You may have heard the term ‘DIY musician’, but what does it actually mean? At its core, it’s about self-sufficiency. Thanks to the abundance of affordable, high-quality music production tools available today, with a limited budget, a bit of research, and a lot of learning, aspiring musicians can take full control of their productions from start to finish, performing multiple roles that once required access to professional studios with high-end analog equipment.
The traditional approach not only remains costly, but often entails additional expenses for hiring skilled engineers, session players, and other professionals. However, the landscape has changed dramatically. Nowadays, all you need to write, produce, record, mix, and even master your music is some affordable gear and a little self-education.
Today, many DIY musicians have successfully set up their own home recording studios on a budget, using innovative, professional-grade recording equipment that empowers them to create, produce, and distribute their music independently.
The main reason for the astronomic rise in DIY recording is the affordability of modern equipment and music-making software. Today, you can set up a home recording studio and start making music on a relatively inexpensive laptop alongside an affordable microphone, headphones, and an audio interface. Meanwhile, Digital Audio Workstations (DAWS) allow you to create, record, edit, mix, and master without limitations, and sometimes for free!
The democratization of the music production process has eliminated the need for expensive studio time, enabling artists to have complete creative control over their music. However, affordability is not everything – musicians need to ensure that their output is of a high enough quality to meet music industry standards, which can be challenging to achieve when you’re a DIY musician on a tight budget.
1. Affordable Equipment
When diving into the world of DIY music production, there are some essential tools you’ll need to get started. Here we offer tips and advice on what to purchase and the pros and cons of making the right affordable decisions.
- Computer
The first stop for any aspiring DIY musician is to purchase a reliable computer with sufficient processing power and memory to handle the various music production software and audio interfaces. Depending on your budget, your primary options are either a desktop PC or a laptop.
- Desktop PCs generally offer more powerful processors and better cooling systems to handle intensive music production tasks and support multiple screen monitors. They’re also easier to upgrade when it comes to RAM, storage, and graphics cards.
- Laptops, on the other hand, are typically cheaper and will allow you to work from anywhere, making them ideal for mobile production or working in different environments. However, it’s worth noting that laptops are not typically as powerful as desktop PCs at the same price point and offer limited upgrade options.
Whether using a desktop or laptop PC, you should look for at least an Intel i5 processor or equivalent in terms of processing power, while for Macs, the M1 or M2 chip is highly recommended. In terms of RAM – the speed at which your computer can move data between the CPU and memory, you should aim for at least 8GB, although 16GB is likely to offer much smoother performance. For data storage, more is always better, but if you’re on a budget you should aim for a minimum of 512GB, which can be upgraded through the addition of an external hard drive.
- Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
The beauty of a DAW is that it’s available at a fraction of the cost of traditional studio equipment, and some even offer free versions. Whatever your choice, DAWs allow you to create professional-quality music from home, eliminating the need to rent expensive studio gear or time. An all-in-one solution, modern DAWs allow you to combine multiple functions, from recording and editing to mixing and mastering in one software package, while also offering a vast array of virtual instruments, effects, and plugins that allow you to experiment with different sounds and styles at no additional cost. They also enable you to edit tracks and experiment without permanently having to alter your original recordings, giving you greater creative control.
The negative aspect of using a DAW mostly lies in its complexity. For beginners, there’s a vast array of features and tools to learn, although there are plenty of online tutorials to guide you through the basics. Software is more prone to crashes, bugs, and compatibility issues than hardware, and purists often believe that digital audio lacks the warmth and character that analog recording equipment provides. However, this can be overcome once you’ve reached a certain level of expertise, while a DAW’s extensive MIDI capabilities also allow you to attach various external hardware controllers, enabling you to operate in both worlds.
- Audio Interface
An audio interface is a crucial component for a DAW and an essential investment for anyone serious about their music production setup for several reasons. Basically, an audio interface enhances the overall quality and functionality of your DAW setup by converting analog signals into digital signals that your computer and DAW can process. This ensures accurate sound reproduction to help create professional-grade recordings.
The audio interface itself typically provides multiple inputs and outputs, allowing you to connect various microphones, instruments, and monitors simultaneously and often includes MIDI inputs and outputs, allowing you to connect controllers, keyboards, and other MIDI devices directly to your setup. Audio interfaces are designed to reduce latency (the delay between input and output) to provide real-time monitoring of your recordings without noticeable lag, while high-quality audio interfaces typically offer better preamps, converters, and components compared to built-in sound cards, resulting in cleaner, clearer, and more detailed recordings.
Budget audio interfaces are, however, a great entry point for those looking to start recording at home without having to make a significant investment. They’ll provide the essential features needed for basic recording and production despite having limitations in terms of sound and build quality, or the advanced features you can expect to find with mid-range or high-end interfaces.
On the plus side, budget audio interfaces are cheaper, easier to swap, and likely to be more compact and lightweight, making them convenient for mobile recording setups. Either way, they’re great if you’re new to audio production because they allow you to learn the basics of analog to digital recording without having to make a large financial commitment.
