This month we will be looking at the equipment you will need for a recording setup at home. The info here is meant to give you an overview of the minimum requirements and the essential components in a basic recording system. In coming months we will explore some of these items in more detail and you will be introduced to other types of gear and techniques to improve your setup and your recordings.

Recorder
This has been covered by articles elsewhere on this site which go into more detail, so I'll keep it brief. For our purposes, we will only look at the digital gear. While many engineers prefer the sound of analog reel-to-reel tape machines, their prices are usually prohibitive for the home user. The cassette based multitrack is on the endangered species list as I type this. For digital home recording, there are only two options for most of us: A standalone hard disk recorder or a computer and software. Each have their pros and cons.

Stand Alone Hard Disk Recorder
These are virtually self-contained units such as the Roland VS series. Pros: Self contained, more portable, usually include the mixer, often include digital effects, guaranteed to work first time. Cons: upgrading is often difficult or impossible, Limits you to a finite number of tracks

Computer Based System
By installing a decent sound card and the appropriate software, your computer can become a powerful recording system. Pros: even an entry level computer these days is capable of a large number of tracks, can be built specifically to cater for your needs, easily upgraded, flexible, allows a mix-and-match approach to both hardware and software. Cons: can take some tweaking of hardware and software to get them to work optimally, not as portable.

Monitoring Systems
You need to be able to hear an accurate representation of what you are recording, both while tracking (recording the tracks) and mixing down. Monitor systems for the small home studio come in two easy flavours: headphones and speakers. (By the wayThe little speakers that came with your computer which claim to be 10 million watts don't count.)

Headphones
A good closed back pair of headphones is essential for minimising leakage while you are recording with microphones. They reduce the sound bleeding  into the microphone. However, they can be fatigueing to use for long periods of time. Also, due to the mechanics of human hearing, headphones cannot give an accurate stereo picture for any kind of mixing. For that you need...

Amps & Speakers
While a Hi-Fi amp and speakers will do in a pinch, they usually have a tailored frequency response which is designed to be flattering to music. What you really need is something more accurate, which will show any flaws. Enter the reference amp and monitor. There has been quite a revolution in this field in recent years, with quality reference amps and monitors getting cheaper. A fairly recent trend has been to combine the amp and speakers into a powered speaker, which ensures that the two separate stages are accurately matched. There are excellent models made by Alesis, Genelec and Roland.

Microphones
Starting out with microphones for a home studio is not as difficult as many believe (mic snobbery aside). While opinions vary on what is best, it is easy to select a starting setup of mics which will do the job well and will remain a part of your arsenal, even as you buy other, more expensive mics.

Get at least a few Shure SM-57s which are the great all-round mic of all time. They are my first choice for guitar amps and snare drums, work excellently on tom-toms and most percussion, are very good for acoustic guitars and in a pinch will work for kick drum, bass amp, vocal duties and drum overheads. A major advantage for home recording enthusiasts is that they are surprisingly cheap. For vocal duties, the related Shure SM58 is a reliable place to start. If you play live, SM-57s and SM-58s will further earn their keep.

If your budget stretches far enough, invest in one large diaphragm condenser mic for vocals (such as the Rode NTK or NT1000 mics) and a pair of small diaphragm condensers (like the AKG C-1000 or the Shure SM81) for drum overheads and acoustic guitars. For lower pitched sounds such as a kick drum, floor tom or a bass guitar amp the AKG D-112 or Shure Beta-52 are excellent choices.

Mixing Desks
If you are using a computer-based system, a mixing desk is quite important. Computer sound cards suffer from what is called "latency". This is the delay between the signal (such as your microphone signal) entering the sound card at the inputs and the sound leaving the outputs of the sound card en route to your amplifier and monitors. Properly setup, mixing desks allow you to monitor what you are recording with zero latency. There are also the other benefits: built in mic preamps (mics have too low a signal level to drive an input without preamping), the obvious ability to mix sources such as outboard keyboards,etc..

There are many options available to the home recordist, with quality products from companies such as Roland, Mackie, Behringer and others to suit a variety of needs and depth of pockets. The only things which are essential in buying a mixing desk for recording is to make sure you have more channels than you think you need (you will end up using them) and that the desk has either extra busses (outputs) or auxiliary sends so that you can feed your monitor system and the input of your sound card with different mixes.