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What would be the minimum requirement neccessary for audio (music) home studio?

And what would be the minimum cost?

what software and hardware would you recommend?

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What do you want to do with your home studio? You can do limited multi-tracking with an iPad and Garage Band. – ObscureRobot May 29 '12 at 1:43
I want to be able to record music using virtual instruments and be able to record my voice and do some multi-tracking. (8 tracks would be sufficient, I guess.) – user1894 May 29 '12 at 1:47
What do you want to do with the recordings? If these are demos strictly for your own use, you can get away with quite a bit less than if you want to upload tracks and attempt to sell them or even use them for publicity. – Neil Fein May 29 '12 at 23:34

1 Answer

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  • Software: Reaper costs $60 for personal or commercial use that grosses less than $20k annually.
  • Audio interface: used MOTU 828 mk2, easily found on eBay or Craigslist for under $300.
  • PC or mac with 4GB+ of RAM and a reasonably modern dual-core CPU. Under $1000 for a desktop, under $1500 for a laptop

I'd start with Reaper on whatever machine you have now, and upgrade as necessary. Buy as much stuff used as you can - there is a ton of awesome gear out there on eBay and craigslist.

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Note that Reaper is not feature limited when run in demo mode (at least it was this way when I tried it) so you can really experiment with it without any risk. In addition, it is possible to use your existing on-board audio: try ASIO4ALL. I would say a core2duo class of processor is probably the lowest you want. A regular P4 processor is probably not going to work well at even a basic level. Once you get this working and get a feel for the workflow, you can look into investing more cash. – horatio May 29 '12 at 18:19

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