I pealed the potatoes : recording@home advantages

A recurring question is “Should we record at home or in a studio ?”. Both have obvious advantages, I won’t try to say that you shouldn’t go to a studio, but I’ll try to highlight the advantages of home recording…

Okay, let’s assume your songs are ready, and that time has come to record them for your next CD :

When you start recording, you may realise you need some more practice in order to make the songs “cleaner”… If you’re already in the studio, it simply means this is too late, because you have paid to be there.

Now, if you record yourself, you can choose whether you want to record instruments in this order :

or this one :

The only way to make sure the order will be yours is to do it yourself ! Or if you don’t know, at least you’ll have enough time to try different possibilities. Don’t forget also that in a studio, one more person at least (the sound engineer with his own tastes, preferences, experience) will probably get involved into your project. This can be your own choice since he can be VERY helpful to you and make you highly benefit from his own experience and technical knowledge. This is something you have to take into account very seriously before taking your decision.

And what about the tools / softwares / hardwares you will be using ? Those of the studio are most probably far better than yours !

The good point is that you will make all your best to get the best from your own tools (the yellow one) ! Also, it depends on what you need to record. A guitar or a voice can be recorded at home very easily. If you plan to record black metal drums with double pedal, I would strongly advise you to go to a metal experienced studio, definitely !

You need also time for recording, and the more time you spend in the studio, the more you pay, unless a powerful label is doing it for you 🙂 . And you NEED time to try different things, sounds, effects, mix etc… When time gets shortened, in most cases the final result will not sound as good as expected…

At the end, with home recording you may end up with this :

But by going to the studio you may end up with that (which is also good by the way but maybe not exactly what you had in mind) :

And the same advices should apply for the mastering !

§ Yann