Build Your Home Studio – With Keshav Dhar and Yatin Srivastava

Keshav and Yatin's Ultimate Guide To Building Your Home Studio!

The music industry has changed drastically over the last 10-15 years. With the introduction of the Internet providing everyone with an immense amount of information regarding every aspect of making music, there has been a drastic change in the way in which music is produced and listened to. It has given rise to the independent musician along with the bedroom producer. Now, any kid with a laptop and a small amount of gear can make songs or even a record. With this in mind, the music gear industry has changed a lot as well. There are loads of options when it comes to gear when you’re starting out building your home studio. But what are the best options? This is the ultimate guide for you!

To make our recommendations stronger we invited a very special guest contributor, Keshav Dhar, Producer and Engineer at Illusion Audio and the main man behind Internationally acclaimed Progressive Metal Band Skyharbor. Keshav and I compiled a step-wise gear guide for you to build your home studio or even upgrade!

Here is a list of products/gear that are essentials, if you plan to have a home studio :

Audio Interface

Most computers and laptops come with a sound card. But that sound card has nowhere near the power required to record high output instruments and microphones. This is where an audio interface comes into the picture. Audio Interfaces provide high quality inputs, which enable you to record sound at a much higher quality as compared to your on board soundcard. Above that, most audio interfaces nowadays come with various other features such as in-built pre-amps, volume controls, phantom power etc. With regards to audio interfaces, here are a few options you should look at:

Focusrite Scarlett Series

The Focusrite Scarlett series has slowly become a staple in most home recording studios. With all it’s products in the range, it provides high quality pre-amps and controllability at an affordable price. The cheapest (Focusrite Scarlett Solo) comes in at around Rs.7500, which gives you two inputs and two outputs, whereas the highest range (Focusrite Scarlett 18i20) comes in at around Rs 41,000 with 8 inputs and outputs respectively. Another added bonus is that these interfaces come with the Focusrite Red Suite VSTi’s, which you can use in your mixing and mastering process.

Audient iD Series

Audient is a fairly new company in the audio interface market, but in the last 2-3 years it has made a big name for itself with its products. The products have year after year won the best awards in their category and again, the quality and options they provide in their price range is something hard to beat. The cheapest interface (Audient iD4) comes in at around Rs.13000 with 2 inputs and outputs, and the highest range (Audient iD22) comes in around Rs. 50000 with 2 inputs and 6 outputs. The biggest advantage that Audient has over other competitors is that from the base level, it provides J-FET preamps, which are the highest quality preamps in the market today.

IMPORTANT POINTS:

As an audio interface basically enables you to record instruments and microphones, the number of inputs becomes important. It is up to you to decide based on your usability if you want something simple that has 2 inputs, or something with 8 inputs (lets say to record drums or a band together). Although most audio interfaces now have the ability to expand and attach more inputs, it is something you should consider before making a purchase.

Studio Monitors

Another very important aspect of recording and producing music is the speakers you listen through. Sadly, your computer speakers or usual aftermarket speakers don’t really do the job when it comes to recording and mixing your audio. The idea of your speakers in this scenario is to listen to the sound, as it is i.e. as flat as possible. This is where Studio Monitors come into the picture. These speakers are specifically made for the application of recording and mixing. Here are a few studio monitors you can look at:

M-Audio BX Series

This is another staple in home recording studios. The M-Audio BX series is famous for its BX5, which gives a decent sized speaker at a very affordable cost. A pair of BX5’s would cost you between Rs.14000-16000. If you want to go get a bigger speaker, you can get a pair of BX8’s, which will cost you around Rs. 30000. With simple settings and both TRS and Midi Outs, these speakers are quite true to the source material. I personally had a pair of BX5’s for about 5 years and they never disappointed me. The jump from earphones/headphones/computer speakers to these was massive. Not only are they very good to mix on, they’re great to listen to music too.

Yamaha HS Series

Yamaha studio monitors have been a staple of the recording industry for a very very long time. The famous NS-10’s were probably used to mix and master your favorite records from the past, and some are still used in top studios around the world. The evolution of the NS-10’s, the HS series is now becoming a staple in the home studio and professional studio world. They are considered to be so true to the source material that they tend to actually sound bad. Many producers have often said that if you can make something sound good on these, they’ll sound good on anything. The HS-5’s retail for around Rs. 34000, whereas the HS-8’s retail for around Rs. 50000. These monitors are serious business. Whilst mixing on them may be quite a big learning curve, the outputs at the end are more than sweet.

