Kinda...

Okay... I've played this out in my head a few times and I need to do this...

Recently at the PMS newsgroup, there was an article posted regarding how one could/should go about recording an album "for free." I glossed over it, once... went back and read it again, and then had to go back and really read it a third time. It was, well, very interesting, to say the least. I've stuck it into a text file that you can read here, but for the sake of space, I'm going to just talk about some key points in the article.

Please, bear in mind that I'm not doing this to defame or discredit this person. I know him and I think he's a good guy and I think he means well by this article... but at the same time, anyone that might read his article that is "a little less experienced" in the art form needs to take heed to some things, and I would like to save potential readers any headaches that he or she might come across from this article.

Basically, the major theme of the article is that you can make an album for free... I am gonna let you in on a little secret - no, you can't. There's always (ALWAYS) going to be financial things involved at some point (sometimes BIG financial things, as well), somewhere, somehow... right down to the power you use to power your amps - someone is paying for it. Okay? Now that we've got that out of the way:

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"...and it cost us nothing because my sister was providing the pizzas from the restaurant she worked at! "

Well, okay. It didn't cost you anything... but it did cost someone something. The pizza place owner paid for the dough and the pepperoni and the cheese and the sauce and the oven and the electricity to make the pizzas that you ate... It may, in the end, have cost someone like his sister a job (pinching food from restaurants you work for and giving it to other people - not a good idea)... In general, though, if you can get a record done for the price of some pizzas, whether you pay for them or not, is a pretty cheap deal. If the offer stands, take advantage of it...

"...Sure, if you put the person behind a big elaborate board, they may be able to make magic happen. Put the same person behind their home equipment, they may struggle to get the same results."

I will go ahead and tell you -- they will struggle to get the same results from a little home recording thing as opposed to a fully-automated multi-million dollar setup. If someone thinks they're going to be able to take their crappy little six hundred dollar Boss home recording device, stick one of Phil Spector's engineers in front of it and make a Phil Spector record on it, they are, how you say, mistaken.
A good engineer is a good engineer. It doesn't really matter what you put them in front of. If they're any good, they'll make it happen with what they have... My friend, who is an amazing audio engineer, got started the same way a lot of amazing engineers did. He bought a four-track and tinkered with it, added gear, tinkered some more... He had the good fortune to be able to attend engineering school, came back and tinkered even more... and he can make a great sound out of a pile of wax and a Victrola when it comes right down to it. Yes, the finished product will be affected to some degree by many factors, including the equipment you have at your disposal, but a good tech is a good tech.

"Being cautious is the best way to make sure you get the best recording you can despite your lack of money..."

The only thing I will say here is what came to my head when I read it... You wanna get something for free - beggars can't be choosers. If someone offers, jump on it. If it turns out to suck, you can burn it and pretend like it never happened... Going through some big "screening process" like your the Rolling Stones, or something... well, the chances that you're gonna have engineers lined up, beating down your door to record you aren't that big in the first place, y'know?

"...nestled into the hills and hidden by the trees, lies a nationally accreddited recording school called The Recording Workshop..."

For the record, the Recording Workshop in Massieville (a.k.a. Chillicothe), Ohio is not a "nationally accredited" school of any type... That is, you will not be able to transfer your grades from there to any other school or get any federal financial aid to attend... The only thing that I am aware of that you are able to do there is take the engineering class for something like up to 12 semester hours as a part of a four-year media/communications degree at (I believe) Capital University in Columbus... but that's it.

"...While attending Ohio University in Zanesville, Ohio, I took advantage of the recording studio that they had. This studio was loaded with all the amenities that would make any musician's mouth water. Since I was a student, my access to this plethora of audio equipment was paid for with my tuition..."

Considering the tuition costs to attend practically any university, this would make recording an album in this way "incredibly not free." In fact, you stand to be paying for the recording long after it is still a timely one.

"...If you're looking to get into a college studio (such as the studio at Ohio University - Zanesville), a good bet would be to create a fliar advertising your need for studio time and hang it near the studio on campus..."

