Tried these two songs and recorded them, there is lot of room to improve, but again thanks to friends for their encouragement. And as promised adding them here on my blog for download..by the way I had never tried Rafi’s song but guess it came well..

For downloading them right click and click on save as…

Sanam Teri Kasam

Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho

Sanam Teri Kasam(YouTube)

Tum jo Mil Gaye Ho(YouTube)

I had been using Microsoft windows since its first launch and had developed and architected most applications under Microsoft Environment. That was my world until this Father’s day, when my daughter surprised me with a MacBook Pro. I had been seeing people using Mac but for me there was no necessity to buy one and moreover if you are PC lover you will always find a reason to hate Mac. 

I always used to discuss with one of my college friend who is great guitarist to take out some time and spend on producing music. But with the time limitation it always remained a topic of discussion. Anyway since now I owned this piece of hardware I definitely wanted to use it for music. Challenges were to learn new OS, new application and off course what to buy to setup recording studio at home.

 There is ton of information available through web, which is good but makes it very complicated to choose different pieces, everyone talks about different things and sometime it’s too technical. So I did some study and made my decisions based on most recommended products. By the way if you own Mac, mac itself is fully functional home based recording studio. It comes with excellent sound card and software called GarageBand and that is what all you need. But if you have to plug in external instruments, like drum, keyboard, guitar then you need to spend more on the hardware and cables.

This is the list of hardware and components that you need to setup home based but still professional grade studio:

Hardware: MacBook

For me picking MacBook was not an option since I got it as present, but I must say that Mac is very powerful especially if you are using it for audio, video or graphics work. I got 17” fully loaded, but I think 15” with 8GB RAM and 500GB hard disk might be the best bet, price is lower and I am sure it is easy to carry and can be used for other business related activities, 17” is bit bulky for me.

Music Software: GarageBand/Logic 9

Since I had to put time in learning everything from scratch I had opted not to use Garageband which comes free with MacBook rather go one step higher and use Logic 9, an apple product and widely used by music composers. Logic 9 costs between $400 and $500, depending upon where you buy it from. When I was researching about Logic 9, I found that OSCAR winner song “JAI HO” composed by music maestro A.R. Rahman  was completely framed on Logic 9…interesting enough..

Audio Interface: Motu UltraLite-mk3 Hybrid

Before I talk about the product, let me explain why we need this piece of hardware. This hardware basically connects your macbook with any other instrument or device, like keyboard, microphone, guitar etc. This hardware will also connect your external studio speakers or head phones. MOTU made to my final list mainly because of three things, had phantom power available for two microphones, had enough inputs and can work in disconnected mode, means you can program all elements, disconnect it and then use the same for live shows. Installation was very clear and smooth and product is very easy to use from both software and hardware perspective. Price tag for this piece was $450. You can also check other features and latest price here.

 Microphone: RODE NT1A/Shure SM7B

You can go crazy when you buy microphones, good microphones start at around $300 but there is no end to upper limit. I wanted to spend around $400 and was struck between RODE and SHURE. Both microphones use different technologies, one is dynamic and another one is condenser microphone. These two microphones had the best rating in the price range that I wanted to stick to, so I gambled and purchased RODE, am quite happy with the quality but I think I will give it a shot to SM7B as well and if I observe any difference in audio quality then will share here.

Studio Speakers: M-Audio Studiophile BX5a Deluxe 70-watt

You need these speakers to listen back what you have created. These studio speakers are very balanced and enough power to play back. Play back quality was superb and you will be able to observe mistakes. Price tag was around $229.

Headphone and Cables

You need MIDI in/out cables to plug in your keyboard, rest you need some TRS, Y and XLR cables, keep around $200 on side for these cables and adaptors. As far as the headphones go, you can use any headphones that you may own or buy something for less than $100.

So far I am very pleased with the setup, will post some of my creations under music tab. Good luck!!