User:MariosLazIoannidis/sandbox

Home recording means recording at home rather than in a professional studio. Its popularity continues to climb due to the increase of affordable digital and analog recording equipment. One can have one's own semi-professional recording studio, depending on the quality and extent of the equipment, in the comfort of one's own home (as opposed to paying a larger studio by the hour for their services). Home recording may include (or be completely achieved with) a personal computer (PC) which allows for upgrade prospects and high-definition, studio-grade digital recording and mixing.

The popularity of using this equipment has grown such that some professional recording studios are turning to utilizing personal computers, ADAT or DAT systems (or the very popular Digidesign tools available on the market), multitrack recorders, vocal booths, and various instruments either acoustic or synthesized as opposed to the traditional console setup. For relatively small sums the proper recording equipment and sound-proofed settings can be bought giving much of the population access to a home recording studio.

To process home recording, the minimal setup requires an audio interface, microphone and recording software. Many manufacturers produce audio devices for any kind of want, e.g. special devices for recording vocals or guitars. With the help of home studio recording software such as Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Cubase and Sonar, the requirement of large external recording devices including mixing boards, and multiple keyboards can be minimized.

Portable Recording Rooms (Vocal Booths)
The surge in home recording has led consumers to the discovery of portable recording rooms, or vocal booth companies. One of the major drawbacks to producing quality recordings, is controlling the noise pollution and the room reverb at the microphone. In that way, the reflections from the walls can be reduced. Companies such as Whisper Room, Seulx Acoustics and VocalBooth.com, are among the suppliers of portable rooms geared specifically towards professional home recording. Also a DIY solution can be cheaper and more suitable for the home studio. There are many websites where anyone can learn how to make a vocal booth. Vocal Booths can be used also to record guitars, bass, percussion, or when some overdubs are needed. They are often used to make voice-overs.

Amp enclosure
The guitar amp enclosures can cover the need to record amplified instruments, at the home studio, with poor isolation. It eliminates the ear high levels needed to capture the natural sounding distortion and overdrive, produced by the speaker of a loud guitar amp.It can also reduce the interference and the possibility of an unexpected background noise, affecting the recording of guitar tracks or other instruments. A guitar amp enclosure can also be used for musician's practice at nighttime and provides a quiet rehearsal solution for any amplified band . Amp enclosures are available in different sizes.

Future of Recording
A musician or band, having written original songs and wishing to record them at home, is likely to find that it has never been easier or cheaper.

Most industry professionals agree that the future of recording will be better quality equipment at steadily falling prices that can be controlled by the artist/performer allowing for music to be recorded at home or small studios. At present some top engineers are recording some of the tracks at their home or small studio and doing more "critical" tracks like vocals and drums in a larger studio. Most "indie" artists are recording their entire albums in small studios or at home studios since they can get an album that is comparable to what a large studio could do a few years ago. This is even more of a necessity since recording budgets are shrinking due to lower profits in the music industry. This trend is likely to continue.

Microphones
Furthermore, an arsenal of microphones is needed. There are three main types: Condenser, dynamic and ribbon. Dynamic microphones are known for their use with recording distorted guitar, snares, and other loud instruments. The condenser microphones, are mostly used for vocal and acoustic guitar recording providing a more open, warm sound.

Computer, audio device, studio monitors
A personal computer with a external or internal sound card, external hard drives and studio monitors, to allow the user to capture and playback high quality audio. A good example of a sound card would be one of the following: Presonus AudioBox, Avid Mbox, M-Audio Fastrack pro. These products offer microphone pre-amps and also AD & D/A converters. They can connect to the computer via usb or Firewire connection and record 1-8 or more audio channels, simultaneously. That means that many different sound sources can be captured, at the same time. For example, this is needed when making a basic recording of a song where we need 2 different microphone signals for the voice and the guitar, or when we want to combine many different microphone sounds, of the same source. Examples of studio monitor companies are Yamaha, Genelec, Tannoy, Focal

Room acoustics & design
Another important aspect, when building a home studio is acoustic treatment. The way our room sounds or reverberates, can change dramatically the way we mix, write and record music. Untreated rooms have an uneven frequency response, which means that any mixing decisions you make are being based on a sound that is ‘coloured’, because we can’t accurately hear what’s being played. Acoustic panels and bass traps, can improve the sound in the room and also offer a nice looking wall .