Room and Equipment Workbook
Can we really make music with affordable equipment?
Think about a master sound engineer / producer who usually does his work at a fully equipped studio. When he works with minimal equipment in his bedroom, will his work sound amateurish and useless or will his skill show through? “It is not about the camera” borrowing it from light capturers.
Examplecost and viability: There are very good sound cards for as low as Rs.6000. Save Rs.100 a day and you have 6000 rupees in two months. SM58 mic comes for around Rs.5000. If you look for used equipment, they come even cheaper. It is possible for most of us to get the equipment and start recording our music.
The room
Do you understand the difference between sound proofing and acoustic treatment?
What natural sound proofing can you do for your room?
What natural acoustic treatment can be done?
Is your room cubical or does it have different dimensions?
Can you identify the booming frequencies while playing a well produced commercial CD?
Do you need to use bass traps or will you manage with careful monitoring and tweaking while
mixing?
Have you made a reference song list of commercially produced songs?
Computer
What are the specifications of your laptop? Are they comparable to or better than 1.73 Ghz dual core, 1 Ghz RAM?
Sound cards, audio interfaces and preamps
What is your budget for a sound card?
What are the prices for focusrite, motu and maudio sound cards that you may be interested in. Check in amazon.
Do you want to record just vocals? Look for a sound card with one XLR input.
Check the different connectivity options – USB, firewire and the prices.
A good preamp is useful for mic recording quality. What kind of preamps do soundcards in your price range have?
How are the latency values of the sound cards in your price range?
Microphone
Do you know the difference between dynamic and condenser mics?
Do you plan to get a condenser mic? If yes what are the options in your price range?
Would you buy a SM58 mic? If not what other option?
Do you understand the polar pattern of a cardioid mic and how to position the mic to record the best?
Headphones & Speakers
Which headphones come within your budget range?
Are they closed phones or open?
Frequency range ?
Would you buy monitor speakers? Research on them. Which models come within your budget?
PDF : My tool kit
More music making resources, articles, tips at Write to me if anything.
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