Home Recording Studio Design Ideas - Rock Solid Studio Ideas

    A few years ago I set up my very first home studio and I found the whole thing a little bit of a minefield. In this article I will do my best to be like a very sweaty fairy god mother who will guide you through all the many products available on the market.

    I'm not a big tech guy so I use a very simple home recording studio design to make it as easiest possible for the ideas to come together. That way the technology does not get in the way of the creative process, hopefully if you're a singer songwriter type, this guide will save you some time.

    First things first, I want to take you through what I use so that you can copy;-)

Home Recording Studio Design - The Computer

    Personally I love the slick white feel of a Mac Book, and I have also recently got an iMac with an extra two gigs of Ram for ultra speedy home editing.

    The other great benefit of a Mac is that it comes with Garage Band which for me is a big player in the recording software market. (More on this later)

Home Recording Studio Design - The Microphone

    The nicest cheap Microphone I have found so far is a Studio Projects B1, this is a great little condenser Microphone that is very versatile and can take a good beating. (Which is good for me because I get very passionate and angry during recordings and wimpy little Mics don't stand a chance!!!) I once spent $5000 on a really nice Neumann Microphone only to drop the thing plum on the floor and break it in the first day of use.

Home Recording Studio Design - The Software

    For years I have been going on and on about Pro Tools but now I have changed my mind, if you really want to get some speedy recordings in the can then Garage Band is by far the most user-friendly way to get started.

    I know that a lot of home studio guys will be out there saying I'm crazy but at the end o the day I'm a lazy producer and want the tune to sound good at the click of a button. Garageband is the only piece of software that gives me what I'm looking for.

Home Recording Studio Design - Audio Interface

    This is basically what you need to make your guitar or voice show up inside a computer and make those wavy lines on the screen. I like the Mbox as it has a couple of inputs and is nice and compact.

Home Recording Studio Design - Midi controller

    When I want to add some string or maybe a sexy bass guitar I fire up my M Audio keyboard and use a program called Reason which gives me access to over a thousand really nice quality samples; a must if you have an ambitious sound in mind and do not have access to an army of session musicians.

Home Recording Studio Design - Drums

    Keep it simple if you not going to hire a real drummer, the Dr Rhythm drum machine collection are as good as any.