Home recording music is something that’s becoming more and more accessible for a lot
of musicians as time goes on. With only a few pieces of equipment and a lot of learning
and practice, any musician can learn to record their own high quality music. For most musicians,
there’s a few things you’ll need to get started with recording, so in this video we’ll
take a look at 10 of the most important things you need for recording in the home studio.
Before continuing, don’t forget to subscribe to the channel and press the bell icon to
get notified whenever our new videos are released. The first thing you’ll need for recording
is a computer. Most people will already have access to one that’s good enough for recording,
and most computers from at least the last 5 years should be capable on music recording,
unless it was a very low budget computer. For this, you can use a laptop or desktop
and it can be either Windows or Mac. It’s totally up to your preference since there
is very good paid and free recording software available for both of these systems. There’s
even increasingly more options available for things like iPads to record on, but that’s
something we’ll cover in a separate video. As far as what to look for in a computer,
many newer processors are good and most people can get by with 8 GB of RAM, but more can
be helpful if you plan on working with really large projects.
To make our computer work as a home studio, we’ll need to get some software installed
on it. This software is called a digital audio workstation, or DAW. DAWs work to connect
to your music equipment, record audio and MIDI, process all the clips and effects, and
mix it down into a final song that we can listen to our export as a high quality audio
file. When looking for a DAW, some things to consider are how easy it is to learn and
use, and what sort of plugins and instruments come included. Another thing to maybe avoid
is using demo versions, such as Presonus Studio One 4 Prime and Pro Tools First. These types
of programs have a lot of limitations that can really get in your way as you start progressing,
and then you’ll be stuck either switching software or being pressured into paying for
a full version. DAWs are not the same as an audio recording
program like Audacity. DAWs are able to work with more plugins in real-time and feature
non-destructive non-linear editing, which means that all our plugins and mixing decisions
can be changed since they don’t process irreversibly to the track, and the clips can
be cut up and moved around the song. There’s many DAWs that are free, and that can depend
on the operating system you’re using, but two of my favorites are Tracktion Waveform
and Cakewalk by BandLab. There’s also a lot of paid software like Reaper, and the
industry standard Pro Tools, but you definitely don’t need to use paid software when getting
started. Once you find what DAW has the features you need, spend some time learning how to
use it to get the most out of all the tools, and we have some tutorials for a lot of free
software on this channel. The next thing is one of our most important
pieces of equipment, and that’s our audio interface. The audio interface is what connects
our music equipment to our computer. It converts our analog microphone or instrument signal
to digital audio, then converts the digital audio back to an analog output for the headphones
or speakers. When buying an audio interface, the things to look for are how it’s connected,
the form factor and size, number of inputs and outputs, number of preamps, direct inputs,
and other forms of connection. Most audio interfaces available now connect
over USB, but some older ones had firewire connections, and newer high end audio interfaces
may have thunderbolt connections. USB is usually the right choice for most people. Next, consider
the form factor of the audio interface. Most small audio interface are just desktop units
that sit on the desk and have a few inputs or outputs. There can be various sizes like
my Behringer UM2 here, or my older Focusrite Scarlett 18i6. For larger audio interfaces
with more inputs, many of them have the option to be rackmounted in a studio rack. In this
case, I have mine setup in a rack with my other equipment like a power conditioner and
guitar effects processor. Along with form factor, also consider how the audio interface
is powered. Some small audio interfaces are fully powered over USB, while others require
a separate power supply or power cable. One of the most important things to consider
for an audio interface is the number of inputs it can record at once. This will be a big
factor in determining what kinds of recordings you can to do with the audio interface. Small
audio interfaces with one or two inputs are great for recording a single instrument like
a guitar or vocals, but are not very good when you need to record a more complicated
setup like a drum kit, which often requires a minimum of 4, if not more than 8 separate
microphone inputs to get isolated recordings. This is one of the main things that may lead
you to choose a different audio interface down the road, so carefully consider this
when making a decision. Along with the inputs, also pay attention to the number of preamps
that the audio interface has. Some may advertise having a lot of inputs, but not all those
inputs will necessarily have preamps to power the microphones and would instead just be
a direct line inputs. This may seem like a good way to save money in the short term,
but buying extra preamps will definitely be more expensive than just getting an audio
interface with those preamps to begin with. Another thing is some audio interfaces like
mine will say they have 18 inputs, when in reality, they only come with 10. That’s
because 8 of the additional microphone inputs are only available over ADAT, which is an
optical connection on the back of the audio interface that lets us connect more inputs
from another rackmountable preamp device. In this case, I picked up a used Behringer
ADA8000 for fairly cheap, but some of these units can add a few hundred dollars of extra
cost to your audio interface. Last as far as inputs go, not all preamps are created
equal. Some are a lot noisier than others or just don’t sound as good, so pay attention
to the reviews on your audio interface and do your research. In my case, I have had fairly
good luck with the Focusrite audio interfaces for their preamps.
