A Beginners Guide to Home Studios: Part 1

Computers & Headphones

Written and Edited by: Saige E. Davidson, MOSMA Outreach Coordinator, 2023 Alumni

Published: Jan. 9th 2025

Just within the past 30 years, the accessibility to audio technology has increased

Figure 1: Picture taken at MOSMA. Student is using Isotope RX to view the spectrogram of a recording

exponentially. Now almost anyone can get their hands on the tools to create their own music —It’s a wonderful thing! But for many, building a home studio can be an overwhelming and a somewhat intimidating undertaking. Particularly when there is so much information out there to sift through. I aim to break it down, piece by piece, and make it easy for anyone to put together a basic, reliable home set up that they can record, edit, and mix on.

Here is a list of everything you will need:

• Computer

• DAW (Digital Audio Workspace)

• Interface

• Headphones

• Monitor Speakers

• Microphone(s)

• Microphone stand(s)

• Cable Ties

• Pop Filter

If this is something you’re itching to start, I totally get it! It’s incredibly exciting!

recommend reading through every part before making a purchase though. It may save you some confusion and grief, as there is a lot out there, and not all of it is something you actually need for this application.

Now before I get into the nitty gritty, I would like to preface this by telling you that you don’t necessarily need anything but some form of a computer, and maybe a half decent pair of headphones to make music (That's actually part of the reason why I am starting with those pieces).

Almost every DAW (Digital Audio Workspace) has the capacity to use MIDI (Musical

Instrument Digital Interface) instruments, and depending on how much you want to spend on software, the sky's the limit when it comes to digital instruments. Especially when you get into the world of synthesizers. While MIDI may not always have a ‘real recording’/ ‘real instrument’ sound to it, EDM is incredibly popular for good reason —It’s great! However, most people who want to create a home studio are looking to record their music, and those are the people who will get the most out of reading this.

First and foremost, what kind of computer will you need?

Any functional laptop made in the last ten years or so will usually work just fine. Chromebooks aren’t ideal, as they typically have very limited memory and start to slow down far sooner than a computer really should. In addition to that, many DAWs won’t be supported on the Chromebook platform. I did try at one point when that was all I had, and it didn’t work very well. It was slow going for the most basic of tasks, and I lost my patience pretty quickly.

There are a few DAWs that are supposed to work by nature of them being web-based, however the problem I ran into almost immediately was the computer itself lacking the memory needed for more than just a few tracks. There was also a limited amount of tools that, while mostly beginner friendly, didn't seem to do what I wanted them to, or lacked the programming to do what I wanted to do. Admittedly that was back in 2021, so hopefully they have fixed that.

Figure 2: Photo taken at MOSMA. Depicts a Pro tools session designed for film editing & mixing

I no longer have that Chromebook, so I can’t actually test it to see if it has improved. If it is all you have, then you can also try going the route of downloading the mobile version of a DAW , but again, these machines are very limited, and you're likely to still run into, at the very least, some quirks that make it a bit irritating to work with. Even going the route of Linux installation will be limited by the capacity of the Chromebook .

If you happen to have a strangely good Chromebook, or you feel like you can probably work with it, I would say that the fact that it is still technically a laptop makes it a lot easier to work with compared to a phone or tablet.

Tablets and phones (especially phones), while technically computers, are typically just not designed for this job, and lack compatibility with the vast majority of audio gear.

I have spoken to people who have started out on their phone, and what I have gathered is that it is very limiting. I have heard of people making good music on them, and have had people show me some good music made on their phone, but I attribute that to the skill, patience, and determination of the person, rather than the mark of a good tool.

In addition to this, cell phones have very limited space, often already dominated by everything else we put on them. While you could technically work with only MP3 files to conserve that space, the fidelity will likely suffer. Particularly when you start to look at not only the compression you yourself will put on it while mixing, but also the compression added during mastering and, assuming you want to publish your music, every website will have its own compression it will then add to your music after the fact. This has the potential to bring up a lot of noise that you did not intend. Cell phones can play .wav files (the standard for audio files), however this is where space really becomes a problem, as .wav is an uncompressed file format, meaning it will take up far more memory then an compressed format like MP3.

I also personally found that when I did try to do audio work on my phone, it was far easier for me to get distracted by some other notification or app, and forget about the project all together. Based on my observation of others, I don't think that would be something unique to just me.

I think it is incredibly impressive when people are able to create just with what they

have, especially as someone who has had to do just that many times before, however I also understand that good tools are an important piece of the puzzle. In this way, Audio engineers are very much like craftsmen or tradesmen. Yes, many of us start with the hammer we have duck taped together so that the head doesn’t fly off again, and the nails we snagged from our dad’s stash that are slightly bent, but we need better tools —the chisels, sanders, varying types of nails, eta— to enable us to use more advanced technique and work at a faster pace without interruptions; or our tools giving out too quickly.

So what makes a computer good for audio engineering?

