Studios come in many shapes and forms - home studio/project studio, 'pro' studios, local studios, teaching/college studios. Set up a computer with an audio interface and a mic and you have a studio.
Now we are working a bit at a large studio, and in that context, then I dont have one at home. It's a dream to build a studio. Having said that, I reckon I'm pretty well on the way to having a great home studio setup, but a commercial/'real' studio is a different beast. To get there (to what I reckon a good studio would be) I reckon I need a dedicated room, (actually, 2 rooms), properly treated. At least 10 more mic's and preamps, a bigger monitoring system and a great console. Also, very importantly, a load more instruments. Some outboard equipment such as the Manley Massive Passive would really elevate it to something I could be proud of. This is all years away at the moment.
I'd always be wary of 'local' studios that offer cheap rates. You often find they are little more than someones project studio.
Pitfalls to avoid?
- Be clear to yourself, are you heading towards just a home setup for yourself, or do you want a fully fledged working studio?
- To realistically have a proper studio, the room has to come paramount. You should have a dedicated room ad preferably 2 (1 live, 1 control room). If the room doesnt sound great to begin with, you need to have the permissions/facilities to apply acoustic treatment as necessary.
- Dont fall into the trap of getting a cheap mixer/console because 'pro' studios have them. You may see all these fancy consoles in a pro studio and then go hey, I can get a big behringer mixer or phonic etc for not much. What are you going to use it for? Now everything is on computers, not tapes, consoles are not necessary for recording. The reason that pro studios have these huge desks is - to have access to a lot of good preamps when recording a big setup (Are you going to be doing that?). A cheap mixing desk is going to have uninteresting, basic pre's. And also to get the classic 'analogue' sound of a nice console, from the tubes, circuitry. It also impresses clients.
- What is your studio for? If you want to record stuff with microphones, you really need to think about your room and analogue equipment (preamps, mic's etc). Also your instruments.
If you are making electronic music - or orchestral mockups for film, then take a look at Hans Zimmer's project studio. It is a computer, a few keyboards and an excellent monitoring system. His computer packs serious power to run all the VST's and custom sound libraries he's made. He writes his music there and when the time comes to record it with a real orchestra, he goes into a real studio (paid for by the film company I suppose
