Gear We Recommend Under $100

There’s a lot of great recording gear out there for any budget. However, we’re going to focus on some really good quality pieces of gear that won’t break the bank. In fact, at the time of this post, these items were all selling for under $100. If you’re just getting into recording, these are some excellent choices:

Focusrite Scarlett Solo: Our pick for an entry-level audio recording interface. Connects via usb. Includes 1 natural-sounding Scarlett mic preamp with plenty of even gain and 1 instrument input. Stereo RCA line outputs let you connect to speakers, and the headphones output with gain control. Bonus: You don't need a power supply - just connect with a USB cable and start recording. Added Bonus: New Focusrite interfaces come with free plugins when you register their product. We’ve personally owned multiple Focusrite products and they’re always top-notch with sound and quality. Buy it here:

Sennheiser HD 280 PRO Headphones: These studio-grade, over-ear and closed-back headphones have a comfortable yet durable design built for professional monitoring, producing and recording applications. They thrive in monitoring applications. The drivers feature a solid frequency range not found in all wintry-level headphones (8 – 25,000 Hz), while supplying a sound pressure level of up to 113dB. Without a doubt some of the best music equipment for beginners. Buy them here:

Audio-Technica AT2020: It's hard to dig through all of the entry-level microphones out there. The AT2020 is a side-address studio condenser microphone that is known to be a huge winner as one of the best music equipment for beginners in particular project/home-studio recording applications. Its wide dynamic range handles all vocalists and most instruments easily. The extended frequency response (20Hz – 20kHz) and solid transient response helps capture your highs and lows to accurately grab all of what’s in front of it. The cardioid polar pattern reduces pickup of sounds from the side and rear, improving isolation when recording vocals. Buy it here: