{{Short description|Recording made at someone's home}} '''Home recording''' is the practice of recording sound in a private home instead of a professional recording studio. A studio set up for home recording is called a '''home studio''' or '''project studio'''. Home recording is widely practiced by voice actors, narrators, singers, musicians, podcast hosts, and documentary makers at all levels of success. The cost of professional audio equipment has dropped steadily as technology advances during the 21st century, while information about recording techniques has become easily available online. These trends have resulted in an increase in the popularity of home recording and a shift in the recording industry toward recording in the home studio.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.netplaces.com/digital-home-recording/recording-basics/modern-day-developments.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110411054100/http://www.netplaces.com/digital-home-recording/recording-basics/modern-day-developments.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 11, 2011 |title=Modern-Day Developments |last=Schonbrun |first=Marc |website=Netplaces.com |access-date=August 4, 2011 }}</ref>
In 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 lockdowns resulted in a dramatic global increase in the number of remote workers in 2020,<ref>{{cite web |title=Going Remote : COVID-19 AND THE IMPACT OF REMOTE WORKING IN THE VFX INDUSTRY |url=https://www.escape-technology.com/images/documents/Going-Remote_Remote-Working-Research-Report.pdf |access-date=21 March 2022 |website=Escape-technology.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Rau |first1=Nate |date=12 May 2020 |title=Pandemic pushes bill to legalize home recording studios |url=https://tennesseelookout.com/2020/05/12/pandemic-pushes-bill-to-legalize-home-recording-studios/ |work=Tennessee Lookout}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=22 September 2020 |title=Voiceover artistes set up home studios due to Covid-19 |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/voiceover-artistes-set-up-home-studios-due-to-covid-19 |newspaper=The Straits Times}}</ref> as well as home-based recording artists, which also led to the proliferation of internet-based microgenres like bedroom pop and egg punk.<ref name="razklinghoffer">{{cite web|url=https://www.razklinghoffer.com/music-producers-recording-studios-in-coronavirus-covid-19-days/|title=Music Producers & Recording Studios in Coronavirus (Covid-19) Days|first=Hannah|last=Olivar|date=18 February 2021|website=Razklinghoffer.com|access-date=22 April 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Impacts of COVID on Recording and Production |url=https://majoringinmusic.com/impacts-of-covid-on-recording-and-production/ |access-date=21 March 2022 |website=Majoringinmusic.com}}</ref><ref name="SPIN2">{{cite web |last=Salmon |first=Ben |date=4 January 2024 |title=The Rise of Second-Wave Egg Punk |url=https://www.spin.com/2024/01/second-wave-egg-punk/ |accessdate=25 April 2024 |website=SPIN}}</ref>
== History ==
=== 1960s–1970s: Origins === During the 1950s and 1960s, American musicians such as Les Paul, Hasil Adkins and Frank Zappa, Australian artist Pip Proud and British producer Joe Meek became early pioneers of home recording.<ref name=":02">{{Cite news |last=Wray |first=Daniel Dylan |date=2020-05-12 |title='My studio is an extra limb right now': bedroom pop, the perfect genre for lockdown |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/may/12/my-studio-is-an-extra-limb-right-now-bedroom-pop-the-perfect-genre-for-lockdown |access-date=2025-07-28 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Around the same time, the Who's Pete Townshend built his own private home recording studio, where he recorded demos for much of the band's early material and later his first solo album, ''Who Came First''. The recording sessions for the album inspired the Beatles' Paul McCartney to experiment with home recording on his 1970 debut solo album ''McCartney.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pete Townshend says he inspired Macca to self-record first solo album, McCartney |url=https://guitar.com/news/music-news/pete-townshend-inspired-paul-mccartney/ |access-date=2025-10-20 |website=Guitar.com {{!}} All Things Guitar |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Goldsmith |first=Jan |title=Pete Townshend Recalls Turning Paul McCartney On To Home Recording |url=https://vermilioncountyfirst.com/2022/03/21/pete-townshend-recalls-turning-paul-mccartney-on-to-home-recording/ |access-date=2025-10-20 |website=Vermilion County First |language=en}}</ref> Other early pioneers of home recording include Sly and the Family Stone.
In 1973, Jamaican reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry built Black Ark Studios, where he pioneered several innovative production techniques as well as the dub genre.<ref name="continuum">{{cite book |last=Shepherd |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0tz5YpijuksC&q=black+ark+continuum&pg=PA649 |title=Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Volume 1: Media, industry and society |author2=David Horn |author3=Dave Laing |author4=Paul Oliver |author5=Peter Wicke |author5-link=Peter Wicke |publisher=Continuum |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8264-6321-0 |location=London |pages=648–649}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Kenner |first=Rob |date=February 2002 |title=Boom Shots |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCUEAAAAMBAJ&q=black+ark+scratch+dub&pg=PA122 |magazine=Vibe |page=122 |volume=10 |issue=2 |issn=1070-4701}}</ref><ref name=":02" /> In 1986, American musician Prince, built a private home recording studio known as Paisley Park.<ref name=":02"/>
==Studio equipment== Until the late 1970s, music could be recorded either on low-quality tape recorders or on large, expensive reel-to-reel tape machines. Due to their high price and specialized nature, reel-to-reel machines were only practical for professional studios and wealthy artists. In 1979, Tascam invented the Portastudio, a small four-track machine aimed at the consumer market.
thumb|alt=Hideaki Sugai, a Japanese ambient composer, in his home recording studio or‘takuroku' environment during his college years in the mid-80s. The instruments are: KORG Poly-800, YAMAHA TX-81Z, YAMAHA QX21. Roland TR505. Aria Pro II Studio Track III R504. CASIO SK-1, Yamaha SPX90|Home recording environment during mid-80's in Japan
With this new product, small multitrack tape recorders became widely available, and grew in popularity throughout the 1980s. thumb|alt=Fostex X-28H, a 4 track cassette recorders|Fostex X-28H , a 4 track cassette recorder
In the 1990s, analog tape machines were supplanted by digital recorders and computer-based digital audio workstations (DAWs). These new devices were designed to convert audio tracks into digital files, and record the files onto magnetic tape (such as ADAT), hard disk, compact disc, or flash ROM.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mixonline.com/news/keith_barr_obit_2508/index1.html |title=In Memoriam-Keith Barr 1949-2010 |access-date=2010-08-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100829053857/http://mixonline.com/news/keith_barr_obit_2508/index1.html |archive-date=2010-08-29 }}</ref>
The way the room sounds or reverberates can dramatically change the way music is written, recorded and mixed. Untreated rooms have an uneven frequency response, which means that any mixing decisions made are based on a sound that is ‘colored’, because mixing engineers cannot accurately hear what was originally played. Acoustic panels and bass traps can improve the sound in the room.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec09/articles/beginnersacoustics.htm|title=A Beginners' Guide To Acoustic Treatment -|website=Soundonsound.com|access-date=30 January 2018}}</ref>
== Impact on professional recording studios == Professional recording studios have been heavily impacted by the growth of home studio technology over the last two decades. The advancements in such technology along with the moderate to low budgets of up-and-coming and even established artists have put many commercial studios out of business. Many professional engineers have moved from these commercial studios into their own homes to be able to work with their clients at a more accessible cost. Artists have also set up their home studios to self-record and produce their own material and not have to deal with high budgets and expensive studio time. Lack of album sales in recent years and major record labels cutting their budgets to fund their artists and producers to record in these high-end studios have done a significant amount of damage as well. Some of music's iconic studios have been forced to shut their doors for good due to these circumstances. The list of these studios include The Hit Factory, which was located in New York City and home to albums such as ''Born in the U.S.A.'' by Bruce Springsteen and ''Graceland'' by Paul Simon, Sony Music Studios, which was also located in New York City and where Nirvana recorded ''MTV Unplugged in New York'', and Olympic Studios in London, where works by Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones were recorded.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2009/1217/Could-home-recording-doom-professional-music-studios|title=Could home recording doom professional music studios?|date=17 December 2009|access-date=30 January 2018|publisher=Christian Science Monitor}}</ref>
Even though these commercial studios are able to produce a quality recording for the artists that record in them, many of the recording software used in home studios can emulate what the consoles and tape recorders are able to do. As mentioned in the ''Los Angeles Times'', according to the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), the trade group for music retailers and manufacturers: "The total computer music market went from just under $140 million in sales in 1999 to almost a half-billion dollars in 2008".<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-oct-13-fi-smallbiz-studios13-story.html|title=Recording studios are being left out of the mix|first=Nathan|last=Olivarez-Giles|date=13 October 2009|website=Articles.latimes.com|access-date=30 January 2018}}</ref> So while album sales have significantly dropped in the past decade, which has forced recording studios to cut costs, the sales of computer software and technology related to music have significantly increased as well. Maureen Droney, senior director of the Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing, spoke to the ''Los Angeles Times'' and reflected on what the recording studios have come to be in today's music industry with the following statement: "In some ways we've come full circle ... We've gone back to being small and entrepreneurial. People still look to commercial studios when they have something to offer that they can't do at home. But, as it is, the recording studio business started with people starting small, funky studios, oftentimes in bedrooms and garages."<ref name="auto"/>
==See also== * Lo-fi music * Bedroom pop * Chillwave * Hypnagogic pop * Egg punk
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Home Recording}} Category:Sound recording