In the past, setting up a home studio to record music was a complex and expensive process. Now, with new computerware and audioware being released all of the time, the competition has broadened and resulted in a wide selection of options and prices.
This article with focus on the necessities that you will need to record music at home and I will attempt to keep it as simple and straightforward as possible, so you will be able to make the most informed decision on the hardware you will need for your studio.
It is a common misconception that you will need a very fast PC or Mac to record your tracks on, this is only true if you recording a large amount of tracks at one time. Most interfaces have 2-8 pre-amps (a price range of $100 to $1500) and will only require a modest computer.
Next you will need a Audio Recording Interface to bring your music from your microphone or instrument to your computer. The real benefit of using a Audio Recording pre-amp over a traditional sound card for a PC or Mac is the increased output of your microphone or instrument. By boosting their input, you will yield much higher quality results.
Now normally I would recommend a Firewire Audio Interface, but after doing the budget check on prices, I just can’t recommend the higher priced Firewire interfaces over their USB cousins. Firewire may have a general reputation for being slightly more reliable and faster then USB, but will cost at least $100 more then a comparable USB unit.
Street Price: $90
More Info on the ARTPRO USB Duel Pre
Street Price: $125-150
More Info on the Lexicon Lambda
Now when it comes to microphones, many believe that you need a $500 microphone to sound decent. I frankly do not have a lot of experience working with high-end microphones, but I do have a lot experience using really cheap microphones.
I say, if your on a budget go ahead and buy a cheap microphone. A budget microphone will only cost you between $50 – $100, but hey, if it works, it works. I find writing about microphones to be a bit mundane, so I am going to move on for now.
Now I find headphones and monitors to be a much more exciting topic. When first starting out, there is no shame in using a quality pair of headphones to monitor your tracks. I do however, highly recommend moving to Monitors later on though.
Headphones will run between, $100 and $150 dollars, while monitors will run between, $300 and $400 dollars. Quite the price difference indeed. Like I said, headphones will work just fine. I use mine almost as much as I use my monitors.
These cans got great reviews over at Newegg.com and based on my experience, Sennheiser is a really great brand that builds a solid product.
Frequency Response: 8Hz-25kHz
THD: <0.1%
Input Impedance: 64 ohm
Connector: 3.5mm
Ear Coupling: Circumaural
Cord Length: 3.0 feet - 5.0 feet
Street Price: $100
More Info on the Sennheiser HD280 PRO
Now if you want a really awesome and unique pair of headphones you can not go wrong with Grado Labs headphones line. They are a much smaller shop than most headphones manufactures and I think that gives them a edge in quality over the others.
Tranducer type: dynamic
Operating principle: open air
Frequency response: 20-20
SPL 1mV: 98
Normal impedance: 32ohms
Driver matched db: .1
Street Price: $100
More Info on the Grado Labs SR80
If you are interested in monitors you will want to read about The Best Cheap Home Studio Monitors for the money. So there you go, that covers the basics of what you need to get started with your own recording studio. If you already have a computer, you can be recording and listening to your music in high quality for less then $300 dollars.
I went with DAW systems and found comp[uter can cause more trouble , I recestly went hardware and I’am really excited about it , I would love to see the pro,s about hard ware recording , I recently bought a ZOOM HD16 Hard Disk Recording Studio , and also a prosonus tubePre and a prosonus COMP16 comptessor and limitor , also I bought a PV 215 EQ Grapthic Equalizer and excited to set it all up to start recording, but your artical about DAW,s kinda was a letdown , I hope somebody out there has some positive things to say about recording with hardware , thanks kindly