in this video I'm looking at home studio setup if you're a beginner and you want
to know what you'll need and some tips on setting up home recording studio
equipment stick around
welcome to simple green tech I'm Radio zane and on this channel I do audio tech
tips tutorials and reviews to help you unleash your creativity today I'm
looking at home recording studio equipment first I'll look at some of the
basic gear that you'll need and I'll also look at some of the extras that
will help to complete your home studio setup links to all of the gear that I
mentioned in this video will be in the description below and I'll also include
a link to my list of home studio gear setups for beginners it's over on my
website it's not a download it's just a blog post you can check out a few gear
setups that I recommend for beginners so let's get into this gear so the basics
that you should get might depend on the style of music that you create but at
the very least I recommend getting an audio interface this is the heart of
your home studio if you record vocals bass or any other analog audio source
the audio interface will convert it to digital so your computer can understand
it even if you just create music inside the box meaning you're only using
virtual instruments and loops to create music
you'll still benefit from having an audio interface as it will give you
better routing options and the monitoring quality will be better too a
few starter audio interfaces that you might want to consider are the behringer
um2 or UMC 22 the focusrite scarlett solo or 2i2 the presonus audiobox and
if you really want to step things up you can grab a focusrite clarett
interface the second piece of equipment for home studio basics is a good pair of
studio headphones you want them to be comfortable for wearing for long periods
of time and you also want them to have a flat sound meaning that they don't
hype specific frequencies like headphones that you would get for
listening to music behringer makes some alright studio
headphones if you're on a budget and so does tascam but if you have a little
more money to spend on headphones you should look at the KRK
Studio Headphones or the sony MDR7506 headphones again the links
are in the description below so you have your headphones and your audio interface
if you are just recording music inside the box meaning virtual instruments and
loops you could kind of just go with this but if you plan on recording
anything at all the next piece of equipment that we're gonna look at is
the microphone there's no single mic that I can say is the best one to get as
everybody's voice is different and they're instruments that they might be
micing are different along with your play style but there are some budget
options that are great starting points if you want a mic that you can use in
many recording situations and you'll likely use it later on in your recording
career I highly recommend the shure sm57 dynamic mic you can record vocals with
it or mic up an instrument it really excels at loud audio sources like guitar
amps or drums or an excessively loud singer however if you are a softer
singer you may need to get an external mic preamp to get some more clean gain
for this microphone if you want an even more budget-friendly option you should
check out the behringer XM 8500 dynamic mic it still excels at loud sources but
maybe not as loud as the shure sm57 so you don't need as much gain but it still
requires quite a bit of gain now those were both dynamic mics now let's talk
about condenser microphones and condenser mics require phantom power so
if you plan on getting a condenser mic be sure to get an audio interface that
has phantom power almost all of them have phantom power nowadays but there
are some that are more geared towards guitar only recording and they don't
have the phantom power on them and because condenser mics are powered they
don't require as much gain so you don't have to crank your preamps on your audio
interface as much the first budget condenser mic that I'll recommend is the
audio technica at2020 this is a very popular condenser mic for beginners and
it sounds great too another couple of more budget-friendly options that you
might want to are the MXL 990 and the MXL v67g both
of these MXL microphones can give you decent quality audio the next piece
of studio equipment that we'll look at is optional you do not need this to make
music however it can help your music sound better its studio monitors studio
monitors can help you when you're trying to come up with a sound for a synth or
your guitar and they can also help during the mixing stage as they're going
to give you a more flat sound meaning they're not hyping any of the
frequencies so your music should sound similar across different devices budget
priced studio monitors are not 100 percent flat sounding however they can
give you a better sound than when you're mixing with your headphones the first
pair of budget-priced studio monitors that i recommend are the Mackie CR3
these are great sounding small studio monitors that don't take up a lot
of desk space and they're fairly loud for their size too if you want to go up
to the next level with studio monitors I recommend checking out the KRK Rokit
5's they have a flatter sound and they're bigger in size which also means
they're more expensive however if your budget allows for these I highly
recommend checking out the krk studio monitors next up we'll look at another
optional piece of studio gear it's your MIDI keyboard again this is optional you
do not need a MIDI keyboard to make music however if you plan on recording
with virtual synths having a MIDI keyboard can help you get a more musical
sound MIDI keyboards come in a variety of sizes and configurations some have
added features like touch sensitive pads or controls that you can dial into your
DAW while others will just give you the basic keys which is why you're buying a
MIDI keyboard anyway if you don't have a lot of space on your desktop or you're a
mobile musician you may want to consider getting one of the mini MIDI keyboards
the m-audio keystation 32 is a great option if you want a mini keyboard
without all of those extra buttons and dials if
you like those extra buttons and dials and you want those touch sensitive pads
check out the Akai MPK mini this is a great little keyboard that has pads and
has dials on it plus the keys feel pretty nice too now those are both mini
sized keyboards meaning they don't have full-sized keys if you want a smaller
keyboard but have the full-sized piano keys you can check out the nektar impact
LX25 this has 25 full-sized piano keys plus you get the pads and some controls
with it and it's a decent price too now those are just three MIDI keyboards to
get you started in your search and the final thing that I want to mention here
is you need some decent cables for your mics and your instruments you don't need
to spend a lot on the cables but you want to make sure that they're in good
repair a bad quality cable can really ruin your recording sessions and after
talking about all that gear let me know in the comments below what gear you have
or if you plan on getting any of the gear that I mentioned in this video
click this video up here to see my top 5 free daw picks click this one down here to
see what YouTube recommends you watch next thank you so much for watching if
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zane and we'll talk soon