You could be a small home studio owner, similar to myself, a recording artist that is in and out of professional studios all the time, or you may just want to know a little more about the two and their pros and cons...... You're in the right place!
Recording in........ A PROFESSIONAL STUDIO:
When you find yourself recording and having paid for time in either a big or small professional studio, you generally get brilliant recording quality and a lot of help. The package deal one usually would get by purchasing time in the studio....... i.e - A recording engineer or several, fabulous microphones, amps, speakers, instruments and outboard gear, pre-production time, post-production mixing and or mastering.... and the list goes on. Professional advice and ears are at your will, there to help you make the better decisions and achieve a great quality musical or audio product. There's a particular awesomeness and sweet vibe about the professional studios. They are often aesthetically designed with creativity and for setting a vibe up for working in the creative zone. As well as being designed acoustically in each room for the best quality recording and listening of course. This does vary upon which studio you go to and your budget.
Ahh budget.......
That's the biggest difference obviously between a home studio versus professional studio.
In Australia you are looking at generally anywhere between $1700 - $7000, and you can keep going up with that price if you go to the highly reputable studios. Worldwide it is commonly known that recording an album is an expensive affair. However, you do get the results you pay for......
That being said, lets go on to recording in home studios:
A much more affordable option on the whole. If we talk about a personal home studio, everything depends again on budget and how much research you can put in to find out the essential things you need, versus the extra 'icing on top' kind of gear you can have. You're setup can consist of the bare essentials.........
- A Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) - Garageband, comes free with Apple..... Audacity, free download online for both PC and Mac.
- Affordable microphone(s) with their clips - Rode NT1-A ($269.00 AUD) / Shure SM57 ($160.00 AUD) / MXL990 (used for roughly $120 AUD).
- Pop filter for recording vocals to remove plosive sounds...(Buh, Puh sounds...) ($40.00 AUD)
- Small affordable Audio Interface like the one I use but with one input... Scarlet Solo ($125.00 AUD)
- An XLR cable for plugging in your microphone (between $10.00 and $40.00 AUD), or more depending on quality you want
- A microphone stand ($30.00 AUD)
And there you have it. $205.00 + your microphone of choice and you can already start creating some good quality recordings. And with the amount of use you could get out of that setup, the quantity of recordings that you could do is massive, and thus a definite good option when faced with a limited budget.
Add all of that up with the various plugins and instrument simulation software out there and you can produce some great music or audio projects and never have to set foot in a professional studio.
The decision comes down ultimately to you.
If you're interested in the recording side of things, want to learn more and to invest in the gear needed over time, if you want a career in the recording side of things or a career as an artist.... The home studio - DIY - option is a wonderful thing we can pursue in this day and age. With so many possibilities at our fingertips - why would you not even just give it a try?
In closing:
I believe both will continue to coexist as time goes on and technology keeps on evolving. I think the professional studio has come up against some serious competition from DIY home studios and that they have to change to keep up with the times. Long gone are the days where you could only record in a studio..... At the same time though, there are also those out there that will always want to record in a big professional studio. For the gear, the atmosphere, the help and all those things and more I mentioned.
I hope reading this gave you some insight into the recording world....
If you found it interesting or have any questions definitely comment below or send me an email and I'd love to chat or hear back from you all what your thoughts are....
Thanks.
Ben.
Director of BPFProductions
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