hey guys, I've been trying to explore new ways to use my free time
I've decided maybe to make music, for fun...not neccessarily with any instrument, just vocals
I could use some help on getting started with maybe a basic to moderate list of equipment for in-home music producing/editing.

typically I'm a fan of underground hip hop but my range is virtually limitless...I need something that is flexible for experimentation.

anyone have some ideas for software/hardware/etc. tips?

If you aim at recording
get a dynamic mic, external sound card and a software like Cubase or Audacity

Steinberg ur22 is a great soundcard for the price(it has preamp used in much more expensive gear and midi in/out which can be useful if you buy some cheap midi keyboard or something and quite rare for the price, 2 combined mic/guitar ins(one hi-z, and ofc th basic stuff like input/daw adjust nub, headphone volume and output volume and gain for each input, it can record 24bit/192khz, but thats quite an overkill for most). There are some cheaper cards around too that might do the job, but i would recommend investing bit more than just cheapest you can find if you can afford it.
Shure sm58 is a great mic and doesent cost a lot. Also since its made to last forever, you can most likely find one used and still be able to use it longer than many you would buy new..
Personally i think ableton is easier to use than cubase and i prefer the ui. But audacity can work too if you only want to record vocals and want a free(and legal) program.

This post was edited by Antichrist- on Jan 11 2015 01:10pm

sm 58 is a nice one but it's more for live, but it depends of the price you want to put in.. recording mic are around 500€, but once again it depends of what you want to do with it
for sound card i like scarlett series from focusrite
also 192khz is just 100% useless, all cd's are made with 44 khz, if you want extra quality you can double it but well, once u'll make (if you do so) an EP you'll have to put it at 44 khz / 24 bit

how much are you willing to pay?

i assume you would like to sample chop and stuff like that as you wanted to make underground beats, but in additional of adding your own stuffs?

focusrite 2i2 is probably the cheapest "standard" interface you could get.
i bought se2200a ll c which is also a a cheap mic with a high quality for the money!

i guess FL studio is the way to go if you're going for hiphop, the algorithm and the simplicity for making beats is perfect for hiphop.

I compared the two quite a bit before deciding to go with the steinberg few months ago and it seems like the focusrite has nothing to offer that the steinberg doesent give also, but you get more with steinberg.
Focusrite costs about the same as the steinberg(actually focusrite is few euros more in thomann), cant handle as high khz(even tho going as high as steinberg is an overkill as mentioned, but it might come out as useful some day). Steinberg has high impedance switch for one of inputs, which the focusrite doesent have(and which is quite nice if you are planning of hooking up passive guitar/bass on it). Focusrite doesent have midi input as i mentioned(really big deal at least for me, bit enough to make the focusrite a complete no no). I read on interwebs that people cant play multiple sources the same time with focusrite(like daw + youtube) and when switching from daw to something else they get some crackling sounds, but that might be just them not having proper drivers, i never had any issues like this with my steinberg. Focusrite doesent have input/daw balance, but instead only switch that mutes monitoring.

I dont know much about the preamp on focusrite, but i do know that d-pre amps on steinberg are much praised, class-A, have good gain compared to some and that they have been used on yamahas(preamp is made by yamaha) much more expensive mixing consoles and that they have 4 transistors(2 hot 2 cold) instead of the usual 2(1 hot 1 cold) to handle very hot signals without much distortion. No idea if focusrite is the basic 2 transistor or what.

What makes you recommend the focusrite over steinberg?

Sm 58 works nicely in studio(especially for rap) as well and doesent cost near 500$.

you'r speaking of mega super ever best quality of 192khz recording with a non studio SM 58, this is just non sense... I agree for rap, because there's a very small harmonic spectrum, else u'll need a dynamic mic
but well up to you

Dual condenser mic.....$150 and up
Another dual condensor mic for the guitar or whatever if you don't have a direct input for it. the smaller instrument ones are cheaper
Boom mic stand............$40 used $80 and up for new
Used small PA................$250
Mic cords......................$30
Computer required for recording. The pa has a line out or simlarly named jack. Run that to the mic input on your PC
Computer i use....$4000 (i use it for gaming too) Required.... shit ancient dell laptop from 1998 with xp running on it is fine. It will still run a DAW.
DAW......................$a ton of money, get it through another way where you don't do that. You know that way of getting software that I shouldn't talk about.
(daw is digital audio workstation, it's the software you use to record, mix, and master)

Total required to play guitar and sing and record it like a pro:

5-$600

add another hundred if you don't have a guitar yet.
you mentioned being into hip hop. So then get a midi controller keyboard instead of a guitar.

a midi controller keyboard is like a normal piano keyboard, but a midi controller, if it isn't ancient, can be USB, right to your PC. THe daw can be told to recognize it in settings.

This post was edited by thefriarmichael on Jan 13 2015 07:53pm