With the help of networking Web sites such as MySpace and
PureVolume, downloading music is a simple click away, and artists
can promote their music easily from home.
And along with the new ease of promoting their music, many
musicians are choosing to record their music at home as an
alternative to traditional studio recording.
Purchasing home equipment, including a computer interface, a
studio microphone and software, can cost as low as $500 ““ a
fraction of the price musicians have to pay to lay down tracks in a
professional studio.
For many bands and musicians, recording at home allows them to
save money and go at their own pace. These do-it-yourself
recordings make it easy for musicians to spend unlimited hours
fine-tuning their work, with little sonic downside.
“It’s definitely a lot cheaper than going to the
studio,” said Cameron Ketcham, a first-year computer science
and engineering student. “You can’t really tell the
difference sound quality-wise.”
Ketcham has been recording what he describes as “mash-ups,
electronica and mixes” for three years. He DJs for UCLA Radio
and plays many of his own songs during his set.
“I have a pre-amp, which I can connect my mic and guitar
to, and a (sound card),” Ketcham said. “I can record
directly to my computer from that with almost perfect audio
quality.”
Carey Shenkman has a different perspective. A first-year
business economics student, Shenkman has been recording at home and
in studios for the better part of the last two years. As an
electronic musician, he mainly specializes in the production work
of mixing house and trance music.
“With music-mixing and production, there is no
difference,” Shenkman said. “However, there are still
benefits to studio recording.”
Shenkman invested in home recording equipment several years ago.
He is currently using Adobe Audition and Creative Media software,
as well as a sound card that he runs through his DJ equipment.
Despite the capabilities of a home studio, however, he said
there are some qualities that home recording cannot replicate.
“In a studio, you have one aspect of sound isolation,
which is hard to achieve when you have a room,” Shenkman
said. “When (recording in the dorms) or back home, you have
distractions, you have cars going by. It’s hard to make it
soundproof. The main benefits of recording in a studio are
definitely better equipment … and the sound factor.”
Also, for inexperienced musicians more focused on songs and
performance than the production aspect, some say the aid of a
studio engineer is invaluable.
Travis Chiang, a first-year chemical engineering student,
discovered this while recording last summer in a professional
studio in Singapore with his nu-metal band Shallow Abyss.
“In studios, there’s a guy there who knows what
he’s been doing, and he’s been doing it for a long
time,” Chiang said. “He can help you out if you
don’t quite know how things are supposed to sound.”
However, recording in studios can be expensive, sometimes
costing hundreds of dollars a day. Chiang and his bandmates paid a
relatively cheap $30 an hour in Singapore, but have yet to complete
the recording of their album.
“We just go in there whenever we have money,” Chiang
said. “I record stuff at home just to give the bandmates a
sample of what I was thinking. None of the people in the band has
decent enough equipment to (record at home). We rely on the studio
amps and drums.”
Still, with the boundaries between home and studio recordings
blurring, musicians like Shenkman say they can have the best of
both worlds.
“Today, it’s really possible to make a home setting
really professional,” he said. “(But) I also like the
quality of vocals better in the studios.”