Possibly the most important question to ask yourself when planning your home recording studio is "Do I want it to be a digital studio or an analog studio?". You must know the answer to this first because the rest of your planning will be influenced by what format you will be recording on.
It has only been in the past decade that digital recording has become the norm. It used to be that if you wanted to record music at home, you used an analog 4-track that recorded on a cassette tape. And very few people had the skills or knowledge to make that setup sound good enough to release as a record. If you wanted to do a professional recording, you had to rent a large studio that used very expensive analog multitrack machines. These were typically 16 or 24 track machines that used 1 inch or 2 inch wide analog tape.
These days analog equipment is used more as an effect or by a few select people who prefer the sound of analog tape. Recording on a digital format has become so simple and inexpensive that the number of large professional recording studios has diminished greatly in the past several years. Anyone can now record music at home on a computer or a digital recorder. And although it still takes a certain level of skill and knowledge to end up with a decent sounding recording, the combination of the equipment being easier to use and the public's acceptance of compressed audio formats has resulted in it now being easier than ever for anyone to set up a home recording studio and produce quality music recordings at home.
When considering which format you will be recording on, you should think about what kind of music you will be recording. If you are going to be playing and recording mostly electronic instruments such as keyboards, turntables, or samplers, then recording on a digital format makes more sense. Converting signals from digital to analog and back to digital etc. degrades the sound quality of the signal with each conversion. By keeping most of the signal in the digital domain, you could preserve the original sound and end up with a better sounding recording. A digital recording setup is usually simpler as far as cables and connectors needed to interface the equipment.
Some people just prefer the sound of analog equipment and tape. There is an undeniable warmth and feel to analog compared to digital. While dance, hip hop, or other mostly electronic music sounds fine when recorded digitally, music recordings of more acoustic instrument-based genres such as jazz or country can really benefit from the sound of analog equipment. Often times an analog recording of acoustic music can preserve the natural sounds of the voices and instruments much more accurately than a digital format can.
Once you have decided to record either digital or analog, you must then pick exactly which format you will use. For example, hard disk, flash, CD, DVD, these are all digital formats. There is hardware and software for recording on these and other digital formats. Which format you pick will determine exactly what equipment you will need for recording on that format.
The surge in popularity of digital recording has given consumers a great selection of recording equipment and software at very reasonable prices. And the speed at which the technologies change and improve also result in good deals on slightly used digital recording equipment.
If you choose to build your home recording studio around an analog format, your search for equipment may be more difficult. Very few manufacturers still offer new analog recording equipment, but there are some high quality pieces available. You can also find some great deals on older used analog as more and more studios upgrade or change over to a digital format.
One other issue to consider with analog equipment is service. With the classic warmth and feel of analog comes the need for regular maintenance of analog equipment. The cost and availability of new digital recording equipment makes digital gear virtually disposable. Analog gear is not as easily replaced and the number of qualified service technicians seems to be dropping rapidly. Although this issue of maintenance with analog recording equipment should not be the sole factor in deciding which format to use, it should be considered when making the decision...analog or digital?
Find more "how-to" articles and great deals on new and vintage recording equipment at:
http://www.build-a-studio.com
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