Mike Cahill from Redfin invited us to contribute some insights to help navigate the process of building your own home music studio!

Colder weather is approaching, and the average American’s options for outdoor activities are beginning to dwindle. While winter recreation can be a blast, there’s truly no better time to hunker down and enjoy our favorite hobbies than from the comfort of your own home. What better way to do that than building your own at-home music studio? From equipment to acoustics, we’ve got you covered with tips on creating the ultimate home music studio from the experts who know best. Whether you’re in Roseville or Greensboro, read on to learn how you can create an authentic studio-like experience at home.

Create a space where you feel inspired to work

Know the kind of environment that makes you want to work, and set up your studio that way. If you like to focus with minimal distraction, your studio should have the functional sparseness of a meditation room. But you can spark creativity by filling the space with meaningful things to get your mojo working. – Nashville Guitar Guru

For both teaching music lessons and writing/producing music, the key to a successful home studio comes from an ability to focus. Things like; setting up your space in an isolated part of the house, strategically hanging sound absorption panels on the wall, bass traps in the corners, and making sure the doorway is fairly well-sealed help keep the studio quiet both inside and outside. Of course, studio monitors, an interface, a computer monitor that allows for easy workflow, and an ergonomic layout of instruments also help to keep things flowing smoothly – I use JBL 5 inch studio monitors with an Apollo Twin interface and speak/sing into a Rode NT1-A all day which helps to save my voice from fatigue. I play and teach piano, guitar, bass, drums, voice, banjo, and clarinet regularly so it’s important that I can get to these instruments quickly and be heard from multiple areas in my room. – Collingswood Sound

Don’t underestimate the importance of proper sound treatments

My first recording studio was a spare closet where I attached blankets from Value Village to the walls.  When we moved to a smaller house in the city, we constructed a pop-up recording booth using only PVC pipes, moving blankets and zip ties, all from the hardware store (I have step-by-step instructions available here). Having a properly treated recording space is more important to your sound quality than having the most expensive microphone, and you can do it for not much money. My clients have always been happy with my sound. – Suzanne Amey, Genuine VO

Nine times out of ten the missing element in a home studio is acoustics.  Incredible instruments, microphones, and gear will only get you so far in a less than stellar sounding room.  It is so hard to trust what you hear, perform your best, and feel creative and inspired when working in a room that is a boomy echoey mess.  The key to creating the Ultimate Home Music studio is to focus on the sound and feel of your space so it is inviting and inspiring. – Music City Acoustics

Mic placement is key

One common mistake people make is mic placement. But that’s mostly down to pop culture. Too often we see presenters in movies and TV shows either an inch away (practically kissing the mic) or two feet away shouting. Both sound awful. Get the best sound using just your hand as a measurement. Stretching your pinky finger and thumb out, place them between your mic and mouth. That’s the perfect distance, so you won’t sound too quiet or too loud. – Radio.co

Incorporate soundproofing and acoustic treatments

While gear and software are incredibly important, the money you invest in your recording space will pay off far more. Study acoustics and buy an SPL meter. There are so many things you can do in post, but if your room isn’t up to par, you’ll spend way too much time trying to create the desired sound through effects and plugins as opposed to efficiently creating amazing mixes.- Audio Realms Studios

Having an isolated space and proper acoustic treatment in your home music studio is crucial for clean recordings and a pristine listening experience. Absorption panels, acoustic foam, bass traps, and strategically placed floor rugs will help combat sound reflections from hard, flat surfaces, and diminish the presence of flutter echoes. Unfortunately, professional soundproofing is no small investment; you’ll either need to remodel your room or invest in a sound isolation booth. However, you can still partially lower your noise levels by sealing off air leaks, reinforcing the door, and covering the windows with soundproof curtains or drapes. – Whisper Room

Make sure to treat all parallel surfaces in your room (i.e. walls directly facing each other, or the floor and the ceiling) with acoustic panels. Place bass traps in your corners to avoid or pad 90 degree corners. Next, you can determine where you want to place acoustic panels to avoid early reflections using the ‘mirror trick’. Start by creating an ‘equilateral triangle’ between your two speakers and yourself, to make sure you’re in the acoustic ‘sweet spot’. That means you should have the same distance from you to each speaker, as well as between the two speakers. While you’re sitting in the ‘sweet spot’, have a friend move a mirror across the surface of the walls to your left and right (only the part of the wall between you and the speakers). At any spot you can see one or both of your speakers through the mirror, you’ll want to place acoustic panels to avoid early reflections. – StringKick    

