So every musician should know that the most obvious difference between a home studio and commercial studio is the cost. A home studio can cost hundreds maybe thousands of dollars to put together while a big commercial studio can cost hundreds an hour maybe thousands of dollars per day. But the most important difference is experience. You can take a producer or engineer with the experience of regularly working in a commercial studio, put him/ her in your home studio and you will get a great sounding recording. On the other hand you can take some one who has only worked on one or two projects in a home studio and put them in a million dollar facility, he or she will probably not get the best recording from the equipment available. They probably won’t even know where to plug the mic in and get a signal to tell you the truth. When picking a studio the first thing is to know what your budget is going to be when starting a project. If you want to record 16 songs and only have a $1000 dollars you’re not going to get that done in a big studio. (maybe at a project studio) The second thing is to know what kind of quality you want. (Demo, Okay, Good, Very Good or Best Possible) Do you want 3 great sounding songs? Or 10 demo quality songs? The price can end up being the same, depending on the quality. I would go with 3 better sounding songs, quality over quantity! Do you really want your fans to hear bad quality recordings of your songs? Once you figure out what quality and budget works best for you, then you are ready to pick a studio.
Each type of studio serves a purpose. Home Studios are great! They don’t always have the best quality but that’s fine. Get a cheap audio interface, a couple of cheap mics, some headphones, speakers and you have yourself a home studio. Record demos of your songs so that you can hear them back. When practicing a song “live” musicians don’t normally hear the songs. They are concentrating on playing and hearing themselves in the moment. When you listen to the recordings you can hear how everything sounds together. You can then hear the changes that need to be made to the structure and sound of you music! You can also record scratch tracks to a metronome at your home studio so that you’re ready to go when you do get to the commercial studio. Save time, be prepared if you are going to record at a different studio.
Big Studios are awesome! They tend to have the best gear, best acoustics, best engineers and its best to go there if you have a lot of money! Some advice… You don’t want to go to a big studio and spend a ton of money to record for one day. (unless your doing one song or one instrument and you are very prepared) You still need to spend the time recording parts right in order for your recording to sound good. Just because your recording though a $10,000 mic and a $5,000 preamp on to a $30,000 Protools rig doesn’t mean you are going to sound good! That stuff is not going to help you sing in tune, or help you hit the right note on the guitar or help you hit your drums harder. It takes talent to sound good, talent comes from hard work and taking the TIME to practice. You will be better off spending that money and recording more songs yourself or at a project studio. Even artists that are signed don’t go to a big studio unless they have done preproduction and they know exactly what they are going to record. There is no time or money to experiment. That’s all done ahead of time. This is where project studios come in to play. They are more affordable with an engineer that normally has more experience recording then the average musician.
Project studios like Small City are popping up everywhere now of days. The main thing to know is that YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!! Don’t go to a project studio that charges $50 a song and expect it to sound really good, Its Not. But it is better to go to a project studio if you have $1000 and want to record for a few days instead of one day at a big studio. Look at the experience of the producer or engineer before picking a project studio. I recommend taking a tour before you go in to record, see if you feel comfortable in the studios environment.
Small City Studios is a private recording studio with a productive environment. I have some really good gear with a lot of experience. I have worked with over 200 bands in about 6 years. I love working with dedicated musicians. If you willing to work to get the best performance possible, I’m going work with you to get the mix and master possible. I can also work at bigger studios if your budget allows. We can also rent better gear/ instruments to get you the best recording possible for your budget!
Check out smallcitystudios.com to get a quote on your project or to set up a tour.
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