I rely heavily on several software products to make my music. The most important product I use is Sonar 8 Producer edition, which is the software that actually stores the music and allows you to arrange, mix, and master your tracks. It is the core component around which all the other software works. In addition to sonar, I use software with virtual instruments (turns the midi tracks I play with my keyboard into audio, as well as various plugins to add things like reverb and eq. The list is pretty extensive! Software is where a lot of the money goes when preparing a studio. For example, Sonar 8 costs around $619 new from Cakewalk. Definitely not cheap!
These are studio monitors and they are very expensive speakers (about $1000 a pair)that aim to have a perfectly flat response. This makes them invaluable for hearing the music without any added frequencies from the speaker. This accurate response makes it easier to apply proper eq to a song so that it will sound good on any speaker. If poor monitors are used, the person mixing the song will have a tendency to want to make the song good for those speakers, which may sound horrible on others. I will say though, that listening to music on these monitors severly spoils me, as they are nothing short of breathtaking.
Acoustic Guitar
This is the brand new guitar that I got in March 2009. This acoustic guitar sounds incredible, and it has one of the best pickups I have had the pleasure of using. This guitar produces an amazingly beautiful sound, making it a choice for many professional musicians, including Dave Matthews who owns two. He can be seen playing them at his his concerts, so check youtube if you want to hear just how great these can sound. This guitar costs about 4k new, so you have to be either very serious about music(I am) , partially insane(I am that too), or a professional musician(I wish).
Acoustic Guitar
This beautiful guitar was the first nice guitar I ever owned. I've treasured it since before I started college. It has endured a few dings in the wood, which will always bother me, but it is otherwise looking and playing great. The guitar is made out of koa wood on the back, which is a tropical wood that is somewhat rare. This wood has a very mellow, mid-rangy sound, with a little emphasis on the highs that allows it to sit very well with other instruments. I use this guitar on mellow songs like "We Can Make It". This guitar cost around 2.5-3k new.
This limited edition electric guitar is the first electric guitar I've ever owned. I believe there were only 500 guitars made in the style I chose (the coloring), so it's nice to know that it will keep its value as time goes on. It is a treat to play, and the sound is truly wonderful. It has scooped mids, which makes it work great in more bluesy music, like what John Mayer plays (funny how that works - a signature guitar for playing music like the man who modeled it). I still have a long way to go before I'm proficient with an electric guitar, but I'm definitely going to keep working at it. You can hear this guitar on the tracks like "Unbinded". The cost was around $2k online. As a side note, to get different sounds out of this guitar, I run it through a Behringer V-Amp2 which drastically changes the sound of the guitar. The sound in "Maybe" was achieved this way.
Baby Grand Piano
My pride and joy. This piano has been with me for a long time. I played it for years at my parent's house while in college, and when I got an apartment, I made sure it had room for the piano. This piano is a $15-20k baby grand, so it has a wonderful sound and great action. It can't quite compete with the $40-50k baby grands and beyond, but I don't think I'm a good enough pianist to need one those pianos anyways (you need to be a concert level pianist to really make those pianos shine, in my opinion). Pretty soon, I hope to do some instrumental recordings of this piano using my CEMC6's. Stayed tuned for that!
This midi keyboard is great for laying down drums, or simple melodic parts for instruments that I run through a virtual instrument plug-in. Most songs rarely need an 88 key keyboard, so it is very convenient to have this keyboard set up right in front of the monitors so that I can play, monitor, and edit very quickly. This keyboard is about $150
This keyboard is the first expensive keyboard I have owned. It has capabilities that I have barely even touched. I sometimes wonder whether or not I spent too much, as I'm not making use of all the features, but it has one of the best sounding pianos I have heard, so that makes me feel better about it. This keyboard has a huge selection of instruments, some of which I've used on my recordings. I'm really starting to lean away from using the keyboard instruments though, so I'm really only using the keyboard for complex piano parts requiring 88 keys (or other instruments requiring that), or when I need to play outside of my house. One of the coolest features of the keyboard, which I haven't used, is being able to change the sonic attributes of any of the instruments to make entirely new instruments that sound the way you want using filters and other techniques. It is pretty amazing stuff. This keyboard costs around $2k.
Microphone
The best vocal microphone I own, period. This microphone has been used on so many things, that people can hardly believe it when they hear it. From Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album, to all of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's albums, this microphone sees a lot of use in professional studios. The crazy part is that it only costs around $350! Other professional microphones cost several thousand. I doubt I will need another vocal microphone, except for very specific applications.
