Marc Schonbrun - The Everything Guide to Digital Home Recording: Tips, tools, and techniques for studio sound at home

THE
EVERYTHING
GUIDE TO
DIGITAL HOME
RECORDING

Dear Reader,

Much has changed in the field of digital home recording since The EverythingHome Recording Book came out in 2004. Home recording has literally exploded in the past few years thanks to the increasing power of computers and reduced prices of home recording equipment. The year 2009 brought a slowing global economy, and more and more of us are turning to our art and our music to express ourselves within our own homes. Recording in a professional studio is just no longer an option for many of us. I wanted this book to be a great overview of all the things youre going to encounter as you start setting up your own home studio. While I work as a professional engineer, I often find myself happiest creating music in my own home studio. Ive been at it since 1997 when the home recording market looked very different than it does today. I hope that this book helps you create music that satisfies your soulwe can sure use it nowadays. Good luck on your journey. If you post your music online, Google me and send me a note. Id love to hear what youve created.

Musically,

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THE
EVERYTHING
GUIDE TO
DIGITAL HOME
RECORDING

Tips, tools, and techniques
for studio sound at home

Marc Schonbrun
Author of The EverythingMusic
Theory Book with CD

Copyright 2009 by F+W Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced
in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions
are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

An Everything Series Book.
Everything and everything.com are registered trademarks of F+W Media, Inc.

Published by Adams Media, a division of F+W Media, Inc.
57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322 U.S.A.
www.adamsmedia.com

ISBN 10: 1-60550-164-6
ISBN 13: 978-1-60550-164-2
eISBN: 978-1-44050-178-4

Printed in the United States of America.

J I H G F E D C B A

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This book is dedicated to Les Paul,
who made so much of this book possible and truly
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Contents

Acknowledgments

I have to start by thanking Kevin Anker, whose help went far beyond the call of duty. This book wasnt possible without your time and effort. Also thanks to Lisa Speegle, Scott Chruch, David Das, Tobias Thon, Dave Hill, Jr., Jeff Horton, Kyle Ritland, Jeff Cross, Brian McConnon, Dr. B.J. Buchalter and all at Metric Halo, Orren Metron, Barry Diament, and countless others whove contributed to my knowledge of digital audio over the years.

The Top Ten Reasons
to Record at Home

Its cheaper than going to the studio.

No more watching the clock waiting for the perfect take.

Its a blast!

You can work when you want to.

You can produce high-quality music yourself.

Youve always wanted to.

You can form new musical collaborations and record them.

Your computer is wasting away surfing the webput it to work.

You can sound as good as the pros do, and you can do it yourself.

You can sell your music on iTunes.

Introduction

If you re reading this book, then making music is an important part of your life. Furthermore, whether youre making music just to have fun or to pursue a serious interest, you would like to get into home recording. Where do you start? Maybe youve gone to a music store and left more confused than when you walked in. All those choices! Analog versus digital, microphones, cables, rack gear, microphone preamplifiers, mixing boards, computer interfaces, recording software, MIDI... the list goes on and on. Even worse, you may have picked up a book on home recording and on page six read about hi passing 200Hz to eliminate some rumble from a bass-heavy cardioid microphone to battle proximity effect. Proximity... what? Maybe all those terms were scary, with so little real-world instruction on where to start and what to do.