The Home Audio Engineer's Starter Pack: The Essential Gear Needed to get Your Home Studio Started

Getting into home recording can seem like a daunting task in any given year. Luckily, every year it becomes easier to get started than the previous year. While becoming an effective audio engineer is something that takes time and practice (there simply does not exist any shortcut for this process), the fact is that if you are determined to become an effective audio engineer you are simply going to have to get started. Everything else will fall into place as you practice, study, and experiment.

Let us begin with the essential pieces of equipment that you will need in order to record and produce your tracks. You will need a computing device (presumably you have one as you are currently reading this article), an audio interface, a digital recording workstation (also known as a DAW or simply put a piece of recording software), a microphone, a method of monitoring your recordings such a studio monitors or headphones, and any associated cables for your equipment.

This may all seem like a lot at first but having this essential equipment from the beginning will put you on the path to success and ultimately save you a variety of unnecessary headaches down the road.

I began my journey in home recording with a Sony Vaio laptop (I still have that laptop but they do not make them anymore), a Memorex karaoke microphone (which I also still own), and Audacity (traditionally limited but it is free, easy to use, and has recently been updated with another major update rumored to be on the horizon). It would be a lie to say that this was not enough to get started or that I did not learn a great deal about recording audio working within the limitations of this setup but it would also be lie to say that the limitations of my setup did not put a ceiling on just how much I could achieve with my productions. All this to say that it is to your benefit to start out with the essentials that you need rather than having to chase them down piece by piece later on (as I have had to do for the majority of my journey in audio production).

The computing device

When it comes to computers, while cutting edge devices are generally better, the truth is that just about any contemporary computing device will due especially if you are pairing it with light weight software. For example, you should be able to run a program like Audacity smoothly on basically any computer that was produced in the last ten years (maybe even the last twenty years). Keep in mind that even though these days you can absolutely get away with working on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, the best options for serious work continue to be desktop computers and laptops.

The Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)

There are many options to choose from in the world of DAWs. Everything from the industry standard, Pro Tools, down to something as simple as Audacity. My personal recommendation is Reaper. It is a full-featured DAW, put together by people that know that they are doing, it is not taxing on your machine’s resources, it is customizable, and the developers will allow you to trail it basically for as long as you want for free. Additionally, when you are ready to purchase (and you definitely should), the license is relatively dirt cheap and comes with guaranteed updates that will last you a long while. It is an absolute bargain relative to all the other available options.

The Audio Interface

With your computer and DAW out of the way, it is time to take a look at an audio interface or the device that will allow you to process all of your audio. Like with most things in life, we often want to believe that bigger is better, but that is simply not the case in audio production (more to come on this topic in future articles). In fact, bigger might be a hinderance in audio production, especially if you want to be, or have to be, mobile with your setup. Ultimately, this is an area where you will need to consider your immediate and long-term needs as an audio engineer and you will also need to do a bit of research as less obvious considerations such as the quality of drivers and company support are factors to consider alongside price point when making a final purchase decision. Therefore, for the newly initiated, my recommendation is the Audient Evo 4. It is definitely not the most affordable audio interface on the market but for the price it punches well above its weight class and it is ridiculously compact as it takes up about as much space as a modern flagship smartphone. The Evo 4 comes with all the features that you may need as a new sound engineer and some that will become more useful as you grow. It comes with two combo inputs for both microphones and instruments, a direct input for instruments, outputs for headphones and monitors, and the ability to control all of these inputs with a few knobs and buttons. Add to that the ability to mute individual inputs, use loopback to record sounds directly from your computer, and a cache of free plugins (essential audio production tools that I will touch on in a dedicated article) and you have audio interface that is built for just about any audio production project that you might throw at it.

The Microphone

This leads us to the microphone. Again, there is a universe of possibilities when it comes to microphones. Eventually, you will likely need a small collection of microphones much like a plumber needs a collection of tools. However, speaking from experience, my recommendation is the Shure SM57. The 57 can do it all and it does it quite well. Not to mention that, unlike other options, the 57 does not require anything other than the appropriate cable to get sound into your DAW (via your audio interface of course). It may not be the perfect tool for every recording job but it will produce solid results given any challenge you throw its way. Historically, it has been used to record guitar, snare drums, and voice. Personally, I have used it for all those purposes but I have also used it to record acoustic guitars, bass cabinets, and bass drums with solid results in each case. It is the Swiss army knife of microphones and it is worth every penny. 

The methods of Monitoring (Headphones and Monitors)

Now that we have got the tools necessary to create the recording out of the way, we need to look into the tools necessary to monitor the recording. Headphones and monitors may not be the most exciting parts of audio production but they are as important to an audio engineer as solid windshield wipers are to a rally car driver. Just like a good set of windshield wipers allows a rally driver to see where they are going, a good set of headphones or monitors will allow you to better understand what you are doing in both the recording and mixing phases of your production. As you might already imagine (as with all things in the world of audio production), there are many different options to choose from. Personally, I am going to recommend the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro in the world of headphones and PreSonus Eris 3.5 Powered Studio Monitors in the world of monitors.

Let us begin with the headphones. There are plenty of options when it comes to headphones and I own a variety of those options in the price range of the Sennheiser headphones. I personally recommend the HD 280s because they provide excellent isolation (something that will make both recording and mixing much easier in the long run), they are about as accurate as you can ask from a pair of headphones, and they are easy to drive (nothing is worse than working with a pair of headphones that are ridiculous quite no matter how much you turn them up). These headphones are just as good as other headphones with slightly better name recognition at this price point such as the Sony MDR-7506, Audio-Technica ATH-M50x, or AKG K240s and perform just as well in the recording phase and the mixing phase. This is not necessarily true of the other options at this price point for a variety of reasons. Therefore, if you are looking for the best bang for your buck, you simply cannot go wrong with the HD 280s.

While headphones are great for tracking and are a useful reference tool, the reality is that when it comes to the mixing phase it is generally better to use a solid set of monitors. Unfortunately, monitors can be less than budget friendly. This is especially true as you become more concerned with fidelity. Luckily, as time progresses more and more solid budget friendly options have become available. Personally, I recommend the 2^nd generation PreSonus Eris 3.5 Powered Studio Monitors. These monitors will provide you plenty of fidelity and volume to get you through your novice and even intermediate projects, they are portable enough if you need to be mobile, they come with basically everything you need to get started, and they make great B-monitors or computer speakers when you decide to upgrade (I use mine as my main speakers for my living room TV).