It’s an unspoken rule that the American man should have a summer project. Your first summer project marks a coming of age. It’s sort of a rite of passage. I turned 25 years old this summer and I feel like my transition into adulthood is official now.

I can no longer brush off my mistakes as being due to being a stupid kid. I have to be responsible now (yikes.) Every grown man I know takes on a summer project, and I figured that it was time for me to carry on the tradition.

At the start of the summer I wrote pretty cheesy song (one that I’m now rather embarrassed of) and I was determined to get it recorded quickly.

I booked some studio time at Rockhouse Productions in St. Joseph and got the majority of the song tracked, but it only took a few recording sessions for me to realize that it would be much more cost effective in the long run for me to just build my own studio. So that’s what I decided to do.

So far I’ve acquired about a third of the gear I need to get the studio up and running. I have my $900 Mac desktop, $800 Yamaha studio monitors (speakers) and a $300 Focusrite interface.

I have yet to purchase about $3,000 in software and plug-ins, a $600 midi keyboard controller, and a $300 studio desk. It’s definitely burning a hole in my pocketbook, but I’m excited to get it built.

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