However, no one will try to argue that the sound you get out of a near field system in your bedroom can equal an $80,000 system in a well designed acoustical space, which brings us to…

Acoustics
As far as having a nice large recording room with high ceilings that is acoustically tuned, with isolation booths, and controlled reflections and reverberation, the big studio will always have the advantage.

That is, unless the artist lives in an old former church or similar structure, or has spent a fortune treating the room.

However, because many instruments are recorded direct, and a space for recording vocals or a single instrument can be designed in a spare bedroom, it is less of a problem than it would be if trying to record an orchestra at home.

Finding a good place at home for your control room is a sticky challenge. Standing waves, bass build-up, high-frequency absorption, reflections of sound off the mixer or computer all have to be dealt with.

What you’re trying to do is to get an accurate sound in the room, which will let the mixes translate well on other systems. This is not always possible in a room at your house.

Fortunately, there is a lot of literature and information on the subject, and quite a few companies have come out with products that allow one to quite reasonably treat the room with baffles, diffusers and bass traps.

When the room is “tuned” for the best response, recording, mixing and monitoring there becomes a trustworthy process, and the artist can rely upon the sounds being heard and mixes being done as accurate and true.

The Final Consideration
Finally, there is mastering. Most big studios send their product out to dedicated mastering houses for the final finishing touches. No one will argue about the sterling quality of the world’s best mastering houses.

IK Multimedia T-RackS, which includes the vintage tube equalizer shown here, is one of many mastering software suites well suited for home/project studios.

If you want your project done right 100 percent of the time, that’s where it should go.

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However, more and more project studios do desktop mastering to go with their desktop recording. The software tools can do a surprisingly decent job, and many home studio owners find that they can master projects to their own satisfaction.

Yet the fact remains that home-mastered projects can suffer from a lack of good monitoring, and more often suffer from a lack of good sense on the part of the person doing the mastering.

There’s a reason that pro mastering engineers do a professional job, and it’s because they know what they’re doing, in addition to having the best tools.

In the end, the project studio is best for people who have a good foundation in recording and know what they want.

It is a technological marvel that so much can be done in a bedroom studio, but the major studios serve a crucial purpose and always will.

Bob Buontempo has more than 30 years of professional recording experience, and has been the president/owner of Buontempo Entertainment Services since 1976. He has also taught numerous recording and audio educational courses over the years. Bob offers special thanks to Ed Cherney, George Massenburg and David Hewitt for their contributions to this article.

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