You deserve the best cheap studio you can buy.

I can give you a walkthrough on what gear you need and why, but sometimes the K.I.S.S. model works best: Keep It Simple, Sasquatch.

Here are links to the exact items you’ll need to get started with. As always, upgrade later. To get started, get these.

(Again, as a disclaimer: I do receive affiliate commissions from these links. It costs you nothing and tips me for providing good service. Thank you!)

Looks Like This	Is Actually Called This	Costs This Much
	BM800 Microphone The best deal on a large-diaphragm starter mic anywhere. I’ve written about it extensively on other pages. Treat your budget. Start with this.	$18
	Behringer UMC22 Interface There’s one $10 cheaper (the UM2) but the preamp is not as nice. This one has what you need to get started with. See other options here.	$40
	10-Foot Mic Cable You can save $1 by going down to 6 feet, but why? And you can spend an extra $7 and get 25 feet of cable to record from across the state, but again, why?	$7
	Tabletop Mic Stand You have lots of options here, but let’s start with one you can use in a couple of circumstances. Most tabletop stands are 12-13 inches tall. This goes over 20. And the boom arm angles the mic out to you! Can’t get better for the price.	$13
	Pop Filter Make your p’s and b’s not explode and sound like an amateur! Everyone should use one of these unless you want to stand four feet from the mic and yell at it, and if you’re doing that, then this isn’t the hobby for you. (-:	$6
Total		$84

Of course, anything that you already have access to can get you started and save you a little scratch. Check with your local church, they probably have something you can borrow. Mic stands, in particular, usually get moved to a closet and get forgotten.

Moving forward, you may want to pick up some headphones (usually around $20 to start) just to hear things clearly, but for the sake of recording your voice and sending it out to the world, focus on the capture of sound more than the tweaking of sound.

Lastly, as a reminder, shop around Amazon. Specifically, take a look near the bottom of each listing at the “similar items.” Once I saw a new brand selling the BM800 for only $10; they sold out within a week. Two months later, there was another new brand selling them for $13. Then the week after that, I saw someone selling for $9, claiming they had “better frequency response” than the other makers of the BM800. I can’t speak to that. I can speak to getting that mic for $9, though, heck yeah! (The deal went away; I can’t link you to it anymore).

Buy these. Get started. Do good work!

• Joe