{"id":6752,"date":"2020-08-12T21:59:05","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T21:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/currentsound.com\/?p=6752"},"modified":"2022-02-11T15:17:00","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T15:17:00","slug":"how-to-make-a-home-recording-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/currentsound.com\/lessons\/how-to-make-a-home-recording-studio\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make a Home Recording Studio – The Ultimate Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

What Makes This Build Guide Very Different From the Others Online?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you’ve read a guide on how to make a home recording studio before. There are many of them online. However, I’ve never seen one written by a professional recording studio<\/a> owner like myself. Usually just some marketing dude is rewording information to make money of Amazon affiliate links but they often don’t know what they’re talking about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m going to give you a real practical guide on how to make a killer home studio without skipping crucial steps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I should know, since I built, soundproofed, designed & furnished the professional recording studio, Current Sound here in Hollywood, Los Angeles<\/a>. I also built the first Current Sound location in Adelaide, Australia. I’ve been working as full-time music producer, recording, mixing & mastering engineer in the studios that I have built since 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is way more than your typical home studio gear list<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Aside from a typical gear list of essential items I’ll also be covering, acoustics, design, soundproofing, different types of home studios and their uses so you can work out what’s best for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of this guide you should learn enough to be able to make your own dream home studio without buying stuff you don’t need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you find this useful, please share it on social media so others can find and read it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an insanely detailed guide<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Bookmark it, share it, it’s crazy long and detailed. You won’t be able to remember it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s more like a free eBook than an article. It’s over 180 pages long and around 40k words. That’s the length of a novel!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was going to make it into an eBook but I decided to put up for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I mention it’s long? When I say it’s long, I mean super long, bigger than my …. it’s just really long man. Feel free to skip parts that you’re too lazy to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the most in depth home recording studio guide on the internet period. It will help make your home studio more awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will literally save you countless hours of reading forums, watching YouTube videos and asking those in the industry questions. Everything you need to know to start a home recording studio is all here in the one place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Am I Doing This?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the time of this article Los Angeles is in lockdown due to Covid-19. My professional recording studio, Current Sound, in Hollywood was forced to close and stop in person recording due to Covid-19. Many of my clients want to setup a home studio and send their songs to me to be mixed but don’t know how to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than just making a guide for my clients, I decided to make the most in depth home studio setup guide available on the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means you’re getting a rare, true, home recording studio build guide, better than almost every other one out there. I’m going to go far beyond just a gear list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A No Bias Article<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are no<\/strong> affiliate links in this article and no one is paying me to write any of this or review any products<\/strong> so there are no biases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best pro audio products aren’t always available on Amazon and often have no affiliate links. The top brands in the pro audio world are Neve, API, SSL, Trident, Daking. The top products are those from those brands as well as many small boutique companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of those products, aren’t on Amazon, so the person writing the guide will usually not include them, making most, if not all other home recording studio guides you read online suck. I couldn’t find a good one myself so I wrote this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best way you can find out about these products is by asking actual sound engineers, reading this guide which is written by a professional engineer such as myself and\/or checking out the free and loosely moderated sound engineering forums like KVR<\/a>, Sound on Sound<\/a>, Gearslutz<\/a> and the Audio Engineering forum on Reddit<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If something sucks, I’ll tell you. If something is good, I’ll tell you that too. That’s something you rarely get from a salesperson in a music store who gets paid on commission. To them, whatever you can afford within your budget is good even if it sucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only thing in it for me is, if you find the guide useful, do me a small favor and share this article on your social media or website so that my recording studio<\/a> can get a little extra exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you ready for the best How to Build a Home Recording Studio guide on the internet? Here we go…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can automatically scroll to a chapter by clicking the section below.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

What Makes a Home Studio Different From a Professional Recording Studio?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The needs of the person creating the home recording studio with vary from artist to artist. For this reason, there is so much mis-information online about what type of home recording setup you need. The reality is, the type of studio you need is going to vary drastically depending on your expectations and budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before running out and buying gear to setup a home recording studio, it’s important to work out your needs and expectations first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home Recording Studio Vs Professional Recording Studio<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Professional Recording Studios<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"Professional<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Professional recording studios are no compromise studios. Often superior acoustics and soundproofing and contain a variety of equipment suitable for recording different voices and styles. Clients are paying and expect to be able to get a radio ready product. For this reason they also employ in house sound engineers to record and mix the artists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is one of the rooms I designed at my professional studio in Hollywood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"88<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Home Recording Studios<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"Typical<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Home recording studios are usually just used by one artist and often only contain the equipment needed to record that one artist. That person, the artist, almost always lacks the skills of a good mix engineer. As a result, buying better gear doesn’t always equal a better outcome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They’re not trained in acoustics. They’re not trained in mixing. Chances of them ever making a radio ready song completely by themselves without training is zero percent. Mixing takes a long time to learn. Most mix engineers in successful professional recording studios have been mixing full-time for over 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good Vs Bad Home Recording Studio Design<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Some artists have cooler home studios and the home studios by sound engineers are often way better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Home<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Putting some thought into your home studio like the example above will give you a much nicer space to work from. