Part 2 of Secrets to having a home studio, the equipment.

Ok, so we’ve talked some about making a space for your home studio and making it acoustically sound in part 1, let’s now talk about the foundation of your studio; the equipment.

This is always a topic that gets people passionate.  To be completely honest with you, there are MANY ways to set up your home studio with equipment. Here are some examples:

1. You can have a laptop or desktop with a USB interface you connect a microphone into
2. You can have a laptop or desktop that you plug a USB microphone into
3. You can have a desktop with a pre-amp connected to it’s line in, that is connected to a microphone
4. You can have a desktop with a small mixer connected to the line in, with a microphone connected to it

There are few more combinations, and I won’t list them all because new products are coming on the market all the time, but you get the idea.

I am pretty old school about what my studio set up is, it’s not designed to be a set up that you can easily take on the road, I’ll talk about that option in another blog posting.  But with my years of experience not only in Voice Acting, but Computers as well, and being burned by flaky equipment, I want something solid and stable that is not going to break the bank.

Here’s the short list of equipment you should have in your home studio:

• Desktop computer, less than 5 years old, with at least 2 gigs of ram, 200gig+ hard drive.
• Small 2-6 channel mixing board.
• A microphone (this is the interesting part)
• Headphones

I would say that this is the minimum setup I would feel comfortable with, in fact when I set up my own home studio over 7 years ago that is what I had.  Aside from the computer and software I needed to record and edit the audio, the audio equipment cost me a little less than $300.00.  Not a bad investment.  I decided that if I was to start recording my voice from home I didn’t want to have to invest a lot up front, especially if I didn’t continue doing Voice Acting from home.  My suggestion is to get just what you need, don’t go out an buy thousands of dollars for recording equipment just when starting out, of course if you can afford it and it’s your sole income stream already; go for it, but most likely you wouldn’t be reading this post for ideas, you’d just hire someone.  With the low investment upfront you can always upgrade as you go along if needed.

So, let’s look at how this all fits together.  The microphone in this case connects to the mixer.  The mixer performs a few things for us, it is a pre-amp, giving the signal from the microphone more strength, it allows us to set the level or volume, and it allows us to add additional microphones or inputs from other sources such as an old fashioned turntable (if you want to convert some classic old records into mp3′s).  The mixer is relatively inexpensive (I have seen a 4 channel mixing board available for less that $50), and truly is a good choice.

The output of the mixer goes into the line-in of the computer.  Most desktop computers, unlike laptops, have two audio inputs.  One input is a microphone input and is really not good enough to do high quality recording from your mic.  The microphone input is also mono, meaning it just handles 1 audio channel, it’s like listening to AM radio compared to FM which is stereo.   The line input is a stereo input and is the preferred method of getting audio into your machine.  There are other differences between mic and line, such as impedence, balanced vs unbalanced, but that is not something you will normally dealing with.  Line in is for stereo; from your mixer – Mic in is for mono; from a microphone.   If you plug the output of your mixer into the mic-in, the sound will be very crummy.  Plus your mixer is stereo, and if you want to record some other stereo source through the mixer, well it has to be stereo.  In this case it really doesn’t matter a whole lot, it is what it is, even if we are recording a mono source; your voice.

Some suggestions for mixing boards are:

Behringer Eurorack UB802 Mixer

Mackie 402-VLZ3 Compact Mixer

You will get the idea of what to look for from those two, there are many on the market to choose from.  I have both a Behringer as well as a Mackie.  I prefer the Mackie, it introduces less noise to the audio signal.

Another thing to consider, you will have to get cables.  A cable from the mic to the mixer, which is an XLR type connector and then a cable from your mixer to your PC.  That cable will vary depending on the output of your mixer.  The end that goes into the computer will always be a stereo 1/4″ mini plug male.

Now the hardest part of all, choosing your microphone.

There are literally hundreds of microphones on the market, if not more… They all have a different sound, designed for a specific use.. and range from $100 to how much you got?  The funny thing about microphones is, no matter who you talk to, you will get a different opinion as to which is the best, either for sound, or price or both.  Research is definately required on your part, even if you wind up hiring someone to help you choose… an informed person is better than one who knows nothing.

Since there are lots of options out there, I will give you a couple of microphones to consider.

There are dynamic mics, and condenser mics.  Dynamic microphones are ususally used by singers, or for voice applications.  They are generally sturdy and for most people sound nice.     I used a dynamic mic for about 4 years with great success.  The nicest part about it is the mic cost around $99… woo hoo!  I got a Shure SM58.. and it was, and still is a great mic.

The other mic type I will submit is a condenser mic.  One of the other microphones I have that is a condenser mic is the Rode NTK which comes in at a little under $600.00.  What is the difference between the condenser and dynamic mics?  Dynamic mics are more rugged, condenser mics can be more fragile, but give a warmer sound and can limit noise as well.  If you want to spend some time reading about the difference you can read this article on about.com.  It covers it pretty well.

That doesn’t tell you which mic to get does it? Well, welcome to the big question – “Which mic should I get?”  They all sound slightly different, cost varies, and have been designed for different applications.  One suggestion is to get your computer and mixing board all set up, then contact an audio gear rental company.  You can usually rent a couple of mics for cheap, do some tests and then pick which compliments your voice the best.  I suggest this because most companies will not take a microphone back after you have purchased it and tested it out.  Some retailers might, best idea is to check the return policy.  But rent to try is a simpler way to go.

I didn’t cover some of the finer techincal bits for audio equipment, that you will need to pick up on your own, but you now have an idea of what to look for.

Next in part 3, I will cover computer gear.