Building a Home or Project Recording Studio – Part 3
In Part 3 of this article, we will focus only on Audio Interfaces.
Audio interface is what is required to get sound into the computer to record, and playback the sound from the computer to speakers/headphones or mixer. Think of the audio interface as the tape recorder/player, and the computer as the tape.
Audio interfaces can be simple or complicated and there are a few types:
- USB
- Thunderbolt
- PCIe
USB is the simplest way to get audio in and out of the computer. Connect the audio interface via USB directly into the computer (not into a USB hub). A driver may need to be loaded so the computer and other applications running on the computer can recognize the audio interface.
Thunderbolt is similar to the USB option. Connect the audio interface via Thunderbolt, directly into the computer. A driver may need to be loaded so the computer and other applications running on the computer can recognize the audio interface.
The last option can be complex. It requires a PCIe card to be inserted into a computer, a driver for the PCIe card will need to be installed, and an interface is connected to this PCIe card using specialized cables.
There are inputs and outputs on audio interfaces which can consist of analog (TS/TRS/XLR connections) and/or digital (S/PDIF, ADAT, others). It is possible to connect a Mic, a Guitar or Bass, Keyboard, Drum machines, etc., into the inputs and record the playing on the computer.
Once one of the above options is configured, it will require a DAW to control the transport (stop, play, record), and in most cases as previously stated, a driver is required to be loaded on to the computer so that the DAW can recognize the audio interface.
Depending on the DAW software (most DAWs allow this), you can record multiple tracks simultaneously, while multiple tracks are being played back. Depending on the DAW, it will capture the audio in one of a few formats, WAV, BWAV, AIFF, and others.
This sounds very simple. What are the gotchas?
Recording media is the biggest gotcha. Hard drive or SSD (Solid State Drive) is the main question. Having been in the studio business for some time, hard drive is a way to go for recording audio (7200rpm drives are the best, and a RAID configuration hard drive system set for speed is even better). Why not SSD? SSD is great for operating systems and applications. It is also great for sample based plugins like Native Instruments Kontakt (which have massive sound libraries in GB sizes). SSD is best used for reading or playing back audio. For recording, hands down, spinning hard disk, until they are no longer made.
The second gotcha is a driver conflict. This rarely happens on Apple computers, but it is quite the journey sometimes on Windows computers. I have seen projects crash due to some automatic driver update that was done during a recording. It is not a happy moment, especially if the take was amazing and not captured. My advice, do not auto update, and save often and save again.
In Part 4, we will be talking about the things that we need to make or listen to noise, headphones, speakers, mixers, and cables.