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoiding Common Mistakes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In general, musicians are terrible at designing home recording studios. They often buy too much stuff that they don’t need and forget about the elements that are important such as soundproofing & acoustics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #5 – Bad Layout<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Home<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Having a think about putting what you need close to where you’ll be sitting. Since most with a home studio tend to buy one of two pieces of gear one at a time as they save up money, they run out of room to put things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow this guide and try to plan ahead and you can avoid this mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #4 – Bad Lighting & Vibe<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Home<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You want to feel creative when you go into the studio. The vibe of your space is an important part of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3rd Mistake – Messy Home Studios<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Home<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the major advantages of having a home studio studio is being able to put your ideas down quickly when you have them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is, if you can find your stuff lol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don’t want to be moving items around all the time whenever you have an idea for a song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2nd Mistake – Too Much Gear<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This guy who has so much stuff he can’t get to his chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Home<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I can also see a microphone in the corner with no acoustic treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the speakers are in the wrong position for mixing. Everything is hard to reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1 Most Common Mistake – Forgetting About Acoustics and Soundproofing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Home<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This one is a little harder to spot the problem. Overall, he did a decent job on the layout and lighting. It has a great vibe and has a lot of really expensive gear but there is no acoustic treatment or soundproofing. Given that he has an expensive SSL Mixer and all the tools needed to mix, the acoustics and soundproofing are a problem for both mixing and recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s Wrong with This Home Studio Setup?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Home<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You probably can’t tell yet but this setup actually has a lot of issues. Keep reading and you’ll learn why.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest issue In this article, I’m also going to be giving some advice on studio design as well as acoustics so that you don’t end up making these common mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having Realistic Expectations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It’s important to be realistic about the purpose of your home recording studio. Learning to mix to the same standard as professional mix engineers is unlikely for most artists. Unless you’re recording and mixing 8 hours a day for many years, you’ll most likely suck. The reality is, most people use their home studios for demos and for songwriting. That’s why there are thousands of professional recording studios still around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The professional recording studios these days act like talent agency for mix engineers. The studios care about their brand. You book the studio and just think, “They will have someone there to operate and gear.” What is the actual case is, “They have someone there to operate the gear AND mix your song.” The gear alone, doesn’t make the recording sound great. It’s a combination of the gear, the acoustics and the most important ingredient, the skill-set of the mix engineer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is though, that same mix engineer, probably has a killer home studio where he could record and mix to a similar standard. The only problem is, he’ll probably get fired from the professional studio pretty quickly if he started pulling their clients over to his home studio lol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What sort of sound can you realistically get?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In terms of yourself as an artist, you can buy all the gear in the world and still make a recording that sounds like trash. The gear is only a small piece of the puzzle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of it like buying a 1960s Les Paul guitar without taking guitar lessons. Sure it’s an amazing and expensive guitar but the guitar itself will sound terrible in the hands of someone who doesn’t have the skill to play it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recording gear is not that much different. You need more than the gear alone, skill is the one thing you can’t buy from a music store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality is, most artists, even after years of practice, never get to the skill level required to make anything beyond demo quality. Professional engineers have usually spent 5-10 years or more of recording and mixing each day, 8 hours or more a day before they actually get good enough to make a living doing it. The chances of you getting to the same level by only mixing for a couple of hours a week is pretty slim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home studios can save you lots of money in terms of coming up with ideas and composition but to think you will be able to mix a song that will make it on the radio or get signed to a label is not realistic for most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I personally think most artists should have a home studio but just be realistic with your expecations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making a Better Than Average Home Studio<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Most home studios also aren’t good enough to be able to record at home and send of for mixing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll be talking about that because if you follow my guide, buy the more expensive items and follow the acoustic and sound isolation tips, you should be able to record vocals at home to a reasonable enough standard for mixing in a professional studio, if that’s something you’re interested in doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most home studios also aren’t good enough for learning to mix in or bring a freelance engineer in to mix in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to pursue sound engineering as a career (pretty tough career to get into by the way), you’re going to want to build a better home studio that’s suitable for mixing. I’ll be covering this also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to bring a freelance engineer into your home studio, you’re also going to have to have a better home recording studio that’s more suited for mixing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Types of Home Studios<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The type of home recording studio you make will depend on what you’re going to use it for. You can spend your budget in certain areas suited for your needs and expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demo Cutting Home Studio<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Home<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This the most typical type of home studio. It’s the one on almost every home recording studio build guide. You can pretty much buy the cheapest gear for this, it doesn’t matter. The problem is, most people make this type of home studio with the wrong expectations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Influencers, playlist curators, radio stations, DJs, potential fans and people needed to help market your song won’t help you. Most artists put their music up on social media and think it’s good enough. Just because you think it sounds fine or good, doesn’t mean those important in the music industry will. In fact, labels don’t sign artists of demos anymore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This type of home studio is best for just cutting demos to work out which songs to re-record and have mixed in a professional recording studio if you want to release them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not the type of setup you should have if you want to record at home and send your recordings to a professional mix engineer like myself for mixing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Average Quality Rating<\/h4>\n\n\n\n