Turn Your Mac into a Home Recording Studio – Part 1

Instead of rewriting this great article I thought I would post it straight in with a few changes. It was from a “Mactalk” article and has 3 parts. Originally written for the Apple Mac enthusiast it can be applied to a Windows PC.

Turn Your Mac into a Home Recording Studio – Part 1
It’s time we talked a home recording which is essential for teaching, learning and enjoying music. I bring you part one of my series on the setup and optimisation of budget-conscious Mac-based (can apply to windows PC) home recording studios. This first article won’t offer a detailed breakdown of any one stage of the recording process, but rather first steps for those who’ve been wanting to get started on a semi-professional sounding studio on a budget and haven’t known where to start.

We’ll discuss each stage in the order of the signal chain, being the most educational approach; meaning, we’ll step through each component a sound source flows through from the time when it is first sung or played or struck to when it reaches the monitors or headphones of the mixing engineer (which, in the case of a home studio, is probably you!).

The Evolving Home Studio
Your goals and budgets may differ, but most everyone starts with the same question; “What are the essential elements of a home studio and how can I make sure I invest my money in the right gear?” These days, that question is tricky to answer, as there are new and exciting ways to approach home recording. And some of them are really, really cheap. The home studio is in a state of rapid evolution and today’s answer is quite different to what it would have been even two years ago.

There are, however, a few elements that are unlikely to change. Components like mics, inputs and multi-track recording apps are here to stay. Your Mac is a perfect foundation for a home studio as it comes with great beginner multi-tracking software (GarageBand) and most models have an input suitable for low latency recording of simultaneous tracks; FireWire. Any modern Mac also comes with multiple CPU cores which offer more than enough horsepower to push around lots of simultaneous audio tracks and effects in real time. (Computer-driven home studios used to need outboard gear for mixing and processing effects as CPUs weren’t up to the task, but the performance of modern CPUs gives us the option of doing everything ‘in the box’, which may not suffice for the analog-yearning purist, but serves the rest of us well through its affordability and portability.)*Also, all current Macs run very quiet while under low or moderate loads, which is essential if your Mac and sound source occupy the same room during tracking.

Choosing a Mic
Choosing a great mic is the start of capturing great audio. But a great mic doesn’t have to cost you the earth. There are three types of mic most applicable to the starter studio: mics (great for micing amps and high SPL sources) like the SM58, mics (great for vocals, guitars and other instruments) and USB Powered mics (which may be either condenser or dynamic). I’ll keep this easy:

If you’re an acoustic singer/songwriter and you only want to buy one mic, your safest bet is to make it a (large diaphragm) condenser like Rode’s NT1-. These affordable mics perform well above their price range and will serve you well for both vocal and guitar recordings, even if you upgrade to other more expensive gear in the future. Both are fantastic and affordable workhorse mics which I can’t recommend highly enough.

If you’re going to mic up guitar amps, bass amps or drums, you’ll need at least one dynamic mic. These take far higher SPL (SPL = Sound Pressure Level and thus won’t be damaged by the thrashing they receive from these sources’ extreme levels. They don’t typically have the presence of condenser mics when used on vocals or acoustic stringed instruments, but they can offer still a certain warmth and flatness useful for these in some mixes. For countless other applications, they’re essential. If you’re serious and you’ll be recording a variety of sources, you’ll want a dynamic mic* in addition to a condenser mic. Examples of trusted and affordable dynamic mics include the ever-prominent Shure SM58 and SM57, Sennheiser e835 and AKG D880. These can often be picked up for a steal on eBay and in SM57/58′s case, unless they’ve been run over several times by the band van, will still work like a new one. You can go even cheaper than these and still get decent results, but I won’t name or recommend such alternatives as I place value on reliability and long life, which all these mics offer.

Speaking of affordability, the option of USB-powered mics is fast becoming a much more viable one. USB mics haven’t been taken very seriously until recently, in the past offering terrible fidelity, high noise and the obligatory compromising of all user control over the signal chain (up to the point of digital input via USB). Recently, companies like Rode and Blue have given real attention to this emerging mic category, offering great mics like the Podcaster and Yeti, either of which offer incredible results from a zero-config setup. You can get away with nothing more than one of these mics and GarageBand for simple, one-track-at-a-time multi-track recording, perfect for the aspiring solo acoustic musician or songwriter. If all you’re trying to piece together is a simple, solid demo or a basic EP, the quality you’ll achieve from one of these mics should be more than adequate.

Of course, the affordability of these is not just based on the cost of the mics themselves (which are typically very affordable) but the many other components you don’t need to buy if you only use a USB mic; they internally handle all preamplification and A/D conversion and don’t require phantom power, for example. They offer ultimate simplicity, literally allowing you to plug your mic into your Mac and press Record. In short, they’re a perfect starter option if you want to get your feet wet in multi-track recording. You can fire up GarageBand and learn the ropes with one of these, then if you’re feeling the urge to take your recordings further, you can easily resell the Mic on eBay and upgrade to more serious mics and software in the future.

Choosing an Input Method
Your Mac doesn’t come with mic connectors on the back. So how do you get audio from a traditional microphone into your recording software? You need an input method. The units that handle these inputs are often referred to as I/O*(input/output)*boxes.

If you choose a USB mic, this decision is already made for you. Just plug your mic into an available USB port on your Mac. But for users of conventional mics with conventional connectors (XLR), an external box to handle mic inputs and the conversion of sound from analog to software-friendly digital (A/D conversion) is required.

Popular solutions include Avid’s (previously Digi Design), Presonus’ (of which there are many flavours), Motu’s Traveller and Rolands Edirol. Firewire is the interface of choice for an I/O box if you plan to track many inputs simultaneously. Firewire is more capable of reliably streaming large volumes of data, despite the theoretically superior speeds of USB2. USB2 offers, if you like, burst speeds of up to 480Mb/s, but frequently drops to well under half that figure. Firewire, on the other hand, while offering only a 400Mb/s data rate in its basic form (obviously doubled in FW800) can plug away at this top speed all day without faltering. This is perfect for audio or video work requiring constant streaming of large volumes of data. It can be so critical, in fact, that Avid (developers of Pro Tools recording software) don’t even support users recording to external USB2 hard drives. USB2-driven I/O boxes can still serve the solo singer/songwriter well, however.

This leads us to one of the main factors affecting the best choice of I/O box for you; how many simultaneous inputs you require. No matter what your needs, there will be hardware to suit, but cost will naturally vary (and vary enormously). If you plan to regularly mic up a drum kit (properly), you’ll likely need a minimum of 6 inputs just for this purpose, which wipes out most of the entry-level solutions. If you’re in need of only 1-4 inputs, however, the world is your oyster. There are countless great options for this.

Another major factor is what software (if any) the hardware ships with, and whether that software will meet your needs. Many hardware options (like those from Motu, Edirol and Presonus) are highly compatible with many third party multi-track recording apps and come bundled with light versions from one or multiple vendors. Others (like those from Avid) come with software that only works with their own hardware, locking you into a more closed environment. That environment, however, is Pro Tools, which is still the primary mainstream DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) found in both home studios and professional studios around the world, so it certainly comes with its advantages.

We’ll discuss these options and their advantages and disadvantages in Part II of the series, plus delve into how to choose the right Mac or PC for your needs and how to optimise any Mac for audio recording.

Stay tuned for Part 2

We hope we have not confused you too much and you have found this to be quite interesting.

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