COMPUTER VS. MULTI-TRACK RECORDER VS. ANALOG
For your recording adventure depending on the level of involvement you will need a Desktop Computer / Laptop, or an external recorder / multi-track recorder. In the present time all home and professional recording studios are almost all digital. The main difference is that using computer to edit your music is much easier and you will get many more features to make your songs unique. You can also experiment with expansions, add-ons and more. most external multi-track recorders are perfect for mobile use, when your computer is not available. They have all that is required but they are limited to this what has already been implemented and once you merge your tracks with e.g. drums, piano and violin into one there is not much you can do, except final mastering. On the computer you are in charge off all recording and everything is displayed on your screen. You aren't limited to small "internal flash memory", as you can always easily get bigger, or external HDD (hard disk drive) if required. For that we recommend 4TB+, ideally 6TB, or even 10TB as raw music files take up a lot of space and it is later very hard to decide which file to keep and which to delete if you will be running out of space!
There are some analog solutions still available, but they have their own purpose to make the record sound old-school and some people use analog systems (valve amplifiers, or valve pre-amplifiers) to make the sound warmer and also for their own satisfaction. We believe that most people wouldn't be interested in cutting the tape and putting it back together in different order just to make a simple change, or spending several thousands on bespoke valve amplifiers. There are some exceptions that we will mention, but most vintage systems are reserved to professional recording studios that remember bands like Led Zeppelin and are recommended for big projects. For reasons mentioned above we will focus on two schools that are currently used and widely available, computer-based and multi-track recorder based systems.
COMPUTER BASED HOME RECORDING STUDIO
When you start you can use any old computer, but soon you will notice that today’s DAW’s (recording and editing software) can be very hard on your CPU (processor), or may not even start if your computer will not meet the system requirements. To make your recording and editing frustration free and smoothly use all of its features you should consider getting a new fit for purpose computer. We have spent many years recording music and special effects and tested many computers (laptops and PC's). When you decide to buy your perfect sound studio recording computer you should consider factors like noise, speed, size and the price. During our recording journey we have worked with several musicians and music studios and this is what we recommend for your first and advanced recording studio:
The Best Desktop Computers for Music Production 2020
The Best Laptops for Music Production 2020
It is important to mention that these recommendations are for the music recording, not for gaming which will require very different set-up. Most games will still work well, but not on highest details setting, or highest resolution - this requires a powerful and unfortunately loud graphic card we absolutely don't need for sound recording applications. If you are looking for a gaming computer we recommend Home Tech Living website. You will find there reliable reviews and recommendations.
DAW Software
Let's assume that you will get a copy of your operating system e.g. Windows 10 installed on your new computer. In order to use your computer effectively you will need one more thing: a recording / editing software. The digital audio workstation (DAW) is the software used to record, apply effects, edit, and mix music and sounds on your computer.
Most recording programs were design to enable users to access as many features as possible in organised way. They also made to maximise your productivity and save time and space. Imagine what your recording studio would be like with massive mixing boards, thousands of knobs and switches, cables and amplifiers. The power consumption of those vintage systems was massive, also heat they were producing was an issue. By buying professional DAW you are not just saving the time and space. The right software will enable your creativity to be used fully without worrying that there is something you would want but you can't, or you don't know how. Here is what we recommend:
The Best DAW (recording and editing) Software for 2020
USB Audio Interface
If you are building your new computer-based home recording studio you will need the audio interface. Computer soundcards are very good for supporting all multi-media like video, dynamic websites and computer sound, but to capture your music in high quality you will need either external sound card, or best audio interface. An audio interface is a hardware that allows you to record in high quality by expanding and improving the sonic capabilities of a computer. Some audio interfaces are very simple and give you the ability to connect one instrument, others will also have an input for professional microphones and more than one instrument and support other types of signals to a computer, and output a variety of different signals as well. Here is what we recommend:
Most user interfaces connects to a computer via a USB connection, some use other connection types such as thunderbolt, or older Firewire.
Thunderbolt is the brand name of a hardware interface developed by Intel that allows the connection of external peripherals to a computer. Thunderbolt 1 and 2 use the same connector as Mini DisplayPort, whereas Thunderbolt 3 re-uses the USB-C connector from USB.
