Budget Home Recording: Essential tools to get you started

06 Jan by Stefan Wyeth |

3,6 / 5,0 | Approximate reading time: 4 Minutes

Budget Home Recording. · Source: Soundcraft / Duncan Kidd / Unsplash

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With so much gear available, creating your own home studio can be challenging if you’re just getting into music production. To solve this problem, we’ll be talking about budget home recording with some key items to make your setup more versatile.

Regardless of what style of music you make or what your preferred discipline is within audio, there are a few essentials that every home studio needs.

A budget home recording setup:

Chances are you already own a laptop or desktop PC, but with a decent mic, an audio interface, studio monitors, and a pair of headphones, you’ll be well-equipped for recording at home.

Audio-Technica ATH-M40X

Without a doubt one of the best sets of budget headphones available, the ATH-M40X is a great option.

It’s a versatile closed-back design, perfect for monitoring during recording and plausible as a discrete and portable solution for editing, mixing, or post-production.

The ATH-M40X is durable with good isolation, and its low 35 Ohm impedance rating means you can easily use them with laptops and mobile devices.

They might not be the most neutral-sounding headphones ever built, but in the context of home recording, they provide great value.

Audio-Technica ATH-M40X

Customer rating:

(765)

Available for 109.00 € at

AKG P420

The P420 is a multipattern large-diaphragm condenser with a clean, bright sound that makes it useful for vocals, instruments, amp cabinets, and overheads.

In addition, it has cardioid, figure-of-8, and omnidirectional pickup modes, a 300 Hz low-cut filter, and a -20 dB pad switch.

The overall build quality is decent for the price, and you get a shock mount and carry case to protect it.

Depending on your preference you might find darker-sounding microphones in this price range, but they are unlikely to prove as versatile as a recording tool.

AKG P420

Customer rating:

(186)

Available for 219.00 € at

Adam TV7

The TV7 from the entry-level Adam Audio T series studio monitors is an extremely popular choice for home recording.

It’s a rear-ported design, equipped with a 7-inch woofer and 1.9-inch U-ART ribbon tweeter. This makes it perfect for small to medium-sized listening environments.

They might not be the most glamorous-looking speakers, but they have all the essential features you might need in your first set of studio monitors.

This includes HF and LF EQ switches for making adjustments and an unbalanced RCA input for consumer audio devices.

Adam TV7

Adam T7V ISO Pad Bundle

No customer rating available yet

Available for 409.00 € at

MOTU M6

MOTU has a longstanding reputation for building quality audio interfaces, and the M6 is the most recent addition to the more budget-friendly part of the range.

It offers four XLR combo preamps with individual gain and phantom power and 24-bit 192 kHz ESS Sabre32 Ultra converters.

In addition, you have two independent headphones outs, MIDI I/O, and the option to choose between USB-C bus power or 15V DC.

OMOTU is also known for great stable drivers, especially on Mac. Moreover, the metering and easy operation make it a pleasure to work with overall.

MOTU M6

Customer rating:

(12)

Available for 499.00 € at

Soundcraft Signature 12 MTK

Despite the fact that most of us work in the box, analogue mixers are still incredibly useful when creating music with synthesizers, drum machines, guitars, basses, and other instruments.

The Signature 12 MTK has decent preamps, a built-in interface and effects, three aux sends, and an assignable stereo sub-group.

This increases its value not only from a creative standpoint, but it’s also great for rehearsal rooms or small venues.

Soundcraft Signature 12 MTK

Soundcraft Signature 12MTK

Customer rating:

(217)

Available for 525.00 € at

What is your favourite piece of budget recording gear? Please let us know in the comments below!