I have put together the cheapest music studio possible - everything you need to
start making music for $350 including the computer. Yes!
The computer, audio interface, speakers, keyboard, and the software! So, can you
record songs, vocals, guitars? Yes! make beats? Yes. Will it run FL Studio, Ableton,
Maschine? Yes to everything.
(Sanjay C original music/song playing)
That song you just heard was recorded and mixed using this $350
studio and nothing else! Nineteen tracks running simultaneously
with virtual instruments and effects pretty cool right? In this video I'll go
through everything I used in this $350 studio and I'll
let you know how they perform. I'll also suggest some alternatives if you've got
some extra money to spare. There's lots of advice for beginners in this video
and as I go through I'll be referring you to a few other videos I've created
to get more information about different topics. If you're a beginner in music
production, this is the video for you. If you're new around here I'm Sanjay C.
Consider subscribing, because I have tons of videos featuring the latest music and
budget gear for every musician. Let's get started. I want to talk about the
computer first. The computer and the software running on it will be the hub
of your music studio. I bought this computer used on eBay for $160.
This is a Lenovo T430 i5 2.6GHz laptop. Yes! It's a laptop, which means you
can make music on the go. It's got 4GB of RAM and an i5 3320M 2.6GHz
processor. It's around 8 years old and I wouldn't recommend getting
something older than that. An i5 processor and 4GB of RAM are the
minimum specs required to run Ableton Live, Cakewalk and FL studio. These are
digital audio workstations - the software you use to record music. And this
computer works with all of them. It's also got a 500 gigabyte solid state
hybrid drive which is great for storing samples and plugins. I didn't cut corners
here. This laptop has everything - Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB ports and it runs Windows
10. The Lenovo T430 is pretty popular on the used market, so you shouldn't have a
hard time finding one like this if you want to get the same one I have. I'll put
a few links to laptops like mine in the video description. Now, this laptop ran
everything I threw at it. It even played Kontakt sampled instruments which can be
quite heavy but it worked fine. It really surprised me. I installed the ASIO4ALL
driver which helped things out a little. The driver is
free and I'll add a link to it in the description. So I want to get to the
other devices here but after I get through those, I'll talk more about the
software I tested - all the plugins I used. Watch until the end of this video and
I'll give you a great little list of plugins to download. Oh and if you want
to get a newer laptop that will probably last you a little longer I've listed
some of the best budget laptops from $500 to $700 in a video here. Here's a
side note, I recorded this song with the 4GB of RAM that this laptop came
with. But to see if performance improved I later installed another 8GB of
RAM. It was pretty easy to do. Performance was better and that extra RAM only cost
me $30. Maybe it's something you can upgrade yourself later. Alright, let's
talk about the keyboard next. This is the Nektar SE25. So what can this keyboard
do? A lot more than you think. In addition to just playing your tunes with decent
velocity sensitivity, it gives you DAW control with play, record, board and
rewind. And works very well. You can adjust the velocity sensitivity I made
it a little softer and the playability was pretty good. You even got some pitch
bend and modulation features. The keys are small and they feel a little spongy
when you press them. But hey, for the price - you can't beat it. It does a lot
and I would recommend this keyboard if you're on a budget and you want some
playability and DAW control in one. Now if you want to go for something with
better keys and you've got around $100 to spare, then check out my list of
the best MIDI keyboards in a video here. All right how about these speakers? These
are the Mackie CR3 studio monitors They are powered, so you don't need a
separate amp. The CR3's are pretty small, but are meant to be near field
monitors... so you'll use them close up. When I turn them ON, I was surprised at
the boominess of the bass. Pretty good for the size. I mixed my song just fine
on these. Now are you gonna miss some of that bottom end bass on an 808? Yes, but
for most projects. Especially if you're just getting started these are totally
fine. You can't beat the price and they feel pretty well-made. They have three inch
woofers and 0.75 inch tweeters. The frequency range is from 80 Hertz to
20 Kilohertz. They have a convenient headphone jack in the front which
automatically mutes the speakers when you plug headphones in and also an
auxilary input in the front. By the way, if you've got a little extra cash I'm
going to tell you where you should spend that extra money - stay tuned! And if
you're finding this information useful, hit the LIKE button and leave a COMMENT
below if you have any questions. Okay, so what about this audio interface? You will
need an audio interface to record an external instrument like a guitar or a
microphone. This is the Behringer UM2. It has a microphone and an instrument input
and a direct monitoring feature which is nice.
It also has phantom power so you can use it with a condenser microphone. Now if
all you need is a mic, you can replace the audio interface with a USB
microphone.
(demo Sanjay C acapella singing)
I recorded my vocals in the song with a
Fifine USB microphone which is decent. I actually tested this one and compared
it to a $1,000 microphone in a video here. Look out for a video in which I compare
budget microphones coming soon. If there's one component I would upgrade
it would be the audio interface. The Behringer UM2 - was the cheapest I could
find. But if you're a guitarist or you want to use a nice mic
I recommend spending around a $100 on an audio interface. I've
rounded up the best $100 audio interfaces in a video here. But don't get
me wrong, you can make do with the UM2- but this would be the first thing I
would upgrade in this setup. Alright, let's talk about the software. You don't
want to skip out on this part because the software is really the hub of your
studio. To keep costs low I used Cakewalk by Bandlab as my DAW
because it's free. I really wasn't missing any features of the paid DAWs.
Except, maybe that it didn't include as many sounds. Cakewalk really has all the
features including compatibility with the popular software instruments and
effects, automation, mixer controls, and editing. Now if you prefer using another
DAW like Ableton Live or FL Studio, then those will work fine as well on this
laptop. I even tested the Maschine beat making
software and it worked well too. For the song I recorded, I used some of the
included sounds in Cakewalk and also a bunch of free plugins. Let's talk about
the free stuff. I installed Native Instruments Komplete
Start. Lots of nice sounds included and they ran just fine on this laptop. I also
installed ADSR Sample Manager to find and play some free samples that I
downloaded from Aubit Sounds - free as well. I used Keyzone Classic for the
piano sound and the free SQ8 Rom synth plugin for some sounds in this song as
well. I processed my vocals with the stock plugins and Cakewalk and just added
Graillon for some pitch correction.
By the way if you're
looking for the best free plugins around, check out my Saturday NEWS reports "Sanjay C News". I
always include free plugins in those videos. So what's my final advice for
putting together a studio like this? Well, two things. First of all, I was really
surprised that I was able to do so much with this setup. It just goes to show
that you don't need a lot of money to start making music. But, a couple
components made me think - well, I guess you get what you pay for...
It was the audio interface and the keyboard. Now I talked a little bit about
the audio interface before and I have a helpful video about choosing a good one.
I explain everything you need to know about audio interfaces in simple terms
in that video. Now, I'm a keyboardist, so the feel of this keyboard wasn't great.
But if you just need something to lay down some ideas - it's fine! Check out some
of the keyboard reviews on my channel if you want something better. Whatever you
choose to do I'll be sure to help you along the way with tips in future videos.
Keep Making The Music YOU Love! I'll see you guys later :)