Did you know that it was 30 years ago that MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) was born. You could say one of the first types of open source applications that revolutionised how music was made and paved the way to modern music production, sampling and the whole dance music scene.
The idea behind midi and the reason for its success was that it would be a universal standard and allow any device to speak to another thus allowing keyboards and modules form companies who would otherwise be in direct competition to each other.
No longer did everything have to played live but could instead be sequenced and played back. Early home computers such as Atari and Commodore supported MIDI and very soon were not only used in huge recording studios but also gave rise to the now common home studio setup.
My homie CULTCHA SHOC in Hawaii recording "Set Me Free" beat by yours truly!
When setting up your mic in your home studio I would suggest using a nice condenser mic, you can get one from 100 and up. You also want to get a pop filter, this will cut out the excessive p's and b's from getting to the mic. If you can, you should also invest in a mic pre-amp. This will give a good clean sound. If not you can just use the phantom power on your mix board.
The distance your artist should be from the mic is about a fist away. You should also set a ceiling on your mix board or software. This will prevent clipping from occurring during the recording.
I would advise you not to put any effects on the microphone during recording. You can always add those afterwords, if you put a bad effect on the artist during recording and don't like it, you can't remove it!
Now if you have the budget you should create an isolation booth. This will stop all outside noise from interfering with the recording. If you can't do this, most people use anything from a bathroom to a closet to create a good recording atmosphere. Use foam padding wherever possible to reduce and echoing effect.
So all in all its pretty easy to create a professional sounding microphone with a couple simple steps. Good luck and stay tuned for more posts!
