Record Your Work At Home!!!

"You need a guitar" , is what I was told when I asked the guy at the music store about Home Recording Equipment, i said,"OK I have one, then he just glared at me like he was in space or somewhere else, so I left. Hell I had my guitar, four of them, why do I need one though, I could not figure this fellow out, so i am here to tell you about some of the Home Recording Equipment that you will defiantly need. There is a wide arrangement of Home Recording Equipment styles and prices to complete a studio for recording in, and the first part is the studio, we are going to assume you have this figured out and stick with the recording side of the equipment,not the instruments. There are store owners that sell certain brands and they are no different than searching the Internet,except you have a variety online on what you can use.We will start with the CPU, and then to the mics ,cords,usb devices, and general stuff you have to have. I have my preference and I chose M-Audio gear. They are made by Avid and the reason why I chose their products is the price the compatibility and recently was very happy with their support over the phone.

I could go several directions with this and I will not confuse you, I am pushing Avid products on your home recording equipment list , because of the success I have had with this company. The whole setup can be as little as 1000.00 USD or up to 30k , So I will stay with the low to mid range equipment that I am familiar with.

The first bite out of the bag is you need a decent computer whether its a Mac or a PC I suggest you nail that decision first. I know nothing about Mac except that Pro Tools software works fine with the Mac-books ,as far as specs for your Mac, I will leave that up to your computer dealer, I do however know about Windows 7, 64 bit quad Desktop computers and M-Audio gear they will work just fine ,now. At the beginning of the year M-Audio was not quite geared for windows 7 even though they said they were, now fully integrated,even the Pro Axiom control surfaces work fine , it is however hard to hook up the Pro Axiom control surface to windows 7 if you do not follow the instructions to the bone.For your Home Recording equipment ,let me stay on computers for a minute , the Internet has a several sites with homemade cpu's that you can purchase for just recording, yet the expense is high. I use a 500.00 quad 8 gig of ram,(which is more than enough ram) and two external hardrives and no special sound card is needed as the processor an M-Audio have by passed the internal sound card and goes through your gear or hardware from Avid, so that's a good deal , and the sound is so crisp and fine that your just enthused about the products your using,and don't have to fork out much more than the interface and your computer.The computer does not have to be so extreme, yet I have caught mine not ever slowing down or having any problems with running 48 tracks at any given moment, that also sold me on the products from Avid.There is a downside to Avid or M-Audio( the same company), the downer is some external gear are not compatible with the Avid high end Sequencers that run around4k and up, so if your a high end shopper, your reading the wrong article.I am not even going to the minimum requirements to run Pro Tools 9 , which is the new Pro Tools software that recently as of January has come out with, I would think that having above minimum hardware configurations will last me a year or two.I suggest you do the same.

We have the CPU now what? well for your home recording equipment, how many instruments you going to hook up at one time, is your next question, I play by myself, and do not need multiple outputs and inputs , and for that reason I went with the Pro tools Fast Track, its small, yet powerful,and has inputs for the three pin Microphone, and your electric guitar, the keyboard if you use one and with Pro Tools 8 or 9 ,you would definably want one so you can use the virtual instruments that come packaged with the software, it's awesome, In Pro Tools M-Powered 8,in the upgraded version you receive 48 tracks to record with , dedicated MiDI editor window,a bad ass Score Editor Window for printing your music after you play it, Able to do multiple takes and perform a performance sound with. The virtual instruments make the package fit just right with 7 virtual Instruments that are mind boggling perfect sounding, like the Grand Piano,The Boom Drum machine,a DB-33 Organ, Structure Free,Vacuum and Xpand synthase, with thousands of sounds for less than 300.00 since they have come out with Version 9. This is just the beginning to what this software does,and it is professionally made to enhance your recording experience and more buttons than you will ever process.The other cool thing is on the Internet there are tutorials for every product this company makes, so if your even a beginner like I am or was, you can figure this engine out.This piece of work is fairly priced also once you compare individually how much each virtual Instrument would cost you.

I have just set you up with two parts the hardware computer for your home recording studio and the software I stand proudly by, and I almost forgot ,when your finished recording in Pro Tools your Mp3 will be ready to dispense in minutes to put on the Internet to sell. Yes there is a Mp3 option in Pro Tools thats a no hassle recording to deal with.The interface between the computer and your instruments are going to be your next big cost in your system, yet the prices have some down on some of them,since new products have been introduced.Take advantage of the equipment that is being replaced because one thing Avid does do is come out with interfaces before they even work properly,that's the negative on getting new from them, the M-Audio 8 Pro Tools package just within the last six months was compatible with windows 7 64 bit machines, So take advantage of not buying the brand new just yet, you will not lose quality.Avid has a Digidesign Command 003 which is a mixer or interface for more plug ins, and I'm sure quite high for multiple instruments, yet not as high as the competition, the price I found was about 2200.00 or you could settle for 549.00 Avid Pro Tools M Box that has 4 channels USB Audio/MiDI Interface with two Mic Inputs, and the unit is quite small, yet stunning when played through.

This is your Recording studio minus the Speakers,and I do not know much about your monitors you would want , the price is around 150.00 per speaker for a good pair from anyone, I settle for Technica Headphones and my results are very good, as I have no Insulation on my walls and live in a duplex,and all I play goes into my ears all the time, waking no one up as I rock and Roll all night and day.The following is my setup and my home recording equipment I use and for the price of less than one thousand dollars well listen to the above recording I did and even if you don't like the song it was done all with the equipment I just told you about.

I wish I had the extra money as I am sure you do for your home recording equipment, if your still reading this to buy more equipment for my home studio, yet I am content with the sound and it's frivolous to spend anymore at this point ,I could not sound any better.You will amaze yourself,and wonder why you had waited this long to invest, go get it done man.