Recording Studio Equipment List : All Essential Items You’d Need

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“I want to have a home studio but would I be able to manage that?”

It is a valid question to ask yourself.

Many music enthusiasts have a dream of having a home studio, where they can practice and give some precious time to songs and music. Famous singers and musicians might even have that.

What about you? did you think of having a home studio?

As a music enthusiast, of course, you did.

Making a home studio is a big project to jump on. You need to do some digging, researching, and planning.

A home studio isn’t made of a single component, it requires many gadgets to fulfill a desire of a good studio.

If you are reading you are probably a newbie wanting to build his/her home studio or a person who is halfway on the home studio project. Nothing to worry, we have made that journey easy for you. We will walk you through the steps and the components involved in making a home studio.

Go Simple When Building Studio

Starting a new project and going all glamour can be a risky idea.

We all aren’t millionaires, and you would have a budget to fit this project in, so spend accordingly.

Look for affordable equipment and components for the studio. We both know musical instruments can be expensive and pricy. Go for affordable and worthy parts.

Home Studio Equipment List

  • Laptop or PC for music production
  • Digital audio workstation (DAW)
  • Audio interface
  • MIDI controller
  • Microphone
  • Microphone cables
  • Headphones
  • Studio monitors
  • Acoustic foams
  • Harddrive
  • Pop shield
  • Adapters

Recording Studio Equipment List

Laptop or PC for music production

A laptop or PC plays the most important role and investment in home studios.

A laptop or PC should be able to pull the load on being the main equipment there. It connects most of the components so it should be prepared.  Before buying a laptop you need to understand the technical aspect of the computer and the essential specifications required for good performance.

These are some fo the important aspects you should look at a computer or a laptop.

  • Operating system – As it is the program that runs the entire laptop you should look for an efficient OS. Go for a good and powerful OS. example: Windows or Mac OS.
  • RAM – RAM is the physical hardware present in the laptop that is used for storing data. If you are not thinking of leaving music for a more RAM size. More RAM will help your device work faster.
  • Processor– The processor is a chip present inside your laptop that receives input and sends output accordingly. It is something like the brain of the computer. It also controls the movements and reflexes.

As now we know these things are important to look, you are prepared.

We have listed some of the best laptops for home studios, these laptops are powerful with great features to manage all the requirements.

Some of the best laptops for a home studio:

  • Apple Macbook Pro 13-inch
  • Microsoft surface laptop 2
  • Huawei mate book 13 laptop
  • Dell XPS 13 laptop
  • Samsung notebook 9
  • Microsoft surface pro 7
  • MSI GF63 laptop
  • Asus Zenbook Flip UX370 laptop
  • Acer Swift 3
  • Lenovo Thinkpad P

Digital audio workstation (DAW)

Digital audio workstation (DAW) is generally an application software or an electronic device that is used for recording, producing, or editing audio files. It also helps in mixing music on the computer.

The visual design of software like this does not differ much. These are designed to mimic the looks and feels of different mixing boards.

There are many digital audio workstations available on the internet but choosing a right and good can be tricky.

These are some of the famous and well-known Digital audio workstation (DAW) that work best for home studios.

  • Image-Line FL studio
  • Ableton Live
  • Steinberg Cubase
  • Cockos reaper 6
  • Apple Logic Pro
  • Cakewalk by Bandlab
  • Reason Studios Reason
  • Apple Garageband
  • Avid pro tools
  • Acoustica Mixcraft

Audio interface

The audio interface is a more important part than you think. It works as the brain to any recording setups. It acts as a front end of the computer recording system.

Why do we use an audio interface anyway?

With the help of an audio interface, you can connect the computer with things like guitar and microphones. It uses USB for recording. With the help of outputs, you can listen to the recorded or a real-time audio note. The output can be directed to speakers, headphones, or computer speakers.

These can come really handy and useful.

  • Focusrite scarlett 2i2
  • Steinberg UR44
  • Focusrite Scarlett 18i20
  • Focusrite Clarett 2Pre USB
  • Universal audio apollo twin MKII SOLO
  • Roland Octa-capture
  • Focusrite Clarett 4Pre
  • Apogee Duet
  • Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD
  • Audiennt iD4

MIDI controller

MIDI or musical instrument digital interface controller is any software or hardware that looks like an electronic musical keyboard and is used for sending MIDI signals over a USB cable to other musical devices.

It helps in generating and transmitting MIDI data to MIDI-enabled devices. It is used to sequence music and plays a virtual instrument on your laptop or PC.

In a nutshell, it sends MIDI data to the computer and it interprets the signal and gives out output. You can find many MIDI controllers in the market or online but look for quality.

We have listed some of the best MIDI controllers for the home studio.

  • Akai Professional MPD218
  • M audio oxygen
  • Akai Professional MPK mini MKII
  • Alesis Q
  • Korg Nanokey2/nanopad2
  • M-audio Axiom AIR
  • Arturia key step pro-37-key controller and sequencer
  • Novation launchpad pro
  • Novation launch key
  • PreSonus ATOM 16-pad performance controller.

Microphone

A microphone is a common term and you might have heard it many times.  It is a device that converts sound into electrical signals. It is normally called a mic. It is generally connected to a preamplifier before the signals can be recorded.

A microphone can make a lot of difference to a sound or your music based on its cancellation and other factors. A good mic is always considered a priority. Pick a good, effective, and durable microphone.

These are some of the best microphones suited for the home studio.

  • Shure SM58
  • AKG C636
  • Sennheiser MD 421
  • Shure SM7B
  • Rode NTK
  • Lewitt LCT 640 TS microphone
  • Rode NT1A
  • Neumann TLM 102
  • sE Electronics sE2200a II
  • Slate Digital VMS

Above listed are some of the worthy microphones to get. You will have a good experience and its worth a try.

