Budget Home Recording: Essential tools to get you started
Build a home recording setup on a budget.
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With so much gear available, creating your own home studio can be challenging if you’re just getting into music production. To solve this problem, we’ll be talking about budget home recording with some key items to make your setup more versatile.
Regardless of what style of music you make or what your preferred discipline is within audio, there are a few essentials that every home studio needs.
A budget home recording setup:
Chances are you already own a laptop or desktop PC, but with a decent mic, an audio interface, studio monitors, and a pair of headphones, you’ll be well-equipped for recording at home.
Audio-Technica ATH-M40X
Without a doubt one of the best sets of budget headphones available, the ATH-M40X is a great option.
It’s a versatile closed-back design, perfect for monitoring during recording and plausible as a discrete and portable solution for editing, mixing, or post-production.
The ATH-M40X is durable with good isolation, and its low 35-ohm impedance rating means you can easily use them with laptops and mobile devices.
They might not be the most neutral-sounding headphones ever built, but in the context of home recording, they provide great value.
- More from Audio-Technica
AKG P420
The P420 is a multipattern large-diaphragm condenser with a clean, bright sound that makes it useful for vocals, instruments, amp cabinets, and overheads.
In addition, it has cardioid, figure-of-8, and omnidirectional pickup modes, a 300 Hz low-cut filter, and a -20 dB pad switch. The overall build quality is decent for the price, and you get a shock mount and carry case to protect it.
Depending on your preference you might find darker-sounding microphones in this price range, but they are unlikely to prove as versatile as a recording tool.
- More from AKG
Adam T7V
The T7V from the entry-level Adam Audio T series studio monitors is an extremely popular choice for home recording.
It’s a rear-ported design, equipped with a 7-inch woofer and 1.9-inch U-ART ribbon tweeter. This makes it perfect for small to medium-sized listening environments.
They might not be the most glamorous-looking speakers, but they have all the essential features you might need in your first set of studio monitors.
This includes HF and LF EQ switches for making adjustments and an unbalanced RCA input for consumer audio devices.
- More from Adam Audio
MOTU M6
As a manufacturer, MOTU has a longstanding reputation for building quality audio interfaces. In the more budget-friendly part of the range, we find the MOTU M6, a great home recording interface.
It offers four XLR combo preamps with individual gain and phantom power and 24-bit 192 kHz ESS Sabre32 Ultra converters.
In addition, you have two independent headphones outs, MIDI I/O, and the option to choose between USB-C bus power or 15V DC.
MOTU is also known for great stable drivers, especially on Mac. Moreover, the metering and easy operation make it a pleasure to work with overall.
- More from MOTU
Soundcraft Signature 12 MTK
Despite the fact that most of us work in the box, analogue mixers are still incredibly useful when creating music with synthesizers, drum machines, guitars, basses, and other instruments.
The Signature 12 MTK has decent preamps, a built-in interface, and effects, three aux sends, as well as an assignable stereo sub-group.
This increases its value not only from a creative standpoint, but it’s also great for rehearsal rooms or small venues.
- More from Soundcraft
More about Budget Home Recording:
- All about home recording
- Thomann’s guide to home recording
Videos:
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