Earlier this year, we published a post on how you can get everything you need for a recording studio for under $1,000. We wanted to revisit that idea again, but for studios with a bit more of a budget to work with.
As technology has advanced audio production, it’s impressive what you can do with $5,000. Whereas in the past as professional studio was at least in the tens of thousands of dollars (if not hundreds of thousands), today you can have professional grade equipment for much less.
If you have only $5,000 to spend, here’s how you can build a killer recording studio, assuming you already have a computer that’s decent enough to run a modern day DAW (64-bit, at least 4GB of RAM, high quality processor…). If you don’t have a computer, look into picking up a Mac mini.
Glyph Studio mini Professional Portable Hard Drive 1TB - $200
You’re going to need a good external hard drive to record your music to. Glyph has been making high-quality hard disc drives for audio and video professionals for years and is a trusted brand. At 7,200 RPM and Firewire/USB 3.0 connectors, this drive is fast enough to handle all of your needs.
UA Apollo Quad - $2,500
For your recording interface, the Universal Audio Apollo Quad is the perfect piece of gear. It has excellent A/D conversion and impressively transparent preamps. With 16 inputs, you’ll have more than enough recording options. The real magic, though, is the UAD-2 power that allows plugins from Universal Audio to be processed through the interface, saving your computer precious memory and power. For best results, be sure to get the thunderbolt card.
Cubase 7 - $410
While Pro Tools is by far the DAW of choice for most pro studios, that doesn’t mean it’s the best. Many producers in recent years have used Logic Pro, Ableton and even Fruity Loops to cut hit records. While each DAW offers its own range of features, all of them will allow you to record and edit high quality digital audio. Cubase offers a good balance of audio mixing tools with an intuitive MIDI programming interface. And at $410 it’s hard to justify paying nearly $300 more for Pro Tools.
With your DAW, interface and hard drive covered you’ll still need a few more things to get your $5000 studio up and running. In our next post, we’ll cover the rest with monitors, mics, your MIDI controller and room treatments.
Make Pro Songs
There are 6 unique value-points inside the Sage Audio membership, so let’s go over each one so you can decide if it’s the right fit for you.
1. 20 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 20 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You’ll get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
2. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited mixing feedback so you can quickly improve your mixes fast.
- This is highly valuable - giving you access to a thriving community of mixing engineers who can provide you with feedback about what you can improve first before sending your mix to be professionally mastered.
3. Sage Audio University™ (SAU) — (Mixing and Mastering Education Platform)
- SAU is a modern audio engineering education platform that includes in-depth mixing and mastering course curriculums that match the new music industry.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from first-time mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout every course curriculum.
- SAU course curriculums include Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website, social channels, and portfolio for as long as you remain a member.
- Get first access to all future SAU course curriculums to continually build and refine your mixing and mastering skills as the industry evolves.
4. Sage Audio Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers that can provide you with real-world mixing feedback, discussions, mix competitions, networking, collaborations, and more.
5. 700+ In-depth Sage Audio Mixing and Mastering Videos
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into playlists so you can take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your mixing and mastering skills at your own pace.
6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content, Including:
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 58 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.