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Catch-all thread for discussions around our personal development of music. Topics to include:

The Journey - our backstories, goals, plans, progress and accomplishments

Home Studios - building out our rooms and studio technology

Developing Playing & Singing Skills - recommendations and progress around learning to play and sing

Theory & Songwriting - song structure, chords/progression, techniques, lyrics

Recording, Mixing & Production - tools, technique, best practices, mastering

Distribution - posting, sharing, networking

  • Author

Recently turned 50 and saw our youngest graduate, soon to leave us empty nesters. Buying a new home with ample space in what will be my home office to also pursue creating my own music. My goal is to be regularly writing and producing songs, end to end, by the end of 2026. Purely for me. Likely no one else will ever hear it and I'm completely fine with that. I just want to commit myself to this as an artistic pursuit.

A drummer since elementary school, I'm adequate with all things percussion. I have a nice Roland VDrum kit but it's collected a fair bit of dust the last few years. I took piano lessons a few years during school, too, but mostly used that to improve my xylophone/marimba comfort. I have a few years of high school music theory under my belt, and a nice guitar and bass but have never really invested the time into developing those skills.

We'll move into our home at the end of the month. February will mostly be about getting everything set up. I'll likely have lots of questions for everyone then about the hardware I'll need for getting my kit integrated into my macbook via midi, an audio interface and a mic. I'll also probably invest in Musora for drumeo, guitar, bass and singing lessons. They've got a deal now that includes a piano. I'l either do that or Ill need to buy one of those, too.

Looking forward to hearing what stage everyone else is at in their journey!

Looking forward to the discussion, will post more later.

Awesome stuff man. Right off the bat, the important part is you are creating something, anything. There's a core group of guys here doing the same, at a whole range of levels. And some real talent.

I think I have talked about it previously, but my background in music is roughly this. My Dad was a touring bass player when I was born, and ended up going back to school and becoming a broadcast engineer, so I had a lot of exposure then. Started on saxophone in 4th grade, and got guitar that year as well. School band, orchestra, music classes yada yada through high school. Didn't start really getting serious on guitar until junior high, but then that was my main instrument till the present. Ironically, I'm a lot more talented at sax than guitar. Played in original bands, cut a few LP's and EP's in local studios, stuff like that.

Started doing audio engineering freelance in early 00's. Mostly just do my band these days because of time constraints, though I was on the verge of opening a studio year before last until the fucking land deal fell through. Still salty. But on the lookout for property that would suit at all times!

  • Author

Side goal: understand why Rick Beato gets so excited about sus7

Oh god, Beato talk.

Meme Leaving GIF by MOODMAN

  • Author

Thoughts on this deal?

Musora
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Piano Bundle

Musora

Note: “Plus you’ll get access to everything else inside Musora (Drumeo, Singeo, Guitareo)’

Edited by Lurch

So I played in bands in high school and was a house producer for Suge Knight’s “Funky Enough Records” in Los Angeles in 1989. I basically made all the tracks for the label’s rappers to rap over and shepherded sessions at LA Air and other studios for the label’s acts. I had no clue what I was doing, but I had a home recording set up, a dj setup, was a multi instrumentalist and had connections to one of Suge’s co-owners, The D.O.C. from Dallas. It ended poorly in events best described over multiple beers, but suffice to say, it was my “Almost Famous” moment. Kept writing and playing before taking a 10 year hiatus when my kids arrived on scene. When kids got older and more interested in friends, I picked it back up and have been building up a solid home recording studio since then while recording and releasing mostly instrumentals — mostly solo but some collaborations. In the past few years I’ve gotten back into performing live and that’s my current focus.

IMG_2365.jpeg

I have a 12’ x 12’ shed that is my office/music making space. That space constraint affects all my decision making. What is the best sound I can get in this tiny box? Often it’s using newer technologies to offset the limitations of this space. For instance, I don’t own a guitar amp, I use amp and cab modelling to emulate amps. A good pair of speakers for mixing are not worth their cost in dollars or space in this room, so I use a good set of headphones and a software plugin to emulate a professional mixing environment over those headphones.

If you want a home recording set up in a small footprint using newish techs to offset your room limitations, I probably have some experiences that can help avoid headaches and maybe save you some money going down dead ends.

  • Author

Holy shit

26 minutes ago, Lurch said:

Thoughts on this deal?