- Microphone
Needless to say, a good-quality microphone is essential for recording vocals and acoustic instruments. However, when it comes to budgeting it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of microphones that come in different price ranges. A budget mic will typically cost between $60 and $130 and still offer reasonable sound quality for your basic recording needs.
Ultimately, the best choice depends on your specific needs, goals, and budget, so see if you can shop around to find a budget microphone that offers decent quality at an affordable price. Finally, it’s worth mentioning that a pop filter is an inexpensive microphone accessory that can really help to reduce heavy air from overloading the mic and reduce or eliminate popping sounds when recording vocals.
- Monitors
Studio monitors are designed to provide a flat frequency response, meaning they reproduce sound as accurately as possible without coloring or altering the audio. This accuracy is crucial when it comes to hearing the finer details of your recordings, such as subtle nuances, panning, and spatial effects, or unwanted noise, distortion, or imbalances in your mix.
For those on a budget, studio monitors will help you to develop critical listening skills and gain a better understanding of audio production without breaking the bank, while still offering reasonably accurate sound reproduction on a level that’s suitable for basic mixing and monitoring tasks. They’re also likely to be more compact and lightweight, making them easier to fit into smaller studio spaces or portable setups.
On the negative side, budget monitors are likely to have limitations in sound accuracy, build quality, and features compared to mid-range and high-end monitors, especially when it comes to low-frequency reproduction, making it challenging to accurately mix bass-heavy music. However, budget studio monitors are definitely a great starting point for beginners and those on a tight budget, and you can always upgrade as your skills and needs grow.
- Headphones
Headphones are the most obvious alternative to monitors, possessing the added benefit of being easily transportable so you can work on music anywhere. A good pair of headphones will offer decent sound isolation, blocking out external noise and allowing you to focus on your music and hear subtle details in your mix.
Modern budget headphones can offer surprisingly good sound quality for everyday production despite their relatively limited sense of space, depth, and bass response. However, do consider that the extended use of budget headphones can lead to ear fatigue while lack of suitable cushioning might cause discomfort during extended use. Ultimately, having both headphones and monitors can be beneficial, as they complement each other and provide different perspectives on your mix, but if you have to choose one, consider your primary needs and working environment.
2. The second-hand market
Purchasing second-hand equipment can be a fantastic option for DIY musicians on a tight budget. Buying used gear is generally much cheaper as new equipment tends to depreciate in value very quickly. However, when buying second-hand music equipment, it’s still important to know the market value of an item and its common issues or wear points.
First, it’s preferable to buy second-hand items from a shop where you can inspect them in person to check for any defects or damage. Alternatively, you’re obviously going to have much more choice if you turn to the huge online market for second-hand music gear, such as Reverb, Gear4music, Musical Money, and more general platforms like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and eBay. Wherever you go gear hunting, just remember to always use trusted sellers or platforms that offer buyer protection.
When buying online, feel free to ask for additional information regarding an item. Inquire about the item’s history, including how it was used and maintained, and whether it might have any remaining warranties or guarantees. Remember to ask for any user manuals, receipts, or service records, and if you’re still unsure about the condition or value, try to get a second opinion from someone more knowledgeable.
3. Home Recording Techniques
Unfortunately, most DIY musicians have to make do with recording in rooms that have the potential to corrupt what they hear from their speaker system. The reality is, even with high-end gear, musicians often struggle to produce high-quality music in rooms that are not acoustically treated. The key to acoustically treating a room is to increase the amount of mass on your studio walls, ceilings, and floors, to both absorb sound from within the room and block sound from the outside.
While expensive options, such as attaching mass loaded vinyl, dry wall, or acoustic panels and bass traps are great at helping to reduce reflections, echoes, and reverberation, there are ways to achieve the same effect without having to break the bank. For example, you can create your own acoustic panels and bass traps by filling a wooden frame with rock wool or fiberglass insulation. Alternatively, foam panels and fabric materials are also affordable options that are effective at absorbing sound.
On a more simplistic level, placing carpets or rugs on the floor – the thicker the better – will help to absorb sound reflections, as will heavy curtains or large, upholstered furniture like sofas and bookshelves, which can act as diffusers, scattering sound reflections to improve room acoustics. If there are gaps around your windows and doors, then consider applying acoustic sealant, weatherstripping materials, or door sweeps to prevent air and sound leaks.
When it comes to recording vocals, it’s important to be able to isolate vocals and ensure outside noise doesn’t bleed into the microphone. When operating on a budget, portable vocal booth kits are ideal for small studio spaces, and you might be surprised to learn that you can even build your own DIY booth by simply hanging a heavy duty curtain and filling the surrounding space with thick blankets or quilts. All these tricks can help you to create the controlled recording environment required to capture a clean vocal take.
4. Software and Tools
As we have discussed, DAWs empower you to bring your musical ideas to life at a fraction of the cost of traditional studio gear. However, whilst DAWS are fantastic for budget-conscious producers, they all have different features and use cases depending on your experience level, which is reflected in the cost.
