Questions about making my first home studio

[SwaGG on a thousand]

What i want to know is what are the REQUIRED things in order to make a song? When i look up studio equipment i see monitors and big speakers which i think are useless. I mean can someone explain to me why i would need multiple monitors and 2 big speakers to make a song? Instead of getting two big monitors cant i just get some beats by dre headphones? I think all i really need is a good mic, headphones, and my laptop. All of this extra equipment is just a waste of money. Its funny because i always see people with top notch equipment but their music usually sucks. In my opinion if you have a talent in music it will show regardless of what equipment you have

 

[bandcoach]

Swagger and braggadocio aside, the purpose for those "big" speakers is so that you have a true sense of how the music sounds.

Granted for you to get the best from the "big" speakers, you need to be working in a treated room (a room adapted to have a flat frequency response at your primary listening position).

Multiple speaker setups are also useful in determining the transparency of your mix - each type of speaker brings with it its own colouration to the source signal (cabinet resonances and design compromises are the two big things that affect the freq response of a particular set of monitors). In addition, any powered speakers are likely to colour the sound as well based on amplifier design philosophy - single amp with passive crossover (soaks most of the power and the transfer characteristics will alter the way the sound is projected) or bi-/tri-amp for individual drivers in the cabinet after an electronic crossover, which may introduce its set of phase shifts and frequency colouration.

A laptop cannot compete with a properly spec'd computer with reservoir based fluid cpu cooling.

Multiple screens help to move your on-screen views into manageable view areas

Headphones will barely cover the needs of your mixing, as they are incapable of reproducing bass freqs reliably or colour free (they do not have the diaphragm size to accurately reproduce low freqs - this is related to wavelengths of these low freqs which are in the multiples of feet - 20'+ for freqs below A[sub]0[/sub] (55Hz) (the pitch of the A string on a Bass and a bass guitar).

General consensus is that a pair of beats by dre are no better than any standard issue headphones from most of the headphone manufacturers - why pay extra for the badge and name if they are no better than something far cheaper????

In the end, it is down to you, but skimping on quality gear at each point in the production means that you are prepared to skimp on quality before you begin to create, not an auspicious attitude to have towards your creative endeavours

 

[SwaGG on a thousand]

Swagger and braggadocio aside, the purpose for those "big" speakers is so that you have a true sense of how the music sounds.

Granted for you to get the best from the "big" speakers, you need to be working in a treated room (a room adapted to have a flat frequency response at your primary listening position).

Multiple speaker setups are also useful in determining the transparency of your mix - each type of speaker brings with it its own colouration to the source signal (cabinet resonances and design compromises are the two big things that affect the freq response of a particular set of monitors). In addition, any powered speakers are likely to colour the sound as well based on amplifier design philosophy - single amp with passive crossover (soaks most of the power and the transfer characteristics will alter the way the sound is projected) or bi-/tri-amp for individual drivers in the cabinet after an electronic crossover, which may introduce its set of phase shifts and frequency colouration.

A laptop cannot compete with a properly spec'd computer with reservoir based fluid cpu cooling.

Multiple screens help to move your on-screen views into manageable view areas

Headphones will barely cover the needs of your mixing, as they are incapable of reproducing bass freqs reliably or colour free (they do not have the diaphragm size to accurately reproduce low freqs - this is related to wavelengths of these low freqs which are in the multiples of feet - 20'+ for freqs below A[SUB]0[/SUB] (55Hz) (the pitch of the A string on a Bass and a bass guitar).

General consensus is that a pair of beats by dre are no better than any standard issue headphones from most of the headphone manufacturers - why pay extra for the badge and name if they are no better than something far cheaper????

In the end, it is down to you, but skimping on quality gear at each point in the production means that you are prepared to skimp on quality before you begin to create, not an auspicious attitude to have towards your creative endeavours

So basically you're saying that monitors will help me here sounds better in my beats? What about vocals? Im a producer but im focusing on singing right now so will monitors help me here my voice better or something? And since you say that beats by dre headphones are overrated can you recommend me some very good headphones and a good mic?

 

[bandcoach]

The issue is not with hearing better, but hearing without unwanted boosts/cuts cause by the imperfect alignment of the drivers/crossovers in cheaper, smaller units. Additionally, you need to distinguish what you intend to do with your setup

1. Record
2. Mix
3. Master

Each of these tasks requires different types of monitoring and different sizes of speakers moving small to large. When recording voice, you would use headphones to listen to any backing to minimise the chance of bleed into the vocal mic.

Sennheiser for headphones - HD280, HD518, HD558, HD600, HD650, HD700, HD800

Rode-NT1 for a mic

 

[2infamouz]

The issue is not with hearing better, but hearing without unwanted boosts/cuts cause by the imperfect alignment of the drivers/crossovers in cheaper, smaller units.

Yeah the main reason you want what's referred to as a "flat" signal or frequency response from your monitors is so they translate good to other speakers. Lets say you are mixing w/ some headphones that have increased bass frequencies for the listener, so you would mix with less bass in your mix because it'd sound right with the boost from the headphones. Then when you listened to the mix on some speakers/sound source that didn't have that bass boost, it'd sound like the mix was lacking bass. The key is to hear as little coloration to the sound as possible through good studio monitors and proper room treatment - that's how you optimize the sound of your mix no matter what speakers it's heard on (of course w/ the addition of good mixing techniques).

Things that are "required" for a home studio really are dependent on what you're trying to achieve. Some songs are created completely w/ just a DAW (digital audio workstation) and maybe an audio interface w/ 1 microphone. That could be as cheap as a $500-$1000 setup. Other songs are made w/ multi-million dollar studios, so what's "required" is always going to be subjective and relative.

I would say at the least, you want a decent selection of microphones, some good preamps (at least one), decent studio monitors, a treated room that's large enough for treatment to be effective, an audio interface or mixing console depending on if you're going digital or sticking w/ hardware, if you are going the digital route you of course want a good DAW software, some plugins (both synths and mixing/effects), and again if you're sticking digital you want a decent computer. It's really hard to say exactly what you'll need, because like I said, it's really determined by what you're doing. Those are just some of the basics. There's countless combinations and possibilities, and you'll really want to just do the research to figure out what purchases would be the most effective for what you're trying to achieve. Sorry for being so brief/broad.

 

[comfortlanding]

"In my opinion if you have a talent in music it will show regardless of what equipment you have." SwaGG

From a novice: a decent DAW, a computer (a laptop - with good speed and memory is fine - doesn't have to be a MAC), USB keyboard (MAUDIO 49 key is good), decent headphones for mixing (SHURE), a mic (if you're doing vocals). Some may scoff at this, but you have to start somewhere...don't get caught up in the hype of having the "best" gear - especially if you don't know how to use it! Like you said, if you have talent it will show or at least begin to develop as long as you practice.

CRAWL, WALK, RUN...

 

[Sllukid]

I'm shure the comments above covered more than enough, but the essence is to get what you need in order to solve your problem. Problems arise through experience and learning - your studio will grow magically as you roll by!