Musora
No image preview

Piano Bundle

Musora

Note: “Plus you’ll get access to everything else inside Musora (Drumeo, Singeo, Guitareo)’

So no idea about that specifically, but the minimal things you need for a home recording/music making space are:

  1. An instrument (includes your voice) and the ability to operate it

  2. A computer

  3. DAW software to record with in your computer (this is your mixing board and tape recorder in software form)

  4. Hardware to get your sounds into the computer. At least an audio interface, but also a mic if you want to capture vocals or the sound from a guitar amp.

  5. Something to allow you to listen to your work while writing/arranging, tracking/recording and mixing/mastering. Monitors and/or headphones

That package looks aimed at solving the first of those points. My initial home studio after getting back into music was simply:

  1. An electric guitar my brother gave me

  2. Mac book pro that I already owned

  3. GarageBand as a DAW. Free install for Macs.

  4. A crappy Behringer uphoria audio interface that cost < $100

  5. Some crappy Mackie powered monitors that cost < $150.

With that I recorded and released my first track since the early 90s. It was objectively shitty, but that’s all it took to start making, recording and releasing my own music and get hooked again on the process. GarageBand comes with a lot of stock guitar amp and pedal emulations and I just used them.

13 minutes ago, Lurch said:

Recommend? Scarlett Solo or one of the Studio models? Perhaps a bundle w mic?

https://a.co/d/61Hr1pG

Focusrite Scarlett is a good entry level interface that will serve you well as you get into it. You might outgrow it, but starting out, you don’t want to invest a ton as you figure out what directions you want to go. To that end, I’d recommend buying used gear at a used price that you can resell later at a similar used price if you ever outgrow it. Buying new, you will almost always take a significant loss on resale.

  • Author

I have this 15 year old PA system that I used for an outdoor theater setup many years ago. Is it too powerful to use as monitors?

Guitar Center
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B-52 Matrix-2000 Value Package | Guitar Center

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42 minutes ago, Lurch said:

Recommend? Scarlett Solo or one of the Studio models? Perhaps a bundle w mic?

https://a.co/d/61Hr1pG

The Scarlett stuff is fantastic, can't recommend highly enough for starting out. I actually have a Solo I keep around for my laptop and a 8i6 in my office. In fact if you want to try the Solo I can send you this one.

I am setup kinda similar to GoredHo in so far as I track at a warehouse, though I mix at home. I have to track a whole ass band, so it's a lot of inputs and space. At home I use an RME Babyface for an interface, which is a small desktop unit. It's nice but not cheap. I'd recommend a Focusrite or UA box for starting.

7 minutes ago, Lurch said:

I have this 15 year old PA system that I used for an outdoor theater setup many years ago. Is it too powerful to use as monitors?

Guitar Center
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B-52 Matrix-2000 Value Package | Guitar Center

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Please do not. Thanks

I've downsized from a full studio to a bedroom and I use a Scarlett. The quality of sound coming out of that box will have far more to do with the skills going into the box than the hardware itself, and yes I'm talking about pure musical talent.

@Paul Wesley probably has more to say than just about anyone on surly in terms of true studio experience + musical chops. Personally, I am fascinated with the science of sound as well as the art of songwriting. Not much else. I don't have any need to be a rippin' guitar player. I did my graduate work in acoustics at UT, got my masters and bailed on my PhD after finishing all the coursework but decided an income was more interesting than writing a dissertation. I kinda regret that, but I do know acoustics. I had my moments as a legit player -- full ride to Michigan on French horn that I turned down -- I just never wanted the struggle.

So, I'm down to talk acoustics, basic theory, songwriting, the recording process (which for me stops short of mixing, I'm just not that good at it).

Edited by jimmyjazz

  • Author

God damn we got some dudes in here! Will be fun

  • Author

I’ve got this front upstairs corner bedroom (11x15’) to build into. Guessing I’m going to want to put some acoustic panels up to help block sound into and out of the rest of the house. What have you done JJ?

IMG_0053.jpeg

Edited by Lurch

1 hour ago, Goredho said:

So I played in bands in high school and was a house producer for Suge Knight’s “Funky Enough Records” in Los Angeles in 1989. I basically made all the tracks for the label’s rappers to rap over and shepherded sessions at LA Air and other studios for the label’s acts. I had no clue what I was doing, but I had a home recording set up, a dj setup, was a multi instrumentalist and had connections to one of Suge’s co-owners, The D.O.C. from Dallas. It ended poorly in events best described over multiple beers, but suffice to say, it was my “Almost Famous” moment. Kept writing and playing before taking a 10 year hiatus when my kids arrived on scene. When kids got older and more interested in friends, I picked it back up and have been building up a solid home recording studio since then while recording and releasing mostly instrumentals — mostly solo but some collaborations. In the past few years I’ve gotten back into performing live and that’s my current focus.

