Home Recording Equipment
When it comes to home recording equipment what you get depends on your budget.
I do however believe that equipment doesn't make the recording, the artist does.
Moving forward with the mind set that most of you will have a budget and still want to make quality recordings we will continue.
Home recording equipment can be as simple as a computer, recording software, audio interface, microphone and powered speakers.
We will look deeper into these individual elements and understand the importance of them because once you understand what each piece of equipment does you can expand your equipment in your home music studio.
The computer serves as the central piece of equipment where everything will be connected to; a central machine where you can control all your equipment.
The set up I recommend to get started requires a computer that has at least the minimum requirements recommended by the home recording software you have chosen.
In my opinion for a home music studio the platform you choose whether PC or Mac doesn't play an enormous role, there are great products that support both platforms so don't let deciding on a platform derail you from things that are more important.
An audio interface is another piece of the home recording equipment that will be required in your signal flow.
The audio interface serves the function of transforming an analague input, such as an instrument or microphone and transforming that input signal into a digital signal that a computer can understand.
Vice Versa an audio interface will have outputs that you can connect your speakers so digital audio signal from the computer will be transformed into an analogue signal for your speakers to play.
An external audio interface is extremely handy and is basically your sound card that connects via fire wire or usb to your computer.
There is plenty of variety when it comes to picking an audio interface and it is important to pick one that will work best for what you want to record.
Your audio interface isn't much use until you get a microphone to hook into it.
Microphones are very important tools and there are lots of different types at different price points.
If you're choosing your very first microphone you need to think about what you plan on recording.
There are microphones with different varieties of diaphragms, frequency responses, prices...
etc.
Read my article on microphones to learn more about microphones and microphone placement.
Last and maybe one of the most important pieces of home recording equipment is the speakers.
There are powered speakers, which are speakers with amplifiers built into them which can be directly connected to an output channel.
Un-powered speakers, which are speakers that just contain a speaker and a box and you can pick and choose an amplifier to connect to it.
You see this type of speaker in car audio systems where you have a sub woofer connected to an amplifier separately.
The main thing to keep in mind when choosing your speakers (monitors) for your home studio is actually the frequency response of the speakers and that they play back sound without any coloring of certain frequencies.
In other words your monitors should have a flat frequency response and be powered so that it plays back sound as close to the original recording.
I do however believe that equipment doesn't make the recording, the artist does.
Moving forward with the mind set that most of you will have a budget and still want to make quality recordings we will continue.
Home recording equipment can be as simple as a computer, recording software, audio interface, microphone and powered speakers.
We will look deeper into these individual elements and understand the importance of them because once you understand what each piece of equipment does you can expand your equipment in your home music studio.
The computer serves as the central piece of equipment where everything will be connected to; a central machine where you can control all your equipment.
The set up I recommend to get started requires a computer that has at least the minimum requirements recommended by the home recording software you have chosen.
In my opinion for a home music studio the platform you choose whether PC or Mac doesn't play an enormous role, there are great products that support both platforms so don't let deciding on a platform derail you from things that are more important.
An audio interface is another piece of the home recording equipment that will be required in your signal flow.
The audio interface serves the function of transforming an analague input, such as an instrument or microphone and transforming that input signal into a digital signal that a computer can understand.
Vice Versa an audio interface will have outputs that you can connect your speakers so digital audio signal from the computer will be transformed into an analogue signal for your speakers to play.
An external audio interface is extremely handy and is basically your sound card that connects via fire wire or usb to your computer.
There is plenty of variety when it comes to picking an audio interface and it is important to pick one that will work best for what you want to record.
Your audio interface isn't much use until you get a microphone to hook into it.
Microphones are very important tools and there are lots of different types at different price points.
If you're choosing your very first microphone you need to think about what you plan on recording.
There are microphones with different varieties of diaphragms, frequency responses, prices...
etc.
Read my article on microphones to learn more about microphones and microphone placement.
Last and maybe one of the most important pieces of home recording equipment is the speakers.
There are powered speakers, which are speakers with amplifiers built into them which can be directly connected to an output channel.
Un-powered speakers, which are speakers that just contain a speaker and a box and you can pick and choose an amplifier to connect to it.
You see this type of speaker in car audio systems where you have a sub woofer connected to an amplifier separately.
The main thing to keep in mind when choosing your speakers (monitors) for your home studio is actually the frequency response of the speakers and that they play back sound without any coloring of certain frequencies.
In other words your monitors should have a flat frequency response and be powered so that it plays back sound as close to the original recording.
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