Picture an analog board going into an upgraded computer sound card like the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX PCIe 5.1 Sound Card with High Performance Headphone Amp which is $40-bucks. To record (a max of two tracks at once) you’d come off an inexpensive mixer (called a board in broadcasting or the desk if you’re doing a road tour and responsible for front-of-house sound) and then into a low-noise computer sound card. The “oldest” of inexpensive mixers were plain analog affairs. It all has to do with the computer to control surface interface. Presonus has a less expensive PreSonus StudioLive AR16 USB 18-Channel hybrid Performance and Recording Mixer and it runs about $600. In our case, it was a Presonus StudioLive 16.0.2 16-Channel Audio Mixer Pack which will set you back about $900. Not that the content is as good, but that falls into the category of a “bigger engine in a car doesn’t make a better driver, either.”Īt the heart of a good home studio is the physical interface. Which is why garage bands today can sound (technically) as good – or better – than Apple London back in the old days. And this is where the huge improvements have come. On both sides, the enemy is hum and noise. And for listening, there is an “output chain.” There is an “input chain” if you are doing recording.
We’re going to do this as a series…basics today, next session will get into microphones, speakers, amps, and instrument plugins (called VST’s), and then a short discussion on studio workflows. My daughter Denise is coming down at the end of the month to work on an album…so a chance to go through some serious sound work as an observer. So this being Prime Day over at Amazon, “we is going shopping.” In today’s world, you can build a home studio that will produce higher quality sound that anything commercially available prior to about 1975-1980 for just a few thousand dollars. Most people – when asked – will tell you they have “ a pretty good ear” and yet when you ask them about something they just heard, you get blank stares. Although it is an article of faith around here that everyone understands how recording studios actually work, that seems to be far from the truth of it.
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