A Message For The Home Recordist
Here at The Sound Salon we strive to help the home recordist in every way possible. We have many clients who own their own small studios yet have difficulty acheiving that polished "cd" sound. With modern advancements in technology, the personal studio is affordable to nearly all musicians. The key word here being "musicians". What we mean by this is that just because the equipment to make "cd" quality music is readily available and affordable, it doesn't mean that the average musician is an experienced, professional recording engineer; the kind that IS able to deliver that polished "cd" sound. Look at it this way, if someone goes out and buys a guitar, that doesn't mean they will be a great guitar player, it takes years of training, discipline, and practice to become great, or even good for that matter. The same goes for recording engineers. What we've noticed over the past few years is that people buy these recording systems and spend hundreds of hours learning software, recording techniques, computer hardware, etc, etc, etc, only to end up with a mediocre sounding final product. We've found that the best solution to this is to give the home recordist tips on recording CERTAIN tracks of the recording to save time in the studio (time is money) and leave the rest to us. Remember, every recording situation is unique. Feel free to call or email us with any questions you may have regarding your project.
A common way for the home recordist to approach a project is to record the basic tracks at The Sound Salon (Any or all of the following): Drums, Bass, Rhythm Guitar, Keys, Scratch Vocal, then go back to your home studio and overdub some or all of the other tracks (hopefully using our Recording Tips & Techniques page), then coming back to The Sound Salon for the final mix and mastering (optional). Remember, every recording situation is unique. Feel free to call or email us with any questions you may have regarding your project.
Drums Many people don't have the ability to record live drums due to MANY circumstances such as they live in an apartment, don't have a profesional, tuned drum set to record, the proper microphones, preamps, converters, and most of all , the experience to do such a task. And by the way, a live drum set is one of the most diffucult instruments to record and happens to be our specialty!
WE CAN HELP!!! - We can help you with this because we do have a professional, tuned drumset, outstanding mics, preamps, converters, and the experience to get get stellar drum sounds. We can save you TIME & MONEY by virtually eliminating load in, load out, and setup time. If you prefer to bring your own drums, that's fine too. The basis of a great drum sound is the kick drum and snare drum (We have 9 to choose from!) To hear all nine different snare drums click here. After that comes the hi-hat (4 sets to choose from), ride cymbal (3 to choose from), and crash and effect cymbals. For complete details of our drum recording set up click here.
Guitar This one is hit or miss depending on the project. Guitar IS possible to record at home if great care is taken at every stage of the process (see our Recording Tips Page for more info about recording guitar at home). As a general rule, I prefer to use REAL amplifiers to record guitars. Software plugins, Sans-Amps, and Line 6 Virtual guitar products have their place, but in my professional opinion, it requires a real amp with a real microphone, and a great preamp to great guitar tone and tone is what it's all about! Another crucial aspect of guitar recording is volume. Some styles of music, such as rock and metal, require a very high volme to attain that certain "tone". A great way for guitarists to get outstanding tone is to record their guitar "direct" and ReAmp it at our studio (See our Re Amp page for more details) with your own amp or one of ours using our mics, pres, converters, etc, and cranking the volume up LOUD!!! Many people record their guitars at home with much success.
Bass See Guitar
Keyboards Recording keyboards during basic tracking is a decision that must be made by the client. We feel that since you're here, and the band probably needs to hear your part to cue to, you might as well try to record "keeper" tracks. Recording keyboards is a pretty straight-forward process requiring 2 high-quality preamps, and 2 channels of high quality converters. We always record the MIDI along with the audio from the keyboard so we can change or adjust sounds using Gigastudio or any other soft synth.
