Studio Recording Equipment
Technology has allowed the market price of recording equipment to fall dramatically over the past 10 years. Gone are the days when all serious recording projects had to be undertaken in expensive recording studios. Today basic recording equipment is within the budget of most musicians. Many have created their own home-based “Project” studio that allows them to record at their own pace and within the realms of their stipulated budget.
Leading audio manufacturers such as Tascam, Boss, Allesis and others have self contained digital multi-track recorders on the market complete with built-in mixer and digital effects processors in a contemporary “Porta-studio” format. There is now also the option of software recording applications based around your computer.
Hardware or Software?
Over the past decade software based recording has become increasingly popular. Applications such as Cubase, Cakewalk and Pro Tools have provided complete music production applications that are based around a PC or Apple Mac computer.
The choice for the musician is therefore whether to use hardware or software based recording products.
Hardware
As previously explained, many of the hardware based digital recording products are based on the “Porta-studio” format, whereby the entire collection of equipment is housed within a single chassis format. Typically this will include a hard disk to record and store the music onto, a mixer with the appropriate inputs and outputs, and a selection of digital effects. Some of the more upmarket digital recorders also have drum machines and mastering tools included.
The advantage of this type of system is the small footprint, compactness and value for money. It also uses more of the traditional recording process in the sense that it can be treated as a virtual “tape machine”, emulating the process that many experienced musicians are familiar with. The downside to this format is that unless time, care and high quality peripherals are deployed, the quality of the recording may not match that of a software based solution.
Software
Software based recording systems are immensely popular today. A new generation of young musicians has embraced the opportunity to use the collaboration between a PC or Mac and the latest music production software. Software systems are now sold at an affordable price point for most musicians, although the proviso is that a computer is required as part of the solution.
By manipulating sound and audio on some of the high end music applications, it is entirely plausible to produce a broadcast quality audio master that can be commercially released via CD or as a downloadable music track. This option is perhaps not as economic as some of the hardware based systems – but it will provide pristine digital quality if the project has been professionally managed.
The downside to the software recording option is that it requires a much higher degree of computer literacy and is therefore perhaps not the best choice for a musician that has little or no knowledge on how to use a computer. That said, many of the mainstream products such as Steinberg’s Cubase 5.0 have an abundance of technical resources available via on-line tuition videos, User Forums and “How to...” Books.
Nevada Music offers both hardware and software based recording systems and also provides a wide range of accessories and peripherals to compliment whichever solution is best suited to the customer’s requirement.