Reddit reviews Recording and Producing in the Home Studio: A Complete Guide

• Youtube can be your friend. Check out Pensado's Place for some great tutorials
  
• Sorry to say this, but check the specs of your machine and compare with the minimum requirements for Audition. Maybe check out some other DAWs that are cheap / free, such as Reaper or Cubase LE.
  
• Check out this book
  
• Normally I wouldn't recommend bundles, but check a few of these out:
  
  Here
  
  and Here
  
  and Here
  
  The reason I say that about the bundles is, you're going to want a lot of that stuff anyway, might as well grab it together on a deal and then slowly upgrade over time.
  
  The zoom is great, but you are probably going to want a mono condenser mic at some point. For example, recording vocals or acoustic guitar. You're not always going to want an X-Y stereo configuration.
  
  You are going to need some decent headphones (if not monitors), you are going to want an interface, etc - why not grab them together and then upgrade.
  
  Whatever you choose, since you are now earning decent pay, set yourself an audio gear acquisition budget right now. Maybe it's $50 a month. Maybe more, but let's start there. Let's say you grab the Focusrite 2i2 right now, it's around $150, let's say you grab a mic stand and XLR cable for $50. So that's it for four months, but you'll be spending a bunch of that time learning the unit and adapting it to what you have.
  
  Once you enter the world of being able to afford gear, temptation and decision fatigue set in very quickly. Having a monthly budget will help a lot.
  
  Also, a note on home recording with an SM57: these are great on guitar cabinets and snares. It's the kind of mic that can work well with anything, but for beginners, it can be hard to get great results on things that usually take a condenser mic. And the zoom has a stereo pattern, and that may not be what you want.
  
  So, assuming you went with the 2i2 by itself, next on my list would be:
  
  
• Good studio quality headphones (expect to spend 80-100)
  
• Condenser mic (expect to spend 150+)
  
• Power conditioner (expect to spend 100-150) - this is one of those things that some people say leave to the audiophiles, but in my experience, it's worth it - you're going to want all your gear to be on power strips anyway, but a decent conditioner gives you so much more. First of all, it's not going to fail on a power surge like cheap power strips can, and also it gives you a source of clean, stable power for not only your audio gear, but your recording computer as well - which makes a difference when you remember that the power coming in can affect how the circuits operate. It's one of those things that, even if it makes a small improvement, it is making that improvement on every single thing that uses power.
  
• Inline tuner (this) - for a home recordist doing bass / guitar, this has been invaluable. I used to interrupt my recording workflow to mute the channel, unplug the guitar, plug the guitar into the tuner, tune the guitar, unplug from the tuner, plug back into the channel, unmute the channel. Bypass is important, b/c it means the signal going to the recording is not affected by the tuner circuitry at all. Now, when I'm recording and I need to tune, I just step on the tuner switch, tune up, and step on the tuner switch again. Has saved me so much time and frustration.
  
• Cable management (25 - 75) - so worth it for the home studio. Just go to the hardware store and get some pegboard and pegs, or a bunch of wall hooks, or whatever works for you. Plastic bins are great to have around too. Velcro cable wraps are a must. You may only have a couple of cables now, but that will change.
  
  Work on ergonomics of your situation. This has been my goal in the last few years, and it's helped a lot. The goal should be: you have an idea you want to get down, and you have the absolute minimum of steps between recording a quick sketch of the idea on your phone, to actually putting down tracks. The more and better gear you get, the more of your time you can end up spending dealing with stands and cables and which mic is hooked up right now, and did I remember to put this or that away, etc - all the things that studios have interns for. ;) Have an organized layout, and places for everything. Me, except for a couple of nicer mics, I just keep my workhorses on the mic stands, covered with the mic soft cases, moved out of the way. I keep the XLR cable hooked up to the mics but hanging on the mic stand, nicely coiled. All my cable is labeled at the ends so I know what is going where. When it's time to record with a mic, I just grab the stand, remove the cover, plug in the cable, and off I go. That goes for your audio interface as well. Whatever you use should allow you to set up a basic template. As you start to learn about busses and sends and stuff, keep updating your template so that when you start a new session, it's always how you like it, and you don't have to mess around updating the same shit every time.
  
  Good luck and have fun!

Hey man! Thanks for the note. I'm actually a sophomore in college right now. I'm pursuing a degree in Music Industry, with minors in Business Administration, Communications/Digital Media, and Mathematics. I've been working with audio engineering for a few years now independently, and honestly the best thing that I've done is just mess around with programs, listen to and analyze music that sounds good as a mix, and network with people in the industry.

There are also a few good books which I have come across. My favorite is this textbook which I used for a music technology class (you can probably find a pdf of it somewhere in the bowels of the web):
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Producing-Home-Studio-Complete/dp/0876390483


After graduating, I'm aiming to work in the music industry as either a performer/session musician, as a recording engineer, as an educator, or in an administrative/managerial position. Get in touch with studios and producers in your area and see if you can observe sessions, especially if you live near a large city (I'm close to Chicago), and get in tight with professors who have interest in the field.

If you can, try to go to the NAMM show out in California for networking. I went last year, and it was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I came within a yard of Stevie Wonder and shook hands with Paul Reed Smith, and was absolutely starstruck. I was able to make some really great connections with big shots in the industry, with most of whom I still keep in touch. Those are the people who will get you jobs.

It's a tough industry to get into, but we can do it! Again, thanks so much for the message, and please keep in touch! Merry Christmas!