Professional Sound Quality at a Quarter of the Cost

Everyone has the potential to record high quality sounding music. What separates you from "potential" is the next question. Are you going to take the necessary steps? Believe it or not, with a little equipment, a little knowledge and some effort you can make your orginial recordings close to professional. The major label music industry doesn't want you to know this, but you can actually do it very cheap.

Let's talk equipment

Item One: a 4-track. It's as basic as it gets and it is good training ground to learn the tricks of the trade. You can score a good used one for 200 bucks. You can find nice new ones for as high as 500 bucks. So, shop around, check pawn shops, borrow one, whatever...just be informed about your purchase, this piece of equipment will serve as the foundation of your home studio.

Just for a second, I want to go over what make a 4-track tick. A 4-track is basically a tape deck with 2 heads. You'll notice your standard cassette deck has only one head. When you press play on your home cassette deck, that one head only plays two tracks. Blank cassette tapes, therefore, contain only 4 tracks. (2 tracks on side A - 2 tracks on side B) This is the reason why you can flip your cassette over and get a whole new side of music. The 4-track player, on the other hand, affords you recording space for each individual track the cassette provides. (Two heads are better than one!) If you flip a 4-track master cassette over you will hear everything in reverse! In other words, a 60min. blank cassette offers you 30min. of master recording time. Oh yea, one other thing, don't skimp on the master cassette demos, (the tapes in your 4-track) buy high bias.

Next, learn your inputs and outputs. Know the differences between RCA cords (the size of inputs usually found on your VCR, CD player, receiver, ect....) and quarter inch (the size of the inputs that appear on samplers, keyboards, mics, and instruments) it's about the size, so recognize, because it would be wise to purchase cords that combine quarter inch and RCA inputs on either end. Adapters are an excellent purchase also. It's good karma to have plenty of cords. (Radio Shack has all that junk) I figure, if you can run sound from your VCR through your receiver and get your movies to blast out of your stereo speakers, you're half way there my man!

You will learn your extension cord inputs and outputs quickly by "tweaking" your equipment. Your meter readings (those green & red dots that bounce up and down to the music) are your signals. The goal is to get the strongest and best quality signal with as little hiss or background noise as possible. The trick is to balance the mix. You don't want to boost the lows too much; the bass will drown out every instrument. You don't want to get it so distorted that the snare sounds like breaking glass, and you don't want the signal to be so crispy and high that you can't feel the bass either. It takes a good ear and a little smoothing out.

I know I got a little technical on y'all, but it really isn't. Spend the time and learn your levels and signals, inputs and outputs, and what mix suits your tastes before you sink your allowance on equipment costing 500 scrilla. I personally take pride in getting a good signal and up-and-coming artists should too. It should be a requirement for every member of the group to know what cords go where and how it all relates. Ask questions and think it through. Start from the source of the signal and go from there and tinker.

Item two: a sampler that can loop. Some may option for a drum machine or a keyboard, that's cool. I prefer a sampler. With all the music available at the library for free, your parents old record collection, or a garage sale where you can pick up a trunk load of albums for a 20 spot, why not sample? With all the phatness available throughout music history collecting dust, it's about time to rearrange shit and recycle it for the next century. Argue with me 'till you're blue in the face, sampling is where it's at. (My man DJ Vince calls it the "chomp, chomp")

Do your homework and listen to ALL styles and kinds of music. Find the phat breaks, and incorporate whatever sounds pleasant. Loop it, add & subtract, experiment. It's a whole lot of fun!

Word of advice: study the overall sequence and composition of songs. Count off measures (the beat) hear how other groups layer instruments on top of one another and mute instruments at certain times. Listen to the flow of the lyricist, and how that relates to the beat. Watch for the hook! (refrain) Diss the Beatles as much as you want, but McCartney and Lennon knew how to write a good pop song- they had a formula. So learn from the best, and then dive right in.

Bottom line: If you can fill all 4-tracks with instruments (beat,bassline,& whatever else) and the lyrics are tight. You're ready to bust some quality.
For hints on that, check this site for PRODUCTION TIPS 2.

Tack-Fu Productions KICKING KNOWLEDGE SINCE 1997