can u really do it all @ home?

L. Tombstone wrote: a proper mix is done on a decent console to ensure good separation and improved stereo imaging. Not to mention DAW summing busses still have issues!!!

There is a way around that.
Check out this new product......it's an analog summing buss that you can use with your DAW.

http://www.helsingaudio.com/

cyrus wrote:I think everyones got a good point.

Being a good producer also includes knowing when to put something in someone elses hands. But you gotta also know whats going on.

Try to learn as much as possible when it comes to mixing and mastering, tracking, etc. it can only make your game better. If your mixes arent good enough, go to a studio.

But like i said, you gotta know whats going on. Just becouse you go to a studio doesnt mean the final result will be good or better than yours. Try to be a part of the studio session as much as possible. ask if you can sit in on mastering, etc. and if all else fails, ask as many questions as possible.

If you find a studio that does satisfactory work, try to build a relationship with them. Also talk to the engineer. Ask him what formats he needs if you track it at home. also ask if he can recomend a tracking setup and vocal mic setup you can use to do basic tracking at home. That way you can set it up so you track everything at home, track vocals, and keep all the creativity in your production studio........when you are ready to mix and master connect with the engineer. Atleast get your beats tracked out at home. Vocals might be more practical at a studio.

Let him know that you want to track at home so you arent luggin your gear around........but that you want to mix/master in the studio so you get professional results. Also talk to him, let him know your vision of the track, etc. tracks can be mixed multiple ways, if the engineer knows your vision he can do a better job achieving the vision...........basically be part of yoru music from start to finish.

ITs all about your relationship with the engineer.

exactly

i think that if you have a dedicated, treated space for mixing and a dead vocal booth, you can do it at home.

the vocal booth can be the shower/dressing room (?) with heavy mattresses etc. just it has to be dead.

the treated space can be basically any room. garage, extra bedroom...

i've heard commercial records made like this and they sound as good as anything else out there. plus i've been involved in making records like this. it takes experience but it can be done. the mastering was made by a mastering house. i would not recommend doing mastering yourself, it's the hardest thing to do ear/equipement wise in the whole process of making records.

words that keep cropping up in these posts say that "you cannot master yourself"

i agree. you can mix and sequence all you like - build the song and such - but by the time you're starting to track it out starting with kick, moving to snare and up to bass and such, you've already heard it so many times that your ear isn't fresh anymore. you know how you want it to sound and so that's what your brain placebos to you.

that's where mastering comes in. exporting everything you want mastered to the mastering house as a separate file should be the cheapest method of mastering (even though it's still gonna be expensive). you just need a new (trained) set of ears.

not that ive ever done this, i am just thinking it's the best way. anyone ever tried it?

I do it all at home. When I drop the Desert Mobb album in Oct, it would have been done completely from the crib, start to finish. Most of the time cats hear my ish, they don't believe it came out of my bathroom any who. As stated before, it's more about the ear than the gear.

There is a rapper out here who is affiliated with Lil Flip (Clover G'z), and he had an article in the local paper that, among other things, had him bashing home studios for their inability to get him to sound how he wants. I was just like, "Wait till he gets a load of me."

can it be done? yes
will most people be able to do it? no

Cash Money Records does most of their ish at home in their studios. Master P does this also. Its the ear not the gear. Dont think recording your ish at a million dollar studio means its gonna be a million dollar record.

These cats work at home, but that doesn't mean they work with the we do. they don't work in the bedroom, they got it all. a studio, at home. regardless of ~the end result ( it is a matter of opinion ) they doin' it big..
if u have some nice ish, good gear and KNOWLEDGE it's possible.