As I mentioned on the Basics PC/Software page, your computer (box) should be a powerful PC, with the latest operating system. Macs are also excellent machines, but since they cost much more and are more expensive to outfit and maintain I don't involve myself with them and I don't recommend them to anyone who has a budget. There's too many other important things to spend your money on that actually will effect the outcome of your work.

As listed on the Basic PC/Software Info page, here are some good computer specs for a dedicated DAW at the time of this writing:

HOW TO RECORD AT HOME - DESIRED PC SPECS

+ CPU: Intel Core 2 Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz or AMD Athlon 64X2 4000 Dual Core Processor
+ RAM: 2GB DDR-2 RAM (4GB Vista) 800MHz Dual Channel - Matched Pair
+ Video: GeForce 8600 GT PCI-E 256MB Video Card with Dual DVI-I Connectors
+ Operating System Drive: 250GB 7200RPM Ultra 300 SATA II with 16 MB buffer
+ Audio Drive: 500GB 7200RPM Ultra 300 SATA II with 16 MB buffer
+ Optical Drive: Dual Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Combo Optical Drive w/LightScribe
+ USB Ports: 6 USB 2.0 (4 Rear/2 Front)
+ 1394 IEEE (FireWire): At least One FireWire Port

The rest of the specs are so technical that only your local best-buy geek will care. But if you have the above, you probably have the inner computer guts required.

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Use the Amazon search box to find your home studio software or book needs (I'll always recommend Cakewalk Sonar products) and use the MP3 shopper below to buy and download the perfect "reference" music to guide your ears. Buy a song or songs that you want to emulate the sound of with your mix (or close to the sound at least) so that you can continually reference the song to compare how you're doing.

HOW TO RECORD AT HOME - Minimal PC Specs

Most of the Record At Home visitors and community are not at this site because they want to build a high end recording studio. You are here because you want to build a home studio that doesn't that break the bank and will allow you to create to your hearts content. Here's a measuring stick of hard and software that you can use as a "minimum" needs basis.

These recommended specs will allow you to run most of the software advertised on this site. For advanced questions and before you make significant investments, you should always consult a technician. No matter how clear this site can be about specs, it's like white noise to someone new to it all... a tech can easily wrap his head around what you want to do and what you need to do it. Here's some basic lingo you should be familiar with:

1. 1.6 Ghz. Pentium III or Athlon cpu
2. 512mb ram
3. 40gb 7200 rpm hard drive
4. 32mb AGP video card
5. On board AC97 audio or separate soundcard
6. 24X CDRW drive
7. Windows XP (home or professional) with service pack 2

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STORAGE
Because audio files are very large you want to have sufficient RAM and hard drive (7200 rpm) storage (or an external USB drive). External drives are now cheap compared to the past. I just bought a 1 terabyte external drive for about 100 dollars. A .wav file can be from 30 to 80MB or more. As an MP3 that song would be from 3 to 8MB.

OS
Get at least XP, Vista or Windows 7 for you OS.

LAPTOPS
Laptop recording is becoming popular, but if you go this way, be prepared to invest in a decent machine. Laptops can choke your creativity if they aren't outfitted with the right RAM, audio and video cards. Nothing is more frustrating than slow cumbersome load and save times when you're in the creative flow.

COMPUTER HOUSE CLEANING
Keep your hard drive clean of unnecessary files and the registry cleared of unnused entries. I use Acvanced System Care for all of my computer house cleaning. It's effective and free.

Don't run unnecesary programs while recording. Shut everything down except security and recording programs.

Audio software: keep it as simple as you can, be sure it can handle an unlimited tracks and that it has effects and plugin capability. I whole-heartedly recommend Sonar. Any version, but the later the better. It should have a manual, paper or digital, online help and certainly a forum for user support and collaboration.

Software is expensive and extremely complicated to someone new to this all. I recommend playing with the free stuff for a while. Audacity can introduce you to a lot of the elements of digital recording and there's more out there if you look.

HOW TO RECORD AT HOME - Sound Hardware

The interface should accept 1/4" instrument jacks (like a guitar chord) and have XLR inputs, phantom power and some control over EQ and gain. For drums I recommend drum machines, keyboards, loops or some other alternative to acoustic drum recording... but hey, if you're rich and you just have to record live drums. Go for it! I won't be opening that can of confusion here :o)

Midi requires specific hardware and software. Midi is still alive (somehow) and I recommend a USB connector. Other than that, I don't have much. I'm a huge proponent of analog recording and I've steered clear of midi since 1992.

For Vocals, use a condenser microphone. And use any high quality unidirectional mic for acoustic instruments. Be creative with your use of mics and experiment a lot.

HOW TO RECORD AT HOME - AUDIO MONITORS

Remember when I said that if you could only invest in one part of this process it should be the PC and the software? Well, I lied. You should also invest in your speakers (monitors). If you have bad monitors, you'll have a bad sounding end product. Period. I recommend powered speakers.