Music Thing: A real digital studio for £27/$50

By Peter Rojas

Each week, Tom Whitwell of Music Thing highlights the best of the new music gear that's coming out these days, as well as noteworthy vintage equipment. Last Saturday, it was the Fairlight CMI Synthesizer, which cost about
£27,000. This week, he explains how it's now possible to build a complete digital studio for £27:

A month ago, I wrote a piece on Music Thing about building a home studio for £500. This week, I looked at the numbers again. I realised you don't need to spend anything like that, because you don't need to buy everything at once.
So, given a PC with a soundcard, a home stereo and a pair of headphones, you only really need to spend £27, and you're in business. Here's how you do it:

Stage 1: Sofware: ?27-?45 Software is everything. These all-in-one studio programs will let you record and edit audio, create drum patterns, play synths and keyboards, and apply effects. You only need extra hardware if you want to record a real instrument or play a real keyboard. Both these packages can use VST standard plugins – which gives you access to a huge library of free synths, drum machines and effects.

  • Option 1: Energy-XT, J?rgen Aase?s radical modular audio/midi sequencer
    (which, despite the name, isn?t just for ravers) does most of what Cubase or Logic can do, but very differently.
    It?s a free download, then ?39 (?27) if you use it.(PC only)

  • Option 2:Tracktion, the British-designed audio/midi
    sequencer can also do almost anything Cubase or Logic can do, but uses a simple, clever interface, making it very
    quick to learn. It costs $80 (?45). The demo lasts two weeks. (Mac/PC)

Stage 2: Keyboard ?40-70 Even if you can?t play piano, you?ll soon want to buy a keyboard, because it?s much more fun than drawing the notes on screen. You don?t need a separate MIDI interface ? modern controller keyboards are all USB compatible. The cheapest one is the M-Audio E-Keys, a pretty crappy mini-keyboard with a USB plug that costs ?40.
For ?70, the M-Audio Keystation 49e is a better bet and also works as a MIDI interface.

Stage 3: Recording guitar: ?35 The easiest way to get a quarter-decent guitar sound is to use a multi-fx pedal. Even a
?30 second hand Zoom 505 will sound better than plugging your guitar straight into the soundcard (it boosts the signal like a pre-amp). But don?t waste $25 on the Griffin Garage Band Cable – you can easily get a jack-to-minijack cable for under $10.

Stage 4: Recording anything else ?Free-?105.

  • Option 1: If your soundcard has a ?mic? input, you can use any cheapo microphone. Kieran Hebden from Four Tet
    use the free mic that came with his
    soundcard in all his recordings, including remixes for Beth Orton and Badly Drawn Boy. You can make interesting
    recordings with any microphone, so it?s probably not worth spending more than ?10 on a ?proper? microphone
    unless you?ve got ?105 for?

  • Option 2: If you want a proper mic, you need a pre-amp that will provide ?phantom power? to make the microphone
    work. I?d buy a Behringer MIC100, which is a valve pre-amp for ?30(!), and a Kel Audio mic for $69. You then need a
    standard ?10 mic cable, a jack-to-minijack cable to get into your soundcard, and a standard microphone stand for
    ?15.

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