How to setup a mini home recording studio when on a budget?
This was the question that showed up on my feed on Quora.com (a site where I actively participate, answering questions of interest). And I put together my experience and the equipment that I used to setup my own place. (I will edit the post and put pictures, when the setup is complete - its still a "work in progress").
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The original answer written by me on Quora.
I am qualified to answer this because I am bang in the middle of doing exactly this.
What follows is the essence of close to 3 months of mining useful knowledge from YouTube (yes there are 100s of videos - some informative and some downright confusing).
Brief backstory: after 20 years in IT, I was honorably discharged (read: laid off)
and was left with the big question of “what next”. Fortunately, I have
also been an active musician on the side for close to a decade and it
made perfect sense for me to pursue it full time now. The direct result
of that decision was the birth of www.taalmagic.com.
I started recording some videos in my living room but was quite
dissatisfied with the constant hum of ambient noise in the videos. That
is what led me to find out more about recording and I discovered that
there are 100s of enthusiasts like myself (and now you) who have
successfully setup home studios on a budget and are cranking out high
quality videos.
All my items just reached me 2 days back (ordered from amazon.in) and I will be setting it all up to be ready by the end of this week.
OK, let me get to the point. At a bare minimum you will require the following items:
- A decent Studio Condenser mic - After going through many review videos and comparisons and considering budget limitations, I have purchased the Behringer C-1. Note: This type of microphone requires 48v Phantom Power to function correctly. Most good USB Audio Interfaces (see next point) have this option built in, so no need to purchase separate.
- Next you will require a basic USB audio interface and a DAW - Here also there were a plethora of options and the number of comparison videos out there are simply overwhelming. It really took me many days to finally decide on one (and despite all the research in the end I went with gut feeling LOL!) - Here’s the one I got - Behringer U-Phoria C22. In order to get the full benefit out of this little piece of hardware, you will also need a DAW - It simply stands for Digital Audio Workstation OR in simple words, a software to edit sound. Given that I am still a ‘poor’ musician, I had to go with a free & open source option which is very powerful and easy to use - Audacity.
- A decent microphone stand (many options online and in stores).
- XLR Cable. You will need a cable to connect your condenser mic to your USB audio interface.
- A pop filter. This is a cheap little thing that helps clean out the bursts in recording caused when we pronounce “Ph” or “B” or “Bh”.
- Acoustic treatment - This is a biggie and pretty much controls most of the magic. Remember my little rant about ambient noise in the room while recording? Acoustic treatment foam is 2 inch thick foam padding used in many home studios around the world that helps eliminate most of this unwanted echo and humming by absorbing the sound. It helps create high quality audio tracks which need minimal post production work. (I was actually getting ready to put up the foam on the walls when I chanced upon this question and got distracted - LOL). I went with this option (took 2 sets - enough to cover 6x4 feet on one side and 4x3 feet on adjacent wall) along with the glue made by the same company.
- Along with singing (or talking) if you plan to record some instruments (especially percussion), then there is an optional recommendation to go for Shure SM57 microphone. From what I have read so far, this is the most sturdy and durable mic and is used in most of the studios (professional as well as amateur) world wide. The mic comes without cables so you will need to buy the cable separate (also another stand if you want to used both mics together).
I
also purchased a light for recording videos because lighting in most
homes is not adequate to record good quality videos. Again there are
100s of options, but I went with this one.
Needless
to say, I assume you already have a camera to record your video. Once
you’ve used all the above equipment to record your video content, you
will enter the most important phase of video creation. It is called Post Production.
It is at this stage that you will be cutting, splicing scenes, adding
your custom texts, logos, etc. and packaging the content into a finished
video file.
Here are some recommendations (feel free to go with your own choice).
- VSDC Video Editor - extremely powerful editor, yet free. They charge for support and one or two features, which is not needed if you’re just about starting out. After trying many tools, I got to this one and it was instant love!
- Handbrake - This is a very beautiful tool to take big video files and compress them into smaller size without losing details. An industry veteran shared a very beautiful insight to me on video making - he said, “Anand, whatever video you make, ensure that it is whatsappable.” It is a simple statement but I realized that it makes a lot of sense because that is the easiest way to get popular. And the handbrake tool lets you do just that - convert a huge file into mobile friendly format and size.
OK,
I think I have covered it all. Phew!! I haven’t written an answer this
long, in ages. I hope you find this information useful and are able to
setup a wonderful home studio within a limited budget.
Good luck!
~Anand
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