...to make home recordings sound this good, especially vocals as in the video?

I'm guessing not because if we could make musics sound this good why would studios be in business? My main like in this song is the quality of the vocals. Martin Smith is lip syncing, as it's obviously been recorded in a studio rather than where the video suggests.

The quality of the vocals and their spaciousness is what I try to achieve but I don't end up with anything this good.

What do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8d80ok40TQ

I am certain you can produce the same quality in your home! BUT, I would also bet that this was not filmed at the same time as it was recorded! They did dozens of takes in a studio (not an open room like that), vocals and instruments, mixed them all together, mastered it and then the singer/player simply lip-synched/play-synched for the video portion of this music video.

No! (ha, ha). Can you get pretty good, even CD acceptable recordings -- definitely. But you really need room treatment, top shelf equipment and mixing/production skills (as well as the talent) to get top notch recordings like this. It is just the way it is.

But I do think you can get 80-85% there, which should be good enough for the money and time we are spending.

You have good equipment. Many professional studios and producers now use Studio One Pro software, Melodyne, off the shelf Shure sm58's and 57's and such.

My thought is that Bill Szymczyk could take your equipment, bring in the Eagles and finish a song that few if any could play on their car radio and discern it was not created in a major studio.

I'm convinced that BiaB realtracks/midi tracks have made it into major studio releases.

Charlie

My thoughts..... Absolutely, yes. It's possible.

HOWEVER.....

It takes good gear, a decent to nice sounding room, and most importantly, the experience to know what you need to do with all aspects of the process to get those results.

Gear can be purchased with a large enough budget.

A room can be built and treated acoustically.

Experience..... that can take a very long time depending on you and how hard you're willing to work to attain the knowledge and experience to be able to make things sound the way you want.

Can those kind of results be obtained in home studios? Again.... I believe the answer is yes.

Yes. Actually, that's exactly what Martin Smith did on GGDF.


“I wasn't ready to record a full album but I had four or five songs and I recorded them and mixed them in my little home studio.”

"When I'd finished the EPs it seemed like a natural progression to approach Jonathan Brown, who as you know I've worked with for years, about Integrity releasing the 'God's Great Dance Floor: Step 01' album. I went back in the studio and remixed some of the tracks and gave them a bigger bottom end.”


Of course, it helps if you are already a recording engineer.


“Before Delirious? went full-time, Smith was employed by ICC studios in Eastbourne as a sound engineer.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Smith_%28English_musician%29


Regards,

Bob

WOW what a wealth of info here already. Thanks again people.

Of course it's possible.

Possible is much different than probable though.

Many tracks used in successful commercial releases have been recorded at home. The 80's taught us that. Read the liner notes. <grin>

Being good at it requires a lot of skill/knowledge .. some of which may have been acquired by time spent in pro studios, but it is possible for sure.

I think it boils down to the definition of "Little home studio". How little? How much spent on equipment? You could easily have 100K of equipment in one converted 10X12' bedroom of a typical house or garage. That could still be called my "little home studio".

The big deal is recording acoustic instruments and vocals live in one take. A grand piano? A full drum kit and percussion? Three vocalists? Now you need some real room to isolate those things. If all you're doing is one track at a time, with you strumming a guitar with other players dubbing their parts while listening to the rest of the band on headphones then you can do that in a small room with minimal stuff.

A definition of "home studio" can vary a lot.

Bob

Well that's true, a standard windows on board chip and laptop mic ain't gonna cut it .. usually ..