We’ve been recording in our basement studio since the fall of 2020. When this first started I didn’t know how it would turn out. I’ve been writing songs for decades and knew I could sing and play. But would I be good at recording myself and others? How good could I be at mixing. What about all the gear I would need.

I am fortunate to have a good friend and former bandmate, Rick Kranyak, who is not only an accomplished guitar player but ran his own studio in Blacksburg, VA for years. He gave me some good advice for not only what gear to get but also where to look for recording and mixing advice.

Rick Kranyak and my brother-in-law Rik Savering both use Logic Pro X for their recording projects. So that is an easy choice. For a couple hundred bucks you have access to an increadibly powerful and easy to use recording application.

For most of the other stuff I went as cheap as I could because I didn’t know how it would work out so I didn’t want to invest a bunch of money. I got a used iMac and Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 interface to get me started. Over the course of the next year I would wait for Sweetwater or Musicians Friend to have sales on keyboards, microphones, headphones and studio monitors. This is what my studio looked like.

Why upgrade?

The iMac I got initially was a 2014 model. It had enough capacity initially but started to hit the wall as my recording projects got more complex. It also could not upgrade to the latest IOS. This prevented me from upgrading to the latest version of Logic Pro X.

The biggest problem was that I was running out of drive space. My complex recording projects took longer to open and save. Logic would also choke while recording which was really frustrating, especially if I was in the middle of a good take. I probably could have added an external drive to offload some of the storage but it was time to upgrade.

New Gear

I got a deal on an open box iMac Studio M1 from B&H which saved me several hundred dollars.

New Egg had a good deal on an older ViewSonic 32 inch monitor. The HDMI cable connects directly to the Mac Studio.

I got a Samsung 4Tb SDD to store the Logic projects and audio files. Chris Vandeviver at Why Logic Pro Rules recommends using an external SDD as long as it has a fast transfer speed. I also got another larger external HDD to house my backups. I repurposed my existing back up drive as an archive for the audio and video projects.

I was able to re-use everything else. I have an inexpensive powered USB hub to connect everything except for the Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 and the data drive. The Akai 49 key midi workstation connects there along with the backup drives, keyboard, and mouse and other USB peripherals. The Kali LP6 studio monitors connect directly to the Focusrite Scarlett. And my existing mics and cable stay the same.

Reorganize

The local Habitat Restore had dozens of solid wooden shelves they got from a local college office that shut down. That gave me the opportunity to reorganize the studio space. I used to have make shift tables to store mics, cables, strings, picks, and all the other sundries you need in a studio.

We got some storage bins to organize similar items. We moved the guitar rack to the wall which makes better use of the space. The final result is a more functional and comfortable space for recording and mixing.