How One 19 Year Old Used Garageband, Stock Plugins, And Some $100 Speakers To Gain Thousands Of Fans And Potential Management Deals

Meet, Aaron Hibell, a 19 year old electronic musician who less than a year ago had never made a single recording.

Now with just some free software a pair of $100 HiFi speakers, he’s created a track that is approaching 100,000 plays on Soundcloud, with over 3,000 likes, and has received inquires from not one, but three different management companies.

Yeah, we’re living in a revolution.

The Studio Setup

Aaron’s studio setup is the classic home studio rig I’ve been recommending for years now.

Built around his MacBook Pro and the included GarageBand software, Aaron runs a Focusrite Scarlett USB interface, a Rode NT1-a condenser microphone, and (for this song) mixed on some cheap speakers (i.e. not studio monitors).

Right now it’s a pretty basic setup, but it works. I use a Macbook Pro, and since this track have moved on to Logic Pro X from GarageBand! I also grabbed some KRK monitors (wanted some Focals but couldn’t quite afford them yet!)

Between those and my interface and microphone,I have basically what you have identified as the 5 key components to my studio. – Aaron Hibell

Yep – Aaron’s got all five necessary components. And he’s using them well!

Not Perfect But Good Enough

First let me say that when I was 19, my tracks did not sound this good. Not even close.

But even at his own admission, Aaron’s track is far from perfect.

As with any mix we do, there are things we could pick apart and potentially improve upon. The problem though is that many times we wait until the recording or mix is perfect until we release it.

Aaron was smart enough to avoid this pitfall.

His mix is good enough.

Good enough to get the song across. Good enough to make you bob your head. Good enough to get thousands of excited fans.

Getting Better By Finishing Mixes

And ironically, the fact that he released this track even when he’s not as experienced as he’d like to be, he will grow in his skill more quickly than had we waited to perfect it.

You see that is how we get better – by finishing mixes.

Not perfecting them, but actually putting a stamp of approval on them, and sending them out into the world – warts and all.

There’s something about completing a project that allows you to learn from it and grow quicker than letting it linger on and on in an unfinished state.

The sooner you come to grips with this, the sooner you’ll get better.

You Don’t Need Expensive Equipment

I’m sharing Aaron’s success story with you today because he’s just another example of this “recording revolution” we are living through.

The mantra that I will continue to push until I’m long gone is that you don’t need to spend a bunch of money to get great recordings and mixes.

In fact, the money spent on your studio is no indicator of the quality of the final product!

Graham you are so right in saying that you don’t need expensive equipment to make a great sounding recording!

But I’m sure that as a professional audio engineer you may have some things that you would have altered in the final mix, so I’ll be watching plenty more of your videos to keep improving my skills! – Aaron Hibell

Did you catch what he said?

He knows that the path to getting better recordings and mixes in the future lies not with his gear purchases, but in his education and experience.

That’s why The Recording Revolution exists – to help YOU get better recordings and mixes.

I started this thing almost 6 years ago to help my friends who were dead set on spending too much money for their studios when all they needed to achieve their sonic goals was get some basic training, encouragement, and experience.

The same is true for you.

Put down the gear catalogs. Stop looking up endless reviews of plugins or preamps.

Instead do what Aaron did – finish a project and release it.

Then if you want the next one to turn out better, spend some time with my best free training and put it into practice.

Aaron did. Will you?

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Stream Aaron’s music on SoundCloud – then like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.