IMG_2365.jpeg

I have a 12’ x 12’ shed that is my office/music making space. That space constraint affects all my decision making. What is the best sound I can get in this tiny box? Often it’s using newer technologies to offset the limitations of this space. For instance, I don’t own a guitar amp, I use amp and cab modelling to emulate amps. A good pair of speakers for mixing are not worth their cost in dollars or space in this room, so I use a good set of headphones and a software plugin to emulate a professional mixing environment over those headphones.

If you want a home recording set up in a small footprint using newish techs to offset your room limitations, I probably have some experiences that can help avoid headaches and maybe save you some money going down dead ends.

Looks like the Knutsen place.

16 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

The quality of sound coming out of that box will have far more to do with the skills going into the box than the hardware itself, and yes I'm talking about pure musical talent.

If I can give one hard earned piece of advice to anyone starting out, is that it's 90% performance. That means everything before the microphone, from practice, to writing to arrangement (big one) to pre production to playing. A lesson I've learned too many times to count.

I mean, I love gear. Loooove it. But its just the icing on the cake

4 minutes ago, Lurch said:

I’ve got this front upstairs corner bedroom (11x15’) to build into. Guessing I’m going to want to put some acoustic panels up to help block sound into and out of the rest of the house. What have you done JJ?

IMG_0053.jpeg

So soundproofing is a whole long thing. Acoustic panels will tune the frequency response of the room, but stopping sound leaving is a different thing.

3 minutes ago, Lurch said:

I’ve got this front upstairs corner bedroom (11x15’) to build into. Guessing I’m going to want to put some acoustic panels up to help block sound into and out of the rest of the house. What have you done JJ?

First rule of blocking sound: you need mass. If you're considering anything approaching normal rock sound levels, your whole house is gonna hear it as well as your closer neighbords. The solution is costly -- either float a second interior room that is decoupled from the outer walls, or (at a bare minimum) consider lead sheet hung in the exterior walls.

Edited by jimmyjazz

  • Author

Vdrums aren’t too loud and I’m guessing bass and guitar don’t need to be loud for recording, so I don’t need too much I think

13 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

First rule of blocking sound: you need mass. If you're considering anything approaching normal rock sound levels, your whole house is gonna hear it as well as your closer neighbords. The solution is costly -- either float a second interior room that is decoupled from the outer walls, or (at a bare minimum) consider lead sheet hung in the exterior walls.

You forgot the free solution. "Fuck it, lets blast"

7 minutes ago, Lurch said:

Vdrums aren’t too loud and I’m guessing bass and guitar don’t need to be loud for recording, so I don’t need too much I think

The answer is always "depends". I would DI the bass regardless as you can always reamp it if you really wanted. Theres also tons of products for going direct with guitar, the Ox Box and Suhr RLIR are two popular ones. Can use headphones if you want

8 minutes ago, Lurch said:

Vdrums aren’t too loud and I’m guessing bass and guitar don’t need to be loud for recording, so I don’t need too much I think

Just know that no amount of absorption is realistically going to cut down the sound getting out of the room.

Second lesson: egg cartons don't do shit, and don't listen to anyone who says they do.

1 hour ago, Lurch said:

I have this 15 year old PA system that I used for an outdoor theater setup many years ago. Is it too powerful to use as monitors?

Guitar Center
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B-52 Matrix-2000 Value Package | Guitar Center

Shop for the B-52 Matrix-2000 Value Package in and receive free shipping and guaranteed lowest price.

So I spent a fair amount on Adams A7X and T10S subwoofer. Pretty good home studio monitors. Over time, I found my best mixes were with a decent set of headphones (Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro) and the Waves CLA Nx plugin that takes your headphones known EQ and shapes it to match Chris Lord Alge's studio so that you are kinda-sorta transported into a non-shitty room.

https://www.waves.com/plugins/cla-nx

The reason? My room sucks. Eventually, those fancy monitors that cost 5-8 times as much as the headphones and plugin became just being used for tracking. I still might reference them mixing, but only after I get a good mix in the headphones and plugin and am just checking it out on other speakers and tweaking.

So I sold those monitors and the sub and have my performance PA set up as monitors for tracking. I use the headphones and CLA NX plugin for mixing, and cross reference on the PA, laptop and car speakers. For my needs in this shitty 12x12 box that will never be great acoustically, those monitors were not the best allocation of resources.

So I would say start with what you have, wait for the need for something more to emerge.