Along with preamps, the other type of input to look for is a direct instrument input.
This is used to directly connect an electric guitar, acoustic-electric guitar, or bass
to an audio interface so you don’t have to run it through an amp and record it will
a microphone. This is a great simple way to do a lot of recordings, so definitely make
sure that’s a feature that’s included, though most audio interfaces will have this
feature in some way. Next up is the outputs. At the very least,
an audio interface should have a headphone output and a speaker output. Headphone outputs
are usually ¼”, but you can use an adapter for 3.5 mm headphones. The speaker output
will depend on the audio interface. My Behringer unit uses unbalanced RCA connectors, and the
Focusrite audio interface has balanced ¼” TRS outputs. Some audio interfaces will also
have more than 1 headphone output, but you can also use a headphone amplifier if necessary
to get more outputs. The last thing to look at are what other types
of connections are included. Like we mentioned earlier, some may have ADAT connections for
audio interface expansions. Other types of connections are SPDIF for digital audio processors,
like other effects units or guitar processors, and MIDI inputs and outputs for connecting
MIDI hardware that doesn’t work over USB. If you have the budget, get the audio interface
for the recording setup that you want to have in the future, and not the one you plan on
setting up immediately. This will ensure that you have all the features you need, such as
enough inputs and outputs. This was a problem for me a little while back since I found my
audio interface was too small for recording things like drums, and it wasn’t rack mountable
to go with the rest of my equipment, so I ultimately ended up upgrading to the Focusrite
18i20 which has a lot more inputs and outputs, along with built in preamps for those inputs.
In order to listen back to our projects and perform in time, we need some sort of way
to monitor the sound coming from our computer. There’s two basic ways to do this, and that’s
either with a good set of headphones or monitor speakers. Many people will also use both,
depending on their preference or setup. If you’re only able to get one though, definitely
get a good set of headphones. That way, you can listen back to your music and record your
instruments with a microphone without the microphone picking up the sound from the headphones.
For me, I have a set of Shure headphones, but unfortunately I’ve found that the plastic
headband on these can break over time, but there are lots of other brands to consider
as well. In general, monitor speakers can provide you
with a more accurate representation of your sound across all frequencies, but they can
a little be more expensive, take up more space and overall not be suitable for everyone.
Also, depending on your room, you may have to consider acoustic treatment if you’re
using monitor speakers. MIDI controllers allow you to record MIDI
instruments such as synthesizers and electronic drums, or even control some of the things
like volume and plugin controls in your DAW. MIDI controllers send signals to your computer,
usually over USB or MIDI cables through an audio interface. These signals then trigger
an instrument on a MIDI track in your DAW to make sound, so the MIDI controller often
doesn’t make sound on its own unless it already has a built in synthesizer. Many free
and paid DAWs will have some basic MIDI instruments available with them to get you started, but
there are also plenty of free and paid instruments that can be added to the software for more
sounds. MIDI controllers usually take the form of
a keyboard, drum pad or even electronic drum kit. We can use these to create a lot of different
types of electronic music and it’s often a lot easier than creating music by drawing
the notes on the piano roll. MIDI also allows for complete control over editing the performance
afterwards, so we can add and delete notes, move them around in time, change the note
value, or change how hard they were hit. One other thing some MIDI controllers can
do is act as a control surface. Control surfaces send a MIDI continuous control message to
the digital audio workstation. The software can take this signal and use it to control
settings like the knobs in your plugins with a physical knob on the MIDI controller, and
some software will even allow you to record these changes throughout the song as automation.
