Other Equipment

Microphone Stands

Straight Stand

Straight Stand

I use three different styles of microphone stands. The most useful one is the boom stand. You can use it for just about anything. I also find the "Shorty" a very useful stand for miking guitar cabs and kick drums. For vocals, I like to use the basic straight microphone stand.

Short Stand (Shorty)

Boom Stand

Pop Screen

Pop Screen

Pop screens are necessary when recording vocals. They prevent the thumping sounds created by the breath blasting the microphone when the singer produces B's and P's. Also they protect the microphone from moisture coming from the singer. This is especially useful for protecting expensive condenser microphones.

Mic Cables

	The cables used for microphones have XLR connectors on each end. One is male and the other is female. For home studios, cables of 20 to 30 feet should be adequate. If you happen to need a longer cable, you can connect two short ones together. Cables come in a wide price range. I avoid the cheapest ones simply for reliability reasons. I typically look for cables with Neutrik connectors. I also recommend avoiding the high-end cables simply because you are not likely to hear any difference in the recording.
XLR Connector

XLR Cable	Two XLR cables connected to make longer cable.

Compressors

dbx 160

dbx 160 Compressor

Compressors are used to tame the volume changes and dynamics that occur when recording a track. A compressor lowers the volume of the louder parts. Since this frees up some of your headroom, you can increase the level of the recording. By lowering the louder parts and bringing up the volume of the whole recording, you are making the quieter parts louder. Compression is used extensively in pop music nowadays to make it sound louder. This comes at a cost of lost dynamics. You must also be careful with ambient noise when recording with a compressor because it will tend to increase the level of the noise.

Compressors, in my opinion are a necessity. Some people may disagree but a compressor is an essential piece of gear. I mainly use a compressor for recording vocals, bass, and drums. You can do compression later with an effects plugin, but considering that you will have to compress at some point anyway, it is best to do it before the sound reaches the audio-interface card. By compressing before the sound enters the audio interface card, you make better use of the dynamic range of the audio interface card.

RNC Compressor

The RNC compressor made by FMR Audio is a very popular compressor for home studio use. These compressors sell for under $200 and perform as well as compressors costing $1000.

Effects Units

The need for outboard effects units is pretty limited. I occasionally use one when I have a singer who wants some reverb added to the monitor mix. I usually avoid using reverb in the monitor mix because it can cause some singers to have trouble with pitch control. I never add reverb to the recording during tracking. Once you record a track with reverb, there is no way to change it later. Many pro engineers will tell you to add effects while recording instead of later. This mainly comes from their experience in working with tape. With tape, you want the recording as close as possible to how you want it to sound in the end because of the loss that occurs by adding effects later. With digital recording, this is not an issue. By adding effects afterwards, you are free to adjust the effects as much or as many times as you like.

As for guitar effects, I usually prefer to have the guitarist turn off the reverb in their effects so I can choose a reverb that fits well in the mix and add it later. This of course will depend on how fond the guitarist is of his reverb and delay effects. If you the guitarist wants to record their effect, let them.

Monitors

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Yamaha NS-10M Studio Monitor

Your choice of monitor speakers will depend on your budget and the size of your control room. Typical home studios are small. In many cases the control room is a converted bedroom.

For the small control room, you should use "near field" monitors. One of the problems with small control rooms is that they create standing waves in the low frequencies. Standing waves will cause dips in the frequency response of your monitors. Near field monitors are designed to taper off the low end response so the low frequencies do not become a problem. Near field monitors are mounted close to the listener, usually about 3 feet. They should be placed so that the monitors and listener create an equilateral triangle.

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I suggest using studio monitor speakers rather than home stereo speakers because monitors are designed to have a neutral sound, unlike home stereo speakers which are colored. If you mix using studio monitors, your mixes will likely sound good when played back on other systems such as home stereos, boom boxes and car stereos. If you mix using home stereo speakers, you will end up with a mix that will sound good on that system but probably will not sound good on other systems.

Headphones

Headphones are necessary when doing multi-track recordings. The person being recorded needs to be able to hear the tracks that were previously recorded, but you don't want the microphone to pick up these tracks. There are two types of headphones you should know about, open-cell headphones and closed-cell headphones. Open-cell headphones usually sound better than closed cell headphones, but they also leak sound. This can be a problem sometimes because the microphone can pick up the sound of the headphones. This is normally only a problem if the sound in the headphones is a click track or metronome. If the microphone picks up the click track, it will end up in your recording, and you won't be able to get rid of it. This can be prevented by using closed-cell headphones.


Closed Cell Headphones	Open Cell Headphones

My favorite open cell headphones are the AKG KM240's. My favorite closed cell headphones are the Sennheisser HD280 Pro and the Sony MDR 7506.

You will probably need to have extension cables for your headphones. You can find these at Radio Shack. I recommend getting the straight ones instead of the coiled ones.

Headphone Amp

HA-4600

If you are recording several musicians at once, you will need a headphones for each musician and a headphone distribution amp to drive them. These provide independent amp channels to each of your headphones. A nice inexpensive headphone amp is the Behringer HA4600.

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