Home Studio or Pro

[newguy12]

Please excuse the long post:

I was wondering, this is slightly hypothetical although is quite forceable in the future, if I had say $20,000 to spend on making an album say from an advance from a record company would it be advantagous to take that cash and go into a nice studio for a week or so or would I be better off taking the money, buying a bunch of gear and doing the record myself. My band was kinda split between the two ideas. We have a fair amount of gear already (a few high end items but mostly prosumer stuff). I have a house that we rehearse in which is perfect for recording and I don't mind doing some modificiations to enhance the sound of the rooms. Furthermore, I have a decent amount of experience recording bands and have made some decent sounding demos and other misc recordings. In addition, our music is somewhere in the vein of Radiohead, grandaddy, flaming lips with a ecclectic mix of synths, guitars and other misc sounds hence the album would be fairly dependant on crafty studio work and the development of our arrangements rather than us just going in and doing a few live takes, overdubbs and then mixing. Hence, we were thinking we'd get a Soundcraft ghost, pick up another nice mic pre or two (We already got 4 channels of sytek a 2 channel universal audio pre, some old ampex pres and a few other items) a couple of distressors, maybe another mic or two although we were planning on using what we got and renting some U87s for a few days. We got a bunch of other outboard stuff, some dbx compressors, rnc's, drawmer noise gates, as well as a bunch of behringer and other prosumer stuff. One guy in the band has a 2" 16 track and I got a Nuendo setup. I figured with all this stuff and the extras we would get with the advance, not only would we be able to work on our own time and really put alot into this album but regardless of whether it sells or not we would have these items to make more recordings where as if we went into a studio and the album didn't do well all we would have was a bad selling album which we wouldn't really own, the record company would. I know I'm rambling so bear with me, I guess what I'm asking is would it be possible to cut a high quality album with some of the above mentioned gear in decent sounding rooms with a fairly solid band that will also engineer and produce the album and while none of us has ever attended audio school, 2 guys have worked in studios, I have a decent project one in my home and all of us have played in bands for years.

[thempt]

.

[heylow]

Yo....

In some ways this is a simple question and in other ways, it's the hardest question in the world.

Basically, what it comes down to is, what do you WANT to do? I personally decided to take the DIY approach, but what you have to ask yourself is....do you want the headache and bullshit that comes with recording yourself and your band? Yes....there is some!

See...mostly people talk of the ups of self recording, which there are MANY. But there are also snags and stops in the DIY route....you have to take the time to learn your PARTICULAR gear. I don;t care how much knowledge one has...when you decide to buy gear and put it in a room, you practically start at zero...every set up is different. You also have to experiment to find what works best instead of relying on some other engineer's daily experience.....and, believe it or not, this can be time consuming and sometimes even aggravating when you JUST CANNOT find "that" sound. There WILL be doubtful moments, I asure you and you have to take the bad with the good.

There will also be unseen costs, band arguments, equipment failures and GOD knows what else that will make you wonder what the fuck you got yourself into...it all comes down to what you really love to do though.

I don't mean to be down on it as it's what I LOVE to do myself but you DO have to know what you are getting into. You also have to know WHEN YOU ARE DONE! THis is important. You could spend the rest of your life on one record if you are not careful...in a studio, it's done when the budget is gone.

It sounds as if, with the music you are doing, you might benefit from the ability and time to experiment. So many studios actually came from guys doing this....setting up to record their own band, get out a couple of records and the next thing you know, you have clients.

One other thing if I may suggest it, is set up to track at first...buy some great tracking gear and maybe do the first couple of mixing projects at a studio you like. This is what I am doing...you learn an AWFUL lot about what you are doing right and wrong and you get some very helpful insight into how you might improve your stuff. You also get some great mixing lessons. Mixing, in my opinion, is the hardest part. I like tracking....I HATE mixing and I feel better handing it over at the moment.

Basically...you could spend all the time you like getting your sounds and spend another 2 grand for a week of mixing....just a thought.

Whatever you choose to do....good luck and HAVE FUN!!!


heylow

[thempt]

.

