Starting a Home Recording Studio
Start a home studio? You probably already HAVE a home studio! If you are like over 70 percent of Americans, you have a computer in your house.
That means 7 out of 10 American readers only have to learn to use the home recording studio they already have. And here’s the best part. You don’t have to spend any money to start using it!
If you have internet access, or a friend who does, just download the free (open source) software program called “Audacity,” which does multi-track recording and audio editing. Now you only need a microphone like the little PC mics that often come bundled with new computers. If you don’t already have one of those, you can pick one up for 4 or 5 dollars.
I just did a search on Google for “starting your own home recording studio,” and one of the top searches proudly boasts that you can do so for….wait for it—“under $1,000!” Choke, sputter, gasp. What? That’s supposed to convince me to start a home studio? Folks, even if you had to buy a PC microphone for your set-up, you’d still have 3 fewer “zeros” in your price-tag than that.
Yes, there is gear that costs a lot of money. But if you can start out, which you can, for under $10, and then upgrade your studio a bit at a time, why wouldn’t you? Even if you’re super rich and could afford thousands to start a home studio, you’d likely end up with tons of pretty gear you don’t know how to use, or don’t need. The best bet is to start modest, learn the power of the lowest-price gear, and then gradually upgrade until you reach a point where you can produce the quality you need.
I’ve heard any number of bad-sound audio recordings that came from really good gear. And I have heard excellent recordings that came from gear costing a fraction (and I mean on the order of 1/500th) of the cost. The key is this: knowledge trumps gear. If you learn how to get the best possible audio from the cheapest gear, then ultimately you’ll settle into a home studio set-up that produces exactly what you need to produce, at the lowest possible cost, which, as I have mentioned, can be a tiny fraction of what you might otherwise pay.
There are some great resources on the web to teach the kind of knowledge I’m talking about. One such resource is a little site called Home Brew Audio, where you can find tutorials, informative articles, and access to resources geared toward helping you make the best recordings possible. So what are you waiting for? Cost is no longer a reason to avoid starting a home audio recording studio. Go to it, and have fun!
Free videos from “The Newbies Guide to Audio Recording Awesomeness”
