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To record your own music at home and begin building up a studio you need some elementary parts to get going. They are:

1. An instrument and/or microphone

2. Something to record into like a basic mixing board

3. An port from your mixing desk into your computer

4. A computer with decent speakers and/or headphones.

5. Some software to record and manipulate your work.

These days you can purchase a combined solution for items 2 and 3 in the form of a computer audio interface. This is a device that you can plug an instrument or mic into and the other end is plugged in to your computer either as a soundcard or via a USB cable. This will work as an audio input and the mixing board part is all managed in the software program.

Depending on your requirements this might be the way to go or it might not. If you intend on just recording one audio part at a time then a computer audio interface makes sense. If you require to record a whole band with a few parts at once then you’ll need a mixing desk with enough channels to handle this.

One thing you will have to handle when attaching your interface and putting down your instruments and voice is latency. This is the time lag between the sound you make and it being played back to you by the computer. Latency can completely throw off your rhythm if you don’t minimize it. A means to do this is to use ASIO drivers for your computer interface. You can download free universal ASIO drivers at asio4all.com. Also be sure that your interface includes a preamp.

When you have your audio interface set up and can record and monitor your work without latency you’re about good to go. All you want now is some decent computer software to behave as a mixing desk, sequencer and sampler. Just about every good computer interface will come packaged with some recording software, normally a cut down edition of a full product but enough to get you started.

Other than that there are several low cost and even free programs you can download. There are also many communities on the internet where you can share your ideas, get help and support and find royalty free samples to apply in your music.

Those really are the bare requirements for a home recording studio setup assuming you intend to record your own material (as opposed to just play with loops) and that you already have an instrument and/or microphone with the necessary leads. Apart from these it’s also necessary to have some high quality speakers and headphones. These days things like effects and processors can all be found in computer software, although as you develop you may want to acquire some hardware versions of these down the line.  

You’ll also have to make sure that the acoustics in your recording environment are optimal. Don’t forget soundproofing as well. There is a lot to learn and do to get a good home recording studio setup but in the beginning you can just focalise on the essentials. A sufficient computer, an audio interface and some software can start you out very nicely. For more information there are some great free guides you can download off the web to get you started.