Building a Small Modern Home Recording Studio – Part 1: Introduction

Gone are the days of mammoth recording studios and black-magic wielding engineers in their ivory towers. Nowadays, you can make a full, professional grade record in someone’s living room. The truth is back in the day, recording equipment was expensive. That’s the real reason the music industry developed as it did – with giant conglomerates promoting the chosen few they deigned worthy of their multi-million dollar recording, marketing, and distribution mechanisms.

But now? Abbey Road is a dinosaur. While it still retains its pedigree (and still produces amazing records), a facility of that magnitude is no longer necessary to produce a great record. The cost of recording technology has plummeted to the point where the average consumer can easily afford to build at least a simple recording studio.

The amount of gear available is staggering. The price-points vary wildly. And to the uninitiated, many of these little arcane boxes are of little more use than paperweights. So what exactly does it take to get started?

The answer: surprisingly little.

The Four Cornerstones of a Modern Home Recording Rig

A Computer with a DAW

There’s no getting away from this one. Unless you go with a 4-track recorder (which could be fun, but I don’t recommend it), you will need a computer with some recording software installed. In recording, we call this type of software a digital audio workstation (DAW).

Mac users luck out because each Mac comes with Garage Band (Logic Pro X “Lite”) pre-installed. PC users aren’t so fortunate, but you can still download Audacity for free.

For our intents and purposes, however, we are going to assume you have at least a functional laptop computer. After all, what are you reading this on – a phone?

An Audio Interface

To put it plainly, your computer’s stock sound card sucks. You’ll need quite a bit more horsepower in this department to start playing with audio, so you need to invest in an audio interface – basically a monster external sound card. An audio interface allows you to connect all of the other gadgets you’ll be using to your computer. It converts analog audio signals from your microphones and other devices into a digital signal that your computer can make sense of.

A Microphone

This one should be a no-brainer. You need a decent microphone to capture decent audio recordings. Your computer’s internal microphone will leave you sorely disappointed, so like your sound card, you will need to replace it with a device engineered to capture high-quality audio.

Speakers / Headphones

Any old speakers will do to start off, but you’ll want a pair of flat-response monitor speakers if it’s in your budget. Same with headphones – your iPhone earbuds will work for now, but you’ll want a pair of closed-back, cupped headphones when you can get them. The bottom line is you need to be able to hear what you are doing.

Skip the Interface – USB Microphones

I would advise against skipping the interface, as you’ll most likely buy one pretty soon down the line anyway. It’s also helpful that most interfaces come bundled with basic/lite versions of popular DAWs like Studio One or Ableton Live. However, there are a number of USB microphones that eschew the need for an audio interface altogether. This brings the cost of your first rig down significantly.

Again, I wouldn’t recommend going this route if you have a real interest in audio production, but in the spirit of providing some actionable information with this introductory post, I’ll point you to a couple budget USB microphones:

Samson Meteor – I have seen this one pop up from time to time. I haven’t used it myself, but I understand the sound quality leaves something to be desired. The awkward tripod makes this more of a desktop mic for podcasters. Still, at $70, this is one of the cheapest microphones in this category, so it deserves a mention – if only for that.

Blue Snowball (Discontinued) – This is Blue’s lowest hanging fruit. Blue is a reputable company that produces quality microphones of all types. I used their Spark microphone for years until wear and tear (and a mishap or two) put it out of commission. The Snowball is a few dollars cheaper than the Meteor, and I’ve seen that many say it sounds better as well. I have yet to use one, so I cannot speak definitively on that statement. This mic is discontinued as of updating this post (in 2024), but there is an array of used Blue Snowball options available here.

Blue Yeti (Discontinued) – It’s a favorite among content producers and the like for a reason. It’s sturdier than the previous two USB microphones, and delivers superior performance — as should be expected of a microphone that weighs in at $150. At twice the price of the previous two mentioned, this one is probably your best bet with balancing cost and quality. This mic is discontinued as of updating this post (in 2024), but there is an array of used Blue Yeti options available here.

The Absolute Bare Minimum

So the absolute bare minimum one needs to start recording music at home is your laptop, a USB microphone, and a pair of earbuds or headphones. You really can’t get any simpler than that!

Next week, we will take a closer look at each of the four cornerstones outlined above. We will discuss them more in depth and I will provide some budget-friendly options for you to put together your very own private recording studio.

Here are links to the remaining parts of this series:
Part 2: The Computer and the DAW
Part 3: Audio Interfaces and Microphones
Part 4: Monitoring

-AudioMunk