Please help me out by answering the following questions. Either comment your responses or email them to me. I need them by Friday 23rd October ideally…You and your answers will more than likely be mentioned in the article I am writing. Thanks alot!
1. What were the main influences/factors behind your decision to record at home/in a home studio?
2. Were you happy with the results?
3. Do you use an engineer or producer other than yourself?
4. Do you own equipment yourself? If no, what do you use?
5. Would you consider using a professional studio at any point in the future? If yes, what would make you choose to do this?
Hey man!
1. Just thought it was easier, much less costly. After a while getting it to actually sound good it’s so much easier, I can just work on whatever I want whenever I want!
2. Yes, after I’d been working with the program and equipment I use for a while, I now have a good system of working, but always like to experiment with new sounds to make it sound better
3. No, I do everything myself.
4. I own a guitar and a microphone.
5. Yes, the first time I will will be very soon because my band, In Mono, won a battle of the bands and the prize was studio recording. I probably will at another point, mainly because full band stuff is much harder to record at home than in a studio compared to the relatively easy acoustic stuff I do.
1. The main reason I started using a home recording setup was the desire, infact need to get the sounds in my head out into the real world, the cheapest and most direct way of doing this being a solo musician was via the home studio route.
I started on a four track about 15 years ago and have been steadily adding and building ever since.
2. I was happy with the fact that I could laydown an idea at the drop of a hat and record at any time of the day or night when inspiration struck.
I think thats the key to home studios for me, the instant access of them, and as technology has improved, so have my compositions.
As for the actual results, I wouldnt say I’m ever totally happy (ok, maybe a couple of tunes) but that is the nature of most creatives, we are our own worst critics.
In the early days my results were pretty lo-fi, rough and ready, with time and pratice however I started to achieve results I was willing to expose to others, and thats made me pretty happy:)
3. I have used an external engineer when I first started gigging using a backing track (being a solo muso), simply because my home equipment and knowledge did not allow me at the time to master to a suitable standard for live, loud exposure.
As time progressed however I have attained the neccersary skills and technology (imo) to do this successfully myself.
I will however have no qualms about using others again in the future, simply because all producers and engineers have different ears, ideas, and to a certain extent skills.
Doesn’t always mean I like their results but am always willing to have a listen to others ideas.
4.I do own all of my home recording equipment, and I love it:)
5.I would indeed use a profesional studio in the future for much the same reasons as answer 3.
Although my present setup allows me to create music to a certain, almost professional standard, I am by no means big headed enough to believe it can’t be improved upon with the right ears and technology.
1. What were the main influences/factors behind your decision to record at home/in a home studio?
It was alot more fun, I could spend more time and time when it suited me, not just rushing it. It didnt cost me anything. It was a big adventure.
2. Were you happy with the results?
Yeah very much. I spend along time in the mixing stages. I learnt alot about recording while I was doing my fingerprint ep which is make next time even better.
3. Do you use an engineer or producer other than yourself?
No I did it all myself. I got someone to Master it. I guy called Rig at Echo labs.
4. Do you own equipment yourself? If no, what do you use?
Yeah I own all my stuff.
5. Would you consider using a professional studio at any point in the future? If yes, what would make you choose to do this?
I dont think i would use a pro studio. Home recording suits my sound. I am looking at recording in my friends home studio again soon.
1. What were the main influences/factors behind your decision to record at home/in a home studio?
Money mostly. I’m sure I could get better results with someone that knows what they’re doing, but having said that, technology is an amazing thing and the quality you can get if you spend a bit of time on it is outstanding.
As a secondary point, I like taking ages playing around with different sounds and playing the song in different ways…I couldn’t do this in a studio as I’d feel like I was paying someone money for me to dither around.
2. Were you happy with the results?
Fairly. I certainly have my gripes with certain aspects which I won’t bother to go into, but I also kind of like the unpolished sound. It’s a bit of a cliche, but it does have a certain character.
3. Do you use an engineer or producer other than yourself?
No, not yet anyway.
4. Do you own equipment yourself? If no, what do you use?
Yeah, just use my own instruments/mics, into a mixing board, into my macbook with Logic (& sometimes Reason) running.
5. Would you consider using a professional studio at any point in the future? If yes, what would make you choose to do this?
Would always consider it though I think that It would have to be a situation where I need to, if I’ve been commissioned to create something or at least comfortably have the money.
To me it would make more sense to record in a studio if I was in a band, because it’s easier to go into knowing what you want everything to sound like (recreating the live sound to some extent).
In essence I know I could get a better sound and a better understanding of sound by going into a studio, but I’m relatively happy doing it myself, even if I do go nuts listening to a drum loop for hours on end.