Create A Home-Acoustic-Studio,but......

music wasn't part of me

I'm planning to build a medium-sized acoustic studio...probably for some recording in the future..basically me and my wife just want to have a special room where we can sing and play music which sounds good, not echoing or bouncing.....

there's one thing...i read an article that mentioned "Active Nearfield Monitor"..what is that? is it like an amplifier ?
I know amps to plug my guitar in, like marshall, peavey, roland , etc. is Active Nearfield Monitor like that also ?

I'm kinda new in this Studio Set Up stuff....any inputs please ?

Bates15 · Moderator Joined: 19 Feb 2002 Posts: 1084

Active nearfield monitor is for you to listen back your recordings. Well known brands are Genelec and KRK: (excuse the size...)

These are used for listening at close range (3-5 feet) The there are medium range and full scale, see pic of the studio with all different speakers...

To create a good accoustic you need to plan and think about what you do. I reccomend reading about it on the net, or buying specialized books like SOS (Sound on Studio). It will be a blessing to get it right, but a headacke if you get it wrong...

music wasn't part of me · Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 5:17 pm Post subject:

allright, great pics! so you still need the amps ?
it goes : instruments/vocal->amps->mixer->PC....right?

these active nearfield monitor are line outs from the PC?

many thanks for the advice

Bates15 · Moderator Joined: 19 Feb 2002 Posts: 1084

Active means the are already amped. Pasive speakers need a amp. Sorry, I missed that part....

The studio setting would be instr/vocal --> mixer-in/pre-amp --> recorder/harddisk --> mixer out --> speakers

You could buy a sweet all in one recorder like Roland or korg. (many other brands out there) They have your inputs, mixer, harddisk and all the effects you could want and the use the output to listen to what you recorded on the speakers. On Ebay they are very well priced. You need to look arround a bit. Some of these things need a degree for programming, others are like childs play. I can't work that part out for you....

Only advise I can give is that you shoul get the best your money can buy. If you try to cut ont the budget by getting something cheap, you will always get disapointed somewere along the line.... I am not telling you to spend $100K on stuff (easly spent btw) but get whaterver your budget lets you do. The you need to figure out what mics to use, what speakers to get and so on......

music wasn't part of me · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:07 pm Post subject:

I'm starting to get the big picture here...
what do you call things like this ? I call it just plugin amps....
what's the difference with the act near monitor like the Genelec you posted? Idea

Most people I know, here in Indonesia, they buy something like this if they're really serious.....don't know if that means they have their own studio or not....do amps like this fit into a home studio?

Bates15 · Moderator Joined: 19 Feb 2002 Posts: 1084

The pic you show is a guitar amp. It has limited sonic capabilitys. Its is made to reproduce guitars, not for bass or cymbals for instance. The refference monitors are used to reproduce the complete sonic spectrum as flat as possible. The reason for that is obvious..... If you mix a recording on those speakers, your mix will represent a complete sonic spectrum.
If you where to mix on a guitar amp you would compensate for the loss of bass and highs and cut the mids. Then when you listen to it on a cd player or home stereo you wil hear the over compensated frequenties. Not a very good way to mix!

music wasn't part of me · Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 5:00 pm Post subject:

ooo

Sooo...I get it now...if you just want to perform, we just need individual amps for each instruments like guit amp for guitars, keyboard amp for keyboard, and amp for vocals right ?

but if you want to make a recording, you can't play on specially made amps cause it would cut certain frequencies and unequally favoring certain frequencies right?

is what I'm getting right?
bec I've never seen recording process, I've seen live performances only , which they use Amps Amps and Amps so basically my mindset is on the amps i guess.....

markm2553 · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 6:02 am Post subject:

I have heard great things about this web site. It might answer a lot of questions, and bring up some things you had not yet even thought of...

http://www.homerecording.com/