Going into studio

[HolyRoly]

I have 5 original songs that I am ready to record and I have be given suggestion by some musician friends but they are all based on money. I have sampled some of them online and they sound good but these are guys that are working out of a spare room in their parents house "not that there's anything wrong with that" but, I am looking at a professional product that I can use for as press pack, NOT for public distribution (maybe Itunes).

Can the guy working out of his parents house put out a professional sounding product and are there any drawbacks to working at this level?

If I go to a professional studio can I have recordings done, but not on CD, just for my website?

Any advice or clarification of my questions would be very helpful, thx in Advance, Roly.

[Doug Young]

Yes, you can certainly record good sounding tracks at home, but there's a pretty big learning curve, and you'll also need to spend at least some money on gear. All in all, if you haven't done this before and don't have the equipment, your cheapest and fastest route is going to be going to someone else's studio. For a one-time thing, renting is almost always cheaper than buying, and you'll get the benefit of someone else's expertise. If you want to invest the time and money in learning to record so you can do it over and over again, then investing the time and money to do it at home is well worth the effort.

And sure, if you record at a studio, they can give you the tracks anyway you like, and you can post them on the internet if that's what you want to do.

[HolyRoly]

Thx for the reply Doug, I actually have no intention of doing or learning the recording myself, I was more interested in if it was better to go to a pro studio vice someone elses home studio?

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by HolyRoly

Thx for the reply Doug, I actually have no intention of doing or learning the recording myself, I was more interested in if it was better to go to a pro studio vice someone elses home studio?

Sorry, I read that as *your* parents house, I thought "the guy" was you :-).

Well, that's a tougher question that I don't think there's any way to answer. Someone else's home studio could be incredible, and they might know what they're doing. Or not... These days, you'd be surprised how many bands and especially smaller acts, solo acts and so on, are mostly recorded "at home" in some small studio. The days when everyone had to go to a big fancy studio with people behind the glass are long over for all but the biggest acts. Anyone with a computer can have a half-way decent studio, gear-wise, quite cheaply. The hard part is room acoustics, and the expertise to know what to do with the gear.

You don't say what you're recording. Solo guitar? A full band? Makes a big difference in what you need. If your friend will spend lots of time with you for cheap or free, that may trump a "pro" studio where you're watching the clock. Or it might not.

I'd get some experience and see what works for you. Choose a studio and go in and record 1 tune. Your first time in may not go all that easily, but step back, assess, and then try again. Oor maybe you'll be thrilled, in which case, go back and crank out the other tunes!

[HolyRoly]

Thx again for your time Doug, I perform as a solo act in the pubs here in town but do occasionally get a trio involved for patio gigs, so I could record either way. I had planned to record as a trio but I had a friend tell me she bought a CD of somebody that she heard play in the pub and really like their original stuff until she heard it played accompanied by other musicians, she didnt care to much for it after that, so I thought maybe I would go into the studio alone and record solo and perhaps add bass and percussion later on. Another thing that I have noticed on some of the recordings from around here is that they dont have any feeling, that is to say, if I heard the song live I would have liked it but after hearing the recording is sounds pretty soul drained/cookiecutterish ( sorry for the made up adjectives). Is this a result of bad room/acoustics or just a matter of trying to hard in the studio to get it "perfect". Again any little tips would be helpful, cheers, Roly.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by HolyRoly

Is this a result of bad room/acoustics or just a matter of trying to hard in the studio to get it "perfect". .

I think that's mostly experience at playing in the studio. It doesn't matter if you're at Abbey Road, or have a pocket recorder sitting on your kitchen table, there's something about that red light coming on that makes you tense up and not play with the same feeling. That's one thing that can be better about recording at home - it's hard not to be thinking "I've got to play perfect, I've got to play perfect" when the clock's ticking by with $$$'s at stake. At home, at least in theory, the pressure should off. Don't like it? Delete it and try again. No one will ever know how many takes you did before you got something you like.

This article might be useful, I wrote this a few years back for Acoustic Guitar, and it features a nice photo of Anton Emery, an AGF member:

How To Prepare for a Recording Session

You might need an AG subscription or account to read it online. it was in Sept 2009 if you want to find it in the library or wherever.

[rdm321]

Originally Posted by HolyRoly

I have 5 original songs that I am ready to record and I have be given suggestion by some musician friends but they are all based on money. I have sampled some of them online and they sound good but these are guys that are working out of a spare room in their parents house

Perhaps some of your musician friends could introduce you to their recommended studios. Are they local? If you could visit them, you could look at their equipment and room setup, and get some idea of their level of abilities. Maybe they could do a quick one-track recording of you as a demo of their studio.