Friday, December 30, 2011

Audio Recording and Production: Home Recordings vs Studio's

Audio Recording and Production: Home Recordings vs Studio's: With all the great software and high quality gear available to musicians, many have started to record at home. The results can be quite good...

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Home Recordings vs Studio's

With all the great software and high quality gear available to musicians, many have started to record at home. The results can be quite good but usually home recordings run into a few common problems that only studios can solve. The first problem that musicians run into recording at home is controlled environments. Many home studios have too much ambient noise and or reflections. This really becomes evident when mixes are brought up to volume. The second problem is sweat equity. Musicians doing home recordings have put most of their practice hours perfecting their instrument not in recording and mixing music. Professional studios  have engineers that have put their sweat equity into the craft of audio , which to them is their "instrument".  Hope to see you in the studio !

Digital Street Studio - Slave to the audio

Slave to the audio.....what does that mean exactly? For me, it means that audio (music to be exact) has been my addiction. Ever since I could remember I have loved music. All genres.....for the most part. I didn't realize it at the time but I also enjoyed the dynamics or music. For most of us, we listen to music because it can be relaxing or exciting or even enlightning. We close our eyes and we're off on a journey. If we're listening to music while we're driving.....don't close your eyes! You get the point. Music is part of our life. I couldn't imagine music not being part of my mine. Probably explains why I'm an engineer and producer of music. Not only do I record my own music, I get to participate in helping others do the same. Taking a song from a raw concept and adding all of the piece's to make it come to life. I'll never forget listening to my first Pink Floyd album and thinking....how did they do that? Well, I have a much better understanding of that today. After thousands of hours experimenting, researching, and just gaining a better understanding of recording audio. I look back at all of the time spent becoming an audio engineer. Getting out of bed at 3am, experimenting with frequencies, compression, panning. Seeing the sun coming up thinking I just spent the last 3 hours chasing my tail......or so I thought. Then it happens, all of the time and hard work start to pay off. Songs begin to sound professional, radio ready. I can't tell you how excited I was when I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. All of the hard work finally paying off.  Would I do it all over again? Spend the ridiculous amount of money on equipment, the ridiculous amount of time and energy?.......absolutely, and without question. That is why I am slave to the audio.

Chris
http://www.digitalstreetstudio.com/

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Digital Street Studio. Record live or in a controlled environment....that is the question.

    Recording live has it's advantages as well as it's disadvantages. While you may get the energy of recording live, you will, in most cases capture some bleed. If the engineer and the facility are on the ball, bleed will be minimal. If your budget allows, re-track as much as possible. Vocals and guitars would be your first priority in most cases. When you isolate things such as guitar, vocals, bass, it will allow for greater frequency control.
   
    Recording in a controlled or isolated environment has it's advantages and disadvantages as well. However, in my opinion, the advantages far exceed the disadvantages. For me it's punch-ins, Drum punch-ins to be more accurate. It's much easier and seemless to punch-in drums when there is no other room noise. Also, you can focus on one instrument at a time. Yes, some will argue that this process takes longer and cost's more? I would have to agree! However, you will spend less time editing during production and final mixing. Basically, you would have spent the same amount of money to get to the same point. The disadvantage would be the live environment. Most bands want to record live to capture the energy of the moment. I can't disagree with that at all.  However, if your going to record live allow for re-tracking. The final mix and master will be your reward.
  
Chris
Digital Street Recording Studio
http://www.digitalstreetstudio.com/

Friday, December 23, 2011

Audio Recording and Production

   Our first of many blogs.... Since starting Digital Street Studio in 2010, we've experienced many things. We've been very fortunate to have the support of music stores and local musicians singing our praises. We've also been fortunate to have the support of our family and friends. Without that, it makes any undertaking very difficult. For that, we are forever grateful. Not many people can say they love what they do and do what they love. Thank you all!

Chris and Kevin
http://www.digitalstreetstudio.com/