Generally speaking, in a personal small music studio, all the work must be done by computers. At present, a processor with a main frequency above 2.4G is enough. Because the CPU resources are very occupied when the soft effector works, professional users can choose a processor with a main frequency of more than 8 G.
To make music, it is recommended to install it yourself, and don't buy a brand machine. Because at present, brand machines are mainly configured for home use, their chassis, expansion bits, hard disks, memory, sound cards, motherboards and other configurations are simply not suitable for professional production. Self-installed, you can have more free choices in configuration, and it is convenient to upgrade and expand. At the same price, the grade of your own installed machine can be higher. Notebook computers or mobile PCs are generally not considered in the recording studio, because the sound cards and other configurations of such computers are not suitable for recording at all, and it is inconvenient to upgrade and expand, and the work stability is poor. But it's another matter if someone records the scene with a laptop plus an external USB or firewire sound card.
Many professional musicians use Apple computers to make music. Because the Apple computers on the market are all original machines, and the operating system and application software are genuine, the system runs very stably. At present, Apple computers are mainly used to run Protools and other software in China. This is a digital music workstation system that integrates MIDI production and audio editing system. Its function is quite powerful and its performance is very stable.
The computer used to make music is best to use a large chassis, which has more expansion and good heat dissipation. Professional users can choose a dedicated server chassis.
It is best to use original Intel motherboards or motherboards of well-known brands with Intel chips for making music computers, so as to ensure the stability and compatibility of the system. Although sound card manufacturers have tried their best to make their products compatible with VIA motherboard, the incompatibility between professional sound cards and VIA motherboard still happens frequently. The computer hard disk should be as large as possible, because the audio file is huge, and one minute of CD-quality audio data needs about 10M of hard disk space. Moreover, the new music software is becoming more and more huge, and the sound clips in various Wav formats are also quite huge. So, if you plan to use the computer for multi-track recording, audio editing and even video processing. It is necessary to buy a hard disk above 120G. Professional users are advised to use a hard disk array of more than 200 g.
Recording audio also requires a lot of memory. In principle, the bigger the better. Because the real-time soft effector will occupy a lot of memory resources when it works. If there is not enough memory, the system will not work. The memory of 1G is not large at all now. Professional users are advised to expand the memory to more than 4G.
Although the monitor and graphics card are not directly related to recording, considering that you need to sit in front of the machine for a long time and concentrate on the screen when making music, you should try to choose a better graphics card to ensure the visual fluency of software operation, protect your eyesight and reduce radiation with a good monitor. Professional users suggest choosing dual-head graphics cards and dual monitors, which will be very convenient when using software such as Nuendo.
As a music lover, the current mainstream models are completely enough to make music. However, if you want to take music as a career and make music as good as possible, then, hehe-the fastest CPU, the largest hard disk and the largest memory at present.
2 sound cards
Sound card is the only device related to sound processing in computer, and it is also one of the most important hardware devices. When recording, the audio signal of the microphone or mixer enters the computer through the sound card, so the quality of the sound card is very important. We use a sound card mainly because of its audio processing effect. When recording, the digital-to-analog converter on the sound card converts the analog signal of the microphone into a digital signal, and vice versa when playing back. The sound card is completely exposed to the computer case with harsh electromagnetic environment, so the quality of the sound card is also very important. Professional recording sound cards have strong anti-interference ability, and some audio workstation systems use expensive all-external digital-to-analog converters to completely separate the sound processing chip from the computer.
At present, integrated motherboards have integrated onboard sound cards such as AC97. This kind of sound card is of low grade. Some drivers can be used to improve the performance of AC97, make it support ASIO and other indicators, and make MIDI. But as a recording, its sound quality and performance are far from professional sound cards. Generally speaking, the onboard sound card must be turned off and a separate sound card installed in the BIOS settings.
