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Best Outboard Gear for Home Studio Using Daw UPDATED

Best Outboard Gear for Home Studio Using Daw

"The best investment is in the tools of 1's ain trade."

— Benjamin Franklin

You honey music — and then much that you started actually producing music — and so what exactly goes in to building the ultimate home studio setup?

Getting the right tools might exist easier than you think.

Apparently, you can win v Grammy's with less than $3,000 of gear.

That said, this guide will assist breakdown all the equipment you should consider purchasing in your first two years of producing to help yous get everything you need in your dwelling studio setup.

1. Computer

At the center of any mod studio setup, is the calculator. Chris Athens, who has most likely mastered many records y'all love, is quick to acknowledge that his computer is the heart of his studio.

His work ranges from Drake to AC/DC, and he says that yous can take abroad thousands and thousands of dollars of analog gear and he will all the same deliver a killer master with just his computer and some relatively inexpensive software.

It'south important to remember that your reckoner will be the foundation for your entire studio. It should exist the kickoff slice of gear you become, and you should make sure to get 1 that will last you in the long run.

Items to consider:

Mac or PC
Desktop or laptop
Hard Drive capacity
Amount of RAM
Processor

ii. Figurer Monitor

Even if yous end up getting a laptop, screen existent manor is super valuable for product. I personally use a 27" monitor, and I recommend getting the largest screen size that fits your space and budget.

Production to consider: Dell 27" Monitor SE2717HR

3. Monitors

More than your other tools, your monitors volition likely accept the greatest effect on your sound. The more than accurate your monitoring is, the easier time y'all'll have crafting professional person mixes.

When searching out monitors, try to avoid getting "ported monitors" at all costs. It'southward a technique used to try to get cheaper monitors to artificially audio ameliorate merely it comes with a whole slew of issues.

You lot want to try to discover monitors with a fairly apartment response, just y'all can always use software like Sonarworks afterwards the fact to try to tighten things up a flake, and compensate for pocket-size room problem.

Products to consider: Amphion eighteen (loftier cease), Focal Shape 65 (high stop), JBL 305P (budget), Yamaha HS Series (upkeep)

4. Headphones

Since sound is very dependent on your room, if yous are in an untreated space, consider using headphones instead of traditional monitors. Try to find open back headphones for producing, mixing, mastering purposes.

Even if you're using monitors, y'all volition nevertheless need headphones to use while recording. For this purpose y'all should be looking for a closed back pair.

Open back headphones permit for bass frequencies to escape from the headphone and non build upwards, allowing for clearer and more accurate low finish. The drawback is they leak a lot of sound, so are not ideal for use in public or while recording.

Products to consider: Audeze LCD line (high finish), Sennheiser Open up Back 600s (mid-tier), Audio Technica M50X (upkeep)

5. DAW

Your DAW, or Digital Audio Workstation is the primary slice of software yous'll be using to make music. You likely already accept one if you are reading this, but some things to consider are compatibility with your Os (Mac or Windows), built in features, cost, and stability.

No matter which DAW you choose though, remember that it is just a tool and that amazing music tin can exist made with any DAW. It actually just comes downwardly to what you do with it.

Products to consider: Cubase, Logic, Ableton, FL Studio

6. Additional Software/Plugins

Your DAW will have many included tools (known as 'stock plugins'), and likely already includes everything you lot need to make amazing music.

It should exist noted though, that yous can get actress functionality and accomplish better results faster by expanding your toolkit, which is why every professional relies on a drove of external plugins. This makes additional software and plugins a necessity as part of any home studio setup.

There are many astonishing complimentary plugins you can find, and of form an infinite amount of high end plugins to upgrade to. A great place to start is the Slate All Access Laissez passer, which gets you thousands of dollars of plugins for under $15/month.

For a more all-encompassing guide on plugins, bank check out our Ultimate Plugin Guide.

Products to consider: Slate All Access Pass, Soundtoys Bundle, Fabfilter, Waves, Universal Audio

seven. Interface

The sound coming out of your reckoner is going to exist affected by the digital-to-analog converters in your interface, and your recordings will exist profoundly affected by the preamp in your interface. Luckily these days you can get quality converters on a upkeep.

Pro Tip: Attempt to utilize Thunderbolt if you tin can. It's a much faster connection than USB and it won't eat up i of your USB ports.

Products to consider: Apollo Twin Ten Duo, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2

8. MIDI Controller

Non just a piano, a good MIDI controller will have options like pitch bend, modulation, and drum pads.

These features, in my stance, are imperative for creativity and creativity and make this piece of equipment a must-take for whatsoever functional home studio setup.

Products to consider: NI Komplete Kontrol, Behringer Motor 61

9. Microphone

Gone are the days where you need an extensive mic locker to track vocals. The ultimate home studio design simply needs ii mics — a dynamic mic, and a condenser modeling mic.

A dynamic mic volition perform super well even in an untreated environment, and a modeling mic gives yous access to a virtual mic locker.

Loftier-end engineers collect thousands upon thousands of dollars of microphones then that they can match the microphone they want for the record style and vocalist they are recording.

With virtual modeling microphones you tin emulate the tones of microphones worth tens of thousands of dollars with a relatively inexpensive microphone/software combination, practically eliminating the need for a mic locker.

