Home Recording Gear

A question I often get is “Hey Robbie, what gear should I get for home recording?” Although I could spend forever explaining the different elements to invest in, I wanted to write this blog post to share with you guys my general recommendations for getting started!

Interface

The interface is the MOST important piece to the puzzle when putting together your home studio. The purpose of your interface is to convert analog signal (your microphone, guitar, etc.) into digital information that your computer can read and convert back to analog for playback through your speakers or headphones.

The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 is my personal recommendation for beginners. This interface is super affordable and very durable. I’ve used it in the early stages of my career and it has always stayed tried and true. You can pick these bad boys up used online or buy new on your favorite music retail store! I would recommend getting the third generation.

There are other popular interfaces out there, so be sure to do your own research and figure out what is best for your own needs. But for most musicians, this is my recommendation!

Monitors/Headphones

I debated putting these in separate categories, but they both offer the same purpose: audio playback. I would recommend beginners to get a pair of studio monitors, somewhere in the 4-5” range. These can get VERY expensive very quickly and aren’t totally necessary unless you plan on playing the audio back to multiple people, which some of you may not care about. Headphones on the other hand, are absolutely necessary. I would recommend getting a pair of closed-back headphones, which can be used for both playback as well as recording. Open-back headphones, by contrast, have a little bit of bleed, which makes them NOT ideal for recording where microphones can pick up that bleed.

My recommendations for headphones honestly don’t matter too much, as long as you’re able to reasonably hear a balanced mix. I have a cheap pair of TASCAM’s for my recording setup!

For studio monitors, I have the Presonus Eris 5” monitors.

Microphones

There are basically two types of microphones you can get for vocal tracking: condenser microphones and dynamic microphones. The difference is mainly in the electronics, but the important thing to know here is that condensers are much more sensitive and naturally have a bit more “air” to them than dynamic microphones. Dynamic microphones are typically used for audio signals that have, not surprisingly, a lot of dynamics. Things that get very loud, very quick. Drum shells, screaming vocals, etc. If you’re a screaming vocalist, a dynamic microphone will be the better fit for you. If you do primarily clean singing, especially softer singing, condensers are the way to go.

Cables

Make sure you buy the correct cables for all of your instruments! This could be a whole blog post in of itself, but please do your due diligence and research which types of cables you need to appropriately connect your gear and instruments. There are three types of cables you will need MOST of the time, and those are TS (tip sleeve), TRS (tip, ring, sleeve) and XLR.

Room

This seems silly at first, but the room you record in is super important, especially when recording with microphones. You want as quiet and dead of a room as you can fine, with little to no reverberations. Bedrooms, by design, are actually acoustically great spaces to record in because there’s usually so much stuff hanging on the walls and fabrics that absorb and mute the sound waves. Just stay away from living rooms, dining rooms, and other spaces in your house notorious for having lots of reverberation.

Computer

You need a computer to make this all happen. I am a huge proponent of Macs. I think they’re great, Apple support is awesome and they’re very intuitive to use. I personally operate off of an M1 Mac Mini and use my iPad with it as well as my 2014 Macbook Pro. However, you can invest in PC as well for cheaper. Just make sure that whatever you get works with your DAW of choice and also contains enough juice to get your through audio production.

Desk

This seems really obvious, but I have been asked SO many times about this question that I suppose it’s not as obvious as it seems. Invest in a desk that you can sit at comfortably and has enough space to house all of the gear you need. Think about it all: your computer, your interface, your speakers, guitar pics, keyboard, hard drives, etc. And make sure it fits in your room.

DAW

The brain of everything you do, the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Although there are tons of DAWs to choose from, here are my recommendations for beginners.

As far as free DAWs go, I would recommend GarageBand for Mac users and Ableton or Reaper for PC users.

If you’re looking for something more powerful, I would recommend Logic Pro X for Mac users (the upgrade of GarageBand) and either Studio One or Reaper for PC users.

Plugins

To be honest with you, most plugins in the DAW will do just fine for demo purposes. It’s really in the mixing phase of things where you really need to invest in the high end stuff to make a notable difference. The only things I would recommend you invest in as a beginner are amp sims and drum libraries.

Let’s start with amp sims. Amp sims are exactly how they sound, they’re just software emulating an actual amplifier, cabinet and microphone combination. With technology these days, amp sims are nearly indistinguishable with actually recorded guitars and there are tons of advantages to working with them.

My personal recommendations are anything from Neural DSP (I use Fortin Nameless) and anything from JST (I use Misha Mansoor). Both are great amp sim companies and there way more out there! Most plugins have free trials, so try them all out for yourself and see which tones you really connect with.

For drum libraries, this has become very democratized over the years as well. Drum libraries are ways of midiing out your drum parts within the DAW, which is essential in today’s day and age whether or not you actually plan to live track your drums.

My favorite libraries are pretty much anything from Get Good Drums (I use the Modern and Massive pack), Toontrack’s EZ Drummer 2, (the stepping stone for Superior Drummer 3, which is what I use) and Steven Slate Drums (used to be very popular). If your DAW already has a built in drummer like Logic Pro X, you may use that for free if you wish, but keep in mind that most if not all stock drum kits don’t include the necessary samples and kit pieces for metal/hardcore. I hope to see this change one day in a future update, but that is the limitation as of now!