Start Your Own Home Studio

For today's musicians, possibilities are absolutely endless. Casual musicians have the ability to record their music and upload it to the world. We can do things now that musicians 15 years ago could only dream of doing. If you're serious about your music, and want to give your music a more professional sound, it's time to start your own home studio. Let's face it, all your competition on the internet and otherwise are using more than their PC sound card to record their songs, so it's about time you did the same. If you're thinking that you can't afford it, think again. I'll show you what I use in my home studio, and give some recommendations according to the equipment I own.

First of all, let's establish a presumed fact; my studio is computer based. With the software and hardware technologies available for PC's and Mac's today, this is definitely the way to go for your home studio. If you have a computer that is 3 years old or less and has at least 512 megabytes of RAM, you'll probably be fine without upgrading. Of course this isn't always the case, and I'll explain why a little later on. Most recording interfaces are USB and/or Firewire, so it doesn't really matter if you own a Desktop or Laptop computer. I personally use a Dell Inspiron with Windows XP, 7200 RPM 80 gigabyte hard drive, a gig and a half of RAM, with the addition of an external 200 gigabyte hard drive for large file storage. When you are recording, .wav files are being written to your hard drive, and they are not small files. Additional storage is necessary for most musicians.