Immortalised

I think most human beings like to leave some form of a legacy behind before they exit stage left from this world. Some go in search of a formula for cloning while others strive to win a gold medal but I would like to be remembered in a different way. As musicians, after writing our masterpieces, the next thing to do is to immortalise them. Long after we're gone, the music will continue to live on. How do we do that? We simply record the songs. So where do we start?

The obvious would be the traditional way of doing things. Get signed by a label, get a recording deal, get into a studio facility, make music and at the end of it, have a CD produced. However, not all of us have the luxury of doing just that. We've got to start somewhere so we do it independently on a budget. We record out of our bedrooms.

The advancing of technology has made recording more accessible these days. Gear is cheaper and there is a variety to choose from. The quality may differ, but with persistence and lots of hard work, something decent may come out of it. So here's how you could start recording demos from your bedrooms on a budget.

What you'll need:
A decent computer with a decent soundcard
Most people will have this already. So there's pretty much no further investment in this area.

Headphone/Speakers
A decent pair of headphones or speakers for monitoring the recording is important.

Microphone
To get a decent sound, you may want to look into getting a Condenser microphone. These days there are even USB microphones that plug directly into your USB inputs of the computer. Something like the Samson C01U will do the trick. there are other brands that make these mics. Just look them up on Google and you'll find heaps of options. Behringer also makes affordable entry level mics.

Recording software
Something like Reaper that is readily available for free download will do the trick. It takes some time to get used to the recording software but mess around with it and you'll get the hand of it in no time.

As for me, I record my demos with Reaper into an old PC and it works fine. I've got an old-skool Shure wireless mic that has a preamp on the receiver which gives me nice levels going into the computer. Of course, there are other ways to go around starting a home studio with awesome tools like Digidesign's ProTools that have audio interfaces and preamps but that will incur more cost. Another post, perhaps.

By the way, all the sweepers that you hear on The Limelight Hour were made within Reaper itself. If you want to find out more about recording, you can pick up a copy of Audio Technology Magazine from your local news agent.