audio interface microphone headphones midi keyboards studio monitors and even cables
in this video i'm looking at a $256 music production studio that can be a great home studio
setup for someone who's just starting out and on a budget plus some of this stuff is optional so you
can bring that price down even more and i'll give you some options that might be slightly higher
that could be useful in your home studio depending on your needs i'm zane welcome to audio tech tv
where it's my goal to help you conquer the tech so you can unleash your creative beast links to
all of the gear mentioned in this video are down in the description but right now let's jump in and
the first thing you're going to want to look at is an audio interface this is going to be the heart
of your home studio so the one that i'm looking at today this is the behringer umc22. it's a decent
little audio interface that can give you dvd quality audio recordings it has a nice clean midas
microphone preamp on the front it also can be used as a line input then you have an instrument input
right here you also have your headphone output on the front then on the back you have your 48
volt phantom power so you can connect your studio condenser microphones to this without a problem
and you have your outputs for your studio monitors this will be powered by usb so it's
very portable you can take it with you and your laptop on the go if that's something you need
to do and the great thing is this is just $49 now one of the drawbacks for your home studio might be
the fact that it only has one microphone preamp you might need more than one maybe you need two
maybe you need more but the next audio interface that i would suggest looking at is the behringer
umc202hd it's going to give you 24 bit audio recording whereas this one's only 16 bit and it's
also going to give you two of the midas microphone preamps and the good thing about that one is it's
only $30 more than this audio interface so that's something you might want to consider
but if you only need one microphone preamp then this is a great choice right here i recently did a
series on my channel where i recorded a song using the behringer um2 and the quality was very good
and the um2 is a step down from this one so you're going to get decent quality with this don't worry
about that we're recording demos and beats and tracks in our bedrooms basements or wherever it
is we're recording we're not recording symphonies and operas here so we're not looking for super
pristine audio we're just looking for something that's going to sound great to us and this will
give you that what you really want to do is focus on your songwriting and write a great song because
if you've got a great song it doesn't matter what you recorded it on people are going to enjoy it
because it's a great song no one's listening to it because of whatever audio interface that you
use to record it now the next piece of gear that you might want to consider is a microphone and
the microphone that i'm going to look at today is the behringer xm8500 this is a dynamic microphone
and it's going to give you great quality audio you're going to have to eq it a bit because it
can be a little muddy but eq'ing vocals is something that you'll probably end up doing
anyway so that's not a huge deal now like i said i did that series where i recorded a song on the
behringer um2 and i used a cheap microphone and this was the microphone i used and i was very
happy with the quality of my vocals recorded through this microphone and the behringer um2
there was no issues there i just eq'd it a bit and it was decent so the behringer xm8500
is a great cheap microphone it's just $19. it's a dynamic mic so it's going to reject some of
the background sounds if you have a echoey room this can be a great microphone for that
and if there's some noises maybe in the background this will reject some of those
noises and help to make your recording sound a little cleaner it does require a lot of gain so
if you have a noisy mic preamp or maybe a bad cable or a lot of noise in your room
it might show that because of how much you have to turn the gain up on your microphone preamp i've
used this with the behringer um2 in less than ideal situations and i haven't had any issues
like that but that's just something to keep in mind when you're moving forward with this
now if you're considering a condenser microphone it's going to use less gain and it's going to
require that phantom power but that's nothing to worry about because almost all audio interfaces
these days have phantom power on it the ones that i mentioned earlier they all have phantom
power so a budget option that does sound great is another behringer product it's the behringer
c1 it's a great sounding condenser microphone and it's only $39 so that's something you might
want to consider or you can grab one of these $19 xm 8500s try it out see if it works for you
if it's not the greatest mic for your vocals you're only out $19 which isn't too bad and you
can probably find a use for this microphone later on anyway some higher budget microphones that you
might want to consider are the shure sm57 that is a great all-around dynamic microphone you can use
it on vocals guitar cabinets acoustic guitars pretty much anything in the studio i love the
shure sm57 it's a $99 microphone it's not terribly expensive and is a great all-around microphone if
you know you're only going to be recording vocals you might want to consider the shure
sm58 as that one is specific to being a vocal microphone and it's the same price as the sm57
$100 somewhere in around there usually and for a bit higher budget condenser microphone you might
want to consider the audio technica at2020 it's a great all-around condenser microphone and again
it's around that hundred dollar mark now a hundred dollar microphone is still considered a budget
option to get considerably better results you're going to have to spend a lot more money but these
budget options that i gave you are going to be great for just starting out and some of these
microphones you're going to keep around even as your studio needs grow now this next piece of
gear is something that you're going to want to get when you get your microphone this is
an xlr cable and you want to get one of the male to female xlr cables not one of those xlr
to quarter inch or xlr to 3.5 millimeter cables you don't want to use those for your microphones
they're not going to give you good quality you want something like this and a good quality
microphone cable isn't going to cost you that much you can get a decent microphone cable for
around 12 maybe even less i think i paid less for this cable and it's lasted me quite a few years
in the studio i have several of them for different things and i really enjoy these i think i paid
like nine dollars for these cables here and while you're purchasing cables you might want to also
get a patch cable for guitar or whatever else you might be using a quarter inch cable for again this
is going to be around dollars nine twelve dollars something like that for a decent quality cable and
i've included both of these cables into our 256 dollar budget now the next thing you might want
to get for your home studio is a pair of studio headphones and the ones that i'm looking at here
are the behringer hps3000 headphones i used these things for years when i was first starting out