We are used to calling sound cards "civil cards" and "professional cards". "Civil card" doesn't mean you can't record, just like Sound Blaster Live! Such a sound card can still be used for recording. However, professional sound cards must surpass civil sound cards in sound quality and performance. At present, MAYA Pro, Waveterminal 192L/M, Creamware Luna2 and other sound cards with high cost performance are commonly used in personal recording studios. However, you should know that the sound card is worth a penny, and the price ranges from tens of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan. You can decide your own recording studio configuration according to your own economic situation and production purpose. It should be noted that the number of sound cards imported and exported. If you need to record a multiplayer band, you'd better choose a sound card with more imports and exports. If there is no mixer or professional voice amplifier, you must choose a sound card with a voice amplifier.
3 software
As a personal recording studio, the hardware equipment is relatively simple, and the software must not fall behind. Be sure to use the most advanced and powerful professional audio software. In fact, the popular audio software has fully met our needs. For example, Nuendo, Sonar, Cubase and so on. MIDI editing and audio editing are integrated, and soft sound sources and soft effect plug-ins are also equipped. Generally, we also need to install special effects plug-ins such as Waves. Don't underestimate these software and effect plug-ins. It is no exaggeration to say that their performance is not inferior to those expensive hardware!
4 microphone
As we all know, the microphone is the key to recording. There are two types of recording microphones: transfer loop and capacitor. In a personal recording studio, a condenser microphone is generally used. A microphone is like a sound card, and it's worth the money. We can only choose what grade of microphone to use according to our own economic situation and the purpose of recording. Generally speaking, the price of riding NT2 or NT3 1000 yuan can be selected; You can choose AKG C3000 at the price of 3000 yuan. Hehe, if you are rich, you can choose U87 or U89.
5 monitoring
The first thing to say is that monitoring speakers are not the same concept as our usual home appreciation speakers. The monitored sound needs to be unmodified. And the speakers used for appreciation are all decorated, which will deceive your ears. For example, if you use a home amplifier and speakers or computer multimedia speakers to monitor the mix, you may think that the bass on your speakers is enough, but not enough at all, or you may think that the bass is too small, but it is actually too big. So listening is very important. Whenever possible, you'd better buy a professional monitor speaker.
But it is not absolutely impossible to use civil multimedia speakers. Because after all, not everyone can afford professional monitoring. This requires you to find out the temper of the speaker you are using, and be aware of it. For example, you know that your speaker has a heavy bass. Turn down the bass a little. In addition, with the help of spectrometer software, we can clearly see the situation of each frequency band during mixing. There is also a comparison with headphones. A professional monitor headphones is much better than a civilian speaker.
Room 6
In the past, large recording studios attached great importance to acoustic principles and needed various reflective plates to make reverberation. This is completely unnecessary now. All sound effects are made by software in the computer. What we need is to pick up the "dry sound" without any modification. So there are only two purposes to be considered in our recording studio: sound insulation and sound absorption.
The first is sound insulation. Sound insulation is to isolate the interference of external noise. For example, you are recording, but there is a man shouting "sharpen scissors and sharpen a kitchen knife" in the street outside. How would you feel? Hehe ~ ~ If your room is not soundproof, this sound will be recorded in your work.
As a sound insulation material, you can use a soft foam sponge that is commonly used to make sofas. Its sound absorption is not ideal, but its sound insulation effect is good. Of course, the location of the recording studio is best away from the road. In addition, the recording studio is located in a high-rise building and is easily disturbed by radio waves. In fact, the best place to build a recording studio is the basement. Now many buildings have basements, which are the least vulnerable to external interference.
Sound absorption is to absorb the interference of external and indoor reflected sound and improve the purity of sound. Because reverberation is added to the computer, there is no need for reverberation in the room at all. On the contrary, try to avoid the reflection of sound indoors and keep the sound pure. Sound-absorbing materials can be quilts and thick curtain cloth, and the ground should be carpeted. Professional, the wall can be affixed with a porous white sound-absorbing board made of composite materials. However, this is not enough. There's no need to leave the studio empty. Putting a big sofa made of cotton fabric can play a good sound-absorbing effect and can also be used by singers for rest.