By Gene Smith

I've been recording sound for about forty eight years. Some of my efforts have been good; others-well, not so good. I'm not an expert on sound recording. However, I have been doing it for a long time and I may be able to pass some information on to you if you are just starting. In fact, I have my own recording studio in a room in my home. I've made several records, tapes and CD, even some have sold. I may have made $500 on my effort of 8,000 hours of work but that's not a problem. If you don't have much money (and that should be about 80% of you out there) this article might point you in the right direction. I'll tell a little bit about recording, equipment and the like. Here goes.

There are home recording studios available at music stores and on the web. You can spend up in the thousands or you can purchase a basic one from $200-$1.000. I recommend something like a Boss 8-track recorder. Some of the newer ones even have a CD burner. Microphones you can spend a fortune or you can get a fairly good one for about $100. If you can get a condenser mic that's usually a good one to start with. If you get it in a store, ask to try it out on one of their amps. If you hear a hum, beat feet in the other direction. The grounding is not sufficient to make this a good mic. Look around-take your time. You'll need a microphone stand and you can get them at many places like music stores and the web.

Another thing-make sure the mic cable matches the Recording Studio Inputs on your machine. The standard is the RCA phone plug. If you don't have a match-you can't plug your mic in the recording studio.

You'll need a set of speakers or earphones. Check your wallet to see which one is right!

And please, read the instruction book that came with your Home Recording Studio before you attempt to operate it. Try to read it completely even though you don't know what they are talking about. Most of this stuff will come back to you once you start recording.

I'm guessing that you have a guitar, keyboard, drum machine or all so I won't go there. Most new Recording Studios allow you to "hotwire" you guitar into the machine. That is, you don't need an amplifyer. In fact, most have a big selection of effects built right into the machine. The effects can be used after some grief. After all, you must remember that the instructions and machine options were probably designed by a college graduate. However, with study of the manual, you will be able to overcome the "user hostile" traits of your machine.

Redoing you room-or other area for a recording studio: If you are a teenager,check with mom and pop before you do anything drastic to a space in their owned or rented dwelling. Go to one of those big hardware stores near you. They sell this foam padding for carpets. It's relative cheap and ugly. It's about a half-ince of foam. This make wonderful soundproofing of the walls,ceilings and floor. You should be able to get a lot of this stuff for about $50. Again, check with you folks before you change the decor of their dwelling if that is your situation.

About Recording Sound- Sound Level-When recording, keep the idiot light to about 90-100 percent on your machine. Digital has a tendency to just "drop off" if you exceed 100%. In the old analog days, the sound just became muffled. It took me a while to get used to this trait.

In your recording, you eventually have to be smarter than the machine. For example: You'll want to push the bass close to the 100% level during remix to get the proper level of your finished product. For treble, you'll need to back off the about 40-50% or it will be just too loud on the finished product. You'll have to experiment.

Equalizer Controls-The new machines have the treble/bass set up pretty well without messing with these controls. You can improve on this setting but only after study and practive with your machine.

Reverberation-Nifty control that allows you to add the effect of a concert hall, canyon, etc to your track. Pan-This control allows you to "Place" the vocal, instrument, drum, etc. in an audio area to your left, to your right or in the center of where you are sitting.

Read the book that came with the machine. These are just a few tips are not intended to fully replace the knowledge needed to make and produce a good recording.

On Mix or Remix: Set pan(s) on all you tracks to make the appropriate spacing of the instruments in an invisible line between the speakers. For start, place the vocal at 12 noon, the drums at 9 o'clock, guitar at 3 o'clock, Bass at about 1 o'clock. Try experimenting until you are satisfied with the set-up. The drums and guitar, if in the same pan area, like 7 o'clock, tend to cancel each other out. I feel that you should have the drums to the left and the guitar slight to the right or to the right.

Back to the mic: Don't french kiss it. Leave about 5 inches between the vocalist and the mic during recording. You can purchase a sound popper that cuts down on the wind on some words like "push, pain, party, etc". The sound popper is place between you and the microphone.

This is basic stuff for the beginner. I know that you'll improve and with practice and study you'll make studio like recordings of your stuff.

I wish you the best.

(c)2006 Gene M. Smith