Edited by Goredho

Started a duo 5 1/2 years ago. Done about 300 or so paid gigs since then. I’ve told the story on the guitar pron thread I think at some point.

We made a promo video this week

Holy cow, has it been 5 years? Man time flies.

51 minutes ago, G650 said:

The answer is always "depends". I would DI the bass regardless as you can always reamp it if you really wanted. Theres also tons of products for going direct with guitar, the Ox Box and Suhr RLIR are two popular ones. Can use headphones if you want

The hot new thing on the block in this regard is Paradise Guitar Studio from Universal Audio. I have demoed it, and its good. At only $149, its not going to break the bank.



3 minutes ago, Goredho said:

The hot new thing on the block in this regard is Paradise Guitar Studio from Universal Audio. I have demoed it, and its good. At only $149, its not going to break the bank.



Yeah I saw it the other day when I was picking up a plugin for PT. How does it compare to Tonex?

8 minutes ago, G650 said:

Holy cow, has it been 5 years? Man time flies.

Yea. Getting close to 6 actually. Played our first gig on the patio from that video in May 2020.

Edited by tbone_

2 minutes ago, G650 said:

Yeah I saw it the other day when I was picking up a plugin for PT. How does it compare to Tonex?

I think they are both great, but Universal Audio wins in the recording context, imo. Tonex is better for a live rig. When I get back to focusing on recording I’m going to buy it. One thing that is nice about the UA emulations is that there are no dead tones. It’s all good. Tonex has the crowdsource model for a library of sounds and 75% of what the crowd sources are not worth your time.

Edited by Goredho

Since I got my 2555SL back from service I've been enjoying running it through my Suhr RLIR for messing around. I still mic the cabs for final tracks because I want the control of mic placement and room effect, but it sounds pretty good for straight up rock tones through the onboard 4x12 greenback IR.

20260110_203906.jpg

Clip of some scratch tracks I did a few hours ago on it on project we are working up right now.

Edited by G650

So, from the original post: "Developing Playing & Singing Skills - recommendations and progress around learning to play and sing"

Currently investing time trying to develop my voice to whatever degree I can. I had "Brett Manning Singing Success 360" recommended to me by someone who used it to develop their voice, and I'll be dammed if it isn't helping. Its not cheap, but its helping and has the option for 1 on 1 lessons online or with a certified vocal coach locally. I'd be curious what others have done to jumpstart their vocal development.

Singing Success
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Singing Success 360 - Singing Success

Today, you can start a vocal program that will give you the voice you’ve always dreamed of. You’ll build a strong foundation with good techniques that will keep you singing for years to come. Singing
  • Author
14 minutes ago, Goredho said:

So, from the original post: "Developing Playing & Singing Skills - recommendations and progress around learning to play and sing"

Currently investing time trying to develop my voice to whatever degree I can. I had "Brett Manning Singing Success 360" recommended to me by someone who used it to develop their voice, and I'll be dammed if it isn't helping. Its not cheap, but its helping and has the option for 1 on 1 lessons online or with a certified vocal coach locally. I'd be curious what others have done to jumpstart their vocal development.

Singing Success
No image preview

Singing Success 360 - Singing Success

Today, you can start a vocal program that will give you the voice you’ve always dreamed of. You’ll build a strong foundation with good techniques that will keep you singing for years to come. Singing

I’m looking forward to seeing what I can even do. Quite literally “finding my voice”. Figured I’d probably need to find a coach at some point to guide me in the right direction. I was always able to tune timpani better than most and think I’m pretty sensitive to pitch, so I think I can hit notes accurately within my range, but I don’t know how to sing properly.

You are getting rock solid advice here.

4 hours ago, G650 said:

So soundproofing is a whole long thing. Acoustic panels will tune the frequency response of the room, but stopping sound leaving is a different thing.

This. Tuning a room with absorption and diffusion will make it so that what you're hearing at your mixing position is accurate, and it will "translate" to other environments. It's pretty much impossible to make a small bedroom super accurate, but a few thoughtful purchases and DIY projects can go a long way.

Soundproofing is a completely different thing, and it's actually at odds with tuning the room.

4 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

First rule of blocking sound: you need mass. If you're considering anything approaching normal rock sound levels, your whole house is gonna hear it as well as your closer neighbords. The solution is costly -- either float a second interior room that is decoupled from the outer walls, or (at a bare minimum) consider lead sheet hung in the exterior walls.

And this.

I really wouldn't spend too much $$$ trying to sound proof a spare bedroom. Unless you're gonna take some drastic and expensive actions (replacing regular windows with multi-plane fixed glass, etc), you're not going to get great results, because every dollar you spend on something that's NOT the weak spot is a mostly-wasted dollar.

