Low Budget Home Recording

Quality home recording doesn’t have to cost the earth. There is a lot of free and/or cheap software available on the Internet that does a remarkably good job. The cost of associated hardware is also getting lower all the time. There are many options. Of course, that in itself can be a little scary, so here are a few pointers that may help you to find your way.

The hardware you need

Firstly, let’s talk about hardware. You’ll need a computer, some sort of digital-audio interface, and a microphone.

The computer

Just about any computer will do, so long as it’s not more than 4 or 5 years old (and even then it will probably be fine, but newer is better, and higher specs are generally better than lower). I personally use a laptop that is a couple of years old, and it works fine: it doesn’t matter whether you use a laptop or a desktop computer – either will work fine. One thing that matters a bit is the amount of hard drive space you have free, because you will fill it up quickly if you record a lot of songs. Each song will probably use at least a quarter of a gigabyte (i.e. 250MB), and maybe up to a gigabyte of space, so you will want a computer that has at least a few gigabytes free before you start. If you are short on disk space, you can always archive each song after you’ve finished it, by backing it up on to CD, DVD or external hard drive (if you have one), and then delete it from your computer to free hard drive space.

The Digital-Audio Interface

Just about all computers have a digital-audio interface built in: it’s called the sound card. So if you’re really short on cash, you can just use the sound card. This is not a recommended option, because the sound cards that come with computers tend to be a bit noisy, but you can still achieve surprisingly good results this way.

However, assuming you can afford it, the better way is to get an external interface. These come in two types: those that plug into a USB port, and those that plug into a Firewire (also known as IEEE 1394) port. Theoretically, Firewire is better than USB, but in practice there is not really a noticeable difference, and either will work fine. Basically, which you get depends on your budget, and on what ports your computer has (there is no point in getting something that plugs into a Firewire port if your computer doesn’t have one!).

There are two separate functions that can be performed by a Digital-Audio interface: conversion of sound signals between analog and digital (and vice-versa) and the input of MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) information from electronic keyboards and other MIDI-equipped devices. Some digital-audio interfaces do both of these, others do only one or the other, so it is important to be clear as to what your needs are. If you are a keyboard player, you will probably want to cover both bases (you may find it cheaper to do this with a single unit, or with two separate ones, depending on price and availability). If you are note a keyboard player, you may be happy with an interface that just covers audio, and does not have a MIDI input.

These days, many suitable packages are advertised as podcasting kits, so look out for those, as well as for items marketed under “home recording”. What you want is something that meets your needs, interfaces to the connections you have on your computer, and doesn’t break your budget. Aside from that, you will need to try to make some sense of the specifications. These usually indicate the sampling frequencies at which the device will convert (CDs are sampled at 44.1 KHz, so that is an important one to have. It is desirable, but not essential, to have the capability of sampling at higher frequencies (e.g. 96KHz). What it is somewhat more important is the bit depth, which the interface is capable of supporting. A CD has a bit depth of 16, but it is very useful to have an interface with a bit depth of 24 or higher, as this increases the dynamic range and reduces distortion while you are processing the recording, even though you will eventually mix it back down to 16 bit. However, the most important thing is that you have at least 44.1 KHz and at least 16 bits.

Another important consideration is whether or not your interface includes microphone preamplifiers. If it doesn’t, you will need an external preamplifier or mixer. For example, whereas the Tascam US-122L and the Lexicon Omega include microphone preamps, the Behringer FCA202 does not (however, you can by the Behringer as part of a podcasting pack that includes a mixer containing microphone preamps). The point is, that if you are planning to use a microphone, you will need a preamp, and you can either get it built in or separate. It will also probably be important to ensure that the microphone preamp has 48v phantom power, so that you can use a condenser microphone.

Another important factor to consider is that you will want a unit that comes with ASIO drivers (ASIO stands for Audio Stream Input/Output). Using ASIO enables you to achieve low latency. Latency is basically the time taken to process your signal. If your hardware doesn’t have ASIO drivers all is not lost, however. You can download a free program called ASIO4ALL, which will act as an ASIO driver for any hardware. Another good (but not free) alternative is to buy the CEntrance Ideal ASIO Driver. This provides an excellent, extremely low latency, ASIO connection for most hardware, and is particularly useful for hardware that comes with flaky ASIO drivers (such as the Behringer FCA202, which is an excellent piece of hardware, let down by its ASIO drivers).

The Microphone

You will need at least one microphone, and provided your preamplifier has 48v phantom power, I would recommend using a studio condenser microphone. Even if your budget is pretty low, you can probably afford a Behringer C1 condenser microphone, which retails for well under $100. There are many other alternatives, ranging from this price up to as much as you have available. You will probably also need a stand for the microphone. I would recommend a boom stand for flexibility. You can probably find one for less than fifty dollars, or you can pay a lot more.

If you are using your computer sound card, you will not be able to use a studio condenser microphone unless you have an external preamp or mixer with 48v phantom power that you can plug into your soundcard. If so, great, if not, you will most likely just use one of the microphones that are sold for use with computer soundcards.

The Software

 The other important thing you will need is some multitrack recording software. Depending on what hardware you buy, you may get some free with it. Otherwise, there is software that can be downloaded for free from the Internet. One really excellent program that can be downloaded for nothing is Reaper (http://www.reaper.fm/). Reaper is fully functional, and can be used free for “evaluation purposes”. If you find you really like, it you should purchase a license (a non-commercial one is about $50). If you don’t by a license, it will keep working anyway, but the right thing to do would be to buy one, and it isn’t very expensive. Reaper is very sophisticated software, which will enable you to do anything you might need.

Another option is the open source program Audacity. Being open source, this is completely free. Audacity will enable you to do most things you might want to do, but not with quite the same ease as Reaper, and it does not apply effects in real time (you have to wait while the effect is processed and applied to the whole track before you can hear the result).

There are numerous other options, including n-track studio, which would be a truly excellent program if it were more stable, and Anvil Studio, which has a free base, but you pay for add-ons, and you will need add-ons if you are going to use it as your main software, Krystal, which is free, and will do many of the basics, but is a bit limited, and also is very sensitive in that it very easily overloads.

Unless you have purchased hardware that has software supplied with it, I would recommend using Reaper.

Conclusion

Home recording need not be a hugely expensive business. Provided that you already have a computer, you can do it for a budget ranging from close to zero, through to as much as you would care to spend. Having discussed the basics of what you need in this article, I will go on to discuss the detail of what you do with it once you’ve got it in a future article.