This article originally appeared in Acoustic Guitar magazine. © String Letter Publishing, all rights reserved.
The Home Recording Revolution
By Teja Gerken
With scores of home studio recordings being released on CD every day, it's easy to forget just how far we've come in a few short years. One look at Acoustic Guitar's Hit List reviews confirms that artist-produced home recordings can hold their own next to big-budget major-label releases. The combination of new distribution channels, inexpensive high-quality recording gear, and a wider acceptance of independent artists has opened the doors for musicians who wouldn't have been able to succeed in a more traditional recording environment.
Of course, home recording has been around almost as long as the equipment itself, but setting up a professional-quality home studio used to require a considerable investment. Acoustic musicians like David Grisman have produced commercial releases in their garages since the '70s, and Michael Hedges recorded all of his albums after 1985 in his own studio, but most living-room pickers weren't about to shell out the cash for reel-to-reel multitracks. Instead, most musicians opted for the much less expensive four-track cassette format. Introduced by Tascam in 1979, these all-in-one studios came so far down in price by the late '80s that it seemed every guitarist had to have one. Some of these units featured extended MIDI capabilities, making them great centerpieces for keyboard and sequencer-based studios, but most acoustic musicians quickly found out that recording onto a standard cassette didn't yield the sonic quality of professional recordings.
The biggest obstacle faced by four-track users was tape hiss, which would often get so bad, particularly when several tracks were mixed down to one track, that it seemed to be louder than the music. Later units attempted to solve this problem by including Dolby or some other form of noise reduction, but the loss of high-end frequencies wasn't really any better than the hissy situation. Despite these drawbacks, four-tracks were (and still are) great songwriting partners and were many musicians' first introduction to multitrack recording. They saved people a lot of money by making it possible to try out arrangements and practice overdubbing parts before entering a commercial studio.
Although semiprofessional reel-to-reel eight-tracks, which generally used quarter-inch tape, became somewhat affordable in the late '80s, the biggest breakthrough for acoustic musicians-and particularly solo guitarists-came with the arrival of the DAT machine. Originally conceived as a replacement for commercial cassette tapes (a use that never took off), DAT quickly became the mix-down medium of choice for professional recording engineers. As Harvey Reid wrote in Acoustic Guitar in March/April 1991, a DAT machine, small mixer, and a couple of good microphones were all that was needed to produce instrumental guitar recordings rivaling-and in some cases exceeding-the quality of those produced in studios, all for an investment of less than $4,000. Recording direct to DAT, however, is not without limitations. Besides being limited to two tracks, DAT machines have no provision for fixing mistakes via punch-ins, and it is not possible to cut and splice tape as it is with reel-to-reel equipment. In those early days of digital recording, the only way to edit with any precision was to transfer the music to the Sony U-Matic 1630 format. These machines cost tens of thousands of dollars and were generally reserved for major studios, which in turn charged high hourly usage fees.
Relief was just around the corner, however. The almost simultaneous introduction of the Alesis ADAT digital recorder and Mackie mixer revolutionized the recording industry. Using professional-grade Super VHS videotape to record eight tracks of digital audio, the Alesis ADAT was by far the least expensive digital multitrack ever produced, and the response was enormous. With virtually no competition until the introduction of Tascam's DA88 system (which uses High-8 videotape) in 1993, ADATs quickly became the new industry standard. Mackie's now legendary MS-1202 and CR-1604 compact mixers provided the perfect complement for the ADAT. The Mackie boards' recording quality exceeded that of systems costing thousands more, and this combination became ubiquitous in both home and professional studios.
Perhaps more important than the drop in price, the ADAT/Mackie combination changed the way musicians work. The cost of studio time plummeted as countless semi-professional studios opened their doors. This resulted, for many, in a more relaxed approach to recording. In addition, because the same equipment could be found both at home and in the studio, using multiple studios became a viable option. Musicians could record basic rhythm tracks with a band in a nice-sounding room at a studio and then take the tapes home to overdub solos and vocals.
With the arrival of PowerMacs and Pentium-based PCs, hard-disk recording became another affordable option. Although Pro Tools and similar computer-based recording systems were introduced earlier and had become popular in professional environments, the high cost of add-on hardware and large-capacity hard disks kept them out of reach for most home recordists. Once processor speeds broke the 100-MHz barrier and drives began to be measured in gigabytes, computers were able to perform digital-audio tasks straight out of the box. Hard-disk recording opened up a world of possibilities that are now--only a few short years later--considered indispensable. The ability to view recorded audio as waveforms on a computer's monitor made editing a breeze. It is now possible to cut and paste even the shortest sections of audio with a previously unheard-of level of precision, and the nondestructive aspect (meaning that most actions can be undone if necessary) makes computer editing virtually stress-free. Another advantage to computer-based recording is the ability to access any part of a recording instantaneously. And because various inexpensive storage formats are readily availabile, making backup copies of important recordings is now easy and fast. But probably the coolest feature of inexpensive computer hardware is the ability to burn CDs. At the beginning of the decade, stand-alone CD burners were in the $10,000 range, but it is now possible to complete this final step of the recording process for a few hundred dollars.
All-in-one digital studios are the latest development in home recording equipment. Roland's instantly successful VS-880 merged the cassette four-track idea with CD-quality recording, mixing, and mastering technology, and similar units are now offered by every major manufacturer, including Akai, Fostex, Korg, and Yamaha. Now in their second generation, these recorders offer solid performance, and many artists not usually associated with home recording have used them for CD projects. In Acoustic Guitar's Homegrown CD Awards, we're seeing quite a few entries recorded (and even burned on CD) with units like the VS-880 and VS-1680.
With such a recent flurry of activity, it's hard to predict what the future of home recording may hold. Given the impact that Internet-based formats such as MP3 are beginning to have, it's possible that all-in-one studios may start to include the MP3 format. A common standard for exchanging information between units from different manufacturers would also be a welcome innovation. Only three things are certain: prices will come down, new features will be introduced, and quality will go up.