How to Make a Studio
Choose the right room.You may not have a choice as to where your studio goes — it goes wherever there’s room for it., Clear out the room., Skip soundproofing unless you have a professional budget., Purchase acoustic treatment materials.Whereas...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Choose the right room.You may not have a choice as to where your studio goes — it goes wherever there’s room for it.
However, if you’re lucky enough to have a choice of rooms, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
The room should be as large as possible.
Forget an intimate little creative space — the best sound quality and working conditions are produced in large spaces.
High ceilings would also help improve sound quality.
You’re going to be making a lot of noise in there, so choose a room as far away from other people as possible.
Keep your roommates and neighbors in mind.
You also want to stay away from outside sounds as much as possible.
The sound of cars passing on a busy street or rain slapping up against a window will get picked up on recording devices, so choose a room as isolated from outside sound sources as possible.
Avoid rooms with carpeted floors, as textile materials absorb too much sound and negatively affect the acoustics of the space.
Look for rooms with hard floors — concrete, tile, or hardwood.
Asymmetric rooms are ideal, but they’re rare in home environments.
A box-shaped room encourages sounds to reflect back and forth, creating a poor acoustic environment.
If the walls aren’t perfectly parallel and perpendicular to one another, that effect is reduced somewhat.
Walls with irregular surfaces — built-in bookcases, for example — will also reduce that effect. -
Step 2: Clear out the room.
Clear out the floor space as much as possible, and take everything off the walls — especially fabrics like drapes or tapestries that will absorb sound waves and negatively affect acoustics.
Remove anything in the room that might vibrate, like vases or decorative figurines that might buzz on their surface when someone’s playing the drums. , You might think that soundproofing is the most important element of making a recording studio, but soundproofing is actually for the benefit of the people around you.
The walls are reinforced with dense building materials that absorb the sound produced within the room so it doesn’t bother your neighbors or other people in your house.
However, it’s very expensive and labor-intensive, usually costing thousands of dollars per room.As such, it’s best to skip this step if you’re just making a home studio for yourself.
Instead, work out an arrangement with the other people who live in your home to create a recording studio that will work around their schedules. , Though you’ll still have to invest some money in acoustic treatment materials, they are far less expensive than soundproofing materials.
You can purchase the three elements of acoustic treatment separately or in a package that eliminates a lot of guesswork.
Companies that offer products and packages include Primacostic, Auralex, and Vicoustic.
You’ll need 1) acoustic foam panels, 2) bass traps that absorb low-frequency sounds like bass and percussions, and 3) (optional) diffusers.
The foam panels and bass traps will absorb sound reflections — not for soundproofing purposes, but to reduce the echo effect that you don’t want in a good quality sound recording.
The diffusers also aim to reduce the echo effect, but do so by dispersing or scattering the sound reflection off the walls so it’s not as noticeable.
Many people focus more on absorption than diffusion, so you might choose to skip the diffusers. , If using glue, look for a spray-glue that diffuses the adhesive evenly over a large area so you don’t end up with a gloopy mess.
Another option is a paste-based glue applied through a skeleton gun, which is essentially a caulking gun — a gun-shaped frame that holds the tube of paste stable so you can apply it evenly and precisely.
Install the panels evenly across the lengths of your walls.
You don’t have to cover every square inch of wall, but you do need to cover the walls evenly.
If you have a cluster of acoustic paneling in one corner of the room, but another corner is left with bare walls, you will have strange, poorly distributed sound quality on your recording.
You can space the panels out with up to a couple of feet between them, and you’ll still notice a significant improvement in sound quality. , Once your empty studio space has been acoustically treated, you need to set it up for actual use.
The first thing you’ll need is a space where you can work on production.
Use a desk large enough to hold your equipment.
You might be working with a laptop alone, or you may have larger mixing boards.
Just make sure your working surface isn’t too cramped to be effective. , The recording space doesn’t have to be separate from the engineering space, so don’t worry about setting up partitions like you see in films and television in professional recording studios.
Lay out your instruments in a way that allows the members of your band to communicate clearly.
Don’t place the drum kit on one side of the room and the guitars on another — you need to be able to pick up nonverbal cues from each other (louder, slow down, speed up, etc.).
Set up microphones next to each instrument.
Use clips or wire fasteners (like the kind that comes with bags of bread) to bundle cords together, and keep the cords tucked away as much as possible.
With this many instruments and pieces of equipment in a room, someone can trip and hurt themselves if you’re not careful! Make sure that your equipment is spaced out enough to give everyone room to move freely.
Make full use of your studio space.
If you’ve spaced out your acoustic treatment materials evenly, the sound quality should still be strong even if the instruments and/or speakers aren’t all producing sound from the same spot. -
Step 3: Skip soundproofing unless you have a professional budget.
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Step 4: Purchase acoustic treatment materials.Whereas soundproofing keeps sound from escaping the room
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Step 5: acoustic treatment aims to optimize the recording environment for ideal sound quality.
