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Make Your PC a Private Recording Studio

Most systems made in the past few years have the horsepower to serve as a home recording studio, though a dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive will ensure glitch-free performance. Out of the box, however, they lack the inputs needed to record real instruments and voices, so you'll have to upgrade your audio interface.

The interface: The audio interface takes in the sound of an instrument or microphone and translates it into zeros and ones for the computer. Your new interface can be either an internal PCI board (replacing the sound card that came with your PC) or an external USB 2.0/FireWire device. Internal PCI offers better performance (speed, not quality) but external units come close, and they also work with laptops and Macs. Interfaces from Digidesign, Edirol, Emu, Lexicon, M-Audio, and Tascam, costing $100 to $500, are all highly regarded. Whichever product you opt for, it should come with three-pin XLR microphone jacks and support 24-bit recording at 48, 96, or 192 kHz (get the highest you can).

The software: Chances are your interface will ship with an LE (light) version of Cakewalk's Sonar, Digidesign's ProTools, or Steinberg's Cubase--the heavy hitters in the home recording software market. The light version should be enough for most home users, but numerous upgrades to these products are available. Prices for upgrades can range well up into the thousands of dollars; such packages provide more control features, more tracks, and better sound. You can find thousands of third-party audio effects and MIDI-triggered virtual instruments (bass, guitar, drums, keyboards, and the like), too, which the PC can play to provide you with a virtual backup band.

Mics and monitors: For recording acoustic instruments and vocals, high-quality microphones are a must. The $100, low-impedance Shure SM-57/58 (for instruments) and a $200 to $400 large diaphragm condenser mic (for vocals) are good choices to start with. Last, but hardly least, a pair of decent studio monitors (speakers) from a popular brand such as Alesis or JBL will convey your sounds with accuracy, at prices starting at around $200.

Jon L. Jacobi