Home Recording 101: Beginners Start Here...
[Note: a version of this entry first appeared on my main website Home Recording Blog]
When I first decided to get into home recording, I had no idea where I was going to start. I did however, know that I didn't have $10,000 to set up the perfect home recording studio. Anything I did would have to be done on a tiny budget, and with the most basic of equipment.
Believe it or not, this is my very first keyboard , which I christened Baby Cass...
However, there is much you can do with it. A brief digression here: If you haven't already seen the movie Hustle and Flow, head down to your local video/DVD hire outlet and borrow the film. It shows one of these tiny units being put through its paces, and I can assure you the musicians who made use of this keyboard, achieved more with it than I ever thought possible.
But back to September, 2003. I thought I'd see if I could actually do anything with my Baby Cass, Shure SM58 mic, Takamine guitar, and computer.
I plugged the Shure in to the Mic In jack of my sound card, launched my demo version of Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition), turned on Baby Cass (which was positioned directly beneath the Shure), and hit a few keys. Holy Moly, Batman, it worked! I could record directly onto my hard drive.
Over the next few days, using lots of trial and error, and more patience than I ever knew I had, I recorded my first demo song, Heartache To Heartache. It consisted of three tracks; the guitar and vocal (recorded - eventually - in one take), and the pipe organ and piano from the Casio.
Since then I have added a bass guitar track to the demo. Have a listen to it now...
Sure, it was never going to win a Grammy Award, but did I care? Not in the slightest. I had been bitten by the home recording bug, and there was no way to go from there but up - onto bigger and better things.
Of course, after my first foray into home recording, I knew I would at least have to improve the quality of the keyboard I was using if I was going to create anything of substance. After spending some time, doing the rounds of various second hand shops, I eventually settled on another Casio, the CTK-551. Later on again, I also bought a Casio MZ2000.
Eighteen months, and countless hours later, I completed the recording of my second album, American Dream. In fact, I had recorded so many songs over that 18 month period, that I had enough material left over to create an additional CDR of bonus songs. But that's another story.
When I first decided to get into home recording, I had no idea where I was going to start. I did however, know that I didn't have $10,000 to set up the perfect home recording studio. Anything I did would have to be done on a tiny budget, and with the most basic of equipment.
Believe it or not, this is my very first keyboard , which I christened Baby Cass...
However, there is much you can do with it. A brief digression here: If you haven't already seen the movie Hustle and Flow, head down to your local video/DVD hire outlet and borrow the film. It shows one of these tiny units being put through its paces, and I can assure you the musicians who made use of this keyboard, achieved more with it than I ever thought possible.
But back to September, 2003. I thought I'd see if I could actually do anything with my Baby Cass, Shure SM58 mic, Takamine guitar, and computer.
I plugged the Shure in to the Mic In jack of my sound card, launched my demo version of Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition), turned on Baby Cass (which was positioned directly beneath the Shure), and hit a few keys. Holy Moly, Batman, it worked! I could record directly onto my hard drive.
Over the next few days, using lots of trial and error, and more patience than I ever knew I had, I recorded my first demo song, Heartache To Heartache. It consisted of three tracks; the guitar and vocal (recorded - eventually - in one take), and the pipe organ and piano from the Casio.
Since then I have added a bass guitar track to the demo. Have a listen to it now...
Sure, it was never going to win a Grammy Award, but did I care? Not in the slightest. I had been bitten by the home recording bug, and there was no way to go from there but up - onto bigger and better things.
Of course, after my first foray into home recording, I knew I would at least have to improve the quality of the keyboard I was using if I was going to create anything of substance. After spending some time, doing the rounds of various second hand shops, I eventually settled on another Casio, the CTK-551. Later on again, I also bought a Casio MZ2000.
Eighteen months, and countless hours later, I completed the recording of my second album, American Dream. In fact, I had recorded so many songs over that 18 month period, that I had enough material left over to create an additional CDR of bonus songs. But that's another story.
posted by Jim Lesses at
9:49 PM
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