are they perfect no no they're not perfect but you're going to get used to the frequencies they
hype and the ones that they don't hype and you're going to be able to use these on your mixes once
you start to get used to them and that's the same with any pair of headphones once you start getting
used to them you can use them in your mixes no problem you just have to get used to them and what
i like about these ones is they are very good at noise canceling so if you're recording vocals or
something where you've got your headphones on and you don't want a microphone to pick up the sound
these are very good for that they have decent bass and decent highs in them and again like i said
you just get used to them and you're going to be mixing with them no problem so what you want to do
is do your mixes take them to a cd player your car or listen to them on your alexa or whatever you
listen to music on outside of your studio that's the thing you want to listen to it outside of the
studio and in the air to hear what it sounds like and then you're going to say okay it's
a little bassy or maybe there's a little too much highs in there so then you go back to your studio
you make those adjustments and then again you go back to wherever it is you listen to your music
and you listen is it great is it not great what needs to be adjusted maybe it's perfect
and that's how you're going to get used to your headphones and that's the same thing with studio
monitors as well so these behringer hps3000s cost $15 they fit the budget really nice
and they're going to give you a nice comfortable pair of headphones to wear in your studio now if
you're considering spending more on your studio headphones i'd recommend going up to around $150
because in that range you're going to get into the audio technica ath m50x which are great
headphones and there's also the beyerdynamic dt 770 pro headphones which again are also very good
quality studio headphones now are those headphones perfect no they're not but they are a little bit
better quality if you want to get really good quality headphones you're going to have to spend
a lot more money so i suggest starting out with the 15 buck option see where it gets you again i
use these for years they worked for me and they will work for you all right so far if we just
stick with our budget options the behringer umc22 audio interface the behringer xm8500 microphone
the guitar cable and the microphone cable plus the behringer hps3000 studio headphones our total
budget right now is at $107 and that might be all you need in your home studio and that's not bad
to get you a studio setup that's going to give you decent quality tracks and beats or songs whatever
it is you want to record you're going to be able to get great quality with that but you might want
some more gear so now we're going to get into some of those optional pieces and before we get
into the next piece of gear i just want to ask if you're enjoying this video so far and getting some
value out of it you please give it a thumbs up it really helps my channel out and i appreciate it
so much now the next piece of gear like i said is optional you may not need it in your home studio
but it can make your life a little bit easier if you're going to be working with midi and that's
a midi keyboard so the one that i'm looking at here is the m-audio keystation mini 32
mk3 and this is a great little no frills midi keyboard you've got 32 keys on here you have
your octave options over here plus you have a mod option and sustain it like i said it's a great
little no-frills midi keyboard it's powered by usb so it's extremely portable extremely lightweight
as well and it's going to get the job done and the keys feel decent they're not piano action
keys by any means but they're decent feeling keys and the m audio keystation mini 32 goes for around
$59. which isn't too bad for a good quality midi keyboard there are other options that include
pads and all kinds of things like that like the akai pro mini and i think that's around a hundred
dollars if you wanted to go up to that but if you just need some keys this one will work for you and
you can use this to program drums as well you just use the keys instead of pads so it's a bit
different feel i actually like using the keys to do my drums so it's all a preference thing anyway
now the next optional piece of gear is studio monitors and the ones that i have
back here these green and black ones these are the mackie cr3s now this is a bit older model
they have a newer model which is even better now and they go for ninety dollars are they perfect
nope but just like the headphones you're going to get used to the frequencies and you'll be able to
mix on them no problem once you're used to them i used these ones for years and once i got used to
them i was very happy with them they're great to have in the studio if you want to share your mixes
with other people in the studio and you don't want to share headphones these can be great for
that and they're fairly loud for the size of these little speakers again they're 90 bucks not too bad
for a set of studio headphones and they even come with the foam pads for underneath and some cable
options for the different setups that you might find on various audio interfaces so here's our $256
studio breakdown the behringer umc22 audio interface at $49 the behringer xm microphone at $19
an xlr microphone cable for $12 a guitar cable for $12 the behringer hps3000 headphones for $15
the m-audio keystation mini 32 midi keyboard for $59 and the mackie cr3 monitors for $90
and this all adds up to a $256music production studio setup and again like i said
some of that stuff is going to be optional in your home studio needs so you can bring that price down
even more which is not too bad for creating music because creating music can be relaxing it
can relieve stress it can just help you get that creativity out of you which sometimes is needed to
get rid of that stress and forget about everything that's going on out in the world you just you're
in your studio you're creating music you're in your happy place and that's where you gotta be now
with how easy it is to release music onto spotify itunes amazon and all over the world you can even
start to generate some income with your music and maybe build a little bit of a following and have a
community based around your music it is a great thing it's a great time to be recording music
because you can get this gear for so little and it will give you some great quality we all have our
own personal reason for why we want to make music and if you write a great song like i said no one's
going to care what it was recorded on so don't let your gear hold you back from doing something that
you could potentially love doing focus on your songwriting and the workflow of recording and
editing your music and you're going to be way ahead of the game regardless of the gear that
you're using now if you want to check out that series where i recorded a song with a cheap audio
interface and cheap microphone click up here or click down here to see what youtube recommends
if you like this video please give it a thumbs up also subscribe to the channel for more videos
like this thank you so much for watching for audio tech tv i'm zane keep creating and we'll talk soon