FireWire (IEEE 1394) is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony and Panasonic. Apple called the interface FireWire.
Main differences between a sound card and audio interface:
A Higher Quality Digital to Audio Converter (Audio interface is built for audio production. The soundcard that is integrated with motherboards of your PC, or a laptop just needs to be compatible with operating system and produce high quality sound, not record it.
Sound Latency (the speed at which the signal is converted, or if you wish a gap between when a sound is played and when it's heard. So a slow soundcard will not be fit for the purpose and cause all your efforts to be out of time due to slow D/A conversion by your soundcard. This is extremely important as when you connect your keyboard to the computer you don't want any delays when you press the key and hear it on the computer. All professional DAW programs require a very high latency to function well).
Buffer size (This can be changed in most cases. Setting the correct buffer size is crucial to achieving good performance from your audio interface. If it's too small you'll suffer audio clicks and pops and if it's too large you'll encounter audible delays when playing in real time. The perfect setting depends your computer speed, software you use and obviously what audio recording interface, or soundcard you use.
Higher Sampling Rate (The sample rate is the amount of data your soundcard can "hear, understand and record" in a single moment. The higher the sampling rate the more information is captured and the better the quality.
Bit Depth (The bit depth is the detail of the digital signal processed. The higher the bit depth the better the quality).
Dedicated drivers tailored to unique components (A driver is a group of files that allow hardware devices to communicate with a computer operating system. All good soundcards and every audio interface will have dedicated drivers, but some of them use universal ASIO). Many professional recording studios recommend universal ASIO drivers, but be careful, they won't make miracles on standard soundcars. They will increase stability and improve latency speeds, but they won't deliver desired results if the hardware you use is low quality. API. Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) is a computer sound card driver protocol for digital audio specified by Steinberg, providing a low-latency and high fidelity interface between a software application and a computer's sound card).
Variety of inputs and outputs (A built in soundcard will usually have a few 3.5mm headphone inputs and outputs to connect your speakers and a microphone, more advanced soundcards will also have more outputs to feed to your 5.1, or 7.1 home cinema system and a digital optical output. Sound interface will have 1/4 inch jack type connections (guitar cable) and XLR type connections (microphone cable). Better sound interfaces have also both balanced and unbalanced type connections to monitor and record your music in the real time.
Quality pre amp (A pre-amp amplifies a low level audio signal such a microphone signal, but don't think that a traditional soundcard will deliver high quality amplification. most souncards have very basic amplifier and produce a white noise, or other undesired sounds, or amplify the white noise coming from the microphone rather than just the signal. Good quality amplification is vital for sound quality and later for sound processing. When using a soundcard many people use external quality pre-amplifiers, but now most audio interfaces have one built in.
Phantom power (Phantom power is a direct current sent down a microphone cable to make it work. Famouse condenser microphones require this kind of a power, so make sure your audio interface will have this feature built-in.
Additional features (Sound input level, Sound level indicators, clipping / distortion warning light, signal GROUND to avoid undesired noise and many more. None of the soundacrds have these functions.
Online support (Many semi-professional and professional audio interfaces offers a quality support and large internet resources, tutorials as well as internet fora full of musicians trying to master their recording skills. Soundcards will only be mentioned when something doesn't work, as most people won't be using them now (like we all did in the 90's) for home recording.
The Best Audio Interfaces for 2020
Soundcard
All computers and laptops have a soundcard built in. Frankly speaking, a sound card is an audio interface, but as you already know after reading the text above its limited sound quality and limited I/O (connections) make it less than ideal for recording. Many sound cards only have a low quality stereo line-in input, a headphone output, and possibly also a low quality stereo line-out output. This setup is perfect for multi-media, but will not satisfy any professional music studio. You will hear the difference when you play your music through studio monitors (see below), or studio monitor headphones (see below), not so much through computer speakers, which are design to deliver entertainment at high volume.
Computers aren’t designed with professional musicians in mind, they just need to deliver quality sound, not record high quality audio. They might be used by people to watch films, Youtube videos or play games (even with DTS 5.1 / 7.1). They do all these things just fine but are not specialised for sound recording therefore don’t get the desired quality.
