Home Studio Options

[Juriy]

Hello fellow instructors, 

I think that recording studio setup is one of the most difficult subjects to get your head around. Microphones, audio interfaces, lights and sound all seem to be important. However the amount of technical details and hard decision on priorities are making studio setup quite overwhelming. 

I've gone through a long journey of building home studio from $500 to $10k setup, made many mistakes along the way, bought few pieces of equipment that I almost never used, and some other pieces that I can't imagine my work without. 

I decided to record a short video and describe the priorities and options for your home studio. Check it out!

How to set up home recording studio

If you're curious, here's the list of my equipment that I use for recording. Notice that videography is my hobby, so I also shoot some short films, interviews and occasionally corporate promotional videos, so this equipment set is a bit of an overkill for Udemy

Microphones:

• Neumann TLM-102 (voice-overs)
• Sennheiser ME-2 (lavalier mic for talking to a camera)

Radio transmitter/receiver set for mics

• Sennheiser G3

Audio Interface

• Focusrite Clarett 2Pre (thunderbolt version)

Field recorders

• Zoom H6
• Zoom H1

Cameras

• Canon C100 MK-II
• Canon Legria HF G-25 (cam B)

Lenses

• Canon EF 24-105mm f/4l IS II USM
• Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8l IS USM

Lights

• LEDGO 2x 1200 Bi-colour Lighting Kit

Monitors (headphones)

• Audio Technica AT-M70x

[GregReverdiau]

Great information in this video. If you are new or you are thinking of upgrading your equipment, check out Juriy's video for some good tips. 

[Khushboo98]

Is this complete set up is necessary..?

Can't we use our smartphone to record and create our course..?

[GregReverdiau]

There is no requirement for equipment and you could record your course with only a smart phone. However, the microphone on your smartphone is not going to give you great results compared to even some of these cheaper microphones on this list. Remember that students will give you some slack for lower video quality but you will get bad reviews if your audio is bad... 

[KatrinaJulia]

Definitely!

In the beginning, I used my Iphone 8, than I phone 10 and a simple lavalier mic via Amazon

to help with the sound. 

I believe in keeping things simple and scalable. 

I recently in October upgraded to a Canon with video, and a microphone for our podcast.

[JeffSharman592]

I would like to add my experiences in course creation right from the beginning.

My first course was trial and error. I made some talking heads video using a Canon camera on a tripod. The sound quality was terrible. I then did the same thing using a Samsung Smart phone on a tripod. Much better than the camera.

I use a Dell laptop with built-in webcam and Mic. Originally on quite an old laptop. It was OK but the sound quality needed improvement. I purchased a separate Mic which improved it a lot. 

It is always necessary to have some good audio and video editing software. There are some free ones around, but I opted for NCH Videopad, Wavepad and Debut Video Capture. All excellent and not that expensive. Very user friendly and effective. 

I now have a new Dell laptop and I still use the built in Mic and Webcam. Excellent quality and after editing, noise is virtually non-existent. I don't use a separate Mic anymore or Webcam for my recordings.

I have made a recording booth to cut down echo and outside ambient noise. Cheap and easy. A plastic box covered in a thick multi-layered blanket. Works beautifully. 

It is nice to know that you don't have to spend a fortune to obtain good results.