Before embarking on the 18th Variation project, I decided that this time, rather than plunge head in and then get demotivated by poor results, I should do some decent research to get a fuller view of what is involved.
My first step (seemed logical) was to research what is involved in creating a Home Recording Studio. Surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly), there is a wealth of material on YouTube (as well as Google of course). After several hours of watching a variety of great videos, I concluded that the basic equipment required is:
- Computer
- Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
- Audio Interface
- Microphone (at least one)
- Monitor Speakers and/or Headphones
I’ll go into details on each of these items in subsequent posts.
You do of course need accessories such as Microphone Stands, Cables and the like which I haven’t detailed.
Thinking about my specific project, what I needed to achieve was to create the Orchestral Tracks directly on my computer – I wouldn’t actually be ‘recording’ an orchestra using microphones. Would I then need a microphone? Not for this purpose at least. However, clearly I needed a means of ‘playing’ the different instruments into the computer and for this a Midi Controller gets added to the list.
I also did an amount of research on how to mic a Grand Piano. This proved, in itself, to be a very complex subject. Set ups range from two microphones going into a single Audio Interface (as used by the YouTube piano teachers to whom I subscribe, Paul Barton and Josh Wright) to engineers recommending 7 or more microphones at various placements. However, it then occurred to me that, in the immediate, I had no need to mic my piano – I wanted to record the backing track and then play the piano against it after all. Therefore, the Microphone (and as a consequence the Audio Interface which allows you to plug the microphone into your computer) were not immediately required.
There were differences of opinion as to whether you can really work with just headphones or whether monitor speakers are indeed required. I think most people agreed that towards the end of the process, you should be using speakers and not headphones, however, for recording and initial playing about, headphones appear to be an acceptable option.
Finally … budget. One common theme seemed to be that there was absolutely no need to spend vast quantities of money on this stuff now … great options exist even at a more modest budget and there are a number of people who advise on how to get all of this for less than USD 300 (excluding the computer of course because it is generally assumed that you already have one) . So, nothing to break the bank (at least initially)
So, for my immediate needs, the only equipment I actually need is:
- Computer
- Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
- Headphones
- Midi Controller
Computer – check (in fact I have a choice of 2), Headphones – my Bose Noise Cancelling should do for now. Midi Controller – double check – I have two choices already (my Yamaha digital piano (Clavinova) and a Novation midi keyboard) so no additional budget was required here.
So, initial hardware wise it seems I’m all set … just the decision on the Digital Audio Workstation (which is basically a computer program) to make. I’ll cover this in my next post.