Microphone
The workhouse of every professional studio. This microphone is great for recording electric guitar amps, drums, you name it. It handles high volumes very well. It is also the presidential microphone of choice. Considering how great this microphone is, it's suprising that it only costs $100!
Microphone
This is a wonderful starting large condensor microphone. It costs around $230, which isn't much for a decent quality large condensor mic. This mic is EXTREMELY sensitive though, and with high gain, you could probably hear the conversation your neighbors are having in their house. Mics like this work best in a well treated room, which is why I have sound panels lining the walls ceilings in my studio. These panels absorb a lot of bass frequencies that cause reflections and muddy the recordings. Sound treatment is the single most important upgrade for a home studio. This microphone is great for vocals or instruments like acoustic guitar.
Microphones
These were the first small condensor microphones I owned. They are very good for the price, which is about $430 for the pair (I got them when they were $350 a pair). While they did produce a good stereo image while recording acoustic guitar, I was never fully satisfied with what I was getting. Supposedly, these mics really shine for recording overhead drums. I rarely use these now, as I have the Peluso CEMC6's.
Microphone
These microphones are crazy good! For about $680 for the pair, you get microphones that can compete with other microphones that cost several times more. I recorded the guitar for "We Can Make It" using these as well as the demo track of "Can't Be Wrong" (I only used one microphone instead of two, as I wasn't concerned with the best quality at the time).
Case
I just wanted to show off the awesome box that came with the CEMC6's.
This microphone has a great reputation. It is the first ribbon microphone I have owned, and I'm really looking forward to using it to record guitar amps and possibly some piano (combined one or more CEMC6's). I have yet to use it on any of the songs I've posted. These microphones cost about $220.
The Mackie 1402VLZ is an excellent mixing board that is built like a tank and will last a really long time. I'm currently using it to route audio, but I'm not running any of the microphones through it, as I have a better stand-alone pre-amp (the FNR RNP). For those on a cheaper budget (as I was at first), it has an excellent starting pre-amp. If I ever need to record more than two instruments at once, then this mixing board will see some use for recording too. These used to cost around $400-425 new.
The FNR RNP, which stands for Really Nice Pre-amp, is considered by many professionals to be the best pre-amplifier you can buy for less than a thousand bucks. It hangs with pre-amps that cost 1-2k, and those pre-amps only have one input, while the RNP has two. The only bad part about this pre-amp is the look, which is severly outdated. It is functional though, and produces heavenly sound, which is all I care about. The RNP goes for around $500 (and it's worth every penny).
Another FNR product, the Really Nice Compressor, helps keep loud recordings under control. In terms of being an excellent compressor in terms of noise (it is very transparent), it also has an extra mode called Super Nice which is excellent for acoustic guitars and vocals (it provides near-invisible signal compression). This compressor is compared against compressors costing up to $2k. It may not be flashy, it produces great sound, and it's only $200!.
Acoustic Guitar Amp
This is a great acoustic guitar amp. I haven't had the pleasure to use it enough over the years, but the times I have used it, it performed wonderfully. With the new guitar I got, the Taylor 914ce, I now have a really good reason to use this amp again. The pickup in the Taylor K22 was starting to have problems, but the 914CE makes this amp sound amazing again! For $325-350, this amp is a treat to use.
Tube Amp
This is the first electric guitar amp that I have owned, and it produces sound like you can't believe. Just go on youtube to hear some of the people playing it, and what they have to say. This amp costs around $300 and is a tube amp, so eventually I will have to replace the components.
Keyboard Amp
This is an excellent digital state amplifier that works well with my S90ES. It also accepts a microphone for vocals, so it is versatile. The S90ES has no speakers of its own (most high end keyboards do not), so I rely on this thing when I transport my keyboard. It is SERIOUSLY heavy, but it has a great tone and a lot of volume.
Headphones
I use these headphones in the studio while recording. While I'm singing vocals, these allow me to hear the instrument tracks that I'm singing on top of, as I can't have the instruments playing through my monitors, otherwise they would be recorded. These are not the best studio headphones in the world, as they are only like $100, but they have a pretty flat frequency response and they definitely produce good quality sound. I think I might actually prefer listening to my keyboards headphone output through these over the k1800fx, as these sound really good with the S90ES!
Workstation
The current layout of my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Everything is closeby, and effecient. Such a nice place to spend an afternoon recording music :)