As a music teacher, I like having fun instruments around, and I’ve always been interested in home studio design and music tech-like things. My home studio is nothing special; it’s certainly not very impressive compared to many you see on YouTube or read about on home recording blogs, but that doesn’t matter as it’s mine, suits my needs, and is just right for me.
A home studio can be anything from a Chromebook, headphones and an online Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) to a multi-room setup with vocal booths, floating floors, and finely tuned acoustically treated walls and ceilings, with millions of dollars of rare custom equipment, something you won’t find in my studio. Regardless of what your home studio looks like, whether small, medium, or large, they are fun but require much work to plan and assemble.
In my studio, I never took the time to plan and get everything working the way I wanted. I would buy a new keyboard, use it for recording a bunch of tracks, disconnect it, and move on to another piece of gear. I never thought of what I wanted my studio to be until a few years ago when I decided I wanted everything to be connected and easily accessible all the time, ready to play and use. Designing my studio took a little work and planning. Considering I had never done anything like this before, after checking several YouTube channels, I got to work trying to set up my own space. After much trial and error, much of which others more experienced would not have to do, I was finished and loved the results.
Months later, as I was working in my studio, I started to learn the one thing every home studio owner learns over time: Your studio is never complete. You are always connecting, disconnecting, buying new things, and trying new places for things and ways of working in your studio. Your studio is a living, breathing environment that is fun to keep tweaking as you learn and want to do more.
My students might enjoy this little list of fun things to check out for their home studios. Some are reasonable, and some are beyond most dreams, but that’s part of the fun of having a studio. Dream big, figure out what you need, and try to get those big dreams into a space that’s all your own and fits your budget. I hope you find some inspiration and have fun checking out these links.
- Yamaha Keyboards
- Yamaha Pianos
- Synthesizers and Stage Pianos
- Native Instruments
- KRK Systems
- Mackie
- