The Difference between Bedroom Studio and Semi-Pro or Pro.....

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What are the differences in gear between a typical home studio and a semi-pro or Pro?

i'll start by listing the typical bedroom studio may have:
keyboard or midi controller
2 Daw's (i.e. sonar producer, reason)
a $100-200 mic
$100-200 pre amp (i.e. blue tube)
a delta soundcard or $200 interface
and use all software compressors and fx.
and burns tracks to cd

Just from looking and reading I seem semi-pro home studios with more thaan just control surfaces but it looks like full mix boards. Outboard compressors and fx. Are they recording to tape or what?

A local professional studio owner I know said he doesn't believe in software so what does his set up consist of?

What else would a typical set up have beyond the bedroom level as far as gear is concerned?
 
Interesting...I would agree the setup you described above is def. home studio...semi pro-for me would mean a pro (or near pro) soundcard, with pro or near pro signal chain, high quality mic, and pro (near pro) monitoring chain. Won't get into specific products, but you can discount all the consumer grade products aimed at budget minded amatuers; although they may have some laying around-- Also, the skill level of the engineers factor into the label of pro/semi-pro. Generally, semi pro will excell in pre-production. Semi-pro can still be home-based as far as I'm concerned...The equipment these guys use isn't very far removed from what you and I use...their skill level is generally higher and they have more "high-end" products.

Generallay, pro implies a commerical building...No question they have pro soundcards, pro mixing consoles, Pro signal and monitoring chain. Shouldn't see much "consumer" grade products, unless for taste or to meet client requests. Price generally separates the three...as talent on the technical side. These guys may offer many more services, such as mastering, audio restoration, studio musicians, etc.

Even still, someone may offer pro quality and features, but not have much of a "resume" so operate at the semi-pro level. I don't know if this is such a black and white issue. I guess that's a start--others can probably answer more specifically and with more authority.
 
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That Pro studio owner probably uses alot of analog gear.
 
..

Three questions;

1. Can you name some non-consumer grade products hardware or software?

2. Most home studios I see don't mention anything about a/d converters. I assuming because they use stock one with the card or interface they have. but how much benefit can they be and how would you incorporate them (i.e. would you run everything through them then into the soundcard)

3. As far as analogue gear and this local studio owner I know..if he is not using software what is he using? It is a full size studio in a commercial building but even pro studios from wqhat I'm reading use hardware and software at the pro level.
 
acoustic treatment and professional studio design. As well as the equipment.
 
^^^here's an example of, but not all, pro studios and the amount of cash put into proper treatment. this is co owned by one of my instructors (don't know if he included some of the the home studio treatment but the theatre is someones house)
http://www.pilchner-schoustal.com/

there's a lot that separates the three and things like the # of people employed, rate card, equipment, location, etc are some factors.
 
i consider myself home studio cause i'm at home but my nothing about my lynx soundcard says anything but pro and my "the brick" preamp maximizes the potential of my 200 dollar cad microphone which i chose to use over the U87 for my voice. I do have an edge on my compettition as far as sound quality is concerned cuz they dont have great converters which is where i start. and my litening enviornment is not all that bad after doing some treatment. It use to take 700 miliseconds for a clap echo to disappear but now i'm down to 220 milisec. 200 is ideal
 
Its a ll in how u use things...there was a story in MIX Mag...this guy recorded his whole ablum (which got released) using Garageband...a few plugs...mid-level mic and monitors, w/recorded acous. gtr..all on a laptop...and his finished mix only needed minor mastering...which really impressed a lot of pro's...and theres other stories just like this...check some out and u my realize ur not that far off...
 
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fb000 said:
1. Can you name some non-consumer grade products hardware or software?
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Digidesign/Avid HD rigs.
ProTools HD.
Nuendo.
Apogee.
Higher-end RME stuff.

This is in terms of interfaces and DAWs. To all intents and purposes Nuendo is the same piece of software as Cubase, but with video scoring and project networking facilities. It is the latter which means it is used in more 'pro' studios than Cubase. Of course, lots of top-end studios just use DAWs (esp. ProTools) like a glorified multitrack tape recorder.

2. Most home studios I see don't mention anything about a/d converters. I assuming because they use stock one with the card or interface they have. but how much benefit can they be and how would you incorporate them (i.e. would you run everything through them then into the soundcard)
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The most common setups use multichannel interfaces (Digidesign 192, Apogee Rosettas) to get the audio in and out at line level, using big analogue consoles (Neve VRs, SSLs) and external preamps as front- and back-ends (i.e. the mixing gets done on the board, not in the DAW). Hence no digital summing is involved, and the result subjectively sounds better.

3. As far as analogue gear and this local studio owner I know..if he is not using software what is he using? It is a full size studio in a commercial building but even pro studios from wqhat I'm reading use hardware and software at the pro level.
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Possibly multitrack analogue (e.g. Studer 24-tracks), possibly digital (e.g. good old Alesis HD24s). Basically, multitrack recorders with less editing functionality than DAWs. All equipment has to be outboard. The console might be analogue or digital. Either way, it won't be reliant on software.
 
I have never done any work in a studio but many of my friends have. The main difference seems to be the ability of the engineer. With rap especially, it's been proven that someone who is a talented engineer can make radio worthy songs with high end consumer stuff. I know more than a few rappers who have told me that the actual quality of what they put down at home is not all that disimilar to what they get at the studio when it's raw. It's only until they get into processing everything and mixing when they really are getting the quality they want. Infact, i know many people who track everything at home and just have someone else mix it. It's just out most peoples ability to be a musician, and a great engineer on top of it. Obviously, this is all hear say from people i know but i've heard the difference and believe them.

For me personally, i don't ever think i would try to make my personal studio pro. I would much rather invest that in studio time (if i was a rapper) or hire someone to mix my beats.
 
id be more concerned with the acoustics of the room before the ad/da converters. you cant polish a turd. you can try but it just smears all over the place and turns into a mess.
 
Definitively :-

1. Recording Environment + Room Treatment (egg cartons don't cut it)

2. Monitoring (Behringer Truths dont cut it)

3. Engineer ( < 5 yrs generally doesn't cut it)
 
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3. Engineer ( < 5 yrs generally doesn't cut it)
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generaly is the operative word here ........my friend has been at it for about 5 yrs (engineering) and he's actually pretty damn good. He's been buisy lately cause he's been starting to do some mastering work for some pretty reputable music lables. But he's one out of many
 
Pro Studios spend 100 thousands on room treatment and isolation alone.
 
No they don't. The spend hundreds of thousands designing the building and rooms to sound absolutely superb in the first place, rather than trying to 'treat' problems later.
 
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