Building A Home Studio, On A Limited Budget

[JohnnyOctane]

Ok, I have tried and failed at this project before, And really by now I should go get some decent sound equipment, but I really haven't found anything within the limit budget I have to spend. I'm talking maybe £30- £40 a month disposable here, so over a 12month period I would like to develop some decent sound recording systems.

So far I own:

1x microphone usb. 1x microphone usb to jack- jack

1x mixer four channel 1x playstation 3

1x laptop 5usb ports 1x playstation 3 eyetoy camera and microphone

1x guitar

Many various unsorted usb cables and jacks.

My list was bigger, but I got burgled four months ago and lost pretty much everything but the acoustic.

I don't even know where to start anymore, I have mixcraft still, and I can still plug the mic into the laptop, but I have no idea on video/sound recording software.

[SongofYesterday]

Check out this YouTube channel, very helpful.

Garageband and Beyond

[Gazebo]

Johnny - recording on a budget has never been simpler. My total budget for recording equipment over the last few years is as follows:

Line 6 Toneport Guitar Recording Interface £45

EMU 202 Interface (better for vocals etc than the toneport) £110

Mic Stand £36

Non-name brand dynamic mic £36

Samson Condenser Mic £95

Laptop Speakers (not proper monitor speakers but easier better than using headphones and ok for mixing if you know your reference points) £50

Kristal DAW - Free download

Cakewalk Sonar LE DAW -Bundled free with EMU interface

Various VST Effects - all free downloads, or picked up from fee cd's with recording magazines.

I started out with the Toneport, the dynamic mic, a cheaper mic stand and Kristal.

So starting out point for me was less than £100. Even then, I still had a really wide sound palette available.

Good luck in choosing you stuff. Doing it without huge cost is part of the challenge for me!

[Coises]

I have no idea on video/sound recording software.

If your laptop is running Windows, I don’t think you can beat Reaper for multi-track recording software. The evaluation version is not crippled in any way; aside from a nag screen, you are “on your honor” to buy the software (current price $40 USD) if you keep it after 30 days. To me, that meant I could evaluate it seriously, with “real projects,” knowing that my work wouldn’t be “held hostage” if I decided not to by it. (Yes, I did purchase Reaper.)

Aside from that, the other immediate suggestion I have is that your list of equipment doesn’t mention a monitoring system. You can’t produce what you can’t hear! I’d say your first order of business is to save up for a decent set of nearfield monitors.

(Hint: headphones are great for finding and editing flaws in your tracks, but — at least, in my experience — it’s impossible to get a good mix using only headphones, regardless of how good they are... in a way, headphones reveal too much detail, so that you can’t tell what will be buried in the mix and what will stick out like a sore thumb when the mix is played on typical room speakers.)