Creating a Recording Studio: Equipment and software for creating backing tracks
Home recording studio equipment such as music software, multitrack recorders, keyboards, sound
modules.
There are any number of ways to create killer backing tracks in your home recording studio, depending on your personal and musical style, level of technical expertise, budget and quality expectations. I will try to keep to a simple model that can be useful to most people as a basis.
1. Get your midi keyboard or guitar to midi converter.
Ingredients: A device to enable you to record the notes for the backing tracks.
MIDI Controller Keyboard Bestsellers from Amazon
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Steps: Decide if you wish to use MIDI instruments. Midi music is basically like a player piano. You put in the notes and musical data, and then you can change the actual sounds that will play back. You may want to record everything acoustically, without any electronically created sounds. Electronically created sounds and samples today can sound amazingly realistic, so for the lone musician who wants a whole band feel, MIDI is the way to go.
Purchase a midi controller keyboard that outputs MIDI. Keyboards come in very different flavors. Here are the basic options and a brief explanation:
- Keyboard Controllers = These are basically very simple keyboards that send MIDI into your computer. They don't have elaborate sounds onboard, rather rely on you having a great virtual instrument collection or sample library.
- Keyboard Synthesizers = These guys definitely have great sounds, and allow you to craft and create new sounds. They are high powered instruments, as are...
- Keyboard Workstations = In some cases, a workstation is a recording studio wrapped into one. In addition to top quality sounds, they have recording capabilities in both MIDI and audio. The higher end you go, the more you can do, including multitrack recording and editing.
- Personal Keyboards = These usually are for the average home user. They have varying qualities of sounds, and often come with accompaniment tracks and some MIDI recording. They can do fine for inputing MIDI into your computer recording studio, and let you perform live as well. Some, called "Arrangers", have advanced MIDI sequencing onboard.
Alternatively, if you don't play keyboard, there is a way that let's you use a guitar to input midi data. So you'll need a dedicated guitar to midi interface.
Purchase the appropriate connections. This includes a midi interface for the computer (many sound cards already come with this set up, and all you need is the cable to connect), and the midi cable necessary to connect from the keyboard or guitar, as needed.
2. Get your midi and audio multitrack recording software.
Ingredients: A program that will take your midi data and record it and replay it and edit it.
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Steps: The popular and efficient way to go here is an integrated audio/midi sequencing program such as Cubase, SONAR or the shareware route with N-Track. These programs allow you to record both midi and audio tracks (an audio track is an actual sound recording, such as a vocal track or a live instrument). Important considerations are the number of tracks allowed (now, most come with practically unlimited amounts, so this is usually taken care of), and the ability to synchronize with an external multitrack recording device.
This is important if you plan to use a hardware multitracker, because you may wish to augment the multitracker's tracks with tracks from your computer. The program and the multitracker should both use the same type of synchronization code, whether MTC, MMC or SMPTE, so that one can serve as the master to control playback, and the other as slave to play in sync.
More and more sequencers include an automatic accompaniment generation function. If yours does not, or it's not what you want for whatever reason, consider purchasing a MIDI composition tool, such as Jammer or Band In A Box. These programs will save tons of time by automatically creating backing tracks according to the chords and style you input. You can use them to create the drums, drum fills, bass, pads, whatever you don't want to play yourself and is fairly straightforward. They have many styles, from classical to jazz to hip hop, to choose from.
(See article on How to Create Backing Tracks If You Don't Play All the Instruments)
3. Get your sound modules or software instruments.
Ingredients: The source for the actual electronic sounds you wish to record.
Click here for Sequencers, Sound Banks, Samplers and Synthesizers Explained
Sound Modules for your Home Recording Studio
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Budget: Edirol SD-20 for around $300
Steps: There are two main ways to go here. Inside your computer, or outside it. Inside it, you use what are called samples. These are recorded snippets of instruments on each note that play when ordered to do so by MIDI data. Most sequencing programs support inserting samples into midi tracks to play back. You can purchase samples and create your own library, or a full software synthesizer, and when playing back specify that the midi tracks go to it.
Outside your computer you would use a sound module, or the keyboard's sounds. What you do then is simply connect the midi out of the computer to the midi in of the module or keyboard, set the output of the tracks you wish to the external MIDI, and then your sound module or keyboard will be playing back your music. Your sequencer program should allow you to control from the computer which of your exernal sounds (as well as internal, if you are using a software synth) will play which tracks.
A quick word about MIDI. Each instrument has its own internal map of sounds, but most also come with a standard set, called General Midi (GM. No need to salute). All programs have the GM map, so you can assign each track to a GM instrument. The more sophisticated the exernal module, you may need to find an appropriate instrument map to know how to assign tracks to the higher quality sounds in your module.
4. Get your studio monitoring equipment.
Ingredients: The way to hear what you're doing, headphones and speakers.
Studio Monitor Speakers
Budget: Alesis M1Active Studio Monitor Pairs
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Steps: For this phase, all you really need is to hear what you are playing and hear what's playing back. If you're using sounds inside your computer, odds are you already hear them from the computer soundcard and speakers. You will certainly need headphones at some point, so get the best now.
If you are using a sound module, they usually don't have speakers, so the only two ways to hear anything are to either have the audio output back to the computer sound card and then play it through the speakers (not recommended, because you will have an unpleasant delay in the sound playing back, called " latency), or use headphones from your device. Use headphones, because you'll need them in the next phase.
Okay, so now you have the stuff for Phase one. Follow all the manufacturer's instructions as you put it together, and you're ready to go. Here's a general sequence of setup events:
Connect keyboard to computer midi interface with a midi cable.
Connect the MIDI out of your interface to your sound module (or to your keyboard's MIDI in if you are using the keyboard sounds). This step is not needed if you are using computer sounds.
Connect your headphones to your sound module, keyboard or wherever your sounds will come from.
Open the sequencer program and set the input to your external midi interface (it should be on the list of options in the input dialog). Test to make sure the data is being received.
Set the MIDI output of each track to the appropriate port, either your internal software synthesizer or the MIDI external setting. Then you should hear the tracks you have recorded playing back in your phones.
Set the tracks to the instrument you want (either the GM instruments such as honky-tonk piano, etc.. or your device specific instruments, if you have installed the approriate map in your sequencer program).
- Start recording your tracks!
Now we are ready to go forward to
Phase Two of creating a recording studio: Home recording studio equipment for vocals and live instruments.