By Barry Judd
Looking to kick-start your recording career, or have a bit more fun jamming out with friends in your amateur band? Laying down some tracks doesn't require booking pricey time in a big-shot recording studio. In fact, with the right equipment you can turn your home garageinto a simple recording space for under $1,000 and get your garage band going.
To start, you're going to need a computer of some sort with recording software. For Apple users, there's Garage-band, while Windows PC users can consider free audio softwareAudacity. Aside from that, you'll need some specialized audio equipment that, fortunately, won't break the bank.
Audio interface
For roughly $250, you can pick up an audio interface such as a FocusriteSaffire interface that will let you feed multiple audio sources into your computer, instead of using only the audio-in on your computer's card, which is too simple for garage band recordings. The audio interface doesn't need to be too fancy, though, so long as it can take a microphone, keyboard and other instrument audio feeds. You can choose between USB and Fire-wire interfaces, and while both are good you'll need to make sure your computer can handle Fire-wire.
Microphone
For good sound, consider getting a condenser microphone (check out Shure for examples), which should run you $150 to $200. These may be a bit more expensive than a concert-style microphone, but offer superior quality.
MIDI keyboard
For adding a range of instrumental effects, you'll need to pick up MIDI keyboard, which can be had for about $150. Check out your local music store to see which one sounds good for you.
Speakers
This is one area that offers some flexibility. You can spend $150 to $200 on a decent set ofentry level monitor speakers (consider M-Audio). But if playing your recordings out loud isn't a big deal (and you'll be mixing with headphones on), you can go with a simple pair of computer speakers for much less.
Headphones
For laying down your vocal track, you'll need a decent pair of headphones. They're important because with a good set of cans you can listen to guide tracks while singing. Remember, you want a pair that don't leak much audio (which can be picked up by your mic). For roughly $100 you can nab a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pros which won't spill sound.
Other accessories
Be prepared to spend around $150 on things such as mic stands and cables (for microphones as well as any keyboards and guitars), as well as microphone add-ons such as shock mounts and popper stoppers, which will help keep your sound clear.
This rough guide should help get your band started, and should work well for a basic three-piece group.
Barry Judd is a writer and a performer. He lives in Toronto and works as a lab analyst. Along with that he finds time to write blogs and columns and also perform for a local band. He writes on a variety of subjects from music to cooking.
In this article he provides an innovative method of utilizing your garage, that is to start a garage band. Being a performer himself he hopes to give some tips to the younger generation too.
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