Gear
I am a big proponent of not overdoing gear right from the start. Some might disagree and this might not apply to everyone.
The quality of affordable gear these days is much higher than it used to be. These days you can spend less than $1,000 and get a mic, preamp, cables and a few other essentials that’ll do just fine.
And yes, before any audiophiles send me angry dissertations on the relative quality of gear, mic shootouts, and more, of course a C12 is leagues about a $300 mic, and of course a good mic pre makes a big difference, and of course the quality of AD converters maters in audio interfaces. However I’ve too often seen someone sit with $20,000 worth of gear but not doing much with it. Also, not to offend anyone, but recording cheesy music at a Abbey Road will not make the music any better. I’d rather hear an incredible musicians, playing well written, creative music recorded straight to a cassette tape than hear bad music recorded with the world’s finest gear.
Agian…I’m not saying one shouldn’t invest in great gear, and that it’s not important and not worth it or that it doesn’t make a difference. It absolutely does. However before you get into that, focus on your craft, focus on creating music you can be proud of.
This is absolutely shameful and terrible, but one of the recordings I did early on of a string quartet for a project, which became a piece that was one of my most referenced pieces of music, that directors and other creatives responded to the most, I had hardly any budget to work with and was kind of broke. I put all the money into getting the best musicians I could and then recorded in my livingroom. There were a couple descent mics but not enough, and not even enough mic stands. I ended up laying some dynamic mics around the room, placed as well as I could, to fill out the mics I needed. Is that advisable? No! How was the music received by the filmmaker and audiences? Better that most of the things I recorded at top notch studios. Not because of the audio quality but because of the quality of the musicians and the composition.
With all that stated, here’s some things I recommend:
Hard Drives
I use 2 external hard drives: one that has all my project files for the year (and I get a new one once a year which is about when it fills up), and one to host all my sample libraries. I recommend an SSD Drive which is a small portable drive that does not have any moving parts and are known to be faster and more durable. Back in the day I’ve had external hard drives die on my occasionally, but SSD drives I’ve not had any problems with yet. The one I use is this Samsung 2TB SSD:
Microphones
Choosing what mic to get depends a little on your taste as well as what you’re recording. There are different types of microphones such as condenser mics, ribbon mics and dynamic mics.
Condenser Mic: A condenser mic captures sound with a thin diaphragm and requires external power, making it very sensitive and great for detailed recordings. If you don’t have any other mic, a condenser mic is probably the first one to get. Below you’ll see a few condenser mics including pencil mics (the km 184s) which are thin little mics. The pencil mics are often used in pairs to get a stereo recording of the room or as overheads, but can also used as spot mics (close mics) especially for higher pitched instruments like flute for example.
Ribbon Mic: A ribbon mic uses a thin metallic ribbon suspended in a magnetic field to capture sound, producing a warm and natural tone ideal for vintage-style recordings. These can be great on a variety of instruments but are often used on brass or winds. I’ve also used them on strings and piano and love them on all of the above.
Dynamic Mic: A dynamic mic uses a diaphragm attached to a coil within a magnetic field. It’s durable and capable of handling high sound pressure levels, so usually used for live performances (that mic that you can smash into a speaker cabinet and might still work, or you can do a litteral mic drop and it might still work, but isn’t advised).
Here are some suggestions of condenser and ribbon mics ranging quite a bit in price. The aston for example is very affordable, but sounds very good for it’s price.
Audio Interface
An affordable audio interface that is great for recording and composing work in general. There’s more than one successful composer I’ve seen with this one at their studio surprisingly.
Universal Audio Apollo Twin X Duo
A slightly higher end, pricier but still affordable audio interface.
Control Surface
This is something I found very useful to give tactile controls which help speed up a lot of DAW control, such as scrubbing through a project file, panning tracks quickly, seeing a separate timecode view, automation, etc.):
