How to choose a space for a home recording studio

Having set up more than one home recording studios through the years, I learned a lot of do's and dont's along the way. I learned mostly from trial and error, for when I started my first venture into recording, there wasn't a lot of help to be had. Most recording was done in commercial studios for big money, until the technology evened the playing field.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• unused space

1. The first thing you should consider is intent and purpose. What are you planning on doing in your studio, demo work, full band, drums, or drum machine? You will need more space of course, if you plan on recording live band music. And if you are going to use drum machines and make simple demos, you need only the tiniest of spaces.

2. If a big area is necessary, a garage or bonus room will be a good choice. A garage can be difficult acoustically though, and you would have to make modifications. A building out away from the house is even better, you can generally find more peace and quiet this way.

3. 

   For the small studio set-up, all you really need is a quiet corner in a bedroom, just enough room for a small equipment rack, and space for a couple of microphones, and barstools or comfortable armless chairs.

4. Any space you choose ideally will be away from high traffic areas, like front doors, bathrooms, and kitchens. If you have family living with you, you may want to rig up a "recording\do not disturb" light outside the door. This works pretty well, as most people who disturb you do it by accident

5. If at all possible, have your electricity on a dedicated circuit. This simply means that you have a direct line from the fuse\breaker panel. This will eliminate a lot of unwanted clicking and popping in the equipment. With a little practice and ingenuity, you can make good music almost anywhere.

[mark-the-harp]

on 10/10/2009 Good advice. With the electricity, I'd say get a big UPS (uninterruptible power supply) which can supply decent sinewave power, and run your studio electronics off that. That way you're never affected by power spikes or other supply glitches.

Apart from making sure you're not disturbed by sounds inside or outside the building, the other thing that works well is to choose a room with a naturally helpful acoustic for recording - for example, if you have a room with slightly unusual angles (sloping ceilings or non-parallel surfaces, or other interesting details) that can make for a less boomy sound and can save on some acoustic treatment.

[goodselfme]

on 1/23/2009 good post. 5*