Studio Headphones

Apart from Studio Monitors, Studio headphones are also very important for the recording and mixing process. They help in recording acoustic instruments such as Drums, Guitars, Indian Folk Instruments and also help with providing a reference for your mixes on another medium. Here are a few studio headphones you can consider:

Audio Technica ATH-M50x

We have already talked about these headphones in another full blown review but if you haven’t read that, here’s a jist about these. Retailing at around Rs. 9500, the quality of the materials used, the speakers, the dynamic audio drivers and the wide frequency response along with a very flat EQ curve have made these headphones a staple in any kind of recording and mixing scenario. Producing legends such as Alan Parsons (The Beatles, Pink Floyd) and Steven Wilson (ex-Porcupine Tree, Blackfield) rely on these for almost every recording session. They are wonderful to use for various purposes – be it tracking, monitoring live and even listening to music on a daily basis.

Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro

The Beyerdynamic DT770’s can be considered as an alternative to the ATH-M50x’s. Although a bit steeper in price (coming in at Rs. 25000), the big point in favour of these headphones is the cushioned covers that come with these. You can wear these headphones for hours and not feel fatigued at all. This is something, which is a problem with the Audio Technica’s. These again share a lot of the same characteristics with the ATH-M50x’s; the build quality, speaker size, dynamic drivers, ease of use etc. They aren’t as popular as the Audio Technica’s (maybe because of their price point), but they are certainly a pair of headphones you should consider.

DAW

A DAW i.e. a Digital Audio Workstation is basically the software you would use to record your music. Here is where your main recording, editing, mixing, mastering etc takes place. In terms of DAW’s, there’s a selection of them that are very common and are used by everyone. But then there are also some DAW’s that are hidden gems and are often missed out by most producers. Whilst the choice of DAW’s is something that depends entirely on the user, here’s a list of DAW’s you should keep an eye out for:

Cubase

Cubase is quite a popular DAW in the producer circle. Ask Keshav Dhar, he’s been using it since he started producing bands. You can buy the latest version on their official website for around Rs.30,000 to start off. There are various options for older versions available as well. Cubase is known for its high performance, easy to use graphic interface and high-quality stock plugins. Other famous producers and artists that use this include Misha Mansoor from Periphery, Fredrik Thordendal and Tomas Haake from Meshuggah and Acle Kahney from TesseracT to name a few. The price might seem hefty, but if you purchase this DAW once, you’re not going to change it anytime soon.

Logic Pro X

If you are someone that runs on a Macintosh system, Logic Pro X is the DAW to go for. In the past 5-7 years, this DAW has been competing strongly with the likes of DAW’s such as Pro Tools and is fast becoming a norm in every small and big recording studio. I have been using Logic Pro X for about a year and a half now, and I couldn’t be happier. The onboard effects, sound libraries, and stock plugins are very high quality. The workflow is great to use for all applications and the graphic interface is something anyone can get used to. Like most Apple affiliated products, it is designed to be something that anyone can use very quickly. The intuitiveness helps it compete with any DAW out there. For what it offers, the price point is brilliant. You can purchase it straight from the Apple website for Rs.15,500. It is being used by the likes of Steven Wilson, Gavin Harrison from Porcupine Tree and Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood from Periphery.

Reaper

Reaper is one of the hidden gems that I was talking about earlier. Reaper is a DAW that provides all the capabilities that top DAW’s provide, but guess what? It’s completely free! You can go download it from their website right now for absolutely nothing. There are many software in the producing world that is free and they usually provide a glimpse into what the paid product would be like. Not Reaper. Reaper is known again for its ease of use, high-performance usability, and quality. For a price of nothing, this is a no brainer.

All this information should help you get on the initial stages of setting up your own home studio. The process is slow and it takes time, but we are certain that the outcome is worth it. Once you’re saddled in and used to the whole process of recording, producing, mixing and mastering, that’s when the advanced stuff comes in. It is important to know and understand that with everything, building a home studio and becoming a producer is also a learning curve. Expensive gear doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to sound amazing. Hopefully, this guide helps you to channel your thoughts towards making your bedroom/living room into a studio correctly and effectively. Other than that, have fun mixing! Keep experimenting and learning!