Those who have never dealt with recording and production used to treat this as something expensive. Today you can create music for your production studio.
Top Hardware Needed For Music Production
Today being a musician is simple and hard work at the same time. On the one hand, there are plenty of mind-blowing innovative toys to create a studio at home, garage, or basement, on the other hand, it is still struggling to equip it without sponsorship or savings. Whether you are doing it for fun, to earn your living or to express your rich and diverse inner word, you should know which equipment you need. Remember, no matter which budget you have, it is possible to produce music with minimal studio equipment.
The main equipment
For starting your music production, you will need:
- Computer
- Headphones
This is the initial music production equipment you need to start creating tracks. With this stuff and some software, you can already write tracks. All additional devices are bonuses. For making your musical journey more fun, you will need:
- Midi keyboard
- Ableton Push (or other)
- Audio interface (sound card)
The basics
The basic music production hardware as we already know are computer and headphones. Let’s discuss it in details. Most music makers prefer Apple MacBook Pro. It is no surprise because it is powerful, user-friendly, light, responsive, intuitively understandable, safe, and upgradable. Another pleasant advantage is plenty of adorable software like Garage Band. It is recommended to have an i5 processor or better, but you should at least have Intel Core Duo. If you consider having a quality, durable laptop, then think about special production series MusicXPC M20x Music Production Laptop. It has 8 GM of RAM and an i7 processor. Another serious music maker is HP Envy 15. FHD display is brilliant, up to 12 GB of RAM, greatest Intel processor and 1TB of memory. Take into account that standard 15-inch display is okey, but not comfortable enough for constant work of big projects.
Software
We will make a quick overview of the software. Garage band is a free software offered by Apple and is the first step to professional producing. It makes the future work with Pro Tools or Logic Pro much easier. Repair is available for Windows and free for 60 days which is more than enough to learn. It is powerful and constantly updated. If you plan to perform lives, then consider Ableton Live. It is not cheap, but most compatible for MIDI usage. You can also order text information in addition to your track here https://customwriting.com/.
Headphones
You need music studio headphones. This is an important step because with a pair of bad headphones you will never be satisfied with the sound. Spend some time to pick the right ones for you. There are plenty of types, and you can buy a pair of professional headphones within 100 USD. Important decision to make is whether you want, open, closed or semi-open ones. Check out the difference but to make a long story short, it is up to your perception. Try, listen, and decide. Closed-back isolates you from outside noise and gives privacy in your work. No sound leaks. Keep in mind that professional headphones need impedance to be 100-600 ohms. Otherwise, they may appear too quiet and with a poor sound.
Extras. MIDI keyboard
For your first studio, you probably want to buy a MIDI keyboard. It is cheap but very helpful in work. It transfers all the melodies you play directly to the computer, and you can arrange, change the sound, timbre, tempo and everything you want. You can technically use your mouse or computer keyboard, but you will lose the velocity, and it makes so much easier to work with MIDI tool. The one with 25 keys without any inbound features won’t cost you a fortune, but if you need a full sized 88 keys piano or 25 keys with some additional features, then this is your way to spend more money.
Ableton Push
This is another option to put notes on your computer. This or any other hardware ease the process of writing music with plenty of additional features. With Ableton Push you don’t need to look at the computer, you can finish the entire with a build in screen and a set of settings. The cool thing about this or any other keyboard is that you can set up a scale, a key and every note you play will be on this particular key and scale. There is no chance for mistake. It works with Ableton Live and is perfect for live performances.
Audio card
Many people have never heard about the audio interface which brings your music studio to life. You will need it if you plan to plug in not only a MIDI keyboard but also microphones, guitars of any other instrument. It converts digital information into analog noise. You don’t necessarily need it, but it is nice to have one.