Lesson Summary
Recording in a professional studio can quickly become expensive, especially when you want to create more than one meditation. This lesson looks at the alternative: a small home setup you can use again and again, starting with just the essentials and upgrading only when you need to.
Transcript
Module 1: Equipment.
Let’s talk about the investment you’ll need to make to get up and running. Unless you already own the necessary equipment, there are a few essential recording items you’ll need to create your own portable home studio.
Consider the benefits and compare them with the costs of recording in someone else’s studio. Studio time depends on availability, so you could wait days or even weeks. If you live in a smaller town or rural area, you might not have access to a studio at all.
At the time this course was recorded, studios typically charged between US$50 and $150 per hour, depending on whether they were home studios or professional facilities. You would also need to hire an engineer by the hour to set up the microphone, test levels, operate the mixing console, and oversee the recording files. You would need to travel to the studio as well.
If you want custom background music or soundscapes, you’ll need to hire a composer or pay royalties or commercial-license fees for existing work. After recording, there are still editing, mixing, and mastering costs, which the lesson estimates at $25 to $75 per track. Depending on the agreement, the studio may also own the master rights to the sound recording.
A session for a typical meditation CD containing two 20-minute meditations with music can easily require two hours of studio time just to set up, test, and record the voice. You may then need a composer to create the music or soundscapes. The lesson estimates that the project can quickly reach $500 to $750 for the finished audio masters, before further costs for editing, mixing, mastering, artwork, CD production, or digital release.
Setting up your own simple home-recording facility is a valuable one-time investment that remains available for future projects. As you master the different stages of recording, you can add equipment and software as your confidence and technical ability grow, and eventually help others learn the same skills.
In the next section, I’ll recommend two items that I’ve personally used and believe offer excellent value for this course. You’re also free to research and compare other equipment. The setup demonstrated in the course represents a total equipment investment of roughly US$100 to $125, based on prices at the time of recording, and it is a one-time purchase.