This is definitely a worthwhile feature to consider.
For my MIDI controller, I use an Akai MPK249 since it has a lot of the features I talked
about that I look for in a good MIDI controller. This controller has 49-keys, 16-drums pads
with pitch bend and modulation wheels. For automation, we also have 8 faders, knobs,
and switches. Microphones can be used to record any acoustic
instrument in the room, like our guitars, voice or drums. There’s many different types
of microphones available, but the two main types are dynamic microphones and condenser
microphones. Dynamic microphones and condenser microphones are a little different, since
condenser microphones need 48V phantom power to work, but this is provided through any
audio interface with a microphone preamp. This power allows these condenser microphones
to be more sensitive than dynamic microphones. Many microphones can be used for a lot of
different things, and the types you choose will depend heavily on what instruments you
want to record and your budget. There are plenty of microphones for different budgets,
all the way from cheap Neewer condenser microphones to more expensive microphones that can cost
hundreds or even thousands of dollars. There are more specialized microphones as well,
like this Shure microphone that’s basically only used for recording kick drums. For most
people though, you can usually get yourself a good microphone to start off with for $100.
If I could start with just two microphones, I would probably pick up one condenser microphone
that I would use on instruments like acoustic guitar and vocals, then get a dynamic microphone
that I can use on an electric guitar amp. Some of the common home recording microphones
I have are the Shure SM57, which is a great dynamic microphone for recording amps and
snare drums, and the Audio Technica AT2020 for recording my voice.
Microphone stands are used to mount the microphones we’re using in a variety of positions for
recording. My recommendation is to get a few boom stands since they allow you to get the
microphone in whatever position you need it. I prefer tripod stands to the weighted base
since I find them to be compact to store while still fairly stable. Also, it’s good to
have a low profile microphone stand around like this one, since it allows you to record
things close to the ground that the other microphone stands might not reach. I usually
use this on guitar amps or the kick drum. All our audio equipment in the home studio
has to be connected together with various cables. The most important ones we use for
music recording are XLR cables, which are these round cable ends with 3 pins on the
end. These are considered a balanced cable, meaning that they have a way of transmitting
the signal while also cancelling out the noise that an unbalanced cable would normally pick
up. The length of cable you need will depend a lot on the space you’re recording in,
but for me, I find 20-25 ft to be a fairly good length for the home studio, though I
do also have a few 50 ft cables. If you’re connecting audio equipment together, then
shorter cables should be used. You’ll also probably need some ¼” instrument cables
to connect the instrument to the amplifier or directly to the audio interface if you’re
doing direct recording, but most people will already have those if they play the instrument.
A pop filter is an absolutely essential piece of equipment for any voice recording. When
recording voice with a microphone without a proper pop filter, you’ll get these blasts
of air with certain syllables that creating a popping sound in the recording. These sounds
are much louder than the original signal, making them very difficult to remove and they
can even cause clipping. Pop filters are a very cheap and easy way to fix this, and they
can be used with pretty much any microphone stand. They simply clamp to the metal of the
microphone stand and can be adjusted in position to be a few inches in front of the microphone.
The last thing we may need for home recording is acoustic treatment, but this is optional
depending on your setup and whether or not you have a dedicated space for recording music.
If your room is fairly empty, it may have a lot of reflections in it which can interfere
with your recordings or playback over monitor speakers. Some acoustic treatment can be setup
for fairly cheap, and I previously made a video on one set of cheap acoustic panels.
That was by no means a professional setup, but it did help a little bit with the reflections
in the room. Acoustic treatment can also be fairly expensive for proper acoustic panels,
but what you spend on that will depend on your budget and how well trained your ears
are, since it needs to helpful for you to do. For more portable or budget setups, there
are also reflection filters that can be placed around a microphone directly, or you can even
use the trick of hanging blankets around the microphone to absorb some of the sound.
Thanks for checking out this video on 10 things you need for a home recording studio. If this
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