Preparing for the Recording Studio – Organizing to save time, money & turn out a better product. Part 3 of 3

This episode of Songwriter Insights is the 3rd and final of a three-part series with John Hildebrand. John has given us a great deal of information about studio recording that we’re sure will be valuable to anyone who is thinking of recording, whether it’s a simple song demo or an entire record.

What’s Covered

Setting up your home studio

* How serious are you, and what’s your budget?

* Using a simple portable recorder

* Types of microphones to use

* Computers and memory

* Software recording package and audio interface

* The learning curve

John Hildebrand is an engineer, producer, musician, educator, studio consultant, and a member of Audio Engineering Society (AES). His professional business background includes Owner/Engineer of Accusound Recording Studio, San Diego, Engineer/Instructor at SOUNDTRAX Recording Studio, San Diego, and Owner of Desert Windsong Publishing. John has taught Audio Production and Sound Design for Film at San Diego State University, Audio Recording Techniques at San Diego’s Southwestern College, and most recently was Professor of Audio/Video and Film Production at San Diego City College.

Mentioned and Recommended Resources

Zoom Audio/Video portable recorder – This small and affordable portable recorder will give you great quality video or audio recordings that can be uploaded directly to YouTube or saved to your computer or virtual storage. A wonderful tool for either recording demos of your songs or for working out arrangements. Records audio in excellent stereo and video in quality HD.

Shure SM58 Dynamic Vocal Microphone – Widely considered the most popular mic in the world.

Presonus Firestudio – Mobile 10×6 Firewire Recording Interface

M-Audio – M-Track Plus 2-Channel Portable USB Audio and MIDI Interface with Digital I/O, Ignite by AIR and Pro Tools

Pro Tools –  Pro Tools 11 enables you to take on the most demanding sessions and maximize your creativity without holding anything back.

Sony Soundforge Pro 11 – Record audio quickly on a rock-solid platform, address sophisticated audio processing tasks with surgical precision, and render top-notch master files with ease.

Presonus Studio One – Brand New PreSonus Studio One 2.0 Professional DAW Software with Melodyne Essential, Multitrack MIDI editing and automatic delay compensation.

Apple Logic Pro X – Sophisticated new tools for professional songwriting, editing, and mixing are built around a modern interface that’s designed to get creative results quickly.

Audacity – Audacity® is free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds.

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