Sometimes it can be nice to peek behind the curtain and see what kind of equipment someone is working with in their studio. Sometimes that leaves you feeling frustrated because you know you are nowhere near where they are at in terms of the kinds of equipment they use on a day to day basis. But there are times when it can be surprising what you can use in your everyday creating that is not very expensive or complicated.
I want to share with you some of the everyday things that I use in my studio. Let me explain. I have a simple home recording studio. This is not the studio that Justin Beiber uses, or Ed Sheeran. But this is what I work on my craft with.
I am in the learning process, and will be for the rest of my life.
I just want to share with you what is working for me right now.
FL Studio Producer Edition
This is my preferred DAW. I use this everyday. I do all of my music production in FL Studio. I have created entire albums, put together scores for short films, commercials, etc. I think it’s a really flexible and powerful piece of software. I’ve been using it since 2006, when it was FL Studio 5. One of the things that I love about the program is that you get free lifetime updates for the DAW.
Presonus Firebox
This is my studio brain for the moment. I have an older computer that has a firewire card. I would say that firewire is really on its way out. I would recommend not getting a firewire interface. But honestly I like this because it has some other inputs in the back as well, which lets me run my microphone through an external preamp before it reaches the audio interface, so I don’t have two levels of preamp that are happening. I’ve also recently purchased a Presonus AudioBox iTwo which is a USB interface, but it does not have the extra input
Focusrite ISA One Preamp
I use this on my main condenser mic, my Audio Technica AT4033a. I haven’t explored all the color that you can get out of this preamp, but I like what I’ve heard so far. I use this mainly for vocals and recording acoustic guitars.
Sony MDR-V6 Headphones
I got these from a friend a couple of years back. And I love them. I honestly use these more now than my monitors. The headphone pads have all but worn out, but you can get replacement ones for fairly cheap.
M-Audio Axiom 49 Midi Controller
I use this to trigger all the VSTs instruments and samples in my projects. I wish I had the 25 key version rather than the 49 key version, just so I had a little more room on my desk to work with mouse and keyboard all crowded onto the surface.
The photo shown is the 2nd generation. The one I use is the 1st generation. They are basically the same, the second generation just looks a little slicker.
Native Instruments Komplete Ultimate 9
The biggest components that I use from this package are Guitar Rig Pro 5 for my electric guitar, and Kontakt 5 to run sample libraries. FM8 and Massive are also nice components as well as some of the plugins like the compressors and eqs. I started by purchasing Guitar Rig and Kontakt and then upgraded to Komplete Ultimate after using those for a while. So if the price of the full package is a little overwhelming, you could start with Kontakt 5 and then look at upgrading into the Komplete package after that. The latest version of Komplete is Komplete Ultimate 11, which looks pretty sweet.
JBL LSR305 – Powered Monitors
I’ve had these monitors for about a year and a half. I used them a lot when I was mixing an EP, and I think they are pretty accurate. I didn’t do as much comparison to existing files to make sure that my mixes were translating, but they seem to have a pretty flat response. I liked the Yamaha HS50Ms that I had a few years back. The new versions of the HS50Ms are the Yamaha HS5s. I actually want to purchase those monitors again. I loved them. And I miss them.. *tear*
Audio Technica 4033a – Microphone
I have had two versions of this condenser microphone, both the 4033CL and 4033a. I don’t know what the difference is between the a and CL, but these microphones are workhorses. I love them both. I use this mainly on my vocal, but have also used it on acoustic and as room mic when I was making some rehearsal demos. It’s a great all around kind of microphone. Definitely would recommend it if you are looking for a versatile mic in the $300-400 range.