Passionate about music? Do you have amazing composition skills, and enough knowledge of mixing and mastering audio?
In that case, you will want to have a home music studio of your own.
So here goes some effective tips and a step by step guide to what you need to do to get yourself an amazing home-studio. Let’s start.
Carefully plan
Going straight into action requires careful planning to avoid disappointments. . You should plan for:
- Your cost
- Target market
- Your course of action
Figure out how far you want to go.
Is it just a hobby, or are you going to do it professionally?
Beginners will not need a lot to start. Whether you use software, or rely on some recording hardware tools, it doesn’t make much difference. But every detail and every smallest thing will be extremely important if you want to do this professionally. .
This is a site where you can have some nice ideas.
Equipments you will need
If you are looking to build a studio for professional audio/music work, here is a list of essential equipments you will need:
- Computer: To use for your home studio your computer should be more powerful than your home-use computer. You should get at least 16 GB of RAM, Intel Core 9th Gen (up to 8 cores) or AMD Ryzen (up to 16 cores) The software you will need at least 1-2 TB of hard disk capacity.
- DAW/Audio Interface Combos: Universal Audio Apollo x4, Apogee Ensemble, RME Fireface UFX+, Slate Digital VRS8 are good inferace combos to consider.
- Connectors and cables
- Cable snakes
- Patch board
- Studio Monitors: You should be able to get good quality semi pro monitors for under two grand. . KRK Rokit 5 G3, Dynaudio BM5 mkIII are some good options.
- Amplifiers: You can choose from a variety of amplifiers like Crown XLi1500, Behringer A500 Professional, Monoprice 300.
- Crossovers
- Speakers
- Headphones
- Microphones with stands
- Pop filters
- Mobile sound dampening panels
- Digital mixing board
- Software: we will discuss this in more detail next..
- Backup Power Supply: Last but not the least, backup power supplies are equally important to save your precious files. Back up generators always take care of that. Check out some back up power supply options in this website: https://www.ablesales.com.au/
Learn software handling
In today’s advanced high-tech world there is an ever increasing demand for crystal clear quality, and perfectly mixed sound, software is something you cannot do without.
For Beginners:
Audio Edit:
For beginners and learners audio editing softwares like Sony sound forge 7 works just fine. Though there are other further versions with better and newer facilities, this version seems to be quite enough.
From zooming time to twenty five thousandth division of one second to edit tempo, Bit-Depth converter, three forms of equalizer setting, fade effect and numerous other features make it an engaging audio editor for the beginners and semi professionals. The wide variety of output formats provide great quality.
Video Edit:
For video editing you might like Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, Wondershare Filmora 9, Avidemux, PowerDirector, VideoShop or Magix Video Pro.
These softwares come with a wide variety features allowing you to edit, mix and add extra features to your video. As an example, let’s discuss Wondershare Filmora 9 in more detail.
At first glance, many can think of it to be a software just for beginners. But there are more for advanced workers as well. A wide variety of file formats and export options make it quite useful.
An excellent feature is the variety of modern special effects – with new ones being added continuously. This makes this software very updated and useful. The action cam tool allows you to merge footage shot action cameras quite easily. The Filmora official video channel showcases its features in more details. .
For the Professionals
Audio Edit:
FilmoraPro, Adobe Audition CC, Ableton Live 9 Suite Workstation, FL Studio 12 Producer Edition Recording, Apple Logic Pro X, Cubase Pro 10, Reason and some other excellent DAWs are the ones for professional mixers.
Let’s discuss Cubase Pro 10.
The work of composing, recording, editing and mixing has become easier with just a touch of fingers by these softwares. The advanced features are:
- Drum editor groove agent
- Pitch editor in VariAudio
- Simplified sidechain function, new audio alignment system and latency monitor.
- Drag and drop function for plugins
- Tons of samples, loops, and sounds
There are even more smart and handy features that the professionals would love.
Video Edit:
There are also a number of softwares to help you achieve the high standard and quality work needed from professionals.
The leading video edit softwares are:
- Final Cut Pro
- DeVince Resolve
- Lightworks
- Blender
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Magic Vegas Pro
Let’s discuss one of them as an example.
DeVince Resolve runs on all of the three main platforms, i, e,. Windows, Linux and MacOS.
It is one of the most widely used video editing suits for professionals. Though the free version offers a number of handy features you’ll have to buy a licensed version to get the complete experience of th feature rich software to create digital video magic.
One of the amazing features of this software is that it allows you to apply the same edit sequence and options for several other video clips. Additionally the auto prediction feature and color grading options speed up your work and bring it to perfection.
This site has a spectacular list of softwares for beginners, semi professionals and professionals and some detailed descriptions on each of them.
Select location
Sensibly choosing the location of your music studio is a priority. You want your studio to be as naturally quiet as possible.
Of course a studio located beside a road or a kindergarten school would be way different than a studio located in an isolated, noiseless garage.
You can always go for padding or noise diffusers to cut out the noise pollution. It is of course much easier to be in a quieter location.
Prepare the room
Small rooms are bad for making a studio. That doesn’t mean the bigger the better.
A small room will have ringing issues, a big room will have reflection issues and a room with a low ceiling will have vertical ringing problems. Square rooms have standing wave issues. False ceilings and storage rooms are nightmares and will just ruin the sound you will create.
What to do then?
Well, Greek geometry comes to the rescue! According to them, a rectangle room is always a good choice for a studio.
Some high tech sound proofing will easily resolve the noise issue.
Sound proofing and choosing the right dimensions of the space will improve your work product greatly.
Other Considerations: What you already have:
Most rooms have poor acoustics.
An empty room has ring and natural reverbs. That’s why we need padding and diffusers. But too much padding and excessive diffusing reduces the natural harmonics of the sound.
What do you do then?
You use a digital reverb system to handle all of them.
There is a detailed discussion on acoustic treatment for home studios here.
Summarizing the Idea
The modern world of entertainment is high tech and moving fast getting more sophisticated with each advancement. If you have an ear to hear, idea to realize and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship you must study the trends and demand of today’s industry.
There is success waiting for you. Start slow and steady. Good luck.