Microphone cables

Microphone cables or popularly known as XLR cables. These cables are used in audio applications and used for professional recording sessions.

It has mainly 3 pins. These are the most common style cables used. Conductors, shielding, outer jacket, and fillers are the 4 components to an XLR cable. Most of the professionals use XLR cables due to the fast bass enclosure.

These are also seen in stage lighting equipment. These are easy to use and fit. You can easily find many cables in the market but you need to look for durable and good XLR cables.

We have listed some of the XLR cables that are useful and handy.

Best XLR cables:

  • AmazonBasics XLR cable
  • Cable matters XLR cable
  • Mogami gold studio XLR cable
  • Planet waves classic series
  • Monoprice premier series XLR cable
  • LyxPro Balanced XLR Cable
  • Silverback Roar XLR patch cable
  • Vitrius cables XLR cable
  • Hosa pro
  • Rapco horizon N1M1

Headphones

Headphones are a trend now, these are used by many of us. As a matter of fact, these work like a charm in your home studio.

Headphones let a single user listen to the audio. These are generally a pair of small loudspeaker drivers for listening and can be worn around the neck. These can be worn outside or inside. Headphones are handy and easy to use and carry around

The headphone coverts electrical signals to the corresponding sound.

The sound quality in every headphone differs to some extent that may change some music quality and originality of the sound. Get headphones with good sound-quality and go for a raw and original sound. Use headphones with noise cancellation features for the best sound experience.

These are some of the top-rated and great headphones to use in home studios. These are affordable and work smoothly.

  • Sennheiser HD280 Pro
  • Sennheiser HD650 Open back professional studio headphones
  • Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro
  • Shure SRH 1540
  • Extreme isolation EX-29
  • Sony MDR-7506
  • Focal spirit professional
  • Audio-Technica ATH-M50x professional studio monitor headphones.
  • Sennheiser HD800 reference studio headphones
  • Beyerdynamic DT-990 acoustically open monitor headphones.

Studio Monitors

Studio monitors confuse people, to be honest. These are actually loudspeakers.

These are speakers that are used to design for a professional audio production setting.

These are used for recording radio and studio music and sounds. They work effectively where audio reproduction can be crucial and difficult.

Thes are used to get a better and clearer picture of the sounds and the music. Frequencies won’t bug you anymore once you use the perfect studio monitor.

We have hand-picked some of the best and fair names that work best as a studio monitor for home studios.

  • Yamaha HS series
  • ADAM audio AX
  • PreSonus Eris
  • FocalAlpha
  • JBL 3 Series MKII
  • Genelec 8000
  • KRK Rokit G4
  • HEDD audio type 20
  • Focal shape 65
  • Genelec 8010

These make your work easy and more precise than before. These can really be helpful for you.

Acoustic Foam Panels

Acoustic foam is a common name you might have used it too. These are not confined to studios and are used in homes for noise cancellation purposes.

acoustic foams are used for acoustic treatment. It helps in reducing sound waves, amplitude, and noise reduction and control. These reduce echoes and background that may create disturbances in music production. These are widely used in the studio to maintain perfect music quality. It is slightly different from soundproofing as these are used to control reverberation sounds.

Here are some of the effective acoustic foams that are effective and try to reduce extra sounds in the background.

  • Auralex acoustic studio foam
  • Foamily red acoustic foam egg crate panel studio
  • ATS wedge foam acoustic panels
  • Pro studio acoustic wedge foam
  • JBER pyramid acoustic foam panels
  • Foamily pyramid acoustic panels.
  • Mybecca acoustic panels
  • Auralex acoustic sono flat absorption foam
  • Auralex acoustic roominator acoustic absorption kit
  • Siless acoustic foam panels

Hard drive

The hard drive is not a new term to most of us. Most of us use hard drives for storing our data. It is an electromechanical data storage device and it uses magnetic storage to store digital data. These are helpful and used for data storage, transfer process, and backup.

This is a useful list of good hard drive for music production.

  • WD My cloud
  • Samsung Backup plus slim
  • Toshiba canvio basics portable hard drive
  • Samsung T5 portable SSD
  • Silicon power rugged armor A60 military-grade
  • Seagate backup plus slim
  • SanDisk extreme portable external hard drive
  • OWC mercury elite pro dual
  • Glyph studio desktop hard drive
  • Seagate barracuda 7,200RPM

Pop shield/filters

It is a noise protection filter used for microphones. these are usually used in recording studios.

It helps in reducing and eliminating popping and distorted sounds.

These are some of the effective pop filter used on the microphone for the home studio.

  • Nady MPF-6
  • Auphonix diameter
  • Earamble studio
  • Auphomix premium
  • Windtech pop guard 2000
  • Stedman corporation pro screen XL
  • On-stage stands ASFSS6GB dual-screen
  • Avantone PS-1 PRO-SHIELD
  • Pauly Ton Pauly superscreen
  • Blue microphone the pop

Adapters and connector

The adapter acts as a converter that converts attributes of one electrical device to another incompatible device.

In a nutshell, it allows one hardware to be adapted to other hardware.

These are some of the examples of successful adaptors and connectors.

  • Neutrik ether con connector
  • Extra credit
  • Bellveen audio video splitter adapter connector socket plug
  • MA premium USB to 6.35mm jack 1/4 quarter-inch cable MIC link cable audio adapter connector
  • HDMI connectors
  • Mono 1/4 inch jak to phone connector
  • XLR gender changers
  • 1/4 inch TRS jack to male XLR connectors
  • 1/4 inch TRS to 1/4 inch TRS connector
  • 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch converter.

These were some of the commonly used equipment that is important and becomes an important part of your home studio.

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