Upgrade order

watting

Since lockdown I've taken some steps into recording and mixing at home. I've tried off and on down the years, and collected various bits of equipment, but this time I've actually managed to record and mix a couple of songs that don't sound awful.

So far I've been using whatever equipment and software I already had, or could download for free, but now I feel like I'd like to upgrade, but don't have a lot of money to spend and would like some advice about where to start.

I've been using my 10 year old laptop, which was ok when I bought it, but creaking a bit now. It struggles to cope with more than one virtual instrument running, or when recording guitar through an amp sim. I find I have to spend time exporting mixes of tracks so I can free up some processing power and it's crashed a few times (sometimes while recording) too. Prices for dedicated music production PCs start at £1k though, which is way out of my budget. Could I get a significant improvement for sub £500?

For monitoring I've been using a cheap pair of studio headphones, flicking to my laptop speakers for a comparison. How much benefit would I get from a cheap pair of studio monitors? How much would I need to spend too get something good? Also, if I do use monitors will I need acoustic treatment (my desk is in my kitchen diner, so not the ideal location).

I only have a couple of microphones, a Shure SM58 (which I bought new 20 years ago) and a Behringer C1. I mainly record vocals and acoustic guitar through the mics, but how much benefit would I get from investing in s better mic(s)? Or should I look at treating the space so the mics I have capture a better sound?

Finally, there's the software. I'm running Cubase LE as it's what came with my audio interface and it's what I'm used to, with stock or free plugins. Is it worth spending money on upgrading my DAW or getting some better plugins?

Use there anything else I should consider investing in? A keyboard controller for drums perhaps?

Any advice on upgrade order/how much I should be looking to spend on each thing? Of course it could just be the case that I need to stop blaming my tools and accept I'm a bad workman.

The kind of much I make is fairly simple alternative rock, with programmed drums, real bass and guitars, and female vocals (courtesy of the missus).