Spirit student’s music resources.

It’s nearly time to get stuck in at Spirit and build the foundations of your music career. But what do you need to prepare? Of course our studios are well equipped with industry-standard hardware and software. Not to mention the growing collection of synths, drums machines, effects units, MIDI controllers, samplers and more, that are available as sign-out equipment.

But you might want to invest in your own equipment to continue your creativity outside of Spirit. So we’ve compiled some resources you might want to invest in, to support your studies and help you progress with your music career. Including useful equipment, online suppliers and music student discounts.

Headphones

The simplest set-up is just you, a DAW and some headphones. As you’re embarking into your music career we’d recommend investing in some good quality headphones. Allowing you to make music on-the-go, anytime, anywhere and overall improving your listening experience outside of the studio.

Here are some examples of good quality headphones for music, from budget to high-end.

AKG K92 – from £53.00

Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO – from £128.00 (Pictured)

Sennheiser HD25 – from £117.00

Hard drives

If you haven’t experienced a laptop failure or the blue screen of death then count yourself lucky. If you have, you’ll be aware of how important it is to back up your laptop. Or how devastating it is when you haven’t and you all your work… not fun.

On a brighter note, hard drives are becoming smaller, faster and more portable. We’d suggest getting a SSD drive (solid state drive), this format faster and safer to back up your files as they don’t contain moving parts they are less prone to damage if dropped or banged. A note to DJ’s, although more of an investment, SSD hard drives are a game changing upgrade from standard USB sticks, you can store 250,000 tracks on a safe portable drive that and transfer speeds of around 6 Gigabytes per second!

Here’s some suggestions for SSD hard drives.

SanDisk Extreme 1TB Portable SSD – from £99.99

Samsung 1TB SSD – from £87.49

Hearing protection

You need your ears to study here and luckily ears are free. However, ears are easily damaged by loud noise which is something there is plenty of in the music industry. Unfortunately hearing loss is very common in the industry and more unfortunately there’s no medical treatment for hearing loss from noise damage. So to keep the risk down from the word go, we’d strongly recommend you invest in some quality hearing protection because as always, safety first.

Eargrace High Fidelity Concert Ear Plugs – from £13.29

Fender professional Hi-Fi Ear Plugs – from £24.99

ACS PRO26 Custom Earplugs – from £148.99

Home studio set-up

One of your key benefits of studying at Spirit Studios is the use of our state-of-the-art studios, we often have alumni telling us how much they miss the studios once they’ve left so we encourage you to make the most of them. However, if you want to continue your workflow at home you might want to invest in a home studio set-up if you haven’t already. Here are some essential components and a range of suggested products from budget to high-end options.

Monitors

Although a more costly investment, monitors will make all the difference when listening back to your music. We have high quality monitors in the studios at Spirit which you should make the most of while you study as they are eye-wateringly expensive. However, here are some suggestions for good quality monitors you could invest in for your home studio.

M-Audio BX3 – from £79.60 (for a pair)

Yamaha HS5 active studio monitor – from £142.75 each

Genelec 8010AP active studio monitor – from £245.00 each (Special Offer)

If you are in the market for monitors we’d encourage you to do your own research as buying new isn’t always the best option. See if you can find any refurbished units or second-hand, you could strike a deal and save a lot of money.

Audio Interfaces

In a nutshell, audio interfaces provide inputs and outputs that allow you to connect mics, instruments and speakers to your computer. As with most of the equipment listed they massively range in price and function but here are some affordable suggestions that are tried and tested as good home studio solutions. (A lot of our studios have Scarlett interfaces so you’ll be used to using them).

Behringer U-PHORIA UMC202HD USB Audio Interface – £54.40

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 [3rd Gen] – from £119.99

MIDI Keyboards

Although not essential, MIDI keyboards can help improve your workflow and creativity. They vastly vary in price and functionality but some of the budget options do the job well (and stop you from using the Computer MIDI Keyboard).

AKAI Professional MPK Mini MK3 – from £72

Arturia MiniLab 3 – from £84.20

Novation Launchkey Mini 25 MK4 – from £99.00

Software

We have most of the software you’ll need on the computers at Spirit Studios but should you need to by your own licenses for home, once you’re a student at Spirit you’ll be able to access a range of free softwares and discounts on softwares and hardwares.

Subscriptions

Similar to software we have a lot of resources at Spirit however here are some other online resources you may want to look in to.

Splice – High-quality, royalty-free sample library.

Soundcloud for artists – Soundcloud’s new distribution platform.

LANDR –  Online music mastering, digital music distribution, curated plugins, free sample packs and collaboration tools.

Bundles

If you’re considering investing in a number of these items it might be worth looking into home studio bundles. You can often save significantly by buying items together. Focusrite interfaces are a staple for home studios and they’ve released a new 4th generation model which was voted Best Audio Interface in the SOS Awards 2024.

Scarlett Solo Studio [4th Gen] – from £239.99

Scarlett Solo Studio [3rd Gen] – from £179.99

Remember…

While high priced kit is great quality, it’s not essential, some of the biggest artists established themselves with next to nothing, your home set-up can be simple and very effective. Don’t forget you have access to state-of-the-art facilities and equipment here at Spirit Studios, so be sure to utilise them while you’re a student with us.