Unlike the old days when recording needs to be done in a big studio with expensive gears, everyone can make an album literally from their garage now. With only a computer and a music production program, you can record any songs from any genre.
However, there are probably too many recording gears on the market now. And it can be confusing to pick the right ones for beginners. But worry no more, we’ve compiled the three essential ones below.
A Portable Mixer
Many Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) programs surely include mixing features, but computer audio input can manage only one instrument at a time. And this is the reason why garage musicians still add portable mixers in their arsenal. What you need is the ability to convert the audio signal to digital input that can be processed by your DAW.
If your music follows the standard composition (guitars, a vocal, and a drum), a 12 channel console is enough. Allen & Heath Zed-12fx 12-Channel Mixer, Zoom Livetrak L-12, and Mackie B Box 12-channel (PROFX12V2) are the popular ones out there.
Portable MIDI Controller
DAW programs indeed cover pretty much all the features you need to record songs, but if you edit with your mouse and computer keyboard all the time, it is not as convenient as working with a portable MIDI controller. Besides, MIDI controllers have extra functions like modulation wheels, pitch bend wheels, sustain pedals, pitch sliders, buttons, knobs, faders, switches, and ribbon controllers that can give you so much freedom during the creative process. Moreover, if your music requires dynamic, the microKEY keyboard by Korg is velocity-sensitive. You will no longer need to tweak the notes manually from the DAW, which is certainly a time-consuming task.
Other brands that are commonly used by musicians for home recording are Alesis Q, Akai Professional MPD218, Korg NanoKey2/NanoPad2, Novation Launchkey, M-Audio Axiom AIR, and Acorn Instruments Masterkey 49. If your music is of the electronic genre, this gadget can even allow you to compose beats on the go.
Monitor Speakers
Monitor speakers are the determiner for the quality of your recorded songs. You can’t just use any speakers for recording, even if it is only intended for home-scale production. The ones with any boost features are deceiving. They may give you a decent audio output of a song, but once it is played in different gadgets with different speakers, the flaws of the mixing-mastering become noticeable. And this phenomenon is caused by the speakers’ inability to cover some ranges of the frequency of the song.
Therefore, don’t bother spending your money on cheap brands. Save up for the pro-grades ones like Yamaha HS8, Event 20/20 BAS, Dynaudio BM5 mkll, or Mackie, HR824 mkll.