What is the essential equipment needed to have a home based recording studio.?

Question

Where you have good sounding music without spending a arm an a leg. If you can please be specific on products I should aquire.

Answer 1

if you want to do something easy wher you can just record through your computers microphone input jack just do a yahoo search for a program called audacity.

it is free and for non commercial use. you can buy a cheap radioshack microphone and do cheap lofi recordings that are awesome i use it to write songs all the time.
you amy also have to download a program called asio for all to make audacity work better but it is all free and will show you how recording programs work.

also there is a nother free online program called krystal.
with both programs you will have to adjust some tettings to record easily though. for example they both may have problems with a thing called latency which youmay have to adjust in the program settings.

look into it, before spending an arm and a leg on a program like pro tools

Answer 2

You have a few options. You said in another question you want to start recording drums. So you could get yourself some drum mics. Shure has a $350 kit with 3 SM57s and a Beta 52, including clips. Add a matched pair of small-diaphragm condensors like Rode NT-5 or AKG C451 and you're set for drums. You could also look at some standalone pres to change up your tones a bit. Focusrite springs to mind. You could also look towards a mixer-based rig. Since you have a theoretical 26 ins and outs, you could pull off analogue mixes. And even if you don't, you can still use a mixer as the central control unit of your recording rig. Look at the Soundcraft M12. That thing has EQ on each channel. It also has post-fader direct outs, so you could use the mixer to apply EQ and to use insert effects (compressors and the like), as well as using the faders to set recording levels, before going out the direct outs and into your interface. Since you have only 8 analogue ins, though, you're limited just a little... You'd have to find some sort of 8-channel convertor without preamps (because what would be the point of buying pres if you're just going to bypass them?). Else just get the M8. The nice thing about the M-series is they all have four stereo channels. You can use these as 'returns', setting up eg. monitor feeds on the desk.

Answer 3

What you need is a decent computer, for one. It doesn't need to be too powerful, though. I use one that's about 7 years old, and it works great. You'll definitely need a decent sound card, though. I'd recommend something with front mounted inputs (with 1/4 inch jacks). You'll also need an audio editing program. Acid and Pro Tools are some of the more popular ones. But if you're just getting started, I recommend Magix Audio Studio. I've already recorded an entire album with it, and it's very user friendly. It even includes a tutorial video to get you started. If you're doing live drums, you'll also need a mixer and good mics, but if it's a drum machine, that won't be necessary. Get at least one good mic, though.

Answer 4

I recently did a research for starting up my own studio and I came up with the following minimum requirement of things you would need:

- Amplifiers
- Mixers
- Studio Monitors
- Recording Mics
- A Hi-fi computer with lots of RAM, a huge hard drive, powerful sound card, and recroding software
- A synthesizer
- Headphones
- Vocal booth
- Lots of cables

I was able to find the following equipment to be the most economical mix. The following instruments/equipment cost me about $15,000

1 Behringer EP2500 2x1200 Watts Power Amp
1 Mackie 1604 VLZ PRO 16x4x2 Mixer
1 Pioneer DJM 1000 Mixer
1 Alesis Andromeda Synthesizer
3 Shure SM58 Cardioid Mics
8 Shure Beta 57A Instrument Mics
2 Sennheiser HD201 Headphones
1 SE Electronics Reflexion Filter
2 Alesis Studio Monitors

Answer 5

your best bet nowadays to keep the expense down is to have a nice computer and some music recording software (like ProTools or Acid Music Pro)......
if u just want stuff to tinker around on decent demos, get u a 4-track cassette deck, a used mixer,with a coupla good mics and patch cords for direct input for instruments.
if u get into decent analog....there is some expense. Mics, cords, effects processors, mixing board.

Answer 6

'Essential' is something basic to record on and a microphone. How good it will 'sound' depends on your technique and ablility to 'produce' and 'engineer'. But now that's just 'essential' equipment. From there, the only way is up! :-)

Answer 7

The minimum stuff you need to start recording is:

A microphone + sound recorder

It's that simple. Beyond that, it is depend on your requirement and budget.

Cheers.

Answer 8

email me what type of music your trying to make and what equipment you already have and i'll tell you what i know.