RECORDING
OLD SCHOOL ANALOG MEETS THE DIGITAL STUDIO ( ON A BUDGET ) PART 1 | Bruce Adolph
I have been wanting to write this home recording studio journey down for you . It comes from a desire to find the time to record some of my music for over the last 20 years . That is a long time coming eh ?
As you can image technology has changed a lot from the time I was selling double-speed cassette 4-track players ( Tascam and Yamaha ) and reel-to-reel 8-tracks ( Fostex ) in the 1980 ’ s as manager of a music store in Los Angeles for eleven years . Shout out to The Carpenter Music Store ( it ’ s been long gone , but it played a key part in my life ).
During that time the next wave of recording came along when the Alesis 16-Bit ADAT hit the scene , along with Tascam ’ s DA-88 . It was a new frontier in that now you could record at home and not pay an arm-and-a-leg booking time at a recording studio . One of the selling points about home recording back then is that you can use those machines as a scratch pad to work out your music before you even stepped into a studio . Now you can go from the starting track to a final mix and then master it all at home if you like .
All of this takes a lot of new skill sets to acquire however . But remember , the old axiom still rings true here – just because you can do something , doesn ’ t mean you should . Just because I can hit the drum sounds on my synth doesn ’ t mean that I will record a fantastic drum track for my song . Just because I can watch a YouTube video on mastering means the final product I get will be as good as if I paid a professional mastering person to do it .
There are many side topics and rabbit trails to go down in this endeavor . You can end up reading books and product manuals all day long and not strike one note of music if you try to walk in all roles at once … songwriter , arranger , guitar , bass , keys , drums , percussion , lead vocal , background vocals , engineer and producer . Yikes !
There are balances and trade-offs galore on this journey and everyone ’ s path will vary . What I intend to do here is simply share my humble experience with you and hopefully you will gain some insights for your own project . You will see some things that I did that may ring true for you , and perhaps also learn from my mistakes as well .
So , with that said … let ’ s start Part 1 .
MOTIVATION : WHAT ’ S YOURS ?
You may be called to write , record and tour your music . You may not . You may want to write worship songs for your home church . That is great ! You may want to just get better and improve as a musician by recording music at home . Way cool ! In my case , my wife Judy asked me to record for her some of the music I have been playing for her on my guitar while she prepares dinner at night . She is in the kitchen and I am 20 feet away from her on the living