You don't have to spend hundred or thousands of dollars...

Every so often as a look through the forums, articles and other content at HRC and other home recording web sites (yes, there ARE others :-) I notice one simple fact seems to be forgotten. That simple fact is that you CAN record music and have fun producing music without breaking the bank.

Many times someone will ask a question that will always result in answers like "go buy this $500 plugin", or, "in this $800 program that doesn't happen" rather than trying to remedy the situation with what the person has.

While it is true many of us here fancy using Steinberg WaveLab or full blown Sound Forge (formerly from Sonic Foundry, now owned by Sony) for our final editing and mastering tasks, many forget that there are other tools available that will do much of the same things for much cheaper. Programs like GoldWave, SoundEdit Pro, Older versions of Sound Forge called the "Studio" editions and many others sell for MUCH less money and do all the basics of audio editing and mastering. Obviously lacking some of the power-user features of the big names, but still very capable programs for someone that doesn't have, or doesn't want to spend a boat-load of money.

When it comes to multitracking we often talk of Sonar, Cubase, ProTools, Vegas and others that sell for several hundred dollars when there are things like MultiTrack Studio, Intuitive MX, N Track and many others. The cheaper ones may not have some of the high-end MIDI sequencing abilities, gobs of routing options or dozens of built in effects, but they do what they are supposed to, which is multitrack.

In regards to the previously mentioned effects, there is a massive amount of free DirectX and VST plugins available all over the internet from generous programmers andmore coming every day. A place like The DirectX Files has links to many. Many of these are very good, and well, some suck, but ya do what ya can. HRC staff member "flametheband" wrote a great article about freeware plugins and apps which you can read here.

There are also less expensive options for sound cards, hardware effects units, mixers and much, much more. Money can also be saved in the do-it-yourself arena as well. Our recording tips section has a few projects you can do to save money in your venture.

Obviously, all of these money savings moves do come with sacrifice in features and/or quality, but, it's just a question of whether you are willing to sacrifice to at least be making music, rather than making none at all.

My main motivation for writing this is the fear that after reading the forums at this site or any other will result in scaring off someone that wants to get into the hobby, which I think we will all agree is a rewarding one, because of the numbers they see racking up in their heads over what they HAVE to get to start recording.

At the end of the day, it's not always the gear that you have, but the person behind that gear that makes the difference. I would rather work with a great musician with mediocre gear, than a mediocre musician with great gear.