, back my POD has alone one input, I almanac one clue at a time.
Track bulk one is the aboriginal song, and is the adviser for every track. Clue two is the aboriginal recorded clue (guitar, for instance) and is played forth with the aboriginal song. Again I aphasiac clue two, and I almanac clue three aswell while alert to clue one. And so on, until I've recorded all of the tracks. At this point, anniversary of the alone advance has been recorded, while alert to alone the aboriginal song, afterwards any attention to the recorded tracks. It's a aberrant way to go about the recording process, but I like the way it turns out. If I'm done, I aphasiac clue one, and un-mute all of the added tracks, and accept to how it angry out. At that point, I can re-record or add furnishings to some tracks, or add added advance if it needs some added instrumentation.
Now that I accept the song recorded the way I like, it's time to mix. Bond is adjusting anniversary of the advance so they complete acceptable in affiliation to anniversary other. Clue aggregate is the capital ascendancy at this step. Aggravating to alloy advance so they don't asphyxiate out others is a aerial antithesis and takes practice. Speaking of balance, at this date I aswell ascendancy the animadversion of anniversary track. If I accept two guitar advance arena the aforementioned part, I may pan one hardly right, and pan the added one hardly left. I'll aswell abolish sections in a articulate clue area a accompanist isn't singing or a guitar clue if it isn't playing, to abstain any accidental noise. A diva may be affecting the mic and causing babble afterwards acumen it, or the fizz of a adulterated guitar afore and afterwards the abandoned ability be distracting.
Once the mix is to my liking, it's time to alpha arrive the song. At this point, I will EQ the final mix to accomplish it complete full, and add any fade-ins or fade-outs at the end if charge be. If I'm annoyed how the song sounds, I will actualize a stereo mix of the song from that final master.