[1\2moog1\2man]

Take the money and build!!! at least you are left with gear and not just some dated CDS... I'm not a fan but thats what 3-11 did.
"Go on, take the money and run, hoo hoo hoo"

[black ark]

do you guys have a "producer"? maybe another set of ears will help out when recording at home... smooth out the bumps and cure the headaches so to speak.. sometimes it's better to focus on playing more than recording.. if you approach it from an "engineer" standpoint you may come out with a slightly detatched work that sounds good but is missing some of the energy of focused musical inspiration uncluttered by "tweaking".

good god, i sound like jeff robinson..

i say get the stuff and DIY...

but who gets the stuff when the band breaks up?

-paul m.

[trimix]

Have you made a $20k album before? Maybe you should talk to somebody who has, it's not that easy a feat. Learning on the record company's dime may not be the best move.
Talk to some producers/ engineers who's work you like to see if they would consider taking it on, and what they're approach would be.With that kind of budget I imagine they'd want to do as much of the tracking outside of an hourly rate room as possible, so the DIY approach would still be feasible, listen to their experience to help you determine when a different approach is more appropriate. Hiring a Neve side-car to track drums to your 2" in your rehearsal space may seem like the way to go, but maybe tracking in a local MCI studio with a nice sized room would yield better results. Talking to somebody who's been through it before can help you spend what budget you have wisely. The outside perspective can really benefit a recording without getting overly intrusive.
It's the ears not the gear...
HTH

[joeysimms]

You have more stuff than I do, and I'm recording an album "at home". If I had 20K to play with, I wouldn't work a dayjob for a year and I'd record 3 or 4 albums.

[@?,*???&?]

Please excuse the long post:

I was wondering, this is slightly hypothetical although is quite forceable in the future, if I had say $20,000 to spend on making an album say from an advance from a record company would it be advantagous to take that cash and go into a nice studio for a week or so or would I be better off taking the money, buying a bunch of gear and doing the record myself. My band was kinda split between the two ideas. We have a fair amount of gear already (a few high end items but mostly prosumer stuff). I have a house that we rehearse in which is perfect for recording and I don't mind doing some modificiations to enhance the sound of the rooms. Furthermore, I have a decent amount of experience recording bands and have made some decent sounding demos and other misc recordings. In addition, our music is somewhere in the vein of Radiohead, grandaddy, flaming lips with a ecclectic mix of synths, guitars and other misc sounds hence the album would be fairly dependant on crafty studio work and the development of our arrangements rather than us just going in and doing a few live takes, overdubbs and then mixing. Hence, we were thinking we'd get a Soundcraft ghost, pick up another nice mic pre or two (We already got 4 channels of sytek a 2 channel universal audio pre, some old ampex pres and a few other items) a couple of distressors, maybe another mic or two although we were planning on using what we got and renting some U87s for a few days. We got a bunch of other outboard stuff, some dbx compressors, rnc's, drawmer noise gates, as well as a bunch of behringer and other prosumer stuff. One guy in the band has a 2" 16 track and I got a Nuendo setup. I figured with all this stuff and the extras we would get with the advance, not only would we be able to work on our own time and really put alot into this album but regardless of whether it sells or not we would have these items to make more recordings where as if we went into a studio and the album didn't do well all we would have was a bad selling album which we wouldn't really own, the record company would. I know I'm rambling so bear with me, I guess what I'm asking is would it be possible to cut a high quality album with some of the above mentioned gear in decent sounding rooms with a fairly solid band that will also engineer and produce the album and while none of us has ever attended audio school, 2 guys have worked in studios, I have a decent project one in my home and all of us have played in bands for years.

Visit the "real studio vs. DAW" thread already posted on this site. You won't hurt yourself working alone with overdubs, but getting drum sounds at home on a crap console will be a major sacrifice. Find a great API room around you to track your basics in. E-mail me too for further info.

[axial]

I say take the money and move to mexico!

[mtw]

my overly simplistic answer:

track the drums at a nice studio
do guitar, bass, etc at home.
do vocals at home
mix at the nice studio

-mtw

[@?,*???&?]

my overly simplistic answer:

track the drums at a nice studio
do guitar, bass, etc at home.
do vocals at home
mix at the nice studio

-mtw

OH MY GOD! The voice of reason! Could this be the Tapeop Messageboard?!?!?!

Exactly. Track to 2" tape as well and put your home overdubs back on tape when you're done recording.