4 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Just know that no amount of absorption is realistically going to cut down the sound getting out of the room.

Second lesson: egg cartons don't do shit, and don't listen to anyone who says they do.

Yeah, do NOT spend hundreds of dollars getting thin foam (like egg cartons) that you put all over the walls. It's gonna soak up all the high frequencies and do nothing for the bass (which is where all the problems live).

IMG_8294.jpeg

I’ve shared my music story I think probably more than several times, but tl;dr is I played in a band for a long time, we had some moderate success, did some cool stuff. I think the coolest was spending a month on the Warped Tour back in 2013. And a couple of really great tours. I reconnected with the guys this year, we played a reunion show, we’re planning another and are talking about writing some new stuff. Collaborating remotely will be a change, so I may be getting some of that audio interface/etc advice.

I thought I was done with this kind of shit - getting to do this at 40 was the highlight of last year

@brynnosborn-driver-friendly-parish-192.jpeg

Edited by Celery Man

31 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

IMG_8294.jpeg

I’ve shared my music story I think probably more than several times, but tl;dr is I played in a band for a long time, we had some moderate success, did some cool stuff. I think the cooler was spending a month on the Warped Tour back in 2013. And a couple of really great tours. I reconnected with the guys this year, we played a reunion show, we’re planning another and are talking about writing some new stuff. Collaborating remotely will be a change, so I may be getting some of that audio interface/etc advice.

I thought I was done with this kind of shit - getting to do this at 40 was the highlight of last year

@brynnosborn-driver-friendly-parish-192.jpeg

That’s cool, @sidis and I have done a fair number of distributed collaborations. We can describe what has worked (and what hasn’t) for us when/if you want it.

13 hours ago, Goredho said:

So I spent a fair amount on Adams A7X and T10S subwoofer. Pretty good home studio monitors. Over time, I found my best mixes were with a decent set of headphones (Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro) and the Waves CLA Nx plugin that takes your headphones known EQ and shapes it to match Chris Lord Alge's studio so that you are kinda-sorta transported into a non-shitty room.

https://www.waves.com/plugins/cla-nx

The reason? My room sucks. Eventually, those fancy monitors that cost 5-8 times as much as the headphones and plugin became just being used for tracking. I still might reference them mixing, but only after I get a good mix in the headphones and plugin and am just checking it out on other speakers and tweaking.

So I sold those monitors and the sub and have my performance PA set up as monitors for tracking. I use the headphones and CLA NX plugin for mixing, and cross reference on the PA, laptop and car speakers. For my needs in this shitty 12x12 box that will never be great acoustically, those monitors were not the best allocation of resources.

So I would say start with what you have, wait for the need for something more to emerge.

Gonna quote myself like a douche, because I think one thing this anecdote illustrates is that there are often multiple ways to address a problem. My problem was "how do I get acceptable mixes in a shitty room?" Well, one way is to make my room not shitty. Make all the physical changes that need to be made, which might include needing a completely new room without hard and poor limitations. The other way is a software solution, that Waves plugin in this specific case, which is usually much cheaper and faster. Is it as good as actually incurring the expense and taking the time to make the space I mix in not shitty? Absolutely not. But it is an acceptable compromise for me (YMMV) at a much cheaper cost in money and time that would otherwise be spent making music.

Edited by Goredho

26 minutes ago, Goredho said:

Gonna quote myself like a douche, because I think one thing this anecdote illustrates is that there are often multiple ways to address a problem. My problem was "how do I get acceptable mixes in a shitty room?" Well, one way is to make my room not shitty. Make all the physical changes that need to be made, which might include needing a completely new room without hard and poor limitations. The other way is a software solution, that Waves plugin in this specific case, which is usually much cheaper and faster. Is it as good as actually incurring the expense and taking the time to make the space I mix in not shitty? Absolutely not. But it is an acceptable compromise for me (YMMV) at a much cheaper cost in money and time that would otherwise be spent making music.

Adding to this, whatever way you go, the most important thing is to learn your system. It takes time and repetition to understand how what you hear is going to sound in other places.

15 hours ago, G650 said:

If I can give one hard earned piece of advice to anyone starting out, is that it's 90% performance. That means everything before the microphone, from practice, to writing to arrangement (big one) to pre production to playing. A lesson I've learned too many times to count.

I mean, I love gear. Loooove it. But its just the icing on the cake

Agree. You're either talented or you're not. If you're good you don't need anything more than an instrument and a mic.

