Home Studio Recording
Browse some of my home studio projects under the “Music” category / folder to be found here:
http://bobmorgan.smugmug.com/music
Although I’ve accumulated a fairly serious amount of equipment over the years, and its quality ranges from good (recording) to high (instruments) it’s about my only vice. I stay out of the bars. A person could spend millions on this gear, so I place myself somewhere on the entry / professional level when it comes to the recording gear I possess and the professional level when it comes to my instruments.
About my current project: A few years ago a friend who knew me back in the old days of my guitar playing asked that I record a song on the computer and send it along. After resisting for almost a year, I sat down one day and plugged a microphone into the computer, pulled out my guitar, and played and sang into it.
It sucked. I decided to get a cheap mixer and some budget software for recording and at least send along a semi-presentable project. Well, you know how that goes. One piece of equipment leads to another, and then well….you just “gotta” have this, and then……and then…….
An idea for a personal, fun, and meaningful project came to me. My own grandparents and great grandparents have little left of connections to them. A few faded pictures, old letters maybe, some jewelry, and spoken memories of those that remembered them. This is the digital age. Nothing really decays, it can only be thrown away or lost. I decided to produce my own cover songs of different tunes that have meant something to me personally during my lifetime in terms of things I’ve experienced, people I’ve known, etc, and other songs that paint a picture of the times I’ve lived through, reflected through particular artists or songs. While recording these songs, I’m slowly bringing family members into the project having them either sing or play an instrument, or if they do neither, do some other form of accompaniment. So far I’ve managed to involve my wife Susan, my daughter April, my son Dylan, my brother David, my grand-daughters Lindsea and Kylee, my sister Laura, my lifelong friend Gil (since sadly and tragically taken from us all in an auto accident) and as a latest edition, a new musical and otherwise friend of mine through my wife Susan, Dana Mc-Radu Goulet, with more to come.
Someday when all of this is finished I will combine this music with a family genealogy, pictures, text, voices, video, etc and copy it to whatever might be the best media at the time to use in order to distribute to family members who may pass it on down the line. And someday, digital being digital, 500 years from now, my descendants will view and listen and have perhaps a huge chuckle at my expense, but I doubt I’ll care at that point. In any event, they’ll have a record of their own heritage, and that will be a much more comprehensive record than I have of my own.
Regardless, I’m certainly having fun, and learning as I go. At this point, I’ve come a long way in learning about the recording process, and I’m now delving into the art of learning how to make a quality mix and master that will hopefully someday rival the product that comes out of those sites on the internet that provide paid options for these kinds of services.
My Instruments & Equipment
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- Martin D28 6 String Acoustic
This is my “baby”. The crown jewel of my guitars. Bought new in 1969 in El Paso Texas. One of the last produced with genuine Brazilian Rosewood, this instrument still sounds and looks incredible. - Martin D12-20 12 String Acoustic
This instrument is actually a year older than the D28, and is also in pristine condition. It plays beautifully when a 12 string is called for. - Gibson SJ-200 Acoustic-Electric – Coming Soon! ( I hope?) The wretched pandemic has delayed many things.
- Gibson ES-335 Electric Hollow Body
I bought this on eBay years ago. It’s wine-colored and in top-notch shape. Its pedigree says that it was made by Gibson in 1982 in Bozeman, Montana. For an all-around beautiful sounding electric that leans to the Bluesy side, the ES-335 is the choice of many legends of music such as BB King, Eric Clapton, Justin Hayward, and many others. - Roland FA-08 Workstation Keyboard
This workstation has allowed me to do many things to augment my tracks by providing instruments I neither own nor play. I’d never used keyboards before and this has been a learning experience. - Taylor Academy 12e-N Nylon String Acoustic-Electric
This Taylor nylon string guitar is a fairly inexpensive addition to my guitars, but exceptional in its class. It comes in handy for the times I want the flavor of nylon sound, plus it can be plugged directly into my audio capture device and that’s handy too. - Yamaha Electric Bass
This bass is just a cheap electric bass that does the job I bought it for, and that is adding a decent bass line to my songs when needed. - Hofner “Paul McCartney” violin style base. This base has a completely different tone from a solid body bass and even though this is the lower end model of the Hofner Bass that McCartney plays, the lighter gauge strings give it a completely different tone from the Yamaha.
- Hola! Concert Ukelele – Just for fun
- Oscar Schmidt Electric Mandolin (By Washburn) – A kind gift from my brother Dave. Just for fun.
- Fender Acoustonic 40 Amp – I use this little amp for recording on occasions where I want to record a track of one of my electric instruments but don’t want to plug them directly into the Octa-Capture. It more than does the job and has great sound even though it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of its big brothers.
