You can make high quality (possibly even “professional quality”) music at home because of the incredible improvements in technology. A recording studio that would have cost $25,000 to build twenty years ago can be put together for $3000 now.
The most essential element of a good home studio in the 2000s is a good quality PC (or a Mac, I don’t want to get into that debate) with lots of hard drive space and lots of RAM. Thankfully good computers are getting less and less expensive. I bought a new PC with 8GB of RAM for just over $850.
Once you get a high quality computer (and the one you’re using now may be good enough) you need some kind of DAW software (DAW stands for “Digital Audio Workstation”) that you will be doing all of your recording and mixing with. By the way, if you’re a Mac person, I recommend Logic Studio.
What you get after that initial purchase of a computer and a DAW depends on what sort of music you want to record. For example if you want to make totally electronic music with no recording of vocals or real instruments then there’s a good chance you will want to look into programs such as Waves Mercury TDM but most people (even those doing electronic based music) will want to be able to record vocals and instruments and will need some sort of audio interface.
If you’re one of those that is going to need an audio interface you should be aware that many of them actually come with free DAW software.
To give a simple answer to the question “What is an audio interface?” I’ll just say it’s how your recorded sound (whether it be from a microphone or a direct input) gets into your computer.. I use the EMU 1616M and it’s highly recommended for those on a PC who don’t need a whole lot of inputs. There’s a wide selection of audio interfaces to choose from, it is really too big of a topic to cover in detail here. Pro Tools is the so called “industry standard” when it comes to interfaces but that doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for you.
Another “must have” for most people is a microphone. A mic will allow you to record acoustic instruments, vocals, & amps. It will clearly be a very important part of your home studio. The Shure SM7 is one affordable mic you may want to consider. Michael Jackson’s vocals on Thriller were recorded with this dynamic mic.
Another really cool piece of recording gear that I definitely recommend is the Art MPA Gold Preamp because it is a really great deal at it’s current price point.
