Garage Studio or Pro Studio?

October 2, 2006 2:20 PM

Garage Studio or Pro Studio?

My band is trying to decide whether it makes sense for us set up a garage recording studio, or if it would be better for us to pay for time in a professional studio.

The studio we used last time is reasonably priced (about $400 for 16 hours) and though we would have liked more time to tweak things, we were pretty happy overall with the sound we got. (The songs I’ve posted to Music were recorded there.) We have limited cash available, so recording this way will probably happen only one or twice a year.

Setting up to record at home would allow us to record a lot more songs, and spend more time getting the mix they way we’d like it. We’re recording newbies, but willing to put in the time and effort necessary to learn.

The band is loud rock & roll, 2 guitars, bass, drums, and vocals. We have some live sound equipment (8 channel PA, 4 channel mixer, 1 Beta 58a, 1 SM58, a couple PG58s, and a couple instrument mics), but no recording equipment. I have a copy of Guitar Tracks on my desktop at home, but no laptop available and none of the interfaces you’d need to make that work.

Will it possible for us to record good quality tracks with the kind of bare bones setup we can afford to get? The drums are my biggest worry. The units I’ve been looking at only record two tracks at the same time- wouldn’t you need more in order to make adjustments to the drum sound in the mix?

I’m really interested here in your opinions on whether home recording makes sense for us as a band, since equipment recommendations are pretty well covered on other questions on this topic. But I’ll take those too, along with any other advice you may have.

posted by InfidelZombie to media & arts (9 comments total)

Why not find someone else with a garage studio? I've got a buddy that has a home studio that he lets other friends' bands record in for a fee that's lower than nominal.
posted by SpecialK at 2:31 PM on October 2, 2006

Not to be a downer, but have you considered what will happen to a garage studio if the band broke up?
posted by lekvar at 2:48 PM on October 2, 2006

You will indeed want to record more than 2 channels at once to get a good, clean drum sound. Of course, if you like the way the drums sound in your garage, you can just set up a stereo pair to capture the room sound, and then you'll have a little flexibility with EQing and compression. It might sound good, but it's not going to sound slick and modern.

I'd still recommend looking at a decent 4 or 8 channel firewire interface and doing it yourself. lekvar's point is a good one, though. But still, only you know how you want things to sound, and it sucks being on a strict time budget. And learning about recording and having the time to experiment with it will probably be beneficial in a lot of ways to you and your band. Although it may take awhile before you get good results. So really, it becomes a question of short-term benefit (pro studio) vs. long-term benefit (home studio).
posted by ludwig_van at 3:23 PM on October 2, 2006

ludwig - i disagree. the best drums i've recorded have always been from the 2 mic setup. one condenser out in front - facing the kit about 6 feet away, and one below the hi hat near the snare. its all about mixing, dude. m-box and protools (with all the waves plugins) is all you need for a rock band (unless you are recording live, of course).
posted by dminor at 3:39 PM on October 2, 2006

I depends on what your looking to get out of the recording. If you just want to throw together a demo, by all means use your own gear. If you want to get a really good quality studio recording, go to a pro studio.

1 - The Pro studio is apt to have better mics, mic pre's, and other assorted outboard gear. That translates to cleaner recordings.
2 - The staff at the studio is apt to have a lot of experience recording a variety of ensembles and can offer a wide range of options.
3 - All you need to worry about is your own performance. It's hard to keep your mind on your playing when you also have to worry about all the little details of recording.
4 - The pro studio will have recording rooms tailor made so that you can take advantage of the natural ambience of the room. With drums, this is a -huge- factor in how they sound.


And for what it's worth, I have best results with 4 mics on drums: Kick, Snare, and a stereo pair about 6 feet away. The stereo pair provides the bulk of the drum kit sound with the extra two tracks there to provide a little extra color on the kick and snare.
posted by Rubber Soul at 3:53 PM on October 2, 2006

This is probably more difficult than it sounds, but I would do both. Recording in the garage gives you more time. Record your asses off so that when you can afford the pro studio you'll have much more material ready that you can just nail, thus using that expensive time more wisely. I know you're trying to offset cost, but you will probably want the garage studio equipment anyway.

I've only just started home recording, so I'm really talking out of school, but it seems like a good idea.
posted by snsranch at 3:55 PM on October 2, 2006

ludwig - i disagree. the best drums i've recorded have always been from the 2 mic setup.

Disagree with what? I said it might sound good. It's totally dependent on the room and the kit. If one of those things sounds bad, you're stuck with it.

m-box and protools (with all the waves plugins) is all you need for a rock band

Indeed, and that will set you back a couple grand.
posted by ludwig_van at 7:45 PM on October 2, 2006

It's a tricky one. To set up a home studio you'll need more gear: a computer, an audio interface with enough inputs to handle everything you want to record concurrently (if you're doing drums with a kick mic, snare mic and two overheads then that's at least four), and some audio software (Cubase is the standard but costs at least £300, you can get Tracktion for £120 and it's pretty cool).

I daresay that the sound you get will not be as good as you got in the pro studio. BUT you will get loads of recording experience which is both fun and valuable. Further, I think that one can only really know how one wants one's band to sound after recording a bunch of times - something you will be able to do with your home studio.

In the end, if you (like me) prefer a lo-fi, dirty sound, definitely go for the home studio (as long as you can afford it), but if you want super polished, you won't get it at home.
posted by pollystark at 3:15 AM on October 3, 2006

Why don't you offer a professional engineer some coin to come to the garage to get you set up and run a couple of tracks?
posted by toastchee at 6:19 AM on October 3, 2006