Things You'll Need:
- computer, and software
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Step 1
So, you are ready to get started on your own recording studio. Making the decision was probably the cheapest thing you are going to do. But fear not, there are some things you can do to keep it on the cheap side. First, we are going to look at Hardware versus Software. How to get the most out of both and to keep the dollar cost down. Me of course, the more I figure out about this and think man, I pretty much have this stuff down. Then no sooner, I realize how much more there is for me to learn. I guess that is why I love to play my instruments and record. It always gives my brain an outlet and never runs out of things to learn, being playing or recording welcome to my world.
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Step 2
Looking at software, there are what I like to call the big three. It may not be on every body's top three list, but I tried them and I liked the quite a bit. They are usually are the cheaper way to go for basic music recording. My number one pick for price and quality, being pc and apple friendly is Albeton le. The le stands for light edition the light edition, this is usually for basic music recording and you can go all the up to video with music recording, but where trying to keep this on the cheap. What can I say ableton is great, very easy to learn maybe a week’s time to get the le's basics down and know your way around the software. It is really very self explanatory and just great to pick up on. The sounds, pre recorded sounds are o.k. but you can purchase real quality sounds from Ableton and they let you preview the sounds as well. The live Recorded sounds are amazing doesn't sound cheap at all. This is very good stuff. 2nd could be first as well here comes Reason. The only hold back with reason that it has no live recording they are all pre recorded sounds, that you can pick and choose from and they also have sounds that you can purchase. The pre recording sounds is what makes Reason standout, very realist and uncheap sounding sounds they are great. Actually these three software programs can all be interchangeable of who is number one and number three. Another very popular program that gets a leg up on everybody is Fruity loops because they give you a free demo that has everything on it. The only difference is that you can't save on the program. Until you purchase the product then you can save your work. Fruity loops has great pre recorded sounds and the recorded sounds are just as great. The only hold back with this program it can be the more difficult of the three to use. It take a little longer a good few months just to get familiar with the program. Now, here if you do decide to go with the software, go ahead a spend a little extra money a get a laptop computer for your software. Computers are getting a lot cheaper today, and also allows you not to feel tied down to your computer as well. It is well worth it to go head spend two hundred dollars extra or so for the laptop just so you can have that freedom of mobility with your music. Again, another thing to consider with software recording is, if you already have a computer you have already covered one of your major expenses anyway. This is considering how many people already have a
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Step 3
O.K. Here we go, lets now look at hardware recoding, This can be easily the more expensive way to go, but it can be done a little cheaper than one may think. First consider of course used vs. new. How much does that out of the box new really means to you. This is where you can save quite a bit on your equipment because of the well known mark up they put on the new products, to make a profit while selling it. Things to remember if you do decide to go used, is that chances are you are buying it as is with no warranty or such. Now, if and if you do your homework and ask questions from the individual that you are buying the equipment from you can really save a nice dollar or so going this route. I myself you not a big buyer on the ebay sites I am starting to turn around to this as well because it becoming more and more safer to do so. Plus with popular web sites there is even added protection just in case you got sucker in a bad purchase of something that was not as advertised quite right. They have made quite few improvements on buyer's identity protection and scam protection as well.
Another thing to keep in mind while going for the hardware is to find the top of the line products and find there equal or the products that rated just below the top of the line products and look at that alternative as well, again more money to be saved here. It is like finding out the store brand fruit loops the cereal taste just the same as the original Fruit loops and saving some money in between.
With hardware there is usually a little longer learning curve on it as well because you really can't see everything that you are doing quite as well. You see what I mean when you purchase your first recording device. My first and still only hardware recording unit is the Boss 900cd, and this was when it first came about was around 700-800 dollars or so great little machine all the music web sites usually give it about four out of five stars. And this is a little recording portable box as well.
So as far as being on the cheap the Hardware vs. Software debate depends on the route you want to go. If you already have nice or pretty decent computer software programs may be the best route. The Programs are becoming more and more popular today because of the cheaper computer. So Soft ware could win on that fact alone. Again it depends on what you really want and how little you want to try to get a way from spending which is the man goal here. So good luck with your p
Comments
GLEN5150 said
on 5/9/2009 please comment on the above article. Espically if you know of other software that a better or easir to use than the ones I.have mentioned. Recording hax become like a second hobby for me now