Looking to get into the world of music production?

I’m about to show you how to get the basic setup in order to have a killer home studio on a budget.

I got started with music production back in 2013 when I was inspired by my friend’s home studio. It was impressive – and all jam packed in a small bedroom. 

I’ve played piano all my life and have experience playing all kinds of instruments. I even tried to form a band in 6th grade (it didn’t work out).

I’ve also had experience playing multiple instruments and have a background in music theory. However, I didn’t know a single thing about recording when I first started! So, all experience levels are welcome here.

Maybe you play guitar and sing, but don’t have a background in reading music. Which is okay! You don’t necessarily need to know how to read music in order to make music (although it certainly helps).

My Start In Music Production

When I first got into the recording side of things, I wanted to have great equipment – but realized it comes at a pretty hefty cost!

However, there are several small things you can do to get started.

Back in 2014 I was working a part time job at Sky Zone Trampoline Park. There were many times where I picked up several extra shifts during the week, and even sometimes took two shifts in one day (ouch).

This allowed me to very slowly save up for different things that would ultimately become my “studio”.

I had this little corner of space at my parents house where I started with a desk and a MacBook Pro (my parents so graciously gifted this to me for Christmas as I was about to go to college the following year).

So I had this desk and laptop…and I was like…well where in the world do I go from here?

I learned a TON from my good friend whom I mentioned previously. He just so happened to be selling his little audio interface, and ended up giving me a little midi keyboard to go with it.

But before I get too far into the specific details of equipment, I want to share my progress with you first!

So this picture is pretty much how I started…the extra screen was one that my mom was no longer using, I had my laptop (not pictured), the little red audio interface, and a pair of speakers (that didn’t even fit on the desk!) The speakers should absolutely be at ear level, and clearly these were not even close.

I had big goals for what I wanted my studio desk to look like, and this certainly wasn’t it. But I accepted that it would take me a long time before I could build it up to the way I wanted it to be.

I should also mention that I went off to start my freshman year of college at Ohio University and I actually did not realize they had a music production program until after my first semester!

So I joined the program my sophomore year of college and began to actually go to school and take classes to learn about music production and the recording industry.

Based on my own personal experience…I feel like you don’t have to go to school for music production. It’s definitely a plus! But you can still learn what you need without going to school for it.

One thing that was pretty unique about the program though was that we learned about the actual recording process AND about the music business…so we got to learn about licensing (which can get confusing so I felt that class was beneficial). 

Otherwise…YouTube will become your best friend!

Okay, so enough about me…let’s talk about some of the things you’ll need to get started.

The Basics

The first thing you will need to start with is a computer. A lot of people have something like a laptop or even a desktop, but these can be expensive.

I wholeheartedly will always recommend Mac over PC for music. If you have a PC it’s not the end of the world, but I believe Apple is much more user-friendly when it comes to things like music and video editing.

Anyways…if you have a MacBook, that’s great! This is exactly how I started as well (and from that photo above, I was actually able to plug in that extra screen to my laptop to have a second display which became quite useful.)

The next thing you will want to purchase is a pair of speakers. You don’t have to go wild on these, my first pair of speakers was the M-Audio AV40! I think I remember paying just over $100 for these, which definitely took some time for me to save up.

You could also look for a used pair of speakers which will cost a little less, but make sure there’s no significant damage and that they’re in working condition.

After you’ve gotten your speakers, it’s time to look at a Digital Audio Workstation. This is basically the software in which you can record and edit audio…this is where the magic happens!

If you are a Mac owner, I highly recommend opening up GarageBand if you haven’t done so already…it is free and it comes with all Mac computers!

While it is somewhat limited, it’s PERFECT for anyone just starting out and trying to get the hang of what a DAW is.

Spend some time navigating this, and once you’re comfortable you can purchase Logic Pro X which is made by Apple and is basically the professional version of GarageBand. If you’re not ready to purchase, they also offer a free trial so you can try it out and see if you like it!

There are several other DAW’s out there such as Pro Tools, Fruity Loops, Ableton, and more. Pro Tools is very commonly used in the professional studios, and Ableton is very commonly used in live settings.

I’ve had experience with both Logic and Pro Tools, and in my opinion, Logic seems to be much more user-friendly.

But as a beginner, try not to worry about this for now – you can switch over to Pro Tools or Ableton whenever you’re ready.

I’ll create a separate blog post that breaks down GarageBand, and I’ll do another one that covers the basics of Logic Pro X.

