My home recording studio consists of:

• Chromebook x2 11
• Gigantic monitor I use for work
• Bose SoundLink Mini speaker
• Monoprice DJ headphones
• Cubasis 3
• No-name XLR to USB cable
• Audio-Technica M4000S cardioid microphone
• Akai LPK25 MIDI Keyboard (25 very small keys)

I would have been on top of the world if I had this setup in 1997. I can do so much with it, and it’s tiny. When I’m not using the audio stuff, it lives in a little bag. The rest is either software or part of my regular workstation.

The Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)

Cubasis is a “digital audio workstation”, which is the outgrowth of what, in 1990, I would have called a “MIDI sequencer”. In 1990, I would have needed at least the following additional equipment to get an equivalent experience, and I still would come up short:

• 24-channel mixer
• 24-track recorder
• MIDI tone generator module
• MIDI drum kit
• MIDI sampling keyboard or tone generator
• So many effects units:
  • Reverb
  • Chorus (at least one, maybe two)
  • Noise Gate / Limiter
  • Compressor
  • 24-band stereo equalizer

This would have cost thousands of dollars in the 90s, and would have taken up maybe three cubic meters of space somewhere in the house.

I’ll probably post a review of Cubasis 3 once I’ve had more time to work with it. The keyboard shortcuts don’t appear to work, which is a bummer. But my USB MIDI mixer does work, with almost no setup, which is fabulous.