Products to consider: Shure SM7B, Electro Vocalization RE2020, Slate VMS, Townsend Sphere, Antelope Edge

x. External Difficult Drive

Music projects have up a lot of space. A LOT of space. Having an external (or several!) allows y'all to store backups of your computer in case of a failure, and to offload big files like sample libraries or old projects to keep your internal drive lean and hateful.

Of course, concrete difficult drives Tin can neglect, so consider looking for a cloud-based solution like Dropbox or Backblaze to make your studio setup fool-proof. Splice.com even offers FREE cloud backup for your music projects!

Products to consider: WD Passport

xi. USB Splitter

Let'southward face it — most computers don't take plenty USB ports for all your peripherals. You can get a inexpensive USB splitter from Amazon, merely so you may take trouble powering your devices from it and you don't desire to describe too much power from your estimator.

If you need more ability, consider getting a USB splitter with an external power supply. Having additional USB ports was a game changer in creating my ultimate home studio setup.

Products to consider: Anything by Juiced

12. Cables

You're going to need a lot of cables. TRS, XLR, Thunderbolt, etc. Sweetwater has an extremely useful tool to assist you lot find the correct cables for your needs.

thirteen. iLok USB

Beloved or hate iLok (I dear 'em), most major audio software companies run their licensing through iLok'due south platform, and having a USB gives you a lot of flexibility.

For whatsoever serious music producer, chalk this upward as a must accept.

14. Desk

Though not every bit glorious every bit some of the other items on this list, you need a sturdy desk that looks great and makes yous happy to work on. I personally built my desk from parts from Ikea, but y'all tin also go a desk designed for studio work.

Plus, sitting for long hours can exist damaging to your health. Check out our complete guide to Fugitive Lower Dorsum Pain for Music Producers.

Products to consider: Platform past Output, Uplift Standing Desks

15. Chair

We studio guys sit a big chunk of the day, and information technology'southward easy to develop back, leg, and neck problems from poor posture. Your chair is not the identify to effort to relieve coin. Brand sure you get something with great lumbar support!

Products to consider: Herman Miller Aeron, Sihoo Ergonomic Office Chair

16. Vibe Items

Plants, led strips, colored bulbs, knick knacks, merch from your favorite audio companies, and toys volition all brand your home studio a more fun and creative environment to work in.

Artists always love when I inquire them what their favorite color is, and I tell my Google Home to set my wifi connected vibe lights to that color. It's a uncomplicated matter, but it only makes my space that much more fun to work in.

You lot will exist spending a lot of time in your habitation studio, so why non make information technology a place you love to spend time in?

Products to Consider: LED Glow Lighting Kit, IKEA Plants, Westward Elm Area Rugs

17. Stands

I'm sure stands aren't the first matter you call back of when you think ultimate home studio setup — and yet, you now have a lot of gear and will need a place to put all of it.

X-stands, mic stands, and desk mic stands are all going to help you with your setup.

Products to consider: Rode PSA1 Swivel

xviii. Treatment

Don't underestimate the importance of treatment in your studio. Information technology can be argued that treatment is as important equally your speakers pick. In that location is a lot of corking information about treatment in the Hyperbits Masterclass, but for now I volition suggest two premade options:

Primacoustic London: This will provide a predesigned kit depending on the size of your room that will help with both monitoring and recording.
Kaotica Eyeball: If yous aren't set to care for your room, this volition be extremely helpful in making your recordings cleaner past not picking up as much room reflections.

19. Phone Stand

An underrated useful role of my studio desk is that I have a telephone stand to place my phone so I accept like shooting fish in a barrel access and viewability to my business organisation letters/calls while I work.

This besides makes for an easy and inexpensive way to picture content for social media, hands-free.

Products to Consider: Phone Tripod, Gooseneck Mount

xx. Cheap Speakers

Let's be honest, well-nigh people won't be listening to your music in a well-treated, perfectly balanced home studio. It is super helpful to reference your mixes on some more commercial speakers to get a feel for how they will sound to your boilerplate listener.

Products to Consider: Inexpensive Speakers on eBay, Amazon Alexa, Google Nest

21. Outboard Gear

This is definitely not a necessity by any stretch of the imagination, but if y'all're a hardware kind of person, consider getting some analog gear like a archetype preamp or compressor to use while tracking.

I personally prefer keeping things every bit much on my computer as I tin, but this is a personal preference thing.

Products to consider: Neve 1073, UA 1176, Empirical Labs Distressor

Pro Tip: in that location are also clones of these iconic pieces of gear that will be less expensive than the original manufacturer's version)

The Ultimate Abode Studio Setup

Starting the journeying of putting together your home studio setup can be extremely daunting — and expensive. The good news is you don't need to go all of these items at once. For a while I produced on just a laptop and a pair of headphones.

I only recommend upgrading once your gear and technology is clearly holding you back from leveling up. Eddie Wohl, 6X Emmy winning composer, gave me the advice, "Merely make purchases that will make you more money, or salve you time. And saving time is making more than money because you can practise more than work."

As you begin to commencement making money from your music project you lot can put aside an amount to reinvest into your gear. Ultimately, it'south you — not your gear — that is responsible for how you lot volition sound.

All of the gear you lot buy volition brand your job easier, or but exist for fun. In one case in a while, that gear volition also help y'all squeeze a bit more out of your current skill set.

With this listing, you are well on your way to creating the ultimate dwelling studio setup.

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