It's a great time to get into home recording. There are so many great options out there and great gear is becoming cheaper and cheaper. When I started in the late 90’s gear was pricey and there were very little options for the home recording market. Now sky’s the limit. Here are somethings I recommend.
The first thing I recommend when building a home recording studio is figure out what kind of production you want to do. What do you love. Me? I love working with bands so I’m going to need gear that can do that. If you are looking to produce beats, voice over work, etc… you are going to need something different. You can get away with a smaller interface and invest in a nice mic.
Now, let’s start out with what type of computer is best for a recording studio. The truth is audio production isn’t like editing video where you need a ton of space, memory, and cpu power. Handling audio is fairly simple but where you need processing is if you plan on using a lot of plugins. My advice to anyone looking to build a home recording studio at the beginner level is start off with what ever computer you have. PC, Mac…. It doesn’t matter. Honestly, they all do the same under the hood. The only time it matters if you decide to use Logic. In that case you will need a Mac. I recommend looking at the Mac mini M1 if you decide to the Logic route.
There are a ton of great options both free and paid. Check out my top free DAWs for Mac if you like. The two main DAWS I would recommend is Pro Tools or Logic. Pro Tools is available for both Mac and PC where as Logic is Apple only because that’s Apples audio workstation. Both are great. Reaper is another awesome option and its community is growing bigger and bigger every day. Really think about what kind of production you want to get into and try out different things. My advice is once you find a platform you like, really hammer down and learn that one piece of software. Remember, clients don’t really care about your software, just how good you are with what ever software you prefer.
Interfaces and AD/DA converters are always a hot button topic.. Do you need crazy expensive converters and pre amps to make amazing music? Not at all. Expensive pre’s and converters are nice but the truth is the make very diminished improvements. I recommend investing in some treatment first before you go out and max out your credit card.So, what is an audio interface? Well it’s a device does multiple things. It is your pre amp and ad/da converter all in one. The pre amp takes your mic level signal and brings it up to what is known as working level. This gives us enough juice to work with it. So if I want to eq or compress. The AD/DA converter converts the signal from analog to binary (So the computer can process the audio) and binary to audio (so you can hear it through speakers). I recommend the Focusrite 2i2 or SSL 2. These devices will give you a couple pre amps so you can do some stereo recording.
If you can only have one microphone, get a good condenser but I would recommend if it’s in your budget, invest in a stereo pair of mice as well. You can get a stereo pair of Rode NT-5’s for a good price. For a decent condenser vocal mic I recommend the Rode Nt-1, Audio technica 2020 or a SE2200
A good pair of headphones are a great way to start out. I love the Sennheiser 280HD pros. They sound amazing and are very affordable. Audio Technica also has the ATH-M40X that are well under $100 and do a great job. I can only mix for so long on headphones. It’s hard to get a sense of what the music will sound like in a space so monitors are a great, but big, investment. I have always loved working with Yamaha HS8’s. They have a nice and accurate response.
If you are interested in any website, video, audio production, or YouTube collaboration please feel free to send me message through the contact form. I will reach out to you as soon as possible.