How to setup a Musicians Home Studio

There are many important things to consider when setting up a home studio, and it is easy to overlook one or two when starting out.

The purpose of this article is to share some of the hints and tips I've picked up through putting together my own music studio.

As many musicians do, I developed my interest in making music in a very random fashion - picking up different methods of music creation as I progressed.

I would jump from one piece of audio software to another - from one style to the next.

While this musicians learning curve is entirely natural, if this chaotic method is transferred to the project of establishing a home studio, the results may be less than satisfactory.

If this is the case, it's likely to end up costing you a lot more money than was required - or at the very least, simply won't be able to achieve the quality of music production you were aiming for.

Firstly you need to decide what it is that you want your home studio to be capable of, and set yourself a realistic quality target.

For example, if you're planning on recording vocals or live instruments, reducing background noise is a major issue - therefore, you'll need to look into sound proofing or dampening solutions, such as acoustic dampening foam.

Your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and other hardware noise may need to be isolated - either in a sound proof, remotely vented cabinet, or another room.

Noisy neighbors or disruptive nearby traffic may also factor in your sound proofing requirements.

You'll need a high quality Microphone - if you're recording vocals or instruments this is invaluable advice! Do not skimp on the microphone budget! A low quality microphone virtually guarantees a low quality recording.

A reasonably powerful computer will almost always be the central hub of a modern home studio these days - whether its PC, Mac or Linux based. I build up my own custom PCs, so consequently I have exclusively used these as my DAW.

Macs are a popular choice for music production, and while software/drivers shouldn't be a problem there, I would doubt that Linux based solutions would have an easy time finding drivers and software to suit.

I'll just be dealing with the PC DAW solution.

Personally I would recommend a medium-high spec machine - with at least 512mb, preferably a Gigabyte (or more) of RAM, a fast CPU and SCSI or SATA hard drive(s).

Bear in mind the audio files you'll be working with are very large, and constant real time filtering and manipulation of these files can put a bit of a load on the DAW.

Naturally, a decent soundcard is a must. Go for one which has been designed specifically for musicians - just spending a bunch of money is not necessarily going to get you an appropriate card, as high end gaming targeted soundcards are often mistakenly purchased by home studio newbies.

Just a friendly word of warning - while a lot of these generic "consumer" soundcards have a high Khz rating etc on the box, they will be unable to achieve a reasonable latency with your audio software, and will cause all sorts of headaches for an aspiring home studio musician.

As far as location goes, remember that large flat surfaces such as walls, ceilings and floors all contribute to the "coloring" of sound waves - through slap back and reverb etc.

This can be offset however, by using wall coverings or acoustic dampening foam - even positioning objects such as chairs and other uneven objects around the home studio can noticeably reduce the reverb given off by flat surfaces.

Another common symptom of the home studio is bass "buildup". If your studio monitors (high clarity speakers) are close to the walls - or even worse, the corners of the room, you'll often find the bass is amplified.

To avoid this, either move the speakers away from walls and corners, or make use of what are referred to as "bass traps".

A bass trap is often built around a solid frame, filled with soft filling. This can in effect "soak" up a good portion of the excess bass, leaving you with your true sound. If you find that you need them, you can buy pre-built bass traps or build your own.

Next you'll need quality cabling. The exact type of cabling you'll be using will depend entirely on your hardware choices.

For example I'm running unbalanced cables out of my soundcard, to my mixer (because this was my only choice), and balanced XLR connected cables from the mixer to my monitors.

Balanced cables retain a cleaner signal, as they combat such things as interferance from electrical fields and crosstalk between cabling.

I would recommend using high quality balanced XLR cabling to interconnect your hardware - it will cost you more, but if you buy cheap and nasty cables now, you're only going to have to replace them in the future.

Hearing each and every sound, as well as the subtle differences between audio elements in your music, is abslutely crucial to a successful home studio.

Get yourself a pair of quality studio monitors and your music production will never be the same again.

Suprisingly, they don't have to cost the earth either - the KRK RP-8's I ended up going with are very reasonably priced, and deliver crisp, clear reproduction of your music.

Another option for home studio audio monitoring is a set of high quality headphones.

Again - it is extremely important that you are able to truly "hear" your music.

If you can't pick out subtle differences which you're unknowingly working into your music production, your quality will be suffering.

Likewise, if you're not able to hear the subtleties of your music, you'll be working in the dark, so to speak. Consequently, you'll find it much more difficult to blend and layer your musical soundscape - thus limiting yourself to a less polished or refined audio quality.

Put together a plan before you start building your home studio. Read, read and read some more - and you'll end up with a pro home studio you'll be proud of, and which will be reflected in your music.