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Step 6: Install your acoustic treatment materials.Depending on the brand and series of the actual materials you purchase
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Step 7: you might have been provided with brackets and screws
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Step 8: or you might need to purchase glue to affix the materials to your walls.
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Step 9: Set up a desk for sound engineering.
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Step 10: Set up a recording space.
Detailed Guide
However, if you’re lucky enough to have a choice of rooms, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
The room should be as large as possible.
Forget an intimate little creative space — the best sound quality and working conditions are produced in large spaces.
High ceilings would also help improve sound quality.
You’re going to be making a lot of noise in there, so choose a room as far away from other people as possible.
Keep your roommates and neighbors in mind.
You also want to stay away from outside sounds as much as possible.
The sound of cars passing on a busy street or rain slapping up against a window will get picked up on recording devices, so choose a room as isolated from outside sound sources as possible.
Avoid rooms with carpeted floors, as textile materials absorb too much sound and negatively affect the acoustics of the space.
Look for rooms with hard floors — concrete, tile, or hardwood.
Asymmetric rooms are ideal, but they’re rare in home environments.
A box-shaped room encourages sounds to reflect back and forth, creating a poor acoustic environment.
If the walls aren’t perfectly parallel and perpendicular to one another, that effect is reduced somewhat.
Walls with irregular surfaces — built-in bookcases, for example — will also reduce that effect.
Clear out the floor space as much as possible, and take everything off the walls — especially fabrics like drapes or tapestries that will absorb sound waves and negatively affect acoustics.
Remove anything in the room that might vibrate, like vases or decorative figurines that might buzz on their surface when someone’s playing the drums. , You might think that soundproofing is the most important element of making a recording studio, but soundproofing is actually for the benefit of the people around you.
The walls are reinforced with dense building materials that absorb the sound produced within the room so it doesn’t bother your neighbors or other people in your house.
However, it’s very expensive and labor-intensive, usually costing thousands of dollars per room.As such, it’s best to skip this step if you’re just making a home studio for yourself.
Instead, work out an arrangement with the other people who live in your home to create a recording studio that will work around their schedules. , Though you’ll still have to invest some money in acoustic treatment materials, they are far less expensive than soundproofing materials.
You can purchase the three elements of acoustic treatment separately or in a package that eliminates a lot of guesswork.
Companies that offer products and packages include Primacostic, Auralex, and Vicoustic.
You’ll need 1) acoustic foam panels, 2) bass traps that absorb low-frequency sounds like bass and percussions, and 3) (optional) diffusers.
The foam panels and bass traps will absorb sound reflections — not for soundproofing purposes, but to reduce the echo effect that you don’t want in a good quality sound recording.
The diffusers also aim to reduce the echo effect, but do so by dispersing or scattering the sound reflection off the walls so it’s not as noticeable.
Many people focus more on absorption than diffusion, so you might choose to skip the diffusers. , If using glue, look for a spray-glue that diffuses the adhesive evenly over a large area so you don’t end up with a gloopy mess.
Another option is a paste-based glue applied through a skeleton gun, which is essentially a caulking gun — a gun-shaped frame that holds the tube of paste stable so you can apply it evenly and precisely.
Install the panels evenly across the lengths of your walls.
You don’t have to cover every square inch of wall, but you do need to cover the walls evenly.
If you have a cluster of acoustic paneling in one corner of the room, but another corner is left with bare walls, you will have strange, poorly distributed sound quality on your recording.
You can space the panels out with up to a couple of feet between them, and you’ll still notice a significant improvement in sound quality. , Once your empty studio space has been acoustically treated, you need to set it up for actual use.
The first thing you’ll need is a space where you can work on production.
Use a desk large enough to hold your equipment.
You might be working with a laptop alone, or you may have larger mixing boards.
Just make sure your working surface isn’t too cramped to be effective. , The recording space doesn’t have to be separate from the engineering space, so don’t worry about setting up partitions like you see in films and television in professional recording studios.
Lay out your instruments in a way that allows the members of your band to communicate clearly.
Don’t place the drum kit on one side of the room and the guitars on another — you need to be able to pick up nonverbal cues from each other (louder, slow down, speed up, etc.).
Set up microphones next to each instrument.
Use clips or wire fasteners (like the kind that comes with bags of bread) to bundle cords together, and keep the cords tucked away as much as possible.
With this many instruments and pieces of equipment in a room, someone can trip and hurt themselves if you’re not careful! Make sure that your equipment is spaced out enough to give everyone room to move freely.
Make full use of your studio space.
If you’ve spaced out your acoustic treatment materials evenly, the sound quality should still be strong even if the instruments and/or speakers aren’t all producing sound from the same spot.
About the Author
Charlotte Peterson
A passionate writer with expertise in hobbies topics. Loves sharing practical knowledge.
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