Know how you’re going to power your equipment

When setting up a home studio, the most important thing is the power that is going to supply your equipment. When you have good clean power, your equipment will operate with optimal performance. Power that is dirty will cause additional noise or referencing problems that translate into your recordings. In the United States, your AC power should be 120v and getting a professional power conditioner is beneficial for protecting your valuable audio and computer equipment. – David Hughes, Shine On Studios   

Pay close attention to what your monitors are doing

Quite often we find our clients placing their monitors in completely the wrong position and they are always amazed at the world of difference the placement of the monitors can make, this is something you can do for free and without any professional help. Play a series of test tones at low frequencies and walk around the room to learn where your pressure differentials are. These should be +/- 3dBA max! These pressure differences highlight the location of low frequency high and low spots and will help you to pinpoint the exact locations within your room where low-frequency information is distorted. – Sound Zero

Consider implementing room-correction software

Implementing room-correction software is one of the most effective things you can do to improve your home studio setup. These types of tools use microphones to model your room’s frequency response and automatically adjust the output your speakers provide to compensate for these problem areas in your environment. Maybe your room makes bass frequencies too loud (a common issue), but proper room correction tools can fix these types of problems. By using a room correction tool you’ll end up with a flat, accurate sounding home studio environment, all the while spending a mere fraction of the money normally needed to create such an accurate sound. – eMastered

Invest in a quality chair

Chances are you’ll be doing a lot of sitting, so make sure your chair is giving you the ergonomic support you need. And even when you have a good quality chair, you still need to get up and take a break every so often. A few minutes of rest is very good for your body, eyes, and mind. – Liberty Park Music                                                                 

Keep your gear as accessible as possible

When setting up a home music studio, the biggest thing I’ve learned is to make instruments and gear have spots where they are both accessible and have a cool vibe for filming and writing. Having to take things out of cases, look for cables/pedals/gear, and then put everything back at the end of the day can take a lot of time away from creating music, so make a plan of where things can go and still look good before you create your space. My favorite things I’ve done for my music space include getting guitar hooks/standard from String Swing, looking for pieces that help hide cables, setting up a wall with good natural light for filming, and keeping my cases I don’t use often in a storage space. – Haley Powers Music

Select equipment based on the priority of its application

Unless you just won the lottery, making decisions on equipment selection for a home studio is one of the most challenging parts of the process. When I started my career in a small home studio, I took into consideration what type of sessions I would be doing most often and carefully selected the best options I could afford for that specific application. As my business grew, I began to add gear based on what would serve my projects in the most impactful way. For example, when choosing a DAW, ask yourself, which program is best suited for my workflow and the styles of music I will be working on? When choosing microphones and outboard gear; which pieces will provide versatility for the different applications they would be used for? As you begin to narrow these down, consider each piece of gear as a long term investment in the quality of your work. Remember that spending a little more now could earn you much more in the future if it will improve the quality of your work. – The Record Shop Nashville

A home studio should be a place for creation, where you feel comfortable spending time and letting ideas flow freely. Investing in high quality gear the first time is priority. Get yourself a good quality, reliable interface from the likes of PreSonus or Focusrite that won’t interrupt your sessions. Good quality cables from the likes of TourTech are reliable and won’t let you down and some acoustic treatment from Auralex is a great way to ensure you’re getting the best out of any room. Don’t let bad equipment stifle creativity. Invest in the best you can at the time and watch your ideas really come to life.- PMT House of Rock

Let your studio grow with you

The setup I use works equally well in a single-family house as it would in a condo, which is where I started; at that time, I was doing everything through headphones so I wouldn’t disturb my neighbors.  By using an adjustable wood shelf (originally marketed as a TV stand) I’ve been able to get all my gear into a small space and still have easy access to all controls.  As I moved into larger houses, I was able to adapt to the new environment with more equipment. – Beginner Guitar Lessons

Educate on the science of sound and electronic devices

Know and educate on the basics of the science of sound and electronic devices. In order to build student confidence and minimize anxiety, it is necessary to educate students on the basic science of sound and electronic devices used in lessons or practice. Remind students that what they hear from an electronic device is not how they sound in real life since these built-in or external microphones from our phones, computers, recording devices, etc. only capture certain wavelengths in a given sound. – Martucci Music

