Starting your own Home Studio

Being a musician in today's world is great. With all the hardware and software available out there the possibilities are endless. 10 to 15 years ago you would have to go pay for studio time in a professional studio to get your music on tape or CD. Now with computers as powerful as they are and all of the the great software we have anyone can get their music heard.

I imagine if you're reading this then you probably already have a computer, so a big part of your studio is already paid for. It's pretty safe to say that any computer three or four years old or newer should be okay to run today's recording software. I would suggest having at least a gig of RAM though.

One thing you will have to buy is an audio interface. There are many types of these, some that snap into your PCI slots on your motherboard just like a normal sound card, some are boxes that use a USB cable to connect your computer, and others use a FireWire cable. The good thing about the external ones that use USB or FireWire is that they will connect to any computer that has one of these ports, desktop or laptop.

Before you buy your audio interface you need to think about how you are going to be recording music. Is it just going to be you, will you be recording more than one instrument at the same time, do you need a midi interface? All of these factors need to be considered before you go and purchase your hardware.
A good website to go to is http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ to learn more about audio interfaces. There are ton of them on there with factory specs for each one. This is also a great site to learn about pretty much all of the hardware and software you might need for your studio. They are always doing reviews of the new stuff that is coming out.

Once you have your computer and sound card out of the way it's time to think about what software you're going to use. There are many out there and it can sometimes be confusing especially when you have salesmen pulling you in every direction. A good thing to remember is that almost every one of these companies offer a trial version you can download over the internet that will let you try out the software for free for a short time period. I would suggest doing this before you go and drop your hard-earned cash on one only to find out you like another one better a month or so down the road.
If you want to get your feet wet without spending any money at all try out Audacity. This is a free audio recording program that really does a great job considering it’s price (free).
You can find it here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Some other (not free) programs that are popular are: Protools,Cubase,Ableton live, and cakewalk.
I’m sure there are many more out there but these are the ones I can think of right off the top of my head.



Some software only works with certain audio interfaces. For example, if you wanting to use ProTools then you must have a ProTools compatible interface. So this is something you want to check out before you buy.
Okay now that you have your computer, your audio interface, and your software of choice there’s one more thing we need to get before you start recording. We need something to listen to the music with. I’m sure it won’t take you long to find out that the speakers that came with your pc aren’t quite cutting it.
This is where studio monitors come in. They range anywhere from 100 bucks to well into the thousands of dollars. I have a very cheap pair of m audio monitors that only cost around 149 dollars a pair but I think they work quite well, at least for now. Do a quick Google search on Studio Monitors and you will soon see that there are a ton of them to choose from so it’s all in what you are wanting to spend.
The reason it is good to have studio monitors is because they have a flat frequency response. This means which you hear is closer to what the real mix sounds like. When you use regular stereo speakers it is hard to set up your mid range, bass, and treble. Most regular stereo speakers are built to enhance sound whether it is by giving it more bass, more treble, or whatever. So if you're using these speakers when you are making your music it might sound totally different when you get into another stereo,car,or mp3 player.

Studio monitors are made to put out a flat frequency response. This means no bass boost, no enhancements at all, just a flat, true sound of your mix. Get your music sounding good on these and you should be good to go wherever your music is played.
So all in all if you already own a computer that is not much more than three or four years old. You have an audio interface and some studio monitors. Just figure out what software you want to use and you should be ready to start recording.
I would venture out to say that anymore for under $1000 you can have yourself a pretty nice setup that would do just fine for any musician that wants to get started in home recording. These are good times for musicians, you don’t have to go to a professional studio and pay for studio time. You don't need to "know the right people", with all the Myspaces and Youtubes out there you can go from being the guy with the guitar the party to the next big thing with a little luck.
So get down to your local music store, pick up the things you need, and start recording some music. It's a lot of fun and I'm sure once you get started you won't be able to stop.