I really need to get my shit together and start producing again and quit being such a loser. Alcohol is bad, kids.

On 1/10/2026 at 7:29 PM, Goredho said:

Paging Dr @sidis to the white courtesy phone.

yes? you'd like me to explain the value of sus chords? okay. a sus chord is a replacement of the third in a traditional triad chord with scale degree 2 or 4...sus2 or sus4. they are neither major, nor minor and remain as ambiguous and open as NowThis and his obsession with besthugecocks. they are used to create tension without creating unnecessarily dark harmonies and create a feeling of anticipation and delay the resolution payoff...much like tantric sex. they decide when the emotion will ultimately land on the runway while retaining forward motion. when they resolve, it is very satisfying and when they don't, they leave the listener in an emotional stasis. nothing is more effective at dictating listener expectations than some good sus.

as for bedroom production, the details of my studio are quite inconsequential…very well, where do I begin? my father was a relentlessly self-optimizing bedroom producer from belgium with mild tinnitus and a pathological obsession with signal flow. my mother was a former french prostitute who insisted that “real music” didn’t need a DAW and loudly reminded me of this during every vocal take recorded to tape on my studer. my father would upgrade interfaces, he would sell them at a loss, he would make outrageous claims like he could hear jitter. sometimes he would accuse midi of having “no soul,” the sort of general malaise that only the truly gas-afflicted possess and the sane lament. my childhood was typical: summers spent waiting for plugins to authorize, winters spent reading forum threads about converters i could never afford. in the spring we’d build bass traps out of rockwool and regret it immediately. when i clipped the master, i was forced to remix the entire track from scratch, pretty standard, really. at the age of twelve i received my first cracked copy of pro tools and learned that creativity peaks when everything is unstable. at fourteen, a man named “AnalogTruth88” and "Paul Wesley" on a forum ritualistically informed me that everything i loved was wrong and that my mixes would never translate. there really is nothing like a perfectly gain-staged signal chain, it’s breathtaking. i suggest you try it.

@Lurch , what is your plan, bud? what daw are you comfortable with? what type of computer are you planning to use? what is your primary goal? recording live? amassing an embarrassing number of plugins? are you planning to drive towards recording live drums in your room? is it for laying down tracks or more for mixing and mastering? what kind of budget are we allocating here? there's no end to this hole just so you know. but something that has been mentioned throughout this thread that cannot be emphasized enough...you can spend $10 million on the most amazing studio imaginable and if what is being recorded or created is not any good, it does not matter.

there is zero point to you allocating any budget to "soundproofing" the room if you're going to be doing live stuff - particularly drums. utterly pointless waste of money that i'm ready to spend elsewhere treating your room, getting a good interface and computer, getting a good midi controller, $50K worth of plugins, and another $50K of analog gear. i'm just kidding. but it would help to know what your specific first goals are to help decide where to spend time, effort and money. you need a good computer first and foremost. then a good interface, then some good mics, then some good monitors or headphones, then some good cable management. fill us in a little and you'll probably get some good and diverse feedback to consider.

  • Author
27 minutes ago, sidis said:

what is your plan, bud?

what daw are you comfortable with? I'm completely unfamiliar with them, so wide open to suggestions. Obviously GarageBand is readily available.

what type of computer are you planning to use? MacBook Pro (M2) "gifted" to me last year by a former employer as they sacked me and 10% of our company. I'm going to maximize the shit out the value I can get from this thing!

what is your primary goal? Initially my goal is to create the infrastructure for basic playing and recording. I want to be able to play and record vdrums, guitar, bass, keyboard and vocals, then mix and save that very first track as the first milestone. Primary goal is, subsequently, to be able to challenge myself to be musically creative going forward. I'll figure out what those future milestones are later

are you planning to drive towards recording live drums in your room? Most likely, no. I'm guessing I'll be satisfied with my vdrums at least for a while. Looks like the plugins are pretty amazing

what kind of budget are we allocating here? I'm needing lessons (Musora most likely), keyboard, mic, daw, audio interface, headphones and maybe monitors. Oh, and the guitar and drum plugins. Already have the mac, vdrums, guitar and bass. Probably $2k for year 1 would be comfortable.

Responses inline above

Edited by Lurch

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On 1/10/2026 at 6:54 PM, Lurch said:

I’ve got this front upstairs corner bedroom (11x15’) to build into. Guessing I’m going to want to put some acoustic panels up to help block sound into and out of the rest of the house. What have you done JJ?