In most universities I have ever been to, it's "illegal" to post any bills/flyers without prior consent of the university, so try to do that before you leave flyers around with ways to find you and fine you, accordingly (yeah, campus security can and will hunt ya down and write you a ticket if it means $$$ for the uni) -- they'll most likely just rip it down and throw it in the trash, and you're hosed because you don't know it. Better yet, save yourself the paper and the potential headache and just go audit an audio class one day and talk to the professor, afterwards. You'd be surprised what an appropriate amount of schmoozing can get ya.

"...If you have a fast computer with lots of memory, you could easily create a great sounding recording right at home. But what if you don't have a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) such as Pro-tools or Adobe Audition?"

Okay, just so you are not confused... and this will probably be a little confusing... First, a "Digital Audio Workstation" is generally a stand-alone piece of gear that functions as a recorder/processor/mixer, etc. There are digital audio workstations that outwardly resemble a home computer, but they are not remotely anything like the computer you are most likely reading this on (for starters, most of the better ones are Linux boxes). There are these other things you can buy from places like Musician's Friend and other stores like that that are even more "stand alone" than the aforementioned computer-type recorders... and these things are complete and utter pieces of shit (thanks to things like terribly limited mixing/editing sections, poor on-board effects, poor sampling quality, etc.).
Secondly, "Pro-Tools" and "Adobe Auditon" are not "digital audio workstations." They are computer software that makes your computer function as if it were something not unlike a workstation (note: many of the Linux/Mac-type workstations are, in fact, Pro-Tools based)... but a computer is a computer, unless it's sole function is to record (i.e., if you're surfing for your porn on it, it's not a workstation)...
Also, in order to even use something like Pro-Tools on a home machine, you will need vast amounts of other equipment to attatch to/install on it before you can use it with desireable effect. The costs will be in the thousands of dollars before you have anything worth recording on, frankly.

"But don't I need to buy a new soundcard to record on my computer?" Well, answer me this. Can you listen to music on your computer? If so, then you likely will not need a new soundcard..."

You can listen to music on your phone if you want to. Also, you can listen to music on practically any soundcard (thus the name "soundcard")... but can you make music worth a shit on one? Well, no. You need to take into account things like input sampling rate capabilities (as well as output capabilities) for starters before you think you can just plug your guitar into your computer and come up with an album...
A rather big and obvious problem with a soundcard for a home computer is that, for the most part, they have extremely limited input capabilities... that is, you're not going to be able to hook something like a mixing board up to a computer and get sixteen tracks to pop up on your recording software. You need something called an "audio recording interface" to get stuff like that done... Basically, it's a very elaborate soundcard device that allows more than two channels (i.e. "left" and "right") to be recorded at once. There's tons of research that can be done on the Net... I'm not gonna waste any more space on it, here.
Can you record something effective with just a regular "SoundBlaster" type of audio card? Sure you can... but it will be a long and arduous affair. If you have the patience and the tenacity to record track by track, go for it (and you're still going to have big potential for trouble when it comes to recording drums)... I have recorded several bands in the past that have refused to record any way other than with a "live sound" (that is, most or all instruments being played and recorded onto various tracks simultaneously). In a nutshell, you can't do that on a regular soundcard... so unless you are pre-mixing your sound and have it nearly perfect (if you are recording all instruments live, that is), you stand to be a bit disappointed with the results, because you're dealing with just "left" and "right" and you're incredibly limited in any post-production capability.

"...according to MTV (in the mid-Nineties) No Doubt recorded their mid nineties hit record 'Tragic Kingdom' absolutely for free! They would go to a recording studio and lay down one song, then get out of there before anyone realized that they weren't supposed to be there!"

This is pretty much what you would call "legend..." no boubt about it (pardon the pun).

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Okay. I'm really glad I didn't post the entire article to go along with this because that would have made this post ridiculous. Anyhow, just try to realize that nothing in life is free... and recording an album is gonna cost you something (unless you have access to piles of free CD-Rs, laser printers, graphic artists, engineers, equipment, an endless free power supply, etc.). So start saving... now...
In the meantime, just make yourselves lots of friends. Go on, you can do it. Friends have friends that have friends that can hook you up, y'know? It might not be free, but it's better than paying $150 an hour for a studio, $60 an hour for an (average) engineer, and so on...

Listening to: The Who - "My Generation" (deluxe edition) (1965/2002)