When my band would finally got into the studio, every single moment counted. It was “pricey”, to say the least. On my first three song demo, I stayed within my budget: $3,000. Those were the ’80s; and that was par for the course.

In those days, only the wealthy could afford to own a private recording studio.

Buying my own studio was, therefore, out of the question… but I stuck to the dream that one day I would have my own, and be able to record whatever I felt like, any time of the day or night.

Home Studio

When 1990 came I purchased my first home studio; a 4-track Tascam. In spite of all the accolades I would hear about in magazines regarding the “professional sounding” demos an artist could get from that machine, I was highly disappointed. Still, I had to admit, it was a great writer’s tool. I was able to get up at 3 a.m., if an idea couldn’t wait, and record it immediately.

I just wasn’t able to use any of it for a pro song demo.

Home Pro Studio

Finally, two decades later, the home studio had its day. When I first heard the results yielded by some of my friends Protools, Cubase and Logic demos, I was overwhelmed by the quality. YES! “Finally!” I thought. I am ready to create my own pro studio. I was right. When searching around and asking questions from my friends, I found that the system that resonated with me, the singer/songwriter, was Protools. I purchased the 7.7 Leopard version of Protools, along with my Mac OS X. Nowadays, the 9 versions of Protools are being used, by my good ol’ 7.7 version still does the trick nicely; thank you very much!

Not being all that savvy with manuals, I also did the smart thing; I enrolled in a Protools course with a working, successful, music producer in British Columbia, Canada. The course was a cinch, and I took to it right away. It was well worth the $375. I paid for the five week program on working with the Protools system.

It’s taken some months, but I can now go to my piano (a Yamaha P120S), lay down all the tracks, then place as many vocals over it as I would like with my special mic (a CM 12se; which sounds exactly like a Neumann U-86; but costs 1/6th of the price!) and the result is nothing short of MAGIC. Editing on Protools is a dream. Creating loops?

You can do it in your sleep. You can have any instrument you desire on your song, through the midi process, of course.

In the past I used only live musicians in the large recording studios. For my present CD productions I do half of my work in a live studio, with live musicians, then go back to my home studio where I use Protools to lay down my own tracks over the big studio tracks at my leisure.

This way, if I don’t like my piano playing or vocals on a particular day, I can keep trying on my own time; with no pressure from engineers, musicians, or budgeting to worry about!

I was even able to include a friend’s vocals from across the country. I sent him a rough mp3.

He laid down a vocal track, sent it back to me as a .wav file, and I incorporated his vocal into my song. It sounds fabulous.

I then take the final versions to my local recording producer, mix and master the puppy right then and there.

Comparison

My very first CD (in 1989) cost me $11,500. to make. My latest CD (2011) cost me $2,100. to make. Feeling that difference?

In looking back, the studio cost me over $6,000. Back in the 80’s such a high quality studio would’ve run around $150, 000. How times change!!

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