Anyways, the next thing you will need is an audio interface.

The audio interface is basically an extension of your computer that allows you to plug in a microphone or guitar to record yourself.

If you want to be able to record yourself, this is something you will need in order to do so.

I definitely recommend Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB Audio Interface. I’ve had this since I bought it used off of my friend for a great price, and I still use it to this day! It’s a great little interface that is around $160 from Sweetwater. 

The great thing about this specific model is it allows for two different connections instead of just one, so you can plug in a microphone (which uses an XLR cable) or a guitar (which uses a TRS cable.)

If you already play electric guitar, the good news is that this is basically plug and play for you (and you won’t need an amplifier for this, either).

Obviously in order to record yourself singing or playing an instrument, you’ll need a microphone. 

There are lots of great low-cost microphone options out there!

I personally have had amazing experiences with Audio-Technica, so I will go ahead and suggest a microphone that I first started with (and still use to this day!)

The Audio-Technica AT2020 is a great mic for under $100. The type of microphone is referred to as a “large diaphragm condenser” mic. This is a big fancy term and gets sort of technical, so I will also talk about this in a separate post.

Every music producer should also have a great pair of headphones!

And no…not earbuds…and definitely not Beats. But actual headphones that are designed for mixing music.

I also own a pair of Audio-Technica headphones and they’re great quality at a great price! This is what you’ll see in most professional recording studios (they most likely have more expensive ones) but you can find the Audio-Technica ATH-M20X for about $50.

If you play piano or even if you can only play a few notes, a small midi keyboard is useful, but not absolutely necessary to start. I was very fortunate that my friend gifted his midi keyboard to me!

Okay…so I know that was a lot all at once…but try to stick with me!

Here’s another progress shot I wanted to share with you guys…here’s where I found a way to get both speakers on the same surface, but it wasn’t entirely organized (and the speakers still aren’t at ear level!)

The screen behind my laptop was also different from the screen in the first picture for some reason…but I digress.

The Setup

Once you’ve got the basics to get started, let’s talk about how to properly set everything up!

First I want to address the speaker setup since I started mentioning it before.

The tweeter of the speakers (which are the smaller circles toward the top) should be at ear-level. If you have a shelf or stands, you’ll want to first adjust your chair and find a comfortable seated position. 

Once you’ve done that, then you can adjust the speakers (this works even better if you have someone else there to help you.)

The trick here is to set up both speakers and the listener all within an equilateral triangle. 

Hopefully this photo will help you visualize how they should ideally be set up. You’ll also notice that the speakers are positioned so that the sound just barely passes by your ears.

Another thing to note: typically your speakers should be about 3 feet away from the wall, but I recognize that’s not always doable. Mine have never been that far away from the wall due to small spaces (although I definitely would if I could.)

The reason for this has to do with the way the low frequencies bounce off the wall and will cloud your listening experience.

It’s actually pretty astonishing how changing your listening position even in the slightest can give you an entirely different listening experience. 

A lot of people have asked me about acoustic treatments and covering the walls…this isn’t mandatory to have and can get quite costly. I don’t have any sort of sound treatments on my walls or ceilings, although I obviously would if I could.

If you live in an apartment or have a space with thin walls, it’s a common misconception that by “soundproofing” the room, people think that this means it will stop the sound from traveling through the walls.

This is actually not the case – all it does is clean up the sound within the room.

Once you’re able to get the speaker placement, this is a simple way to get started with good listening habits from the very beginning. This is also super important in helping you train your ears to contribute to good mixing skills!

As you can see in this photo, a couple years later I had saved up enough money to upgrade my speakers (and I mean majorly upgrade from what I had before.) 

These are the Yamaha HS8 Powered Studio Monitors. And the difference in sound is astronomical!

As you can see, I also ordered stands to properly put the speakers up at ear level. I wanted the speakers to be further apart from left to right and front to back, but I was pretty crammed in the corner.

Between the stand and the speaker I have also utilized a thick piece of foam to help absorb vibrations from the speaker cabinet.

I also had my step dad make me a shelf so that I could lift my computer screen up – I didn’t have much surface area to begin with!

I also was gifted a midi pad controller, which isn’t something you need to have right away but it’s been great for creating beats and loops. 

As I’ve been sharing my progress photos with you, you can see that my setup is slowly getting better and better. The speakers are just about where they need to be, and I’m ready for a better listening experience.

