It is one of the best investments you can make in your career, yielding big payoffs in valuable skills and knowledge that will save time and money, and ultimately, help you to create a better end product.

Let's discuss home studios from three perspectives:
low budget,
high budget,
and computers.

Before we get into it, let me make one comment about buying anything high tech. Like many of you, I have relics from the past that were expensive and did amazing things at the time of purchase but are now obsolete.

I feel the gear I am recommending will be with us for a while and will have a very good resale value as you expand.

* LOW BUDGET (under $2500)

A cassette four track with a built in mixer is a good choice for the core of an inexpensive home studio. They sell for $300 to $500, are small, easy to use, and are perfect for sketching out ideas, recording rehearsals, and practicing the art of recording.

However, keep in mind the quality is mediocre but they sure beat singing those brilliant "middle-of-the-night" ideas into your answering machine. Add a microphone and a second "standard" cassette deck to mix down to and you're there with a price tag under $1000.

You will soon find that the list of desired gear for your home studio grows fast and long. Items that deserve consideration next would be a digital reverb device, a compressor (volume leveler), and a quality condenser microphone (requires 48 volt electrical power- very accurate reproduction).

Quite acceptable pieces can be purchased for under $500 each and really enhance the quality of your work.

If you can afford to spend upwards of $1000 or so on a mixer/recorder, there are some good choices in systems that allow 8 tracks of recording on a standard cassette.

Another interesting possibility is a system utilizing a minidisc as the recording media. Very high quality for the price. But then, who knows how long the minidisc will be with us?

Good speakers are certainly an important element in the recording process. However, since you probably already have a system for playing music on now, I recommend using that for monitoring as the reverb, compressor, and good mic are higher priorities initially.

* HIGH BUDGET (up to $10,000)

Considering the tab an artist can quickly ring up in a professional studio, spending 10 grand on your home studio can actually be a very wise expenditure.

I work with many artists who have home studios and they bring their tapes to my place to put on the finishing touches and do the final mix. The result can be outstanding and relatively inexpensive. This does require the artist to also wear the hats of engineer and producer but, like I said in the opening remarks, these skills can make a world of difference in the long run.

An ADAT-type recorder (uses S-VHS tape) or an 8 millimeter recorder (uses hi 8 video tape) are the logical choices for the recording media. They have 8 digital tracks and start at about $2000 each. Units can be ganged together to expand to 16, 24, 32, 40 or more tracks. (Yikes!)

A separate mixer is necessary and excellent ones can be purchased from about $1000 to $3000 depending on the number of channels and features.

These same mixers can do double duty for rehearsals and live performance. Check out the Mackie line, a lotta bang for the buck.

Decent bookshelf sized ones can be had for under $500 a pair and you will also need a power amp to drive them which adds another $300 to $500. An alternative is to buy speakers that have the power amp built in. They sound great and are perfectly matched with the amplifier.

Prices start at about $1200 for a pair.

As in the low budget studio, a digital reverb, compressor, and condenser mics are next in line. The good news here is that the same ones for under $500 are perfectly acceptable for this studio configuration. Sure, you can spend more, a lot more, but most of the inexpensive outboard gear today rivals what you'll find in a world class studio so it is likely a wise choice now will not end up in the closet with the other amazing relics from the past.

A DAT recorder (Digital Audio Tape) completes the ensemble. This is a two channel machine that you mix down your multi-track tapes to. Excellent decks can be purchased for under $1000. CD's can be made from your DAT master.

Along with all this gear, you will need numerous cables to plug everything together. As you expand the studio, a central patch bay will eventually become necessary. This is a jack panel that allows access to all your equipment in one location so you're not plugging in and out of the back of each piece of gear all the time. Not a glamorous thing, a patch bay. But it will become your best friend. Really.

* COMPUTERS

This topic is a real wild card. Don't be brainwashed by the prices and claims of inexpensive digital recording software that offers incredible results. True, the software can do a jillion cool things but be prepared to drain your checkbook buying the hardware to make it happen.

A fast CPU, lots o' ram, an interface to the analog world, and a mondo hard drive are necessary to really get some work done.

However, you hardly need anything to run MIDI sequencing software on a computer. If you are a synthesizer player and/or use drum machines, it is a must have and an old, slow computer will be just fine.

For example, until a year ago I was running a seven year old Atari with 2 megs of ram and no hard drive. Worked great. Still does if I need it. (Just have to dig it out of the amazing relics closet.)

I replaced it with a big Power Mac and Digidesign Pro Tools software. Sure it's cool, does wonderful things, and has a learning curve that is practically vertical. The price tag for the complete system: $30,000. Ouch!

Without getting into a big debate over the pros, cons, and costs of digital recording with a computer, suffice it to say it is something to consider some distance down the road. The tape-based systems are by far the best choice as the core of your home studio. A computer setup can make an excellent addition later on.

In closing, I want to say this: Don't be intimidated by the equipment! It ain't that hard to learn to operate. Besides, there are good magazines about recording, reference books, and classes are frequently offered in major cities.

A great idea is to give a tape of your music to a professional engineer, buy them lunch, and pick their brain. You'll find few people will pass on an offer like that. People love to talk about themselves and their passion. Take advantage of it.

One last thing,

... it's been said that the first (and only) rule of recording is that there are no rules.

If it sounds good to you then it is good. Period.