A sound card helps by acting as a translator. It uses a digital to analog and vice-versa converter which converts the digital signal from the computer (games, video, youtube) and translates it to analog audio signal. Using a soundcard you can also connect a microphone and convert it to a digital file on your computer. The first soundcards were only capable of producing a series of 8 bit sounds with FM syntheses for music. This has changed and now the standard is HD sound with 5.1 connectivity. Most soundacrds will still offer stereo (sending different audio to left and right speakers).
An external soundcard has enhanced digital to audio conversion capabilities, but still lacking required inputs and features.
Sound card is not ideal, but a good start if you don't have an audio interface. Take a look at the best soundcards we recommend:
The Best Computer Soundcards for Sound Recording for 2020
Studio Monitors
Studio monitors are speaker specifically designed for professional audio production applications, such as recording studios, film making, television studios, radio studios and project or home studios, where accurate audio reproduction is crucial. Most of studio monitors are active with internal amplifier, so they don't require additional external amplifier like traditional home cinema, or hi-fi speakers. Quality studio monitors deliver sound without adding any colouring, or additional high, mid, or low frequencies. The whole idea is to get the sound intended by the band, or an artist on "neutral sounding" speakers. This is very important when listening to e.g. Grand Piano, as it is known that low quality speakers tend to add some sort of flavour to the natural sounding Grand Piano jeopardising all efforts to record its natural sound.
The Best Studio Monitors for 2020
Studio Monitor Headphones
Monitor Headphones are designed to sound accurate and not just pleasing, since they are mostly used, as the name implies it, to monitor a recording in the studio. With the studio headphones you will hear EXACTLY how everything sounds to be able to adjust / modify the sound, depending on your needs. Good headphones will sound also amazing while connected directly to the keyboard, or digital piano.
There are three main types of studio headphones:
Closed-back on-ear
Open back on-ear
In-ear
Closed-back headphones are best for recording as they will fully enclose your ears, and the padding around the ear helps to avoid hearing external distractions (when listening) and unwanted spill e.g. backing track leaking out and ending up on your recording (when recording). Closed-back headphones are the best when you to monitor loud and don't want this to be picked up by your microphone (while singing).
Open-back headphones are lighter and therefore a bit more comfortable for long recording sessions, but they’re generally not as popular. Because of the higher risk of audio spill, they tend to be more suitable for mixing, rather than recording, and they also don’t block out external noise quite as effectively as closed-back headphones.
In-ear monitors (IEM’s) are usually reserved for on-stage monitoring and not as much recommended, or even suitable for use in a home, or professional studio environment. Sound needs space to resonate and in-ear monitors are mainly used as portable option, when an artist needs them, but wants to make them unnoticeable.
Other important aspect of headphone design that may influence your buying decision is impedance. It is quite important to achieve good impedance matching with both your headphones and your audio source, as this will help your headphones work more effectively.
Generally high-impedance headphones are designed for studio environments and are connected to a professional headphone amplifier. Low-impedance headphones are designed to be plugged directly into a single source, like a keyboard, hi-fi, home cinema, TV, audio interface or mobile phone, so they’re able to generate sound more efficiently from the lower-level input signal these devices can produce.
If you are planning to buy external headphones amplifier you should consider getting a high-impedance headphones. If you will be connecting your headphones to audio interface, soundcard, or directly to your keyboard / digital piano you should consider buying low-impedance headphones.
The Best Studio Monitor Headphones for 2020
What else to consider?
Microphones
Microphone Stands
Pop Filters
Monitor Isolation Pads
Soundproofing
MULTI-TRACK RECORDER BASED HOME RECORDING STUDIO
The BEST Multi-Track Recorders for 2020
FURTHER HOME RECORDING STUDIO IMPROVEMENTS (NOT REQUIRED IN THE BEGINNING)
Design/Setup
Mixing Desks
Studio Chairs
Signal Flow
Bass Traps
Acoustic Panels
Reflection Filters
Audio Cables
Monitor Placement
Studio Monitor Stands
VINTAGE AND MODERN HOME RECORDING SOLUTIONS
HOW TO RECORD AUDIO
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