1. Apple Macs and Sweetwater Creation Stations are both compatible with all major DAW software that runs on their respective platforms. Pick one of these computers, load it with a couple of Gigabytes of RAM and Pro Tools, Digital Performer, SONAR, Cubase, or Sound Forge and you are ready to record.

2. Choose software that has training material available for it in book, CD-ROM, and DVD format and buy that training material along with your software. Don’t count on the manual alone. Set aside time to learn shortcuts and use them. Use websites and forums find out which resources are good.

You don’t have to buy all these resources either. Most libraries have an interlibrary loan program that will allow you to borrow.

3. Give yourself a chance to learn before you take on a really important project. Record yourself, your friends, and your family. Try recording events such as weddings or funerals, parties, talent shows, or piano recitals. These are events that you can work on with little pressure and lower expectations than even a demo album.

4. What kind of lies is your computer’s sound card telling you? USB interfaces can be bought brand new with free software included for $99. FireWire Interfaces are a little more expensive but even the ridiculously high-quality Apogee Duet can be had for $500. A portable recorder such as a Zoom H2 or an Edirol R09 can be had for $199-399.

5. What kind of lies are your cables telling you? If you did not buy the cable yourself or can’t remember where you got it, take it directly to the box in the corner where your Vista, XP media center edition and Dell Laptop that you bought five years ago are resting. Getting a good cable such as one from ProCo, Monster, Mogami, or Canare is important. There are many myths about cables that aren’t true, but there are also real benefits to knowing that your cable has been under your care for its lifetime and knowing that it has been well constructed and well treated.

6. What kind of lies are your stands and furniture telling you? If you buy a new microphone, get a stand for it and treat it well. Isolate the stand with Auralex isolating feet and baffles. Get a pop filter to control plosives. If you buy monitors, buy Mopads or padded stands to go with them

7. What kind of lies is your room telling you? While you can tune a room to a certain extent to make your speakers lie to cover the lies that the room is telling you, it is a much better idea to absorb or diffuse energy in the room so that what you are hearing when you mix or monitor or even record is actually accurate to begin with. Some well-spent money on Auralex treatments or even home-made solutions can help you a lot. See acoustics101.com for more on this.

8. What kind of lies are your monitors telling you? Certain brands of monitors will accentuate certain frequencies to try and “sweeten up” the sound. If you are mixing with speakers that overemphasize the bass, you are hearing bass that is not actually present in your mix. When you get out to your car or another venue you may realize that your mix sounds thin and lifeless and you will then have to go back to your room and redo your mix, this time adding what sounds like too much bass in your own room so that it will be right in other locations. You are much better off to buy a set of monitors that has a flatter frequency response to begin with such as ADAM A7s or if you are on a budget, Alesis M1active520s.

9. What kind of lies are your microphones telling you? Some microphones have over-accentuated   frequency response at frequencies that are popular in certain types of music or for certain sources. This can be a time saver if you know what you are doing, but can also be of great detriment. A microphone company that makes some very good microphones is Audio-Technica. An Audio-Technica AT4050 is a great general-purpose mic that gets the job done on almost any signal source and is very close to flat across the frequency spectrum.

AT4050 shown here

10. What lies are you telling yourself? “I can’t make a quality record unless I have certain equipment” is a lie for sure. “I can make a quality record even if I don’t have good equipment” is also, however, a lie.

Bonus tip: Take care of your equipment and pay attention to small details whenever you set it up. While one detail may not make a noticeable change, one hundred small details added together will make a huge difference in the quality of your recordings.

The key is to know good people who can help you figure out how to get from where you are to where you would like to go. Don’t listen to the little old lady on the path, you can get there from here.

Simon Picazo is a professional recording engineer, a live sound engineer, a guitar player of 20 years, a bassist and drummer of 15 years, and an opera composer. He has lived in Haiti, Switzerland, and Chile and traveled extensively throughout South America and Europe. He currently lives with his perfect wife and wonderful children in Fort Wayne, Indiana and enjoys life, God, and people in general.