Can We Stop Calling It A Home Studio?

It kind of depends in which context someone is using the term “home studio”, on this forum I read a people claiming to have a “professional studio” that (in my opinion) is nothing more than a spare/office room with a couple of guitars, a Fractal unit, some studio monitors , FRFR and a laptop. Sounds to be like boasting because in that case the majority of people in this forum would own a professional studio.

Kind of reminds me of a former colleague who always managed to boast about stuff he owned. At one point he inherited an “Estate at a lake” where he had a boat dock bult for his new “ship”. This turned out to be a piece of land on holiday park with a mobile home on it. And the “ship” was a small sail boat. Absolutely nothing wrong with any of it but I just did not get why he felt the need to brag about it this way.
 
I think there is a fair distinction between a home studio and a professional commercial studio. I also think there is a distinction between a modest home studio and a professional home studio. The difference being several tens of thousands of dollars.
 
Bruce Sokolovic said:
I think there is a fair distinction between a home studio and a professional commercial studio. I also think there is a distinction between a modest home studio and a professional home studio. The difference being several tens of thousands of dollars.
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see, there is not really a clear definition or distinction (money is not a distinction) between any of your studio nomenclature and therefore would just be easier to abbreviate by clarifying as just…studio. Simple and generic.

*some people have no outbound equipment but have tens of thousands of dollars worth in software.
 
wesleyamltd said:
see, there is not really a clear definition or distinction (money is not a distinction) between any of your studio nomenclature and therefore would just be easier to abbreviate by clarifying as just…studio. Simple and generic.

*some people have no outbound equipment but have tens of thousands of dollars worth in software.
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There is certainly a clear distinction in the results. No way you’re getting the results with a laptop and some plugins I’m getting with a bunch of outboard and good monitoring, and I’m not getting the same results I’d get in a large console pro studio at home (although I’m closer to that than someone would be with a beginners setup is to me). It is not all the same. Different setups for different goals and expectations. I’m never tracking drums at home, even though I have plenty of mics and IO. I expect to set up in a large room and have plenty of pro gear to get that done in a commercial studio. A laptop and Behringer will simply not produce the same results. Don’t get me wrong, these different setups all have a place and right to exist, but they are all uniquely different from one another, too.
 
Bruce Sokolovic said:
There is certainly a clear distinction in the results. No way you’re getting the results with a laptop and some plugins I’m getting with a bunch of outboard and good monitoring, and I’m not getting the same results I’d get in a large console pro studio at home (although I’m closer to that than someone would be with a beginners setup is to me). It is not all the same. Different setups for different goals and expectations. I’m never tracking drums at home, even though I have plenty of mics and IO. I expect to set up in a large room and have plenty of pro gear to get that done in a commercial studio. A laptop and Behringer will simply not produce the same results. Don’t get me wrong, these different setups all have a place and right to exist, but they are all uniquely different from one another, too.
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At one point, 10 years ago I would have agreed with you hook line and sinker but….

(Please take with a grain of salt)

It’s the ear not the gear, YMMV.

didn't Billie Eilish get famous from an in-the-box recording of Ocean Eyes, what about Periphery?

Most drums are replaced or reinforced with samples.

Software is used way more throughout a recording than any outboard gears. Think about Billy Decker’s mix flow, it’s all in the box.

Most of the time guitars are tracked with a DI and then replaced or augmented with a modeler or amp sim.

Things are not what they were 30 years ago, recording technology has come a long way.

Doesn’t Beringer mixers have Midas preamps? They’re supposed to be rather good.

A decent mic and a transparent preamp is really all you need to create a banger. The rest can be achieved with good mixing and software. Any monitor will work if you know how it translates to other devices.
 
I think I agree with you getting at it’s the song not the gear, sure. The song is always first. And you definitely can get good results ITB. In my experience which is a little more than average but not as much as some, I find outboard to be a bit more forgiving, have a wider range of useful settings and just overall do the thing better than its plugin counterpart. I have damn near every version of the ssl bus comp plugin. None of them do what my AudioScape G bus does. It’s just bigger sounding, more forgiving and adds another layer of 3D to the sound the plugins just don’t do.

Monitors are only half the story in monitoring. A bad room and forget it. You’ll be making 19 revisions of the mix. I’m a fan of slate VSX. If you don’t have a good room, they are a must have.
 
