The Studio

I planned to build an "affordable to record in" studio - capable of producing broadcast quality recording - but reasonable enough for doing any-old-recording.

There are lots of places you can record, your bathroom being a good spot #1.

But at some point you want to sound really good and getting those little edges right can be tricky without a controlled environment and some specific pieces of gear.

Here are the most important ones:

The Right Mics

Pro studios have a couple of -really good vocal mics- around because not everybody's voice is captured correctly with an sm58. In fact, almost nobody. The highest quality microphones are made by Neumann, AKG, Rode, Avantone and Blue. Each microphone will sound different. Sometimes solid state microphones are right for the application, sometimes tubes, sometimes large-diaphragm, sometimes small, sometimes ribbons, sometimes condensers, sometimes dynamic, etc. It just depends. So listening to options in context is critical. If you're going for the vintage vibe, you're going to want to use what they were using, AKG's and Neumanns. If you're going for something more modern, you may STILL want to go for the old-mics with different pre-amps and eq settings, etc. The options are infinite.

I landed on Neumann, AKG, Rode, Avantone and Apex as well as some standards (shure, sony, etc.) as "the ones to have around". I know one will work right for the application.

The Right Pre-Amps

The truth here is that there really are just a few good options. Universal Audio simply makes the best microphone pre-amps for any application, solid-state or tube, modern or vintage, they've got the right sound. There are a few options in the line. But, for instance, for drum overheads, they're not always the right choice, a simple completely transparent one is needed. I landed on Mackie's because they have the best clean solid state pre-amps available with the highest quality digital-analog converters available alongside the shortest signal path. I've got a few "other things" for playing with if I really want something strange, but those are the ones for -the sound your probably gonna want- like if you want to sound like anything from Muddy Waters to the Beatles to Marilyn Manson or Miley Cyrus.

The Right Recording Software/Hardware

I like Pro-Tools - it's a standard. It does 7.1 surround, has a nice collection of plug-ins and is relatively straightforward to work in. It can product 192khz digital recordings and has nice automation.

I like Logic Pro too, it's the upcoming standard, I think it will surpass protools soon because of the quality of its built-in plug-ins, ease of use, stability and compatibility. It's right there with protools for producing high quality audio and even available for doing some mastering work.

It's important obviously to have enough channels to record in - 16 with an option on 24 - as well as good midi integration and a "flying faders" control surface for people who can't look at monitors (are there any more of these?).

The Right Rooms

Room Size, Shape and Sound Proofing and Reflectivity control are extremely important. The ability to contour a room is especially important for recording bass, electric guitar, vocals and drums, with the ability to tune those rooms on the fly, so a configurable sound-proof environment is required. At the same time, it's not convenient to keep a cathedral around if you're looking for that cathedral sound which is almost certainly done better remotely anyway. So I'm preparing three different controlled isolated rooms with different configurations and the ability to tune the rooms on the fly with movable baffling and reflectivity control.

A Good Monitoring Environment

A mix should sound good on a cheap pair of headphones, a super-cheesy computer speaker, a very nice car stereo, a 7.1 surround THX system and -anything else you plan to have your recording heard on- and that means having a good test environment. It should also sound good at all of the levels you're planning to play it at. This means managing harmonic and sub-harmonic distortion very carefully. My control room has four sets of monitoring systems to allow for just this kind of testing at all volumes, as well as to allow for audio-for-video production. It also means having a tuned room and tuned speaker system for that particular room.

A Comfortable Environment

Nobody likes recording in a pig-sty. But sometimes even your own house won't have the right vibe, you need to find a vibe that works for you. Sometimes you want to record with the lights out, sometimes with them on, sometimes with a Dread Zeppellin poster hanging there next to a lava lamp, it's all about everyone being comfortable with what's happening but leaving that little rush that gives a performance sparkle, the "showtime" rush.

Those are the factors that have gone into my studio-design decisions.