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The Proper Equipment to Start Your Own Home Studio

Introduction:

Every home studio is different in its own way but has similarities in equipment. For a home studio, the standard is a computer, headphones, an audio interface, a microphone, and studio monitors. It all depends on how the producer/artist wants their home studio setup, in which way that feels comfortable to them. The type of equipment shows the difference in the quality of sound in each recording. Having inexpensive equipment, the majority of the time the recording will sound cheap, and vice versa with expensive equipment. The number one thing to have in mind is how well the in-house producer/ engineer can utilize the equipment and makes the best out of it.

Computer/Laptop:

           This equipment is the gateway to making music and connects the other equipment together. A lot of producers put most of their money into computers and laptops. There is a huge debate between Mac and Windows, there are some producers that favor the Mac because of the accessibility functions of the computer and the processing power the computer can handle. The only downfall for Mac laptops each of the laptop hardware on the motherboard is soldered on, where you cannot upgrade any of the hardware. Windows computers have upgrading options for the hardware and there are a variety of brands that sells different types of laptops for different purposes. The main downfall is windows have a higher susceptibility to viruses. For looking into the computer/laptop you would want to have a lot of storage, at least 4GM of memory, at least 2.4Ghz of RAM, and a minimum of an i5 chip installed. The better the specs inside the computer will make it more efficient for your needs. I personally have a Razor blade 14 that contains 16GB of memory, 1 terabyte of ram that can be upgradeable to 2 terabytes, and 4.8GHz of RAM.

Headphones:

           The two different types of headphones are used in the studio. There are close-back and open-back headphones. The main difference is that close-back headphones, block out the ambient sound around you, while open-back you will hear what is going around you. They both have separate uses in the studio. Open-back headphones are mainly for mixing and mastering songs since the engineer needs to listen carefully to any hiccups that need to be fixed. While for close-back are better for recording, since you don’t want whoever is in the booth to hear ambient noises. Also, those headphones give you an isolated feel, where it is just only the music to hear and there is nothing else around you. I personally have the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro closed-back headphones and use them for mixing. The reason why is that a lot of people use closed-back headphones for everyday use like beats headphones and apple air pods.

Audio Interface:

           This equipment allows a person to record audio from a microphone and allows you to play audio from your studio monitors. Those are the type of importance why you need an audio interface. They also have functions like microphone inputs, volume knobs, studio monitor inputs, and headphone inputs. For a starting audio interface, a person will need one that has studio monitor inputs, at least one microphone input, and headphone input. Most people buy a Focusrite audio interface since they are the best for starting music producers and artists. I have an Audient iD14, it’s a professional standard audio interface and it has a lot of ports and accessibility options for me to use.

Microphone:

           For creating a song, this is the main piece of equipment that you will need. Different types of microphones have different uses. Some microphones are only used for recording vocals and there are only for recording instruments. The reason why some microphones are only for vocals and others for instruments is the cardioid pattern built into the microphone. The first main cardioid pattern is omnidirectional, this pattern picks up sound from a 360-degree perspective. The second type is figure 8, this pattern picks up sound from what is directly upfront and behind the microphone. Lastly is the cardioid pattern which directly picks up any sound that is in front of the microphone. This type of cardioid pattern is mainly used in the studio for recording sessions. This will pick up the artist's vocals in the booth. I have an Aston spirit microphone and it allows me to switch each of those cardioid patterns that were mentioned.

Conclusion:

           A home studio and having nice equipment is nice and all, but it is how and the way you utilize your equipment. A hit song can be created with only a computer, a microphone, and an audio interface with basic equipment. The expensive only helps the quality to be better, only if you know how to use it properly.

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The Basic Building Blocks of Creating an Instrumental

Introduction:

           Sitting on your laptop and having your DAW pop up on your computer screen, and thinking about what you want the final product for can be a fun and easy or challenging process. Many music producers go through the same what if, of what can I make today and possibly make it into the next hit song. The majority of the producer's process of creating a beat from scratching starts in two ways, which is creating the melody first then the drums, and the other way creating the drums first then the melody second. The majority of all music producers start off the first way to create a beat because the process flows and pieces everything together.

Melody:

           Your melody can come in three ways, one way is creating a melody from scratch, where if you are influenced by music theory, you can key in a melody and choose a variety of instruments and sounds you want. Most DAWs give you stock sounds to use, and you can download and pay for VSTs. VST stands for “Virtual Studio Technology”, and it is a piece of software where it can be free or costly depending on the contents of the VST. Many popular VSTs like, Omnispohere, Kontakt, Serum, and Analog Lab V are expensive, but they give you a variety and quality of sounds to enhance your melody-making process. The second way is to record your DAW from your instruments. In a lot of popular studios and depending on the genre of music, most melodies or songs are created by simply being recorded. The third way is sampling, the meaning by that is either taking a section of instrumentation from a song or sound and using that as your melody or using a melody that was created by another producer as your main melody. A lot of producers often pick a part of the sample and rearrange it to be their main melody, or even alter to it their liking. There are many ways a music producer can turn a sample into another sound. Once you have your melody, the drums are always next in line.

Drums:

           Honestly, the drums can be complex or very simple. It goes back to how you want the drums to sound. Music producers often create their own drum patterns or use a drum sample. For Trap & RnB producers make their drums from scratch, since it gives a humanistic feel to the song and also the DAWs make it easy to create drum patterns, so every drum pattern is different than the last one Drum kits also helps a producer become creative with there drum patterns. Many drum kits include many sounds of percussions, like claps, kicks, 808s, snares, open hats, crashes, and many more sounds. Once all that is laid down and made, the beat is halfway done, and the next step is mixing the instrumental you have created.

Mixing:

           So what you should have in front of you is about 8 bars of instrumental music which needs to be cleaned up in sound and leveled. What I mean by clean is removing any unwanted sounds from each individual sound that has been used for the song. Mixing is an overall in-depth and confusing subject to explain without a visual representation, when mixing you can also buy mixing VST to enhance or change the individual sound in the instrumentation, Mixing can make your song sound amazing or sounds poorly. What it means by leveling, is you want each sound to complement each others, and one sound is not overpowering. Leveling doesn’t allow you to have one sound be the main sound you hear; it throws the entire song off. Leveling is the most important of mixing a beat and then after that is arranging the song to the proper format.

Song Arrangement:

           The most common song arrangement you will see is “Intro- Verse- Hook- Bridge – Verse – Hook – Outro. A lot of songs have that same and it is standard in the music industry. If you look up many songs arrangement, especially for Trap and Rnb. Honestly, you have free range on how you want to structure the song. There are no official guidelines and rules to structure a song, if it makes sense and it works, then it is perfect. Another thing is not the make the hook and verse similar and repetitive. You would want the verse to be different from the hook. It is better for the artist because they can know which section is which. It is important to make the intro an attention grabber because it set the pace for the song. 

Last words:

           Making a beat is going to be different every time you start the process. The timing of the process can be short or very long. A beat can take you 30 mins or a few days to fully create a song. Just the main thing is to have consistency and continue making each beat better than the last.