- Behringer Eurorack UB-1204 FX-PRO Mixer
This is a neat little mixer I bought when I first started out, but because of the way I’m doing things now versus what I thought I’d be doing when I started out, I hardly have any use for it, although live performances through a P.A. system would probably be very cool using this. - Alesis SR18 Professional Drum Machine
This is a newer addition to my equipment, and I’ve been VERY pleased with my results so far, although I’m still in the learning process. It looks extremely promising. I am not a drummer, and even if I were, having a set of drums in my small room is an impossibility, and I’m sure my neighbors might agree. I’m looking for good things with this in terms of adding drum tracks to my projects
- Martin D28 6 String Acoustic
*A shout out here to my brother Dave. His professional input and knowledge of various levels of equipment at the beginning of all this was key in helping me get off the ground in the world of the home studio. His initial input helped me to make the right buying decisions for my level of pocketbook and expertise. Much appreciated!
Recording Setup
First, let it be said that depending on the depth you want to dive to in your home studio, aside from your instruments, your PC or Mac (both of which it would be assumed that you already own), and dedicated studio monitors, you can get into home recording with software, microphones, and a decent audio card for well under $500. I started there, but I’ve obviously cranked it up a bit. 🙂 (Keeps me out of the bars, and the wife is happy) So the price varies from $500 to millions of dollars, and since I don’t now and will never have access to the latter, I’ve settled on home studio recording and photography as my “vices”, and I’ve found my own sweet spot in all of this.
In addition, I will say this: The internet is filled with people who are dedicated to the belief that their way is the “only” way to ever to produce anything of quality. PC people. Mac people. A dozen different DAW’s (Digital Audio Workstations) competing for and promoted as being the “best”, or “more professional”. It’s my opinion that depending on what you want to do, what you want to put into the learning curve, and how comfortable you are working with what you have, you can find everything you need from many different DAW options, it’s all personal choice. I’m happy with the choices that I’ve learned and grown into along the way. It might serve well to remember that if The Beatles could produce their entire catalog of genius on nothing more than 8 tracks, it serves to point out that it’s “the boys, not the toys”.
- Reaper (by Cockos) DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) (Always the latest version): NOTE: This my personal choice, your mileage may vary!! Although I started out years ago using Cakewalk’s Sonar Producer, the company sold twice and I became disenchanted with the direction that BandLab took the product so I started researching options. After evaluating and trying a few other quality products, and most importantly, reading feedback from a LOT of home studio producers, I landed finally with Reaper. I’m extremely satisfied with this DAW and its almost unlimited customization options make it an ongoing learning experience. Every DAW has its own learning curve, and Reaper was no different for me coming from Sonar, but the customization abilities and the contributions/updates from the open-source community make this the go-to for me. Not to mention the price! Proof positive that quality doesn’t have to carry a heavy price tag. It sets new standards and abilities with very frequent updates. Two thumbs up! It can be found by clicking on this link. REAPER DOWNLOADS
- Microphones: I have two Rode NT 2-A’s for most vocals. and the industry-standard Shure SM-58 for the rest. The Rode NT 2-A is a beautiful, warm microphone with outstanding sound. In addition, for acoustic guitar recording, I have two Shure SM-81 industry-standard instrument microphones, and a Shure SM-57B for miking the Fender Amp and other instruments.
- Audio Capture Devices: Once again, after evaluating several different mid-price range capture devices, I currently own two. For the home studio use with my PC, I have gone with the Roland Octa-Capture USB interface and for portable use with my laptop, its little brother the Roland Rubix 22. The Octa-Capture in particular has a great management app that goes with it to set your recording needs to your individual taste.
- PC: HP Omen 45L-GT22-0450T, Windows 11 Pro, 64-Bit, 64 GB DDR High-speed memory, dual drives, the primary is a 2TB SSD, the secondary is a 1 TB SATA 3 both partitioned with one partition dedicated exclusively to Reaper and music production for I/O purposes along with a beautiful Dell 43″ monitor. It’s a beautiful system but it bears repeating that with Reaper you actually can get by on MUCH less horsepower than what I describe here, and that….is one of the most appealing features of Reaper. It’s a small footprint and low drain on resources. Another compelling reason for me to have this much horsepower in my PC is that I do extensive photo editing utilizing several programs at once, and the PC I have helps all that along nicely.
- Mixing Speakers: Make no mistake. You NEED a pair of reference monitors to run your recordings through. Home speakers simply will not do. Over the years, I’ve had a few different sets of mixing monitors, but I’ve now settled on a beautiful pair of Adam Audio A7X Studio monitors, and they are astounding. The pros on these speakers far and away outweigh what I consider to be the only Con, and that would be that they are a bit pricey. So far, however, I’ve gotten what I paid for. That said, there are lots of monitors out there that will help you along.
And that’s it! But I’m certain there’s more to come in the future as I learn and grow and dedicate even more time to the wonderful world of Home Studio music production.