If you want to make music on your computer, you can achieve an awful lot with just a DAW such as GarageBand, Logic or Cubase, and no external gear at all. However, your creativity will be limited to using loops, samples and acapellas that ship with your DAW or which you’ve obtained on the web, the cover CD of a music magazine or some other source.
Unless you want to spend hours manually editing MIDI files, or working out and entering melodies via fiddly keyboard shortcuts, you’ll have limited access to software instruments. And, owing to a lack of quality external mic, you won’t be able to record real instruments or vocals at all.
So if you’re serious about making music at home, it makes a it of sense to on invest in some kit that allows you a bit of freedom to record what you want.
Tha good news is that it doesn’t need to be expensive. At the heart of a small home studio rig is a digital audio interface, sometimes referred to as a ’soundcard’. You can pick up a reasonable one for around £60-120. All it needs is a set of MIDI inputs and an XLR mic socket.
Decent mics tend to be a touch more expensive: if you’re looking to record vocals, you really need a condenser, which will start at around £80. Don’t forget to get a pop shield, too.
All round, if you have about £300 to spend you can get a decent DAW, mic and audio interface. If you’re planning to use MIDI instruments, you’ll also need a MIDI-compatible keyboard. At the cheap end, you can get these from £80 upwards, though the cheapest digital pianos (full size, 88 keys, weighted keyboard) start at around £250, without a stand.
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