Preparation for recording is good, but nothing replaces getting into the (home) studio and taking the plunge.  So put your producer hat on and start the tape (hard drive) rolling…

One mistake commonly made is to think that to produce music, you need a lot of expensive gear. Sure, good gear is useful but what matters is what you do with it. 

With this in mind, learn how to use what you have, even if you only have a small Casio keyboard, your voice and an old cassette recorder

OK, OK, i’m teasing you a bit as there are some minimum requirements when it comes to recording music nowadays, simply because people do not listen to music on cassette tapes anymore.

To start recording and self produce your music, all you need is:

• a song
• a way to create some sounds; instruments, your voice etc
• a way to transfer those sounds to your recording device of choice; cables, a microphone
• a multi-tracking system to record on; it could be a portastudio or a new computer with a state of the art software and soundcard; it could be a cheap computer with a free recording software like Audacity, or a cheap recording software like Tracktion, and  the in-built soundcard that came with the computer.
• a way to mix your multi-track recording; it is usually included with the recording device, as most hardware portastudio come with an in-built mixer, so do recording software.
• a way to export your recording to a format that other people can listen to; if you have a cassette portastudio, you could plug the master out into a computer (yours or a friends) and use a free software like Audacity to record the output; if you have a digital portastudio, you might be able to transfer your audio straight to CD, or to your computer via USB; if you are recording using your computer, you don’t need to worry about this, all you will have to do is use the “export” function of your software.

All the other stuff, like effects and so on, is useful but not a prerequisite to start recording.

Start with the tools you have, and learn how to use them.

Before considering buying any new equipment, ask yourself the following questions:

• do you really know what sound you are trying to get?
• are you sure that none of the tools you have could help you produce that sound?

Only if you reply “yes” to both questions should you consider buying new equipment.

Being a good producer means:

• being able to switch quickly from a global to a local vision of music; one minute, you need to hear how all the instruments work together and the next minute, you are concentrating on adding more mids to a vocal part
• knowing how to use the tools you have so nothing interrupts your creative process, and you find a solution to all of your sonic problems
• recording and recording as much as you can
• a strong interest in anything and everything to do with sound and music, whether it is creative or technical

 It’s now time for you to take the plunge

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