When you get your audio interface, all it needs is a USB connection to your computer. 

On the back, you’ll see where the USB goes, and then the Line Outputs left and right are where you will plug in your left and right speakers. It’s a pretty simple setup for the most part!

If you have a midi keyboard, it will also need to connect to your computer via USB. When you enter your DAW, your computer will recognize the keyboard and the audio interface.

If you have a pair of headphones, they can be connected to the front of the audio interface with an individually controlled volume knob. 

I mentioned previously that I’ll also do a separate blog post that walks you through Logic Pro X so that you can start to understand the basics of how to record.

For now I will continue to show you the progress and how it has changed my production experience. 

After having the new speakers for quite some time, my parents helped me buy a new desktop computer as a combination of a Christmas present and graduating college early and with honors.

This was a HUGE transformation for me as my laptop was getting pretty old at this point – and when you’re running a lot of plugins on a laptop that doesn’t have as much power…it changes your entire experience.

So at this point I’m feeling super refreshed, still wanting a larger desk/surface space, and being able to not be crammed in a corner.

You’ll also notice in the photo that I have an external hard drive plugged in…I will ALWAYS recommend you have an external drive to save all of your projects to.

This is because the file sizes are typically large, and if for some reason your computer crashes and you can’t access your work, that would be devastating.

When I enrolled in my university’s music production program, it was actually a requirement to have an external drive and headphones for mixing before you could take any classes. 

In this photo, I moved out of my parents house after college and into an apartment. Immediately you’ll probably notice I had a bit more space to move my speakers out from left to right. I still wasn’t able to pull them away from the wall since this was literally crammed into my bedroom, but hey, we’re making progress!

(Also my desk was super messy here…sorry.)

So with each time around I’m making very slow improvements each and every time. I have a new desk on my list at this point, but I wasn’t counting on it anytime soon. 

On the left side of the desk is a pretty hefty book about music production, which I actually have a small collection of books going.

In college we were assigned to read all of them (and I honestly never read much of any of them) but I know they’re probably extremely helpful and I should definitely get around to reading them.

If you ever want any book suggestions, please feel free to reach out to me and I’d be happy to share some of the ones that were suggested by my professors.

So I had this one bedroom apartment and my desk was stuffed in the small bedroom with my bed, full size keyboard, and a couple of bookshelves.

When I had friends over to record, it was kind of a struggle with the lack of space!

Drastic difference here…so a year ago I moved from Ohio to LA and brought all of my studio equipment with me. But guess what I got myself after I got here…

A new desk woohoo!!!

I also was gifted a salt lamp, and I bought some really cheap LED lights from Amazon and it just completely changed the room.

It’s clean, it’s tidy, it’s a vibe, and I was so excited when I first set this up. 

Currently this is still in a small bedroom with a bed in it, but it feels so much larger despite being shoved into a corner.

From the first photo I showed you to this one, it’s been about 6 years…it took me 6 years to slowly build up my home studio and for the most part I have a lot of the same elements from when I first started.

The reason why I’m sharing all of these progress photos with you is because I want to show you that you can do this and can build up an awesome studio of your own.

Everyone is at different places financially, so if you’re able to afford all of this at once then by all means! 

But if you can only purchase one thing at a time, just know that is perfectly okay too. It’s best to not get so wrapped up in the equipment but to work hard on your skills. That is what will make you a great music producer.

The most recent thing I’ve added to the studio is a Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S88 keyboard. I only got it a couple months ago so I am still exploring with it, but I absolutely LOVE it.

The keyboard was something I had on my list for about a year, so I saved up for it. 

The keys are fully weighted, and I can do things like record, play, stop, and more from the keyboard so that I don’t have to keep going back and forth between my keyboard and mouse.

There are also lots of other great features but I’ll save that for another time.

If you’re looking into getting a great midi keyboard, they have quite a few different sizes at all different price points.

This photo is the most recent and up to date of what my home recording studio looks like today, and for anyone who is a beginner just remember that you will make it to this point someday!

Wrapping Up 

I’m hoping this will inspire someone to get started in music production after seeing my own real life progress.

I encourage all young women especially to pursue your dreams in the music industry – because there’s room for you at the table!

In some of my college production classes, I was the only girl out of 25+ students! This has got to change.

All in all, keep going with music, keep working hard, and keep absorbing all the knowledge you can. You will make it happen!

Share in the comments below – are you thinking about getting into music production? Are you currently a music producer?