Thanks to the advent of (relatively) cheap digital recording systems, as well as the computer as a commonplace appliance, what was once the exclusive domain of high dollar studios is within reach of the hobbiest.

While the home studio will rarely be able to compete with the gorgeous spaces and acoustics of a well designed professional studio, the equipment available to the home recordist is pretty stunning. Concider this:

In 1988 I spent $800(US) on a Tascam Porta 02 High Speed. It was a cassette 4-track with 4 inputs and direct outs, 2 channel inserts, 1 effects send, low and high shelving EQ, and a headphone amplifier. Being the “high speed” model, it ran at double tape speed so I could only get about 23 minutes out of a 90 minute tape but it sounded better than the regular model- at about $1.50 a tape that’s $.02 a minute. I spent another $200 on an early digital guitar processor to use as a reverb send. I already had the stereo that I used for monitoring.

Today, the same amount, roughly adjusted to its current value of $1600, will buy you an 18 channel firewire Pro Tools interface, Pro Tools, 32 tracks, as many “virtual” tracks as your hard drive can handle, 5 inserts and 5 sends, and enough plugins to get you well started. You probably already have a computer to use it with. And at 7.5MB for a minute of 24/44.1 audio and hard drives going for around $1 per GB, that’s less than $.01 per minute of audio.

And that’s a Pro Tools rig. A bit less money will get you a fantastic setup with a PC, n-track recording software, and any number of low cost audio interfaces that are available these days. In many ways, the home studio has truly come of age.

Its not just me, either. Its a growing trend in the industry for artists to record their tracks at home or at low cost facilites and take them to a more experienced engineer for mixing. This is both an awesome step "forward" for creative production and an unfortunate step backward for the average level of audio knowledge, equipment and experience going into the critical first stages of a recording... and thus a lower average level of quality.

I'll leave it up to you to decide if this is good or bad. For myself, I'm happy to have easy access to very cost-effective tools for bringing creative ideas into production. Sure, there are always going to be (way) better studios and (way, way) better audio engineers out there, but we are all doing essentially the same thing: the best we can with what we have. While home studios will rarely be able to compete with the stunning sonics and versatility of well designed recording spaces or the decades of accumlated recording equipment of a well stocked studio, the home recordist does have a chance of making a recording that sounds good enough to the average listener.