Our new recording studio (so far)

It's been a while since my last post. It's hard, time consuming work to continue thinking up new topics to write about while maintaining a balance between family, a new house, and a career. Instead I think I'll write more of a "what did I do today" type of post and tell you about a new...garden we planted yesterday.

Now, this isn't the sort of garden that produces vegetables, flowers or weeds -- it's more like a garden to foster creativity. My wife watersoul (Paula) and I have discussed for some time a need we feel to express ourselves creatively. To this end, she has recently enrolled in a piano class at the local community college near our home (College of DuPage for you locals). The goal here was not to walk out of there and have a thorough knowledge of all things musical, but rather to master the basics of reading and writing music, developing fine motor control on the keys, etc. Paula's always had great ideas for songs she has created in her head, but until yesterday we lacked the technology to develop them.

As home studios go these days, you can build a solution that -- as far as the hardware and software goes -- is near to the high end equipment professional musicians have access to when they rent out by the hour, like what you see here.

That being said, we're careful to avoid having any delusions of grandeur. As we planned and dreamed, we knew we wanted something very basic, something we could add a piece here and there whenever the time was right, but the first seed in our new garden had yet to be planted. Above all else we had to start with an instrument, something musically flexible and relatively universal enough that it could be used to produce entire pieces of music when eventually paired to computer software and hardware designed to make modern music. We chose the Yamaha P70 as our cornerstone:

It's an excellent instrument, with a full set of 88 weighted keys that sound and feel remarkably like the real thing. Gently play the keys and the internal processor analyzes the downward pressure created by the player's finger, considers hundreds of actual recorded sample recordings per key, and plays the appropriate recorded sound based on the impact of the key -- all in real time. What you hear is a gentle note just as you would on an acoustic piano. Strike the keys hard like the percussion instrument it is, and the P70 rewards you with strong powerful notes. It even reproduces the almost indetectible resonance of adjacent strings that vibrate on an acoustic piano when a note is struck hard!



You quickly forget you're basically playing a computer that feels and sounds exactly like a baby grand when you close your eyes. Yamaha sets standards (in our price range) for realism, and is the choice of many pro musicians. It also has a small selection of instrument sounds to choose from (harpsichord, strings, church organ, etc.), but the reason we chose it was because of the Grand Piano setting. I can't say enough -- the sonic reproduction is amazing and lifelike, even when played through the modest, built in speakers. In the future, we'll eventually plug it into a high end Mac with software that will allow us to record multiple tracks of any instrument you can think of.

As good as the built in Yamaha speakers were, we knew we needed something better, especially later on when we have a more complete studio setup. It was very important for us to have something that sounded true to life. Also, the monitors had to have some muscle, something we could really push hard that would not distort in any way. There's nothing more disappointing to us than wanting to hear the intricacies or impact of a particular instrument or piece of music than to have it fall flat sonically, inhibited by underpowered drivers.

We settled on Event SP8 studio monitors. I can't say enough about them. They're lifelike, with a gorgeous flat response and plenty of punch -- especially for a home studio in a small room. Highly praised in the industry, SP8's are considered by many to be the Holy Grail of studio monitors.



So for now, that's all we have. I think it's a good start, and definitely not the end of the road for us. Next steps will be to add an Apple iMac which can record and manage multiple tracks (drums, vocal, instruments, etc.) similar in theory to how the pros do it. We're going to add a decent studio microphone soon (Paula has an exceptional singing voice!). I'm also thinking about eventually adding one of my lifelong passions – the legendary Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. And, over the years there'll likely be processors, preamps, and equalizers stirred in as needed.

We are not envisioning living the life of professional musicians here by any means. Rather, we (especially Paula) simply want a way to nurture, develop and grow our creativity, then preserve it. A small home studio will give us the tools to do that. Painters need brushes, a canvas, and paint to nurture their creativity; sculptors need clay and a wheel; photographers need cameras, lights and darkroom equipment. We feel this pursuit is no different. We're really looking forward to making music together, and when we do we'll post the songs here, so stay tuned!