Home studio setup

The 700-dollar solution

Hardly more than a decade ago, a state-of-the-art digital recording studio was far out of the reach of the working voiceover actor. A pro-quality DAT, reel-to-reel recorder, mixing board, preamps, reverb unit, eq, compressor, and high quality microphone could run into literally thousands of dollars. Today, with computer-based software, all of that and more can be had for well under a grand (excluding the computer--which you probably already have).

I have several studio set-ups, but the one I’m describing here is my little workhorse. It evolved when I took a job as a producer at a recording studio after the last SAG commercial strike. I found that the monitors on the production computers were placed in a way that gave me a neck pain. I purchased an Apple I-book and a Pro-Tools M Box, total cost under 1500 bucks at the time, and found I could do an amazing amount of audio production right on my laptop.

The guys at the studio called it my "Studio-in-a-Bag," because I carried it all in a knapsack. I've made some modifications since, but for the last 3 or 4 years, this has been the basic setup I use for auditions, hold messages, voice tracks and even complete mixes with music and sfx for radio spots, car spots, and industrial voiceovers. I can even take it with me when I travel.

The heart of the whole Studio in a Bag setup is the M Box itself.

For less than 500 dollars, the M Box features Focusrite mic preamps, phantom power, two XLR and 1/4 inch line in, line out, and digital (spdif) ins and outs. On top of all that, you get Pro Tools LE software, the heart of a professional-quality home studio. You can produce full spots with music and sound effects on up to sixteen tracks.
I purchased my M Box at a local Sam Ash store. You can find one on-line at companies like Full Compass, Sam Ash. You can find the older model on Ebay for around 200 dollars. It works fine, but you may have to purchase an upgrade to Pro Tools 7.

It's important to make sure that the computer you're working with is up to the task. Most Macs from the G4 up will work fine, so will many PCs. The newest Pro Tools software is meant to run with OSX or Windows XP. There's a separate version for Intel based Macs. Be sure to check when you're purchasing that the M Box you buy is compatible with your computer and operating system. Check out the system requirements at www.digidesign.com.

You'll need a fair amount of ram (random access memory) on your system to run Pro Tools smoothly. That's enough to produce plenty of audio tracks. My old I-Mac G4 runs 768 megabytes of ram, and that seems to work fine. Up to a point, ram is cheap. I recommend adding ram up to the level you can afford.

By the way, there’s more reason to use a laptop in you home studio than portability. Laptops are quieter than most desktops. Fan noise can be a problem with a desktop, especially if you’re just doing dry voice tracks. The newest I-Mac G5 is supposed to be very quiet…but even so most computers may have to be moved away from your microphone, you may need a separate recording area or booth. More on that in another article.

Okay, so let's assume you have a computer already; it has enough ram or you added a bit of ram to bring it up to the recommended specs for the M Box. What now?

You need the M Box. That's going to set you back about 500 bucks.

You also need a quality microphone. Microphone choice is a very personal thing, and it can be a very expensive thing. The best microphones cost several thousand dollars. Neumann is the industry standard when it comes to voiceovers. A very good choice is the Neumann TLM-103. Shop and you can pick it up for just under a grand.

I prefer my Sennheiser MKH 416...it's a rugged shotgun mic that is commonly used in television and film work. I've heard it called a "West Coast microphone." It runs about the same price as the Neumann TLM-103. It sounds great and it doesn’t object to being lugged around when I travel.

But hold on! For many of us, a thousand dollar microphone is out of reach. What's a poor voiceover boy (or girl) to do?

Try the Marshall MXL2003. Excellent and downright cheap. I have two of these. This is a Chinese-made microphone that delivers a full, condenser-mic sound that rivals the high end pro mics that cost far, far more. At many venues--including Sam Ash--you can get the Marshall MXL2003 for 150 dollars. (They have a V67 model which is only about a hundred dollars and sounds good too.) I've tried this mic out with some really good announcers comparing it to a Neumann U-87. Generally, the response was about 50/50. In other words, about half the guys that tried it preferred the Neumann; half actually preferred the sound of the Marshall MXL2003. Since the price difference is about 3 thousand dollars, I would think the Marshall is a great choice. They have new models coming out all the time.

So, you get an M Box, and the Marshall MXL2003, that totals under 700dollars. Now, you'll need a pair of headphones. The M Box takes 1/4 inch and mini plugs, so almost any headphone will get you started. Eventually, you'll want a higher-quality headphone. I use the Sony MDR7506. If you produce fully mixed spots with music and effects, you will want to use speakers rather than headphones. A decent pair of computer speakers can be plugged into the M-Box for level mixes with music and SFX. For straight voice, headphones are perfect.

Well, there it is, the 700-dollar solution (excluding computer). You can do a lot with this setup. Pro Tools LE on the M-Box offers you 16 tracks of recording, plug-ins like a compressor, eq, limiter, pitch shift, time compression/expansion and more. You can send mp3s of car spots, voice tracks etc over a high-speed connection, and you can burn CDs of sessions and overnight them. You’re in business!

Look for more home studio articles on Vosites.com…it gets easier to record qualioty tracks at home all the time!