Chris Hartzog

Aloha everyone. This is a long post, but I intended it that way since it is a “how to” article.

Here is how I built my own home studio little by little over time and cut as many corners as possible to keep costs low, since my budget is tight. This was and is a very organic process:

1. I started with a guitar and an amp on my workbench in the garage.

a. Why the garage, Tim? Well, Al, because I tend to work when the family is sleeping, in the morning or at night, and this was the one place that had some natural sound isolation.

b. This is where I started, you might have more or less gear to begin with. I was just restarting a hobby after having the guitar in the closet for 20 years. So, since I didn’t know at the time how deep I would get into this, I naturally didn’t want to invest too much upfront.

2. Then…I built on what I had:

a. Soon, I decided I really needed some way to listen to my favorite songs and play along. So, I came across a cheap boom-box/tape recorder….I mean real cheap…$4.99 at a thrift store. This thing had line-in, line-out, condenser mic plus remote mic input, headphone, etc. It was great: For 5 bucks I could hook it up to my guitar amp, add headphones and practice along.

3. Next I added computing power:

a. I then saw the potential hidden in my PC for my music hobbies and promptly moved my computer to the workbench. Here’s where the real fun began.

b. With my UNIVAC in place I was really cooking on gas. Now I could rip all of my favorite CD’s to MP3 onto the computer and have them ready and waiting to practice along with at any time.

c. I added WinAmp, a great, free music (multimedia really) player and added the “Pacemaker” plugin, which allowed me to change pitch and tempo on the fly.

d. Later, as my musical skills improved and I began trying to transcribe recordings (i.e. Determine and write down the actual notes and chords being played) I found some songs ripped by way too fast for my ears to keep up. That is when I found another cool program called “Transcribe!“. This software includes a spectrum analyzer to take a slice or selection of an audio file and determine what notes are sounding and even what chord was used. It as well has tempo and pitch manipulation. It is free to try, but costs $50 (US) to buy….definitely worth the money!

e. I could go on and on about additional computer program additions in my virtual recording studio, but they tended to intertwine along with my hardware upgrades over time so it is not necessarily a linear path. More of a “long and winding road”!

4. After that, I added more hardware:

a. Korg PX4 guitar effects processor. This is about the size of a pack of cigarettes and it is simply amazing. The PX4 includes a “Phrase Trainer” that will let you record up to 32 seconds of audio from any audio source that you can play back at full speed or slow down. So with this it was like having the PC in my shirt pocket. It has 124 different guitar effects and amp models…a drum machine and bass loops. Mind boggling! But fun!

Continue reading How to Build a Home Recording Studio…cheap(er)