I think the biggest point of difference is that in a pro studio, there is pro engineers. No matter whether ITB or outboard hardware being used, a professional using that gear is always going to get better results ( & importantly, in a timely fashion) than a large percentage of hobbyists or semi-pro's.

I also think it safe to say that a lot of folks can get damn good results with the gear available these days in a home environment.
 
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Zedhed said:
I think the biggest point of difference is that in a pro studio, there is pro engineers. No matter whether ITB or outboard hardware being used, a professional using that gear is always going to get better results ( & importantly, in a timely fashion) than a large percentage of hobbyists or semi-pro's.

I also think it safe to say that a lot of folks can get damn good results with the gear available these days in a home environment.
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Of course. A pro studio is likely using Prisim or similar converters and a great room, plus if the stuff is tracked stellar going in, what does it really need to be a great mix? I think you can generally get bad to ok, ok to decent, decent to good and good to great. I dont think you can jump more than one step though.

That is one reason I like outboard, to your point. I sure dont have golden CLA ears here. The outboard is almost always more forgiving than the plugins are. I find plugins have a far narrower range of good, musical sounds. Every now and then I look over at my G bus comp or one of my 1176 clones and realize how hard Im hitting them, yet it still sounds great. The plugins kinda get there but tend to fall apart at a point with this. The AudioScape DBX clone on drums, man barely moving the needle does something amazing to drums where the light dances back and forth on the face of it. Just barely touching it. That circuit on drums is just perfect. The plugin has the sound, but doesnt do that. I have the Waves and UA versions.
 
Whether one uses outboard or plugins is a personal preference of course, and a choice often dictated by available funds. Most pro studios have a mix of both.

My point is, someone who has been properly trained and works in a pro studio day in day out is going to get best results out of whatever equipment is being used, and therein lies the major difference (among others) between a pro & home studio.
 
If all my professional and expensive plugins are torrented, does it make it a home-pro-studio, a pro-pirate-studio, a pirate-pro-studio, o just another studio studio? :D

Matthew Lillard Names GIF
Angry Harrison Ford GIF
 
Piing said:
If all my professional and expensive plugins are torrented, does it make it a home-pro-studio, a pro-pirate-studio, a pirate-pro-studio, o just another studio studio? :D

Matthew Lillard Names GIF
Angry Harrison Ford GIF
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Professional & expensive plugins, don't necessarily make a professional.

But I agree, it doesn't really matter what one calls their playground.
 
Bruce Sokolovic said:
Of course. A pro studio is likely using Prisim or similar converters and a great room, plus if the stuff is tracked stellar going in, what does it really need to be a great mix? I think you can generally get bad to ok, ok to decent, decent to good and good to great. I dont think you can jump more than one step though.

That is one reason I like outboard, to your point. I sure dont have golden CLA ears here. The outboard is almost always more forgiving than the plugins are. I find plugins have a far narrower range of good, musical sounds. Every now and then I look over at my G bus comp or one of my 1176 clones and realize how hard Im hitting them, yet it still sounds great. The plugins kinda get there but tend to fall apart at a point with this. The AudioScape DBX clone on drums, man barely moving the needle does something amazing to drums where the light dances back and forth on the face of it. Just barely touching it. That circuit on drums is just perfect. The plugin has the sound, but doesnt do that. I have the Waves and UA versions.
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Great Musician + Great Composition = Great Recording. Everything else is just fairy dust.
 
wesleyamltd said:
Great Musician + Great Composition = Great Recording. Everything else is just fairy dust.
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I wouldn't say creating a successful recognized recording is "just fairy dust".
Success is the measure between dreaming & reality. If not for that, anyone can think they're a great musician with a great composition & great recording.
 
Zedhed said:
I wouldn't say creating a successful recognized recording is "just fairy dust".
Success is the measure between dreaming & reality. If not for that, anyone can think they're a great musician with a great composition & great recording.
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Wild Horses by The Rolling Stones sounds like it was recorded with a RadioShack cassette recorder but it’s one of the greatest songs of all time. If that song were produced today it would go through the wringer of production and processing in an attempt to make it bigger better and larger than life.

The measure of success in renown musical productions are based on numbers, the majority determines what is successful.

Of course, everything is subjective today because perception is reality.

When I say great Musician and great composition I refer to those who have proven track records, not by my standards but by the standard of their chosen genre.

Is Bach great? Emphatically yes! This is an absolute fact and empirical.

Are all 5 Beatles great, yes!
 
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