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I've been toying around with how I'll fit everything in. This will be fun to set up

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23 minutes ago, Lurch said:

Responses inline above

i would definitely start with familiarizing yourself with a real daw. it is the centerpiece of being able to do what you want to do. garageband is great as an introduction and if you gave it to [insert your favorite artist], they would turn out something awesome but the reality is, it is a bit of a toy version of a daw. the two i know the best and i think fit your initial primary goals as well as long-term goals are pro tools and logic. pro tools is the standard, period full stop. every professional studio, every professional mixer, every professional of any type is going to use and know pro tools for recording and mixing. but i love logic and i think it is the most conducive to composing music because it does such a better job of integrating writing tools and samples/midi instruments than pro tools. and recording in logic is really good once you get the hang of it. you won't go wrong with either of those imo and learning how to use them is an essential first step. cubase is great for composition as well but it's a bit more niche. unless you are doing edm as your primary genre, i wouldn't really recommend ableton personally. but everyone's mileage varies and there are a million people that would disagree with me. but as someone who has been down the rabbit hole on them, if you are going to record everything with a mic or DI, then pro tools is a no brainer. if you are going to use a lot of midi/software instruments, then logic is a no brainer. logic is also one of the only remaining perpetual licenses in daws. everything is moving to annual subscriptions. other people love FL, studio one, and there are others but the horsepower behind pro tools, logic, and cubase make them the standards for most pros.

so you will need a daw. logic is like 200 or 300. the pro tools artist sub is like $150 a year or something.

you will need some external hard drives. just warning you now. recordings, plugins, software instruments, etc..., they take up a lot of hard drive space so just prepare yourself for that. the computer has the horsepower to get you going. budget some cash for that.

for basic playing and recording, the computer is the first key. next key is an audio interface/converters. sounds like you have a scarlet and that will get the job done for sure. i love them because they make it possible for everyone to do this at an affordable price and they are simple plug and play. the next step up you will take will likely be to a UA apollo. i have a neumann mt48 and i love it but it is overkill for getting the basic infrastructure in place and it is going to blow your whole first year budget...however, what is really nice about it and the apollo is that they has really good preamps built into it so you don't have to spend a bunch of money on an outboard pre amp. if you are going to be recording using mics, then you will need a preamp to boost the mic signal to a line signal. you can do some of that with the scarlet but the quality will be lacking. familiarize yourself with gain staging and also familiarize yourself with best practices with connecting and disconnecting mics, especially when to turn on and turn off 48V power to the mics after connecting and prior to disconnecting.

so i would get a scarlet 2i2 or 4i4. there's $200 down. you need xlr and trs cables to reach around the room so there's another $100-200.

next you need mics. since we are talking about basic infrastructure here and just getting things down from guitars, bass, drums, and vocals, just like the scarlet...there is a mic company called shure that is here to make your dreams come true. the sm57 and sm58 mics. affordable, durable, predictable, and damned if they aren't a part of every professional mic locker on earth. they are dynamic mics but for our basic infrastructure here, they are $100 each and they can cover so much ground for you. probably makes sense to get 1 sm58 and 2 sm57s (for stereo sound capture). there's $300.

next you need headphones for tracking and listening back and mixing as you go. there are people that will murder each other over this debate and there's nothing i can do to save you from that...but this is an area where i would probably invest some money to go above the introductory stuff. beyerdynamics is probably the most affordable. for tracking, you want closed back headphones and for mixing, you want open back. the DT770s and DT990s are good. i use audeze LCD for tracking and closed back and i used neumann ndh30s for open back but they will blow your budget again. i think beyerdynamic would be a great compromise and they are fucking fantastic cans that many pros use. they will not be the reason your music sucks. they are $150-300ish.

on monitors, i'm the wrong person to ask because i will have you selling crack to kids to pay for some top of the line shit to stuff in a tiny bedroom and that is not the right path at all. there's lots of good options out there. adam, focal, yamaha...lots of great options that suffice completely for bedroom production. but this will be a big expense. also, if you're getting decent monitors, get some decent monitor stands with iso pads or put iso pads on your desk. this is going to be a big budget suck unfortunately.

midi controller, you need to decide what kind of keys you need...synth action or piano bed hammer action. that drives a lot of what you will end up getting but unless you are creating legit piano performances through midi, you don't need 88 keys. 49 and 61 are totally sufficient for midi composition. i have the native instruments komplete kontrol S61 and enjoy it. i also have a roland a-88 and love it. this is a pretty personal thing on preferences.