Spec-wise, you are looking for a computer with a good CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a good amount of RAM (Random-Access Memory).

DAWs aren’t heavy on the graphics, generally speaking, so unless you are also using this computer for gaming, or anything else visually based such as graphic design or model making, don’t worry too much about it. I myself have been using a second-hand MacBook Air with an M2 processor (CPU), and 64G of RAM. It runs the programs I need, like Protools, Reaper, and Unity, and it also runs most games relatively well, so long as they aren’t graphically heavy or poorly optimized.

For the most part, a decent computer will run any DAW . You may run into a lengthier processing time with older parts, which does mean that there is the potential for latency. If you happen notice your audio lagging behind the visual waveforms on the DAW, latency is your culprit.

When in doubt, check the required specs of the DAW you’re using.

The second thing you’ll need is a good pair of headphones.

Figure 3 Headphone 1/8 to 1/4 inch adapter. You'll also find them in black pretty commonly

If you already have a pair you really like, then make sure it has a 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch adapter. You will need it. If your headphones didn’t come with one, you can get such adapters at most music stores for a few bucks.

I want to also note that I don’t recommend earbuds for this application. They are great for listening, and absolutely a good tool to use as a mix reference, as earbuds are popular for casual listening. However, not only do you increase your risk of damaging your eardrums by using earbuds for long periods of time, but you also run into issues with the sound being almost too direct for you to critically listen to it properly.

A good mix is far easier to achieve if it has been given the space for the sound waves to bounce around a bit, and 'breath'. That’s also why just studio monitors will result in a better mix then just headphones (both usually resulting in the best product).

In addition to this, the drivers of earbuds, the devices inside headphones that actually output the sound, are absolutely teeny tiny. Imagine the speaker cone of any speaker or amplifier. Now shrink it to roughly the size of your pinky, and that's about how small they are. While technology has greatly advanced, there is still only so much a driver that small can actually handle mechanically, and so at a certain point (it varies a bit) you will start hearing distortion. Just like mixing on a phone, it can be done, but they’re just not made for Audio Production. This high potential for distortion also tells me that these also would not be very suitable for editing, as you may mistake the distortion for a problem with the recording.

If you are in the market for a new pair of studio headphones, or just want to upgrade, there is an array of good brands you can look into. First though, you’ll want to ask yourself some questions:

Do I want Closed back, Half-open, or Open-back headphones?

Closed-back headphones are what most over-ear headphones come as. They tend to have more bass overall because the audio is getting trapped inside the ear cup.

Figure 4: Types of over-ear headphones. They have many different designs; this one is just to give you an idea of the visual difference

Half open, and Open-backs will have some kind of grating, whether it be metal or plastic, over a mesh, in place of the solid cup (Sometimes it's just a mesh).

They allow for the sound of the room to be heard, and tend to feel more like the music is being played live in the room with you; which can feel a little uncomfortable at first, but you do get used to it. By virtue of them allowing the sound to 'breath', they tend to have a much clearer high end, making it easier to mix those really sparkly sounding instruments or, as a more specific example, cymbals.

Are these headphones just for music production, or am I using these casually to?

If you want something just for mixing, I often recommend either the headphones you know the best, or a pair of open-back/half open-back headphones. This is because when you mix with closed-back headphones it’s usually pretty obvious by the choices made that you have mixed the song on headphones. That is perfectly fine if you are using multiple reference points —something you should do regardless— but if all you have is a pair of headphones, then in the case of mixing, open-backs are the way to go.

When you are recording through a microphone that is in the same room as the headphones, assuming you need those headphones plugged in to hear yourself, you will want to have closed-backs on so that the audio does not leak into the recording. You can even get closed-backs that mute when you remove them. My head is too small for the auto muting headphones I have tried, and they like to mute while I wear them, causing may moments of great confusion for myself and the person acting as the audio engineer, but most people probably won’t run into this issue.

If you are looking for something more multi-purpose, closed-backs are the better choice. It is more considerate to others when you wear them in public, and they can be utilized in all stages of the music production process, so long as you are using —say it with me now!— multiple reference points for your mix. I highly encourage you to make this a habit if you haven't already, regardless of what headphones you choose. You can use anything that produces sound to do so. Vehicle radio speakers are a fantastic one!

How long will I be wearing these at a time?

Sessions —be it recording, editing, mixing, or even mastering— can be very long. And I mean many many hours long. Now I don’t recommend this to anyone, but I once spent 12 hours editing a single song. I certainly didn’t have to.

Figure 5: Photo taken in MOSMA. Depicts lineup of studio headphones MOSMA uses for guests

It was because I wanted to practice something specific, however that whole time not once did my headphones bother me. Yes, of course I was taking breaks, but even my headphones for casual listening start to hurt after only a couple hours of usage.

That is the beauty of the right pair of headphones.

