10 Tips To Shop Smart On A Budget

Being the customer care representative of one of Nigeria's trusted sources for audio gears, valuable insight has been garnered over the years into some common concerns customers have when buying gears on a budget.

I've been able to make out a pattern (however crooked it is) and feel this post should dismiss some paradigms people adopt while making decisions on gear purchase.

Without further a do, here are my 10 tips for shopping smart on a budget.

1. Respect The Budget: High school Economics taught us that human wants are insatiable and the resources to satisfy them are scarce. Have it in mind that some gears will have to be forgone so you can have others. You cannot have it all on a budget.

2. What Is Your Motive?: I've sold fairly used audio equipment that downright don't work or don't work as they should to a client before. That was what he wanted. 

His motive was to stock his studio with gears, so customers or maybe a potential investor can speak well of his work space. His motive was aesthetics-driven and that informed the gears he bought.

While buying dysfunctional audio gears might not be your intent, you should be able to identify your motive for gear purchase.

Are you buying gears to set up a home or a commercial studio, to upgrade your existing set up, to replace a particular equipment, for aesthetics, to improve your sound, for practice/rehearsals, for live shows and what have you?

You need to answer this question before doling out that cash.

3. Prioritize: Once motive has been set, a scale of preference is needed to rank items in order of priority or immediate need. Your budget will most likely not cover all you want, so give the most important items the advantage by allowing them have more say on how you spend.

4. Dispel Wrong Assumptions: I'll just list the most common ones I've come across:

- "I can't use a soundcard with only one or two inputs, it's unprofessional"

Hip-hop, Afro-Pop producers and small home studios will hardly ever need to record more than one instrument at the same time. Even when a guitarist is invited, he plays along to what has already been recorded (overdub).

Soundcards with many Ins and out's are good for bigger and more commercial studios to accommodate a wide range of music production styles and routing.

- "More expensive gears will make my songs radio ready"

Songs recorded with inexpensive or entry level studio gears can still be radio ready if recorded and mixed professionally.

Radio ready for me is more of skill than gear, though better gears will get you even better results.

- "This brand isn't popular, so it means it's not good"

My former Aphex 207D tube preamp is still one of the best dedicated preamps I've come across. But who knows Aphex (except for their exciter plugin) in this part of the world?

Don't rule out unpopular brands especially if they're within your budget, some brands are just underrated, not that they don't sound good.

- "Behringer makes crappy gears that's why they're affordable"

This is so untrue. Granted I'm not a fan of ALL their products, but some give mind-blowing performance especially when you consider their asking price.

5. Gears That Actually Affect Your Sound: Not all gears have effect on your sound

Midi keyboards and controllers (also DAW controllers like NI Maschine & Ableton Push) are performance instruments. They influence how you play the sounds but they don't contribute to the sound itself.

If your motive is to improve your sound, cut down on expenses for midi controllers and add the savings to your budget for gears that actually influence your sound like microphones, pre-amps, soundcards, guitars and effects, studio monitors etc.

6. Fairly Used Items: Used items are a good way to save money especially for studio accessories like mic stands, pop filters, midi keyboards, keyboard stands, guitars, effect pedals etc. 

Studio monitors, sound cards and microphones can also be bought as fairly used but since most people will like to use them for a long time, I usually recommend my customers buy them new so they can enjoy them for a while without issues.

Fairly used items already have their lifespan shortened, so be careful when buying them. 

7. Do You Really Need A Multi Polar Microphone?: The Rode NT2-A is a great mic, but if you're not going to be recording with figure 8 or omni directional polar patterns, why not go for the NT1-A? These extra bells and whistles add to the cost of the mic, so why pay more if you'll hardly ever use them?

Pad switches and high pass filters are other functions that come with these versatile mics, but for hiphop and Afropop producers, they'll hardly ever record a signal that's too loud to need a pad switch and they can use high pass filter plugins to take care of excess low end.

The choice is yours really, however, if you're in love with the sound of a particular mic, go for it no matter what.

8. Seek Professional Help: When on a budget and confused, the customer care of reputable audio gear stores like SHM Pro Audio would gladly give assistance.

9. Learn To Start Small: I always tell my customers, the gears I used this year weren't the gears I used three years ago and most likely won't be the gears I'll use 3 years from now. Upgrading your gears is all part of the studio experience, but sometimes you have to start small and make some money from your current set up to enable you upgrade your gears.

It might be one client's job that generates the funds for a new mic, could be 10 client jobs or more. In my opinion, people who grow this way improve better in their craft, business and life in general.

A good production, is more of skill and experience than gears, don't forget that.

10. Buy From An Affordable Store: SHM Pro Audio has customers from all geopolitical zones in Nigeria for good reason; we are affordable and sell only genuine audio gears. Though we're an online audio store, we sell at similar rates or even cheaper than most physical stores. Buying from a store like ours will save you money and stress, you can literally order gears from the comfort of your home and have them delivered to you.


In conclusion, the restraints of a budget will demand prudence in spending if you want to get value for money. Start small and if the budget allows you to acquire some fancy high end equipment, by all means go ahead.


Written by
Chidi "Tite" Nnadi