Six Common Home Recording Studio Setup Mistakes
As much as you want to immediately begin with your home recording studio setup, you need to hold on to your excitement to avoid the mistakes which most newbies make. When you think about it, a home music studio is a great investment—and you want to make sure your time, effort, and money are all worth it, and not wasted on unnecessary blunders.
Here are some of the most common mistakes that you should stay away from:
Spending too much – Before breaking the bank and spending more money than you need to, step back and ask yourself what equipment you truly need. Oftentimes, people think that they must have all the latest, coolest gear to make great music. The truth is that you may end up with a lot of equipment that you paid for but never end up using. Just because it’s the most modern technology out there and it received a lot of hype, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s suitable for your project. However, you can splurge on some of the essentials, such as a good microphone.
Wrong choice of room – You need to be wise in choosing a room for your home recording studio. It should not be located next to your neighbors’ bedroom, as you might just end up disturbing them or not being able to create music with much volume. Avoid square rooms if at all possible since square rooms will have certain frequencies that will resonate more than rectangular ones. Now, if the room is too small, the sound will bounce more around the room. It is also more difficult to achieve good acoustics in a small room.
Not soundproofing – If your studio drives other people mad, it is not going to be a convenient place to work in. It should have zero or as little unwanted noise as possible, especially on the microphone tracks. Also, if sound from the outside disturbs your monitoring, or gets onto your recording, then you are not going to get quality results. Eliminate undesirable noises, such as traffic, pets, air conditioning, heating, etc.
Fewer furnishings – You need to add furnishings to your home music studio because the fewer furnishings present, the more reverberation can be heard. While some people like some kind of room echo on their recordings, most of the time you won’t want any at all. To test, clap your hands. If you can hear the resonance right after you clap, you may want to add some more soft furnishings like curtains, carpets or cushions that will be helpful in soaking up these reverberations, diminishing the sound.
Wrong placement of speakers – The speakers must not be positioned in the corners of your home recording studio, as this will further highlight the bass. As much as possible, eliminate surfaces and objects between you and the speakers, as reflections (called early reflections) will bounce from the speaker on these surfaces to your ear. They must be facing towards you at around ear level, with some distance between the left and right speakers and some distance between you and the speakers forming a triangular shape. The speakers must be roughly 1.5 meters apart from each other and about 1 meter away from you.
Wrong position of equipment – All equipment needs to be set-up to give you a comfy and dynamic environment. Everything needs to be accessible; place your MIDI controller somewhere so you can still see your screen and play simultaneously.
Keeping in mind these unwanted mistakes will certainly help you create quality music comparable to commercial studios. Learn these things by heart, and in no time you will be on your way to establishing your dream home recording studio.