I have glasses, and I wear earrings, and both those things get pressed into my head when I put on a pair of headphones that isn’t right for my needs. And even without factoring in those additional things, a few hours of headphones putting pressure in the wrong places on your skull will start to bother anyone. You’ll see in many headphone reviews, comfort is a huge factor. Also like craftsmen and tradesmen, our tools should be comfortable for us.

The thing about comfort, is everyone is a little different. We all have slightly different variations on what works for us and the structure of our head. The bones in your skull aren’t like my skull bones, nor are they like your friend's, or even your parent’s skull bones. When you choose your headphones, I recommend trying some if you're able to. If not, then make sure the place you get them from has a good return policy, and keep the box in good shape, just incase.

Do I want something with a detachable cable?

Some pairs have them. Some don’t. A detachable cable can significantly increase the longevity of a pair of headphones. Anyone who has any experience with headphones at all knows that the first thing to go is almost always the cable; particularly at the base of the connector (the plug), and the point where the headphones and the cable meet.

Brands that do this will also sell replacement cables, among other replacement parts, so you can make a pair of headphones potentially last for decades with proper care. My studio headphones, oddly enough, don’t have this feature, however I don’t particularly mind because the brand makes high quality gear. My casual listening headphones do have this, so when the Bluetooth does eventually give out, then they are still useable. Those headphones have hit the concrete several times in the last six years or so that I have owned them, and still, they function perfectly fine, so I would like to keep them around for as long as possible.

As I mentioned, there are several good brands that are readily available for headphones. When I used to work at Long & McQuade, something I would often run into was how strong people’s preference for one brand or the other would be. That’s perfectly okay, it made my job at the time significantly easier. It just may not be very ideal as someone just starting out, as you probably don’t quite know what works for your ears and your comfort quite yet. I would recommend trying on a couple pairs. Your headphones shouldn't cause you pain in any way, and you should be able to have them on without any minor pain or irritation developing for at least a good 3 hours straight (This is of course assuming that there are no prior conditions that would prevent this).

I remember being completely clueless and overwhelmed by the seemingly

endless options. I was lucky enough that I was able to listen to and try several sets of

headphones —curated by our educators here at MOSMA— back-to-back to get an idea of what I actually liked. You can do that at some stores, but I understand that isn’t available to everyone.

YouTube can be of some help, though be aware that not only will the sound be affected by the headphones or speakers that you’re playing it through, but also YouTube's compression can be a bit intense, so the likelihood of it being accurate to the true sound is improbable at best. This is okay though, because it will still give you an idea so long as you're not listening in a vacuum, meaning that you, or the person you're watching, is actively comparing the headphone to each other.

Here are a few channels that could be of some help:

• Dank Pods

• TheHEADPHONEShow

• Askdrtk

And there is a plethora more you will encounter once you start down this rabbit hole; however only a few met my criteria. These channels mostly cover headphones, and have a good backlog of content for you to hunt through.

To clarify, these youtube channels are not in any way affiliated with MOSMA, they are simply just channels that I have found during my own personal research into the topic of headphones, and I would like to share them as resources for you to explore.

Here is a list of solid, well known audio brands with good headphone options across the board, including some more entry level/budget friendly headphone sets:

• AKG

• Audio Technica

• Beyerdynamic

• Bose

• Grado

• JBL

• Philips

• Sennheiser

• Shure

• Sony

There are many more, as you may be able to guess. These, however, are the brands that I personally have seen leaning towards more of a 'professional audio work' style of headphone, and they are readily available in Canada and the US. Most of them also do have some fantastic casual listening headphones.

Yes, you can use headphones built for casual listening. I did for the first few months of the Audio in Media program because I just didn’t have studio headphones of my own. Just be aware that they overall tend to be less accurate because they were built for a different purpose. Casual listening often asks for EQ boosts (such as a bass boost or a high-end boost) and noise cancelling —things you may not really want in a set of headphones designed for Audio Production.

Some people like a bit of noise cancelling, but I personally don’t. If you don’t know how noise cancelling works, I will put this as simply as I can, because it involves this lovely thing called Phase, which I do plan to eventually cover in more depth. It can be a bit of a doozy, as it does involve a bit of physics.

Noise cancelling headphones have a tiny little microphone on them that picks up the noise from outside of your headphones. The phase is then flipped which, to paint a picture, means that you have essentially taken the waveform, and flipped it 180° on its horizontal axis. Now this is then played back in the headphones, cancelling out the outside noise as it happens.

It is a brilliant little bit of technology, and it is certainly a best friend of mine when I am grocery shopping, however this is likely to alter the frequency response of the mix, and that’s not something I would like to be fighting with when I am in the zone.

I also will always encourage you to do some of your own digging to see what's out there. You may find something works well for you that I have never even heard of! My goal here is really just to give you a jumping off point so you can take the reins and do what is best for you and your workflow.

In the next part I’ll be covering interfaces, as well as microphones, and in part three I will cover Monitor Speakers, and set up, so stay tuned, and please feel free to inquire about any questions you may have!

Part 2 Coming February 2026!