Budget Home Recording: Essential Tools to get you Started
Build a home recording setup on a budget.
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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.
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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.
What’s in 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.
As “budget” is very much a relative term, we are using it to loosely describe headphones, mics, monitors (per unit), and audio interfaces we recommend for recording that are around $300 or less, or mixers around $500 or less.
Budget Home Recording: beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro
If you’re recording vocals, or any instrument for that matter, you’re going to need a decent pair of closed-back headphones to accurately hear what your microphone is picking up and do this discretely. Luckily, for this purpose, the velour-padded earcups of the DT-770 Pro headphones provide excellent isolation, so you won’t have to worry about headphone spill in the mic.
The German manufacturer beyerdynamic has been designing and producing headphones for the best part of a century, so it’s safe to say that they know what they’re doing. While the DT-770 Pro is not the most accurate for mixing, it is still very useful for those late-night beatmaking sessions when you don’t want to wake your neighbours.
Like all beyerdynamic designs, all the individual parts of the headphones are both incredibly durable and replaceable. This means you won’t need to buy another set of studio headphones for a while, which is a relief. Although there are different versions of the DT-770 Pro, the 80-ohm model is loved by musicians because it works optimally on a wide range of pro and consumer devices. Get it at Thomann.*
Budget Home Recording: Shure MV7X
Although it’s a broadcast-style mic that is seen as the SM7B’s little brother, the MV7X is a great microphone for untreated home recording environments. Because it is a low-output mic with a localized cardioid pickup zone, you won’t have the same struggles with harsh reflections as you would with a condenser mic.
The only drawback about moving coil dynamic mics like this is the lack of gain. For this reason, an in-line gain-boosting preamp like a Cloudlifter or a FEThead from Triton Audio is recommended, so the signal is optimized before it reaches your audio interface. This will leave you with very little adjusting to do on your interface, and a good signal-to-noise ratio for recording.
Like the SM7B, the MV7X is great on vocals, acoustic guitars, amp cabinets, kick drums, and many other instruments like horns and brass. While the MV7X is the best value option in its range, there are other options that provide USB connectivity (MV7+) and even an additional mic input (MV7i). Get it at Thomann.*
Budget Home Recording: Adam Audio T Series
Every home studio needs a set of speakers, and although there are some excellent budget studio monitors available, the Adam Audio T Series is still one of the best options available. This popular range of active nearfield monitors includes three models with 5-inch, 7-inch, and 8-inch woofers, respectively, each equipped with Adam Audio’s U-ART ribbon tweeters.
Naturally, the larger diaphragm speakers will produce lower frequencies more accurately, while the T10s studio subwoofer has been tuned specifically to extend the low range of the T5V and T7V. In addition, you can boost or cut your highs and lows by 2 dB to optimize the T Series for your listening environment.
The rear panel provides connectivity for balanced (XLR) and unbalanced (RCA) signals, while the T10s provides a variable crossover (80 Hz / 120 Hz), so you can adjust how much of the low-end you want to assign to the subwoofer. Overall, the T-Series provides a great balance of accuracy, decent translation, and having a monitor that is still very much fun to work on. Get it at Thomann.*
Budget Home Recording: SSL 2 and 2+ MKII
Now in its 2nd generation, the SSL 2 range of desktop audio interfaces has had a major impact on the market since it first arrived back in 2020. Although the SSL legacy is built on mixing consoles rather than budget recording solutions, the 2 and 2+ interfaces became a hit among musicians and recording enthusiasts.
Rather than providing a bloated feature set, SSL has set out to cover the bare essentials, including decent mic preamps with a nifty 4K feature, and 32-bit 192 kHz AKM converters. The front panel also provides easy access to a pair of instrument inputs and a pair of headphone outputs with individual level controls (on the 2+).
In addition, you have MIDI I/O for connecting synths, drum machines, and other gear, all in a neatly designed desktop format with a great control layout. Overall, you can’t go wrong with the SSL 2 and 2+ in terms of value as a bus-powered USB audio interface for home recording purposes. Get it at Thomann.*
Budget Home Recording: Allen & Heath ZED Series
While using an analogue mixer in your studio workflow is something of a retro novelty, it is extremely useful if you plan on having more than one hardware instrument going at any given moment. Because most budget interfaces usually limit you to two inputs, a mixing desk like the trusty ZED series becomes your front end, allowing you to route channels into your DAW via aux sends or with USB connectivity.
The ZED series is nothing new, but you generally don’t buy analogue gear for fancy features. Instead, you get low-noise, high-headroom circuitry and the ability to quickly route instruments to your effects pedals. This is a great platform for those who like to jam with guitars or electronic instruments to form ideas and create sounds before recording them into a DAW.
For most home studios, the ZED-14 is a great starting point, as it gives you a good balance of channel inputs and routing flexibility. If you don’t already have a range of hardware effects or pedals, the ZED series has the FX options with 16 effects algorithms to enhance your sounds and give them some separation in the mix. Get it at Thomann.*
More about Budget Home Recording:
- All about home recording
- Thomann’s guide to home recording
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*Note: This article about Budget Home Recording contains promotional links that help us fund our site. Don’t worry: the price for you always stays the same! We will receive a small commission if you buy something through these links. We appreciate your support!
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