What Is The Best (And Most Frugal) Home Studio Setup?

Below is yet another home recording question that has become so common on Yahoo Answers.  Folks want to record themselves at home and want to get started on a fairly tight budget. 

I have yet to see a question like: “Hey we want to start recording our band at home and would like suggestions on how to spend $20,000 to set up a home recording studio.

Anyway, the person who answered the question referenced an article which does not give bad advice on the equipment it recommends, but you’d need over $1,000.00 just to put together what they call the “starter studio!”  Great googly-moogly!!!

The guy asked for a frugal studio, right there in the title of his post.  Let’s just say I think it’s crazy to drop a thousand clams on a “starter” studio.  See the Home Brew Audio answer at the end of this post.

Original question

Q: I’m in a band and we are toying with the idea of recording in our own home studio… We need ideas to get the most for our money… Any suggestions?

A: Here is a cool little article on setting up a home studio with price in mind (note: article no longer exists).

I got it off that site, it’s a great little community with tons of information and people who really know what they’re doing.

Should help 🙂

Here is the Home Brew Audio answer:

First of all ,if you’re just starting out, there is absolutely no need to spend more than about $200 max! You can always add equipment as you need it. For some really good step-by-step instructions on setting up your own computer-based studio, see our 5-part series called (duh) “How To Build A Home Recording Studio.”

But just to touch on what you would need to start, let’s just assume you can use your current computer. In 2020, that is a more than reasonable assumption for 90% of people.

Next, since this person said he was in a band, he will need more than folks who are just going to be recording voiceovers and podcasts, etc. That likely means he’ll want to be able to record several microphones at once. A good start is the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, which is a recording interface (plugs directly into your computer), which has 8 microphone inputs. It is only $499.

I also have a mini-course called How to Create a Home Recording Studio that breaks things down into 4 budget levels, starting at “Free!” Since the original poster was looking for a frugal recording studio, this mini-course will be perfect for a start. Then he could add only the gear he needs to those basics.