Some of the most popular DAWs include Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, FL Studio, and GarageBand, all of which allow musicians to make high-quality studio recordings. Avid Pro Tools remains the industry standard DAW for the recording industry, but can cost anything up to $8,000. Whereas Ableton Live – considered to be unmatched when it comes to fast and creative workflow – can set you back anywhere between $100 and $750 depending on how much you’re prepared to pay for its tiered features.
However, Ableton Live’s standard version could definitely be considered a budget DAW, alongside other affordable options including FL Studio or Apple Garageband, which is free if you happen to be the owner of an Apple Mac or iPad.
Completely free DAWs include Traktion Waveform Free, which is considered to be the most fully featured zero cost DAW available with an unlimited track count and excellent plugin support. Meanwhile, if you’re completely new to music-making, BandLab, with its highly convenient browser-based interface is another great free starting point.
Not all DAWs come with free plugins, but most of them do include a range of built-in instruments and effects to get you started. If you’re looking for free plugins that will help to expand your recording options, Eventide’s Pendulate is possibly the best freebie for sound design, allowing you to create wild, gritty, and unpredictable sounds. Surge XT, meanwhile, is another formidable free synth with huge sound design potential that won’t cost you a penny, and Melda Production’s MFreeFXBundle is known to be the biggest and most powerful free plugin pack out there.
If you’re looking for free plugins that allow you to go a bit further and process and manipulate sounds, look no further than Vahalla Supermassive or PaulXStretch, a time-stretching tool that’s great for creating transformative textural, atmospheric, and ambient sounds.
- Artificial intelligence
In today’s fast-moving music production world, artificial intelligence is now becoming an increasingly prevalent tool for DIY musicians, offering innovative ways to streamline various music production processes. For instance, Moises offers innovative, AI-driven tools for audio manipulation, enabling users to isolate, remix, and enhance tracks in real-time.
The Moises App offers huge benefits for DIY musicians, enabling them to remove vocals, separate instruments, and remix songs using the power of AI. Available as an affordable three-tiered subscription model – each offering increasingly state-of-the-art features, even Moises’ free app allows musicians to effortlessly isolate vocals, bass, and other instruments from any track so they can focus on specific elements. Through the employment of advanced AI algorithms to achieve high-quality audio separation, DIY musicians are able to practice mastering each part of a song at their own pace without interference from other instruments.
Other free Moises features include Smart Metronome, enabling you to follow the beat of any song and practice at different tempos, AI Chord Detection, designed to detect and display chords in real-time to help you learn and practice, and AI Lyric Transcription. These state-of-the-art AI-driven tools are perfect for anyone looking to practice singing and playing, learn new songs, or capture creative ideas quickly and efficiently.
5. Production Tips
For DIY musicians, mixing and mastering might seem like daunting processes when operating on a budget. Mixing is the process of combining individual tracks into a cohesive song while identifying any problematic areas or sections that need special attention, such as volume levels, enhancing or removing unwanted frequencies, controlling dynamic range, or the implementation of panning and effects. Mastering, however, is the final step of polishing a song for distribution with the objective of ensuring it sounds excellent across all devices and playback systems.
Whether you should mix and master your own tracks or hire someone else depends largely on your goals and experience level. If you’re a beginner, mixing tracks is a great way to learn about production and although you might initially want to hire a mix engineer to compete with industry standards, through time and experience it won’t be long before you’re able to mix your own tracks.
Mastering, however, is a much more technical activity and a crucial final cog in the recording process. Yet hiring a mastering engineer can cost anywhere between $60 to $500 per song depending on the engineer’s experience, the project, and the studio. Thankfully, in recent years new state-of-the art technologies have been developed to enable DIY producers to master their own tracks without breaking the bank.
Moises’ AI Mastering tool offers an affordable solution for inexperienced music producers or those on a tight budget, enabling you to adopt AI-driven tools to simplify the mastering process and create professional-quality recordings without the need for deep technical expertise or resources. Offering three mastering modes, Auto Mode allows beginners to achieve balanced and polished results without the need to understand the intricacies of mastering, while the app’s Advanced and Reference Modes are better suited to those with a little more experience looking to learn or experiment with some of the more detailed aspects of mastering.
Today, mastering engineers are highly sought-after and you might need to book months in advance before getting them to master your project. However, with Moises’ AI Mastering too, you have the freedom to master recordings at your own pace without getting bogged down by technicalities, freeing up time to focus on other creative activities.
In the past, learning how to produce, mix, and master was not something you could feasibly do in a home recording studio or learn about without having access to knowledgeable industry professionals or studios full of expensive equipment. However, thanks to today’s online resources, there is a plethora of learning tools available for DIY musicians to help them get going.
Whether you want to take an online course or tutorial, or simply join communities and forums to ask questions, collaborate, or share tips with other music enthusiasts, help is only ever a click away.
6. Promotion Tips
A much-needed lifeline for DIY musicians is getting their music into the hands of experienced professionals who can offer relevant advice and expertise. On Groover, you can send your music to industry pros, playlist editors, radio stations, bloggers, and record labels.
For DIY musicians, Groover is a great way to invest in your success and promote your music to the right people without the high costs associated with traditional PR services.
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