PReseNTs

VolumE 3: The $999 Home Studio

Essential gear you need to get your studio off the ground.
By Andre CAlilhAnnA

Full disclosure: if you were to purchase all the suggested items listed here, its going to add up to
more than $999. The intention of this guide is to address the following: Youve got $1,000 to invest in your new home studio, how should you spend the money? If you have endeavored to outfit space in your home for the purpose of recording music, step two is amassing the gear for the task at hand. And yes, recording equipment is more affordable than ever, but youre still going to spend a chunk of money before youre ready to hang a shingle and call your buddies over to record. This guide addresses some of the basic components youll need to get started. It wont cover your DAW, computer, recording console, software package, or plug-ins well assume youve figured that out already. Also not covered in this guide are microphones: stay tuned for Volume 4. Use this as a checklist for things you may already have, need immediately, will put off until later, and whats going to make your Christmas list.

Cables
Cables are a necessary component in any studio situation, but may be one of those things you overlook when considering how to spend your money. Make sure you budget for cables. There is a wide range of options a 20 instrument cable can range in price from $9 to $180. As a matter of practicality, if youre outfitting a home studio on a budget, youre not in the market for a Neve console and $1,000 studio monitors, so spending hundreds of dollars on a single cable is overkill. What you do want to focus on is using the proper cable for the proper function, and not going to the extreme cheap end to save a few bucks.

or buzzing, and could even pick up radio frequencies. In addition to the internal shielding, there is the outer casing and the 1/4 jacks that complete the cable. The quality of the materials used, as well as the assembly, factors into the total cost of your cable. Note that these are the same basic line level cables youll want to use to send a signal to powered monitors (see the Powered (Active) monitors section) as well as to your power amp if youre using passive monitors. A speaker cable is built to convey a strong signal from an amplifier to a speaker and has two wire conductors, with a relatively large diameter, to allow greater signal flow. Generally speaking, the larger the diameter of the wire, the better the flow of the signal to the speakers. The wires are insulated, encased in a filler, and wrapped in an outer jacket. These are used exclusively with passive monitors, going out of your power amp into the speakers. A microphone cable is also built to carry a relatively weak signal from the microphone, and consists of one pair (and sometimes two pairs) of twisted wire. Those cables are insulated, encased in a filler, are shielded (like the instrument cables to prevent external interference), and wrapped in an outer casing.

Speaker, instrument, and microphone cables

An instrument cable is built to convey a weak, unamplified signal. Your guitar or bass is putting out a small DC current with a small voltage thats why it needs amplification. An instrument cable is low power/high impedance cable with one small diameter (usually 24 gauge) positive wire typically copper, though sometimes silver or aluminum that carries this weak signal. The instrument cable is insulated and shielded, or it would pick up noise from any number of external sources that would cause humming

Cable choices
Picky performers may already have found a high-end instrument cable that provides the tonality they want, and theyll want to use that in a recording situation. Having functional instrument cables on hand is a necessity, though, and buying for quality of sound and longevity are recommended. Depending on the brand and number of cables, youre looking at spending $30 to $150 on instrument cables. If youre using passive studio monitors, investing in good speaker cables is worthwhile, as is buying the right length. Likely, youll not need anything longer than 10 feet, so dont go buying 25 cables to plug in your near field monitors. Again, depending on length and quality, you can spend anywhere from $30 to $100 for a pair. Microphone cables are more difficult to predict depending on your space and requirements. If youre recording drums, you could need as many as 10 microphones running at once, and if youre miking a

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rhythm section and guide vocals at the same time, you could have a need for 15 mic cables at a time. Length comes into play here as well, depending on whether you need to make it into an adjacent room. As such, mic cables can easily add up to hundreds of dollars. While being able to afford high-end cables for every mic in your arsenal would be ideal, thats probably not practical. Purchasing high-performance cables for acoustic guitar and vocal mics is worthwhile, and you can get away with something less than top-shelf for electric guitar, bass, and drum mics and not adversely affect your final recording.

So while you can very easily spend more than $999 just on monitors, if youre relying on your studio to produce final mixes, there are compelling arguments why they are worth that investment. But for a solid reference point, and with enough experience and experimentation, you can buy an affordable pair of monitors and have room to spare for the other gear you need. One note: even experienced engineers working with monitors they are familiar with will take the time to listen to music at their console before a session. Its necessary to acclimate to the room and the frequencies and the way the speakers sound that day. Environmental factors can affect your ears and the monitors, so no matter what the quality of the equipment you use, taking the time to acclimate will help you focus and prepare for your best work.

Preamp
Because microphones provide a low signal, a preamp is necessary to boost the signal to a workable level and yes, you can rely on the preamp included in your recording device. The thing to note here is the quality of the transformers on a professional console will provide enough detail and performance that an external preamp will probably not be necessary. For your home studio recording console, a good external preamp can make a huge difference and provide a signal quality similar to what youll find in a professional recording environment. Preamps help with the purity of the signal as well, as the chance of interference can be lessened. By keeping the sound source a vocal mic, for instance close to the preamp using a shorter and wellinsulated cable, the amplified source will be cleaner and the signal-tonoise ratio is dependent on the noise figure of the preamp. Another use for a preamp is software monitoring. If your DAW or computer doesnt have the processing power to utilize your systems plug-ins on the way in, or if youre taxing your DAWs mixer, you can experience latency issues. Using a preamp will ease the burden on the mixer and improve your working conditions considerably. Preamps can come equipped with compressors, equalizers, channel strips, and the like and can cost many thousands of dollars. A simple, single function preamp can run anywhere from $70-800.

Purchasing the Right Monitors

Go to your favorite music instrument retailer w/CDs you know and love, and take some time listening to the available monitor systems. A lot of what makes a pair right for you is all about preference. Tweeters and drivers are made out of different materials. Domes can be made of titanium or aluminum, which will be a bit crispy, or mylar or silk, which are softer. Speaker cone can be made of paper, doped paper, polypropylene, kevlar, or metal. The enclosure and design of the driver will also contribute greatly to the sound of the speaker (particularly in how it reproduces bass tone), so hearing a variety of options and choosing the one that best suits your ear is absolutely recommended.

Unpowered (passive) monitors

Passive monitors need an external source of amplification to boost the signal between the mixer and the monitor. Make sure your power amp can pump out 50-100% more power than the speakers require. For example, if your speakers are rated at 120 W at 4 ohms, youll want a power amp that delivers in the neighborhood of 200 W at 4 ohms. The inclusion of a power amp in the chain also requires additional cables. A higher-gauge speaker cable (16 gauge or better) is what you need to go from the power amp to the monitors. One real benefit to the passive set up is the flexibility to match different amps with your speakers, giving you the capacity to arrive at the perfect pairing for your ears and room.

Monitors
When determining what you want from a monitor, consider this: within your budget, you want something that will give you as clear a vision of what youve recorded as possible. Some of the less expensive monitors have the byproduct of being colored in one direction or another. And dont get your hands on old audiophile speakers thinking theyre going to be perfect. Highs and lows will be accentuated in consumer speakers, which will ultimately affect your mix.

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There are a host of good options for power amps ranging from $200$350, and passive monitors start around $200 a pair and go up into the multi-thousand dollar range.

That said, you can find headphones for recording performers starting as low as $11. One last thing to consider for headphones are extension cables. Being able to feed a long enough line to someone recording a part will require more line than your headphones will provide, so plan on one extension cable per headphone a set of five runs $75.

Powered (active) monitors

Active monitors have built-in amplifiers, with separate amps for the separate drivers. Benefits of powered monitors include no power amp, fewer cables to buy, less space taken up, amps that are perfectly suited to the drivers, and in a good pair of active monitors, the frequency splitting can be more accurate than in a passive system. When an audio signal is sent to your powered monitors, a crossover splits the signal into the appropriate frequency ranges before theyre sent to the individual drivers. With passive monitors, the high-level input signal that drives the speaker comes from the power amplifier. In active monitors, the cabinet houses an amplifier for each driver. The frequency band splitting is performed on the line input signal directly prior to the amplifiers. Active monitors run in desktop sizes that start at $99 a pair (for a 20 W speaker). Something comparable to the 100 W passive speakers referenced earlier start in the $450/pair price range.

Headphone Amp
Youre going to need to feed a headphone mix to various musicians simultaneously if youre tracking more than one player at a time, and youll need to boost the signal fairly significantly if youre recording an amplified guitarist or drummer. There is a huge variety of headphone amps and mixers on the market, and the price range depends on the number of inputs, functionality, degree of control, and the amount of power you want. A really basic 4-channel headphone amp/mixer with individual volume controls can be found for under $25, but chances are, if you need any degree of sophistication, you might be in the market for a rackmount unit, which start at $150.

Accessories, extras, and more

Fader Port. One item to consider if you are using recording software is an external fader port. For as little as $60, you can use faders and pan knobs from a small, 8-fader port and use your hands to control your software rather than a mouse and keyboard. Outboard effects. While every recording software program comes with an array of effects and available plug-ins, you may find a need for some external units for delays, compression/limiting, reverb, distortion, and the like.

Headphones
An excellent set of headphones, from a recording engineers perspective, is one that gives a truly clear representation of the recorded sounds, without added color or filtering. Consumer-oriented headphones are designed to boost bass and highs, which is not what you want if you are relying on your headphones for an accurate mix. For a mixing and recording engineer, a set of cans that are sealed and that have a flat response are necessary. In addition to that, comfort and weight should be considered, as you may be wearing these for hours at a time. You can find headphones marketed as flat response or reference starting at $60, but to step up to mixing quality phones, youll find the entry level is probably more like $100. You can spend plenty more than that, and a high-end headphone can cost upwards to $400. Of course, youll need more than one pair of headphones, and what is true for the mixing engineer is not true for the recording/performing artist. For playback and performance purposes, the artist can get by with something substantially less than reference headphones. Here, though, is also where durability should be considered. Youll be sure to take good care of a pair of headphones you dropped $150 on, but the cans the artists are using will get significantly more abuse.

Microphone Stands and accessories. Like cables, this is an expense you might overlook when considering your needs for your studio. Boom stands can run around $30 each, and depending on how many mics youll be running at once, you could easily have a need for 5-8 stands at a time. Also consider mounting clips for drums and gooseneck adaptors. A pop filter for vocal recording is another item to have on hand. While you may be tempted to go as cheap as possible to get as many stands as you can to start, constantly having to readjust boom stands that wont hold their positions can make a recording session extremely frustrating. Music Stands. Another handy thing to have around. Folding stands are under $20, while a symphony stand will run $40. Guitar Stands. Stands can cost anywhere from $10-40 for floor stands or wall mounts.

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