The mid to late nineties saw the rise of technology in the music industry; keyboard workstations like the Korg M1 were making their mark both live and in the studio; the Atari ST was making waves in audio and midi recording and of course the PC started to get more powerful with the advent of the Pentium processor. My first PC was an Olivetti Envision P75 with a 512MB hard drive, state of art in its day but only a mere fraction of what a current PC can do.

And so technology made its way into recording studios, moving away from tape and recording to hard drives as well as having the computing power to run digital audio workstation software and plugins. Even the massive expensive mixing desks were gradually being replaced by software. Almost every classic desk, effect or sound has now been created in digital format. Your average home recording user now has infinitely more power than the big studios of the eighties and early nineties.

I originally used started with Pro Tools which was the Digi001, a combination of hardware and software which combined ran a very powerful recording workstation. Today it’s almost limitless. I moved from Pro Tools and after trial and error ended up with Harrison Mixbus; the original Harrison Console costing in excess of £100K can now be recreated in a digital audio workstation for £140. My main DAW is Harrison Mixbus and it’s almost identical to having one their expensive consoles in my apartment.

As I’ve gained more experience over years in audio production and recording you do being to realise it’s really all about the user and not the software; the most important thing being “use your ears”.

I have a small space which is about twelve foot by five foot; this is my main studio with everything I need to recreate almost anything. Often advising young artist I always recommend learning about sound production and recording; it costs very little to have a basic set up for recording, all you need is a laptop (or desktop), a set of headphones and an audio interface. Bear in mind that the Scissor Sisters created their entire first album on a laptop in their Manhattan apartment. In the past I’ve had a dedicated studio space but it’s really no longer necessary. All my instruments are sampled, I record a lot of vocals so have a nice selection of vocal mics along with a reflection filter and heavy drapes to record clean vocals. Certainly if I needed to record a full band or orchestra they simply wouldn’t fit but I can always rent a space and I have a mobile rig if needed.

I’m very traditional in the sense that I compose and arrange in advance and am fully prepared when recording, I don’t write in a studio environment, but many people do. Having the ability to record your own work is a big advantage, even if it’s just for demo purposes or for your own peace of mind it’s certainly worth having and learning about it. Get to know your software inside out, learn about getting tracks down, mixing, adding effects and EQ and ultimately mastering. I know some very successful artists who have their entire studio packed up in a backpack, they can set up in minutes and get working.

There are always arguments about which software is best and to be honest, none of them are best, they all pretty much do the same thing, it’s all about how well you know the software and how you use it. At the end of the day it’s all about the sound and how to achieve the sound you want by listening and using your ears. I have fairly successful singer/songwriter friend who has been using Audacity for the past ten years; Audacity is completely free. She runs it on a Dell laptop with a Mackie Onyx Blackjack interface and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro headphones along with a Rode NT1 vocal mic. Her acoustic guitar has an in built mic and plugs via jack straight into her audio interface. Her first two albums were recorded in her kitchen. She simply didn’t have the money to pay for studio time, but now she still records this way even though parts of her songs are produced in a studio.

I started with Pro Tools simply because many of the studios I worked in had Pro Tools, but it became very demanding in terms of computing resources and moved to Acoustica Mixcraft, it was easy to use and ran well on my older laptop. But I’ve dabbled in Ableton Live and Propellerhead Reason, both of which I love but I eventually settled on Harrison Mixbus, purely because of the sound and that it simplifies my process, it has the original Harrison Console and it takes me back to recording in big studios and listening more. Oddly, Mixbus doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of features and plugins that exist with Pro Tools, but it’s a fraction of the install size, runs better and is far more productive for me. I still can’t get over the fact I have this amazing recording studio with a console that would cost over £100K and Mixbus only cost me £140, a fraction of what Pro Tools costs. Over the years I’ve tried so many applications, plugins and samples but I’ve gradually whittled it down to the best tools, the ones that I use and the ones that make my set up work.

So there’s no excuse, there’s nothing stopping you, go do it. Get in touch if I can offer any advice.