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Computers have made building an advanced home recording studio a reality for many of us. It has also caused a flooding of the market by dozens of products (and more) that all basically do the same thing. The sea of marketing created in this environment has left quite a few home recording enthusiasts scratching their heads in confusion. Below you will find some basic recommendations on the key equipment needed to start your own home recording studio. Find out more

Toontrack’s EZdrummer is a VST plugin that functions as a drum machine. Anyone needing to create drum tracks in their home recording studio owe it to themselves to check it out. This tutorial gives an overview of how to use the build in groove library to get a drum track up and running very quickly. Show me how to use those tasty EZdrummer grooves

In Home Recording Basics 1 we covered configuring your computer for recording. Home Recording Basics 2 showed you how to create and save a new project. In this installment of Home Recording Basics we are going to talk about recording your first tracks. After going through this tutorial you should be well on your way to a home studio addiction that can last you a lifetime. (more…)

In Home Recording Basics 1 we talked about getting your computer set up to operate as a DAW. The next step is to create your first project and get ready to record a few tracks. With REAPER and your soundcard properly configured, it is now time to take that next step. (more…)

So, you want to record yourself, your band, or someone else at home. You have never recorded anything on a computer and are not sure where to start. The first thing you want to do is ignore everything complex and simply try to get used to the idea of recording on a computer. This article is for you and will walk you through the process of installing your home recording software all the way to recording your first few tracks. Help me get started»

The bass guitar is an important element of every contemporary mix even though it rarely plays a prominent role. Sometimes the bass is felt rather than heard while other mixes have the bass in a much more audible sonic space. Your home recording studio is well equipped to shape your bass tracks as long as you have a basic equalizer and compressor. Show me how

There are a lot of little noises that can sneak in between phrases. These extra noises are not noticed while the vocalist is singing but you don’t want to hear bleed from headphones, rustling paper, or any other distractions in between. It is quite common in the home recording studio world to put a noise gate on vocal tracks to eliminate these types of problems. Tuning a noise gate to correct this can be a time consuming process which is prone to creating one or two unnatural sounding words here and there. I prefer a more natural sounding approach. Show me how to do it »

How do you think about a mix? In conversations with other musicians who don’t do much mixing I often find they think about mixes in a very linear fashion. Mixes are anything but linear in nature. This article presents a non-linear way to visualize a mix. The concept can be hard to grasp on first read but tuck it into the back of your mind as you do your mixes. Once you get a chance to match your experience with this concept you will find your mixes start to open up and become a bit more three dimensional. Please, oh please, tell me more »

Mixing Audio: Concepts, Practices and Tools price check

UPDATE: This book is now available. A new book on mixing techniques is coming out in January 2008. The press release on the book makes it look like a potentially valuable resource. The book promises to cover techniques from basic to advanced and should appeal to home recording enthusiasts as well as studio professionals. The book comes with a DVD of audio examples including four full mixes to play with. The mixes are rock, hip hop, techno, and drum and bass. These mixes are used in examples and tutorials throughout the book.

Quick review:

This book covers a lot of higher level concepts without as much rubber meets the road type advice. A large portion of the book is devoted to talking about tools (as the title implies) with an entire chapter devoted to describing the function of controls found on a typical mixer. This book is absolutely recommended to beginners, but has pockets of information that can be enjoyed by more experienced mixers looking to hone their chops a bit. One of the greatest aspects of the included DVD is the library of sound clips demonstrating critical listening.

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