Like Rome, your studio won’t be built in a day 

Start where you are. Don’t wait until you feel like it’s the “right time” to get started on creating your studio. We put things together piecemeal over the course of several years, buying a few things here and there, and eventually built up to what we have now. And we’re still adding, building, and changing. – Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs

Originally published on Redfin
November 19, 2020

Inspiration for writing a song can happen anywhere, at any time. You could be walking through the park or driving down the highway when an idea pops in your head. Whether it be a melody or a catchy lyric, you’ve created a snippet of a potentially rockin’ song. The problem is, most of the time these ideas never get put on paper. If you’re becoming more serious about your songwriting you have to understand that sometimes it’s a process.

 

The Melody

Although a catchy line came to mind in the car, a catchy melody is just as important. Even if you aren’t familiar with the melodic side of writing yet, you can get an idea of how you want the melody to go by humming or trying out vocal runs. It’s also a good idea to listen to music you’re inspired by to get an idea of what kind of sound you want your song to have. The melody might change during the duration of the writing process-but that’s okay! Your song is developing into its best form.

 

The Story

It may seem like a simple concept, but establishing the storyline of your song is such an important element. Make sure that once you know what you want your song to be about, you stick with it. Keep it on the same track so your song doesn’t become messy and seem unorganized. Is your song going to be narrative? Will it paint a picture? Do you want it to be a fun party song or an emotional ballad? These are a few decisions that need to be made early on. Be picky about you’re the vocabulary you’re using for your song.

 

“Good songwriting I think knows what it’s audience is, and knows how to speak to that audience.” Said Nashville songwriter J. Morris

 

Keep in mind who you’re talking to. This is where vocabulary plays a huge role. Although narrative structure and vocabulary seem simple, they are critical elements when it comes to great songwriting. Be sure to know your audience and what they’re looking for.

 

Co-Writing

When it comes to a co-writing session be sure that you don’t show up with a blank page. It can be anything from an initial melodic idea to a song title, but there needs to be some sort of direction you’re bringing to the table. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable with the person you’re writing with. Some of the best songs come from genuine moments and feelings. Too many times writer’s produce songs simply because they think it will sell. Whatever genre or audience your selling to, being genuine in your writing is what is going to have your audience relate.   

 

 

Moving to Nashville to pursue your music on a professional level can be scary. There’s a lot of talented artists on a similar pursuit and it’s easy to become disheartened. Being famous in a small town is cake, but what about when you get to the major leagues? Investing your time in pursuing music in Nashville can be tricky. Here are some things to know before moving to the city that can help the new transition.

 

Community

From the outside looking in, Nashville seems like the Los Angeles of the south. It can be intimidating knowing that other musicians have come to Music City to make their dreams come true, just like you have. Despite common belief, Nashville has a small town feeling with great community support. There are plenty of people willing to lend a helping hand and connect you with people who can assist in your music endeavors. There are also a ton of different venues throughout the city that you can meet with in order to begin playing shows and getting your name and music out there.

 

East Nashville

East Nashville is a great place to get started. This part of town also has strong community and awesome venues. With a little determination, you’ll be able to meet other artists and start getting involved in writer’s rounds. Connecting with other musicians can open the door for co-writing opportunities and might even lead to an awesome hit. It’s important to be patient in this process, however. Keep in mind there are a lot of talented musicians who’ve lived in Nashville for longer and have a similar goal.

 

Humble & Kind

Because of the amount of talented people pursuing music in Nashville, it is important to stay humble throughout your journey. “Making it” will take a lot of hard work, but will be incredibly worth it if you do. Don’t be too good for sacrifice in order to make your dream reality. Be kind to everyone you meet, because you never know where the connection will take you. Continue to be yourself, because staying genuine is what will stand out.

 

Don’t be afraid of the transition to Nashville. Although it can be challenging to get your career where you want it, the possibilities are also endless. Do your research, be patient and don’t get too hurt when things don’t work out the way you expected. Music City is an incredible place to enhance your career, if you’re courageous and dedicated and you’ll be just fine. Be sure to reach out to us at The Record Shop for any recording services or social media strategies you may need to get the ball rolling. We’re here to help!