Pretty interesting article, check it out and discuss:

How to Build an Incredible Sound Studio on the Cheap...

The following is a guest post from Carla Schroder, an instrumentalist, recording pro, and Linux wonk.  She just finished The Book of Audacity, which officially gets released on Thursday (pre-order it from Amazon here).  Audacity is a free, open source, cross-platform audio editor that allows anyone to transform their Windows, Mac, or Linux computer into a powerful recording studio.

This is chapter 2 of the book.

http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/030811studio

For everyone complaining about how crap the reverb is, and it is I won't argue, there is a wealth of freeware plugins available on the net. There is a vst plugin available for Audacity so you can run vst's. It just takes looking for them.

Agreed.

The Branded said:

.....p.s with the knowledge of most people on here (i.e. recording on the cheap), we could probably write a book ten times more useful and which actually works in the real world! (building my own studio write now, on the cheap)

Reaper fucking rules. I've dumped Pro Tools and Cubase, I just use reaper now. No DAW is ever gonna give the feel as tape.

I use audacity to rip vinyl. It's simple and fast for stereo work. It's not that great for multi-tracking instruments though.
The Branded said:

Have to agree with Johnny, for a cheap fix Reaper is excellent,  I couldnt use Audacity for multitracking, recorded the first Gravemen EP using old Ribbon mics, and old desk, tape echo and Reaper, sounded pretty good. But Tape is still better and if your lucky cheap too! For rock'n'roll Audacity sucks, get Reaper

.....p.s with the knowledge of most people on here (i.e. recording on the cheap), we could probably write a book ten times more useful and which actually works in the real world! (building my own studio write now, on the cheap)

Have to agree with Johnny, for a cheap fix Reaper is excellent,  I couldnt use Audacity for multitracking, recorded the first Gravemen EP using old Ribbon mics, and old desk, tape echo and Reaper, sounded pretty good. But Tape is still better and if your lucky cheap too! For rock'n'roll Audacity sucks, get Reaper

I found the article kinda peculiar -- went into really deep good detail in some areas but ...a few things really leapt out as bad information ...

a cheap crappy behringer dynamic mic .... monitors don't matter ? .... sure for the type of music here crappy mics are great and I rarely use condensors for vox ... but that behringer is so limited esp. when a sm58 can be found pretty cheap -- and will last.

 

Using hifi speakers for monitoring simply just does not work, it's next to impossible to get a mix that will sound ok on a variety of other systems. the author states she has headphones so maybe they're studio headphones and give the flat response she needs.

 

That behringer powered mixer as a desk ? A much higher quality non-powered mixer for the same price could be had - maybe she uses the mixer for running a band PA -- but in that case having powered speakers for your band PA and a better mixer would suit the dual purpose better.

 

Then it's odd that she states you need a computer with multiple core CPU and a Raid array for multitrack recording, that makes no sense -a stupendous amount of albums recorded in the digital era have been recorded on less.

 

finally -- what's with the no smoking rant? it's my fucking studio and I can fucking smoke if I want to. (I'm not a smoker , just found it a bit offensive when discussing a DIY home setup)

re. audacity, yeah good for podcast and quick and nasty banging something down but for multitrack recording in windows - Reaper ftw, and in Linux - Ardour.

  don't shit me quote, I ain't said  bitch.

 

 The hard nano xray probe says "The song records itself. It plays itself. It simply IS at any given time, IN any given time, wether you want it or not."

 

It has your soul or it doesn't, dig (dug)?

 

My wager?

 

What is a preoccupation with delusion or hallucination?

Just hit record...

Yes, Audacity is a piece of shit but it can be worked with - and it's a free piece of shit! The reverb is a bitch but once you get the hang of it, it's not that big a deal. Also, there are an almost limitless number of plug-ins (you aren't limited to open source plugins or the ones that are built in - I have over 60 different reverb "units' and close to 200 other plugins). Yes, Audacity is a piece of shit but I like it (I also like that it's open source and that you're not supporting a big conglomerate like Sony. I've recorded close to 150 songs using it and everybody thinks they were cut to tape - exactly what I want. Free is not an issue with me (I don't buy software) so I can use pretty much anything. I have used ProTools, Cakewalk, Cool Edit, etc and I return with great frequency to Audacity. I'm used to it and it doesn't make your recordings sound digital and sterile (most of these programs cut too cleanly and you have to use a plugin to get it to sound dirty - cheating in my book). I also like CoolEdit for the fact that it doesn't cut stuuf to cleanly but it can be a beast to use sometimes. I'm fairly new to digital recording (still prefer my tape machines - I have a TEAC 2340 reel-to-reel from '73, a Tascam PortaStudio 4 track and a Yamaha 8 track - and they all still work perfectly) but I have done enough at this point to know what I like - and I like Audacity. The learning curve is way lower than with some of the other software.

I think you missed the point. "On the cheap" it's great. And it works fine for producing podcasts. I used to use it myself, before Apple released GarageBand. Mang.

the Clowns said:

audacity is a piece of shit, mang.

the reverb settings are complicated and still sound terrible....the list can go on....

i mean, it's good for recording in general, but i wouldn't recomend it...at all.