How to Build a Home Studio The Cheap and Easy Way
first, you must look at your needs as a recording artist. What is your main instrument? Are you going to be singing? Are you going to want to use special effects or do you want a natural sound? All of these questions are very important to consider before starting to build your own studio. I will give you an example, I mainly play guitar and sing. Therefore I do not need a large mixer with multiple inputs. Technically, all I really need is an audio interface that provides me with one single input. You can find a very inexpensive audio interface on popular auction websites or music equipment retailers. I would not suggest running a microphone into the line-in input of your computer’s sound card although it can be done and will work just fine. If you are going to go this route, you will need a dynamic microphone, an XLR to 1/4″ stereo jack microphone cable, and a 1/4″ to 1/8″ stereo jack converter. You can find the converter at your local RadioShack. But if you are to get an audio interface, you will not need that converter jack. You will be provided with a 1/4″ input when you purchase an audio interface. Now some audio interfaces include an XLR input also. You can use this input from microphones that require special voltage referred to as phantom power. These microphones are known as condenser microphones. Condenser microphones are of the best quality in the microphone family. Once a dynamic microphone will give you just fine when cost is a factor.
After you have chosen the right audio interface, the next thing you would most likely consider is what software program you are going to use to make your recordings come to life. I use a program called Apple Logic Express 7. This program is quite expensive though. There is a program called Audacity and it is a very good program. I believe the best part about this program is that it is 100% completely free. Getting used to these recording software’s may be quite difficult at first. But once you get the hang of using the sequencer, you will feel very comfortable and confident when recording your music. I highly recommend using the program Audacity if cost is a factor and remember this program is free so you have nothing to lose if you want to check it out.
One tip that I can give you when using new software and new hardware is to always read the manuals when you get stuck. Realistically you should read all of your manuals before hand but let’s face it… we don’t all do that. Referring to your owners manual is never a bad idea. It can only help you. That is about all there is to it. The Internet is a very good resource for questions about home recording. You may also want to look into MIDI. MIDI is a way of recording that a lot of people like to use. Many give us the recording artist complete control over the final product.
I wish the best of luck to you and I hope that I have helped you make some decisions before you go about creating your own home studio. Doing this can be very cheap if you look choose the right merchandise to purchase and plan out everything ahead of time. Just remember, look for an inexpensive but useful recording software, finding the right audio interface that suits you best, and do your research. You can never know it all but if you don’t try to learn as much as you can you will never be in progress and enhance your studio knowledge.