third party plugins that you need regardless of whether or not you go with pro tools, logic, or whatever... FabFilter Pro-Q4, no negotiating, no arguing, you must have this. A good reverb plugin, Valhalla makes a lot of really great ones for $50 each and they are fucking amazing. on getting things a bit more pro sounding on the back end, check out izotope's products. they can really help you get more polish.

some other knick knacks to help, bass traps for the corners of the room will probably help.

with all that, you will be in business and ready to start getting stuff down. these are just my opinions formed from spending way too much time making every possible mistake going down the path you're headed. the thing you will find out about the music production world is that every asshole has a lot of strong opinions about what is wrong and what is right (gearspace, vi control, etc... will make you hate humanity at times) and you have to figure out what works for you...but i think i've touched on most of the starting points. if you want to flesh any of this out in more detail, just say it and we can go farther down in the weeds on something specific.

Well, I'm a pretty pretentious bastard music-wise.

Started on the piano in 3rd grade, with the same piano teacher as @Nicole44 , if you believe that. Only took lessons through 6th.

Started Cello in 4th. At some point my cello teacher said to my parents, "You need to upgrade your teacher, he's better than I can do." So I started driving down to WTSU (now WT A&M) for lessons. My first teacher from there, Matt Lad, is now with the Cincinnati Symphony. Second teacher is now Montreal Symphony's principal. The third, Chris Costanza, pursued a solo career; now a professor at Stanford. I made All-State Symphony my junior and senior year. At Texas, I studied for 2 years under the great Phyllis Young (RIP) before realizing I wasn't going to ever graduate if I pursued 3 degrees. It's the one instrument I'm best at, and the only one where, whatever thought or emotion crosses my mind, I can just play.

Played trombone from 7th-12th grade. Actually joined the Longhorn band in the off-season my freshman year, but it, too, was a casualty of running out of time. I also sold the instrument at a garage sale after my son was born, which remains one of the dumbest things I ever did.

My parents bought a synth in 1989, an Ensoniq VFXsd, that I still use today; nothing sounds quite like it.

In college I also picked up the bass -- initially, my brother's Peavey T-40 and Combo 300 amp; later, sold off the Peavey for an Ibanez fretless. Played in a couple of bands and never went far; my bandmate, Marc Gunn, now makes a living as a filk musician on the autoharp. You might have seen him and Andrew McKee as the Brobdingnagian Bards performing on campus in the late 90's/early 00's.

Around this time I also discovered the demoscene and tracked music. This got me exposed to digital audio production techniques, FM synthesis, and sampling basics in ways I never would have otherwise.

Current studio setup is all of the above, minus the trombone, plus my late Mom's acoustic guitar and a cheap-but-good Yamaha Pacifica. I've been using Cakewalk for my main production tool since it was a MIDI sequencer for DOS, and haven't been forced to switch yet. They finally started paying people to develop for it again, by the way.

Scarlett 4i4, 4th gen. Note that the 4th gen Scarletts use the same DAC/ADCs as their high-end studio gear. It's as good as I'll ever need it to be.

I've also spent real cash money on Roland Cloud's Pro subscription. You get all of Zenology synthesis and Zenology FX (surprisingly good guitar amp sims), PLUS 2 licenses to your favorite of their "Legendary" line of classic modeled gear. Also they have the "Play4life" promotion where you can get a lifetime key to Legendary gear; they've had two since I subscribed, so now I have lifetime keys to their Jupiter-8 and D-50 VSTs, plus the 2 licenses I get through the Pro subscription, which are currently slotted in to a TB-303 and TR-808. Classic. And all still driven by that Ensoniq VFXsd.

Though most of my money lately has been going towards refurbishing my cello, an unusual 300-year-old beauty that I adore, and repurchasing sheet music for songs that I learned once, but since lost the music for.

It remains a hobby and not my career. But then, my career (being a big computer nerd) is also a hobby even when it's not my career. So, no regrets there.

Edited by Rimbo

On 1/10/2026 at 3:58 PM, G650 said:

If I can give one hard earned piece of advice to anyone starting out, is that it's 90% performance. That means everything before the microphone, from practice, to writing to arrangement (big one) to pre production to playing. A lesson I've learned too many times to count.

I mean, I love gear. Loooove it. But its just the icing on the cake

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The better your original sound is, the better and easier everything afterwards is. Old recordings had technology that was ass compared to what you can get for a few hundred bucks and a cheap PC today, but the musicians knew their craft and owned it.

Frank Sinatra, for example, would show up in the studio and nail everything, perfectly, on the first take, then head out with the drummer's wife to fuck her brains out afterwards.

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