This is a short article based on our own studio, which we use for live broadcast on a major talk station in London (UK) and is also used to record Podcasts, audio books and interviews.
First question you need to ask yourself: What will the studio be used for?
Recording Simple Audio (Podcasts)
If you are just going to make Podcasts with one or two guests you need a simple mixer, microphones and audio breakout box to connect to a PC or MAC. Some monitoring which can be just headphones and some acoustic treatment in the room you plan to use to record.
Recording Complex Audio (Live Music)
Not our expertise and you can find plenty of info on music studios on the net and in magazines.
Editing video and adding sound elements
You will need something like Final Cut Studio then camera video can be captured or logged and transferred. Studio comes with its own audio editing software Soundtrack Pro 3. At a pinch you can use Final Cut Express if you are not using a professional camera and then use a free audio program like Audacity to sweeten audio. Which is what we have gone for.
The room or studio
Professional studios are built as a room within a room, with the inner room floating (not touching the sides) to prevent sound transfer. We have just used a back bedroom for our studio. Our house is a solid Victorian brick-built property and the room is at the back of the house overlooking the garden.
Acoustics
We acoustically treated the room with professional foam tiles. They are easy to put up and cost just over £100 and made a dramatic difference to the sound of the room. We bought our tiles from Advanced Acoustics they arrived by return and were excellent quality and of course fire-retardant. We bought a wall of tiles and two bass traps which helped with the quality of the monitoring through the speakers.
Power
Professional studios use clean technical mains power often with generator back-up for UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) You will need to be wary of mains hum which can be picked up by equipment.
Our power for ALL our studio equipment comes from one mains socket. This feeds a 6 way spike protected trailing sockets each socket has another 4 – way trailing lead plugged into it so we have a total of 24 pieces of equipment that can be plugged in. Each trailing lead is the same length and ‘stars’ out from the main sockets. (This helps mains hum.)
Mixing Desk
We have a Mackie DF6 (which has now been replaced by the ProFx 8) Mackie desks are robust and very low noise and are used by professional broadcasters who are looking for low-cost solutions.
Power Amp
This supplies the speakers (which we can switch on and off. They need to be switched off if you are recording mics live) We have a venerable but beautiful Quad 405 current dumping power amp which feeds two 1980s Tannoy Super Red 10B sync source professional speakers.
Microphones
If you are recording podcasts you need to have a reasonable microphone preferably on a stand or angle poise. Our main mic is a simple Shure PG58 which works well as a vocal mic and we also have an old AKG D202 as a second mic.
Software
We use simple Audacity to record audio in the MAC and Audition for the PC. For video we have Final Cut Xpress on the MAC.
Mixer layout
Our Mackie mixer is laid out in the following way.
Channel 1 – Mic 1 – balanced XLR input (Shure PG58)
Channel 2 - Mic 2 – balanced XLR input (AKG D202)
Channel 3 - iMAC – the unbalanced output from the iMAC via an external sound card. (Professionals use a break out box)
Channel 4 – ISDN/PC the unbalanced output from either our PC via it’s high quality sound card OR the mono right output from the ISDN headphone socket.
Channel 5 – AUX 1 – which we use to input unbalanced quarter inch jack equipment.
Channel 6 – is the FX return channel from the inbuilt FX unit.
Channel 7 – PHONO is the unbalanced Mackie phono mixer input in which is connected to a domestic NAD pre-amp which in turn has a Mini Disc Player, a turntable and a Revox B77 quarter inch tape machine connected.
Master Out faders – control the speaker audio.
ISDN clean feed is derived from EFX Aux 2 send
Record feed is derived from the Mackie tape left and right outputs which is split three ways and feeds the iMAC a Soundblaster external sound card SB 5.1 for the PC goes direct to the Sound Card line input (PC Sound Card is an Audigy Gold internal card)
Keep it short keep it simple
All the leads are the shortest length possible they are all high quality phono or jack leads with conductive plastic outer cores this helps with any mains hum that might try and sneak into the set-up. The microphones are both balanced, essential if you want low noise.
ISDN
Our ISDN unit is a standard Glensound G722/APTX box connected to a 64K port on a BT ISDN 2 unit. The clean feed is derived from Aux 2 of the mixer and the connected to the tape in socket. The cue programme return is actually taken from the headphone socket with a stereo phono adapter and then right hand channel fed to the mixer. This means we can record ISDN interviews.
Pros and Cons
CONS
When you are recording even with the window shut the mics will pick up birdsong and aircraft and neighbours cutting their grass. So you either have to pick your time to record or employ close-mic work.
The iMAC does make a bit of cooling noise and that is picked up by the PG58 mic. We have improved this by physically moving the microphone away. The AKG202 is on a stand and does not suffer from this.
The PC makes a racket it is old and the cooling fans can be picked up by the microphones.
The room also houses our hot water tank and central heating pump. They are in a cupboard that is soundproofed but when the heating is on there is some background noise.
PROS
With the neighbours and birds quiet the acoustic treatment of the room has the characteristics of a professional studio and you would be hard pressed to tell our studio from one that costs millions of pounds.
The biggest advantage of a home studio is that you have a creative hub in which to record your projects or podcasts, you are not restricted for time and with our fast broadband connection (20mb) we are able to stream and upload with ease.
SUMMARY
To produce reasonable audio with, if you choose video you need:
A fast computer, MAC for video, with plenty of hard disc space.
We recommend iMAC 1TB hard disc 8G of RAM
A mixer, you can do it all on the computer but you have more control on sound quality with a mixer.
We recommend Mackie PRO Fx 8
Audio break out box
We recommend, like the look of the Presonus audio box USB but we actually use a high-end external sound card from Soundblaster (SB 15)
Monitoring
Some headphones for the Mackie a power amp and speakers for main monitoring.
We recommend, suggest Beyer DT231 for headphones and then buy a decent amplifier and speakers from Richer Sounds.
Microphones
We recommend Shure PG58 or any of the Rode microphones like the NT1.
Acoustic Treatment
Mega important and easy to achieve now, buy tiles from Advanced Acoustics.
Security
If you go on a wild spending spree make sure your house has an alarm fitted and all doors lock with 5 lever mortice and windows cannot be opened from the outside.
And finally
You can have the finest studio in the world and still produce crap content so please read around the rest of the CreativeRadio site for inspiration and great ideas. (There is a section for Podcasting with tips and advice)
