How to set up your budget home recording studio (part 4)

Audio vs MIDI 

Audio/MIDI sound card with external instrument connector interface

In my previous post, we've talked about minimal PC specs that are required in computer based recording studio setup's. But, before we start exploring various types of Audio/MIDI interfaces and sound cards, I would like to briefly explain its basic terminology and definitions.


Audio is an electrical or other representation of sound within human audible range of frequencies (20Hz to 20.000Hz). Audio can be represented in Analog or Digital form. 
Analog (traditional) audio is a representation of a sound that is analogous to the air pressure waves of the sound. In Analog audio recording, audio signal is converted into electrical energy and stored on a media (vinyl or magnetic tape) by copying down wave patterns of the sound.

How to set up your budget home recording studio (part 3)

Digital recording studio systems

Cubase 5 - Digital multitrack sound recording and editing software

As described in my previous article, we are living today in the era of a digital technology. The traditional, analog studio recording equipment, although available and still necessary in some applications, became much less popular in general due to the evolution of a newer, more compact and versatile, and relatively cheaper digital sound recording systems. These systems became cheaper and widely available simply because the need for the expensive hardware doesn't exist any more (except for the high end systems), as the digital systems are now controlled electronically by the software, rather than the hardware it self. In home, or so called project studios, although we still require to have some hardware interfaces to be able to physically connect various pieces of studio equipment, instruments etc., in comparison with previous systems, they are minimal.

We are now going to take a look at some very basic computer based audio recording setup.

How to set up your budget home recording studio (part 2)

Home studio - will it work at my home?

Low budget home recording studio setup

So you've decided to build your own home studio and you think you could possibly set it up in your bedroom or even living room, but you're not sure if that will work or not! Well, as I've mentioned on my previous page, you can build your own home recording studio quite cheaply these days, and as technology is developing, you can set it up (almost) anywhere you want. Let's find the best spot for your home studio!

The best location

You'll need to examine your home first and find the best spot for the studio, in one of your rooms, that is as far as possible from the outside sound sources.

How to set up your budget home recording studio (part 1)

My song just doesn't sound right!

Pssst...silence in the studio...

As a musician (playing solo or in the band), you've already had recorded some of your original tunes in a recording studio. The likelihood is - you haven't been quite happy with the results, some, or even most of the times!

The reason being is that you were either limited with the budget and so with the time you've had during the studio recording session, or even if you've had enough time, your newly recorded track just didn't sound good enough at your home stereo, or your car's CD player, as it did at those studio monitor speakers!


I have to set up my own studio!