By admin

5 June, 2013

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I know there are a lot of people out there who are students or are just on a very tight budget. If you want to experiment with home recording, money shouldn’t stop you, so here is the absolute cheapest home studio setup I could come up with if you had to buy everything from scratch. Note: There are cheaper items you can purchase, but I tried to put together a setup that will give you great home recordings.

Computer $399

We’ll stick with a PC since it is much less expensive than a Mac counter part.

Dell Inspiron 15 15.6″ Laptop, AMD Dual-Core E-450 1.65GHz $399

It has good specs for the price. It’s running Windows 7, 64 bit.

AMD Dual-Core E-450 Mobile Processor (2X1.65GHz, 1MB L2 Cache)

4GB DDR3 SDRAM (1 DIMM), 320GB 5400RPM

15.6″ High Definition (720p) LED Display with TrueLife

SuperMulti DVD burner , 3-in-1 Media Card Reader

AMD Radeon HD 6320 Discrete-Class Graphics

Soundcard $149

I think this is one of the best entry level sound cards out there:

PreSonus AudioBox USB 2×2 USB Recording Interface. It has everything you need for a basic home setup. 2 Microphone XLR inputs with phantom power (that also double as 2 1/4 inch inputs for your instruments) and midi in and out (not many entry level audio interfaces have this feature). It even has a built in mixer encoder so that you can record yourself without any audible delay (no nasty latency).

Software $ FREE

By buying the Presonus AudioBox interface, it comes bundled with their fantastic, Studio One Artist software. It’s a very capable DAW that is easy to use and comes stocked with more than enough features to get you going. You’ll get virtual instruments, compressors, eq’s, reverbs, amp modelling effects and a lot more.

Microphone $99

Rather than buying a cheap large diaphragm microphone, let’s go for a very capable microphone that is great on vocals, guitars, amps and other instruments. The Shure SM57 is inexpensive and will get you into the recording world with great results. If you upgrade to a more expensive mic in the future, you can always find uses for your Shure SM57 as it is very versatile.

Headphones $9.99

Keeping with a super tight budget, let’s go with the Behringer HPM1000 Multi-Purpose Headphones. It will be good enough for recording purposes and I highly doubt you’ll find anything else at this price point.

Microphone Stand $19

Any microphone stand will do, all it has to do is hold up your mic. You can probably find a cheaper one if you look around at your local music store.

Microphone Pop Filter $2

We’re not going to be spending $20 on a pop filter. You are a student on a budget right? Save your extra money for Ramen noodles and buy a pair of ladies pantyhose, grab a wire coat hanger, make a loop and put the pantyhose over it. Now tie it to your mic stand and you are ready to record vocals.

Studio Monitors $139

You can find cheaper models for studio speakers, but this is a great pair for the price, the M-Audio Studiophile AV 40 Active Studio Monitor Speakers.

Keyboard Controller

Since we’re on a tight budget, let’s go for a compact, usb keyboard controller that you can use to play your virtual instruments.

M-Audio Keystation Mini 32 Ultra-Portable 32-Key USB MIDI Keyboard Controller. It’s small and it should be adequate to start composing on. If you look around for deals, you can probably find a full size keyboard controller for this price. Another alternative would be to purchase any old keyboard with a midi out and connect it to your presonus sound card via the midi input.

Cables $19

Finally, you are going to need cables to hook up your studio. Your going to need 1 xlr microphone cable and a pair of 1/4 cables to connect the output of your sound card to your studio monitors.

Grand Total $ 894.99

(not a bad price for a complete, mini home studio)