30 years ago a home recording studio might have been outfitted with analog mixing boards, reel-to-reel tape recordings, tube amplifiers costing tens of thousands of dollars to achieve professional sounding results.
An analog TEAC four channel tape recording machine
Over the past 15 years the home computer has revolutionized the recording industry and now allows anyone with a few hundred dollars worth or computer software, mixers, and microphones to create a wide array of professional quality digital recordings. Sony Acid and Audio Studio are two particular software applications that I use on my small desktop home studio.
Of course there are dozens of other audio software applications on the market such as Pro Tools and FL Studio but, I find the Sony products user friendly and excellent results. Below is a photo of my small desktop home studio.
One of the drawbacks to Sony Acid when adding live tracks is the issue of latency- a slight delay in the signal. To remedy that problem I utilize a Roland Duo-Capture device.
The Duo-Capture allows you to listen in real time to not only the live tracks being recorded it also allows you to hear the pre-recorded rhythm tracks on the computer.
On the piece 'The Return' which is linked on this site via YouTube you can see the raw ACID tracks below.
'The Return' featured 21 digital tracks which were mixed down into stereo using Sony Audio Studio.
