Home recording equipment can be as cheap or as expensive as you want. Knowing which budget purchases aren’t worth your time and which expensive items are past the point of diminishing returns of cost versus quality takes experience. With a modest budget it is possible to get started recording and producing music. You may even have some of the necessary equipment already.
Heck, if you have a computer you already have most everything you need gear-wise. Add a $49 USB mic, and you can record professional sounding audio, assuming you have a bit of knowledge. But hey, that’s what we’re here for:).
Our 5-part post series, How To Build A Home Recording Studio shows you how to get started, including everything you need for several different levels of initial budget.
Bjorgvin Benediktsson over at Audio Issues is of much the same mind. In 2013 you don’t need much to enter into the world of professional recording. Check out his take on it here: http://www.audio-production-tips.com/essential-home-recording-equipment.html
Cheers!
Ken
good recordings on a budget
Steps You Might Have Missed Creating A Home Studio
The applications of home recording are vast. Some of them only require audio tracks to be produced, but others may also occasionally need video recordings. Just as a poorly produced audio track can make a bad impression, a video with poor lighting or low resolution can also reflect negatively on you professionally.
You can read about some tips for setting up a home recording studio for both audio and video here: https://www.udemy.com/blog/tips-tricks-for-creating-a-home-recording-studio/
Troubleshooting A Voice Over Session
Voice over gigs can be hard to come by if you’re just starting out, and deadlines can be tight. This can increase the stress level dramatically when trouble rears its head. If you’ve already gone through the obvious possible solutions, take a step back and follow a logical approach to determine the source of your problem.
You can read more here: https://www.audiolinks.com/blog/troubleshooting-tips-in-the-voice-over-recording-studio/
Power Conditioners And Your Home Studio
Power conditioners sound fancy and expensive, but they’re really not. They cover several power related jobs, including voltage regulation, noise reduction, and surge protection. For a home studio with limited space, this is a great way to remove some problems from your tracks before you even start recording. Even if you don’t currently have a problem with noise from your power setup, prevention is often much easier than trying to edit out a noise.
You can read more about power conditioners here: http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/in_the_studio_whats_the_deal_with_power_conditioners/
Monitor Speakers On A Budget
If you are recording and mixing music in your home recording studio, then I highly, HIGHLY (getting the idea? :-)) recommend having a pair of monitor speakers.
Yes, when just getting started, you can sorta get by using headphones instead. And if you’re only recording voice-overs (no music), I’d go so far as to say you don’t really need monitor speakers. But for music, it’s absolutely critical if you expect to produce professional sounding mixes.
Why is that? Well you can get a good idea of why if you take something that sounded good in your headphones and listen to that in your car or over your entertainment center speakers, etc. Do you notice that it doesn’t sound anywhere near as good?
I know I was kinda horrified when I heard my music over real speakers after it sounded good in the headphones.
The reason for this is that most sound is experienced in the real word “through the air.” Speakers allow you to hear the sound more accurately because it is coming through the air and not being pumped straight into your ears through the cans (headphones). Yes, a bad room will also distort the sound some. So you have to take that into account (listening on lots of different types of speakers (the car works great for “telling it like it is”). But while mixing, you should rely MUCH more on speakers than headphones.
There is even a rule of thumb in music mixing – “NEVER use headphones.” I wouldn’t go THAT far. But I would prioritize getting a pair of monitor speakers VERY high on your budget for your home studio if you record music.
So the next question becomes – “what monitors should I get? Music Critic has done some of that work for you in their post “10 Best Studio Monitors & Speakers of 2018.” That would be an excellent starting point.
Music Radar also has a list of 5 of the most affordable speakers in their article below.
You can read about some of the more affordable models here: http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/5-of-the-best-affordable-monitor-speakers-570959/1