Why Home-Recording is Smarter Than Paying a Studio
Fort Collins bands have it easy nowadays. Decades ago groups would need to buy studio time, record solid takes, pay for mastering, formatting and pressing before the record was released. Now artists can just hit record and upload to the Internet.
But it only sounds easy. The top engineers at northern Colorado’s premier recording studio, the Blasting Room, charge $500 a day for their services. The studio has recorded dozens of successful albums so musicians can be rest assured their that tracks will shine as finished products, but at such astronomically high rates, this option seems excessive to bands who have access to cheaper alternatives. Finding someone with recording software like Logic or Fruity Loops and watching some YouTube tutorials would be the better move. Because who else is going to make the mids on the guitar solo sound through? Karl? You want me to trust the mids with Karl??
Yes, trust Karl. Because with a $100 mic and a torrented version of Ableton Live, he can make you sound just as good. Or at least close — and for much cheaper. He probably won’t charge a month’s rent for balancing your levels.
While providing professional audio engineers for their clients, the Blasting Room also offers industry standard equipment but any producer can outfit their home set-up with professional-grade recording gear. After buying some mics and collecting a few instruments (guitars, drums — nothing pricey), pick up a recording interface and a couple studio monitors and boom: close to $8000 out-of-pocket later and digital recording is a mouse-click away.
But with the cost of a home studio comes the priceless convenience of recording in un-rushed comfort. Single, segmented recording sessions can leave little room for the creative process to develop organically in the place it needs to most: in front of the mic. The pressure of performing under a deadline and paying up to $650 a day for performance space at studios like the Blasting Room can put stress on bands and curb impromptu jam sessions.
That’s a hefty sum but bands like Rise Against aren’t complaining about the crappy acoustics on their RIAA gold-certified albums recorded at the Fort Collins recording studio. Not to mention going platinum in Canada for their album “Sufferer and the Witness.” When it comes to audio production, you get what you pay for.
And no matter how talented the musicians are, professional, in-studio recordings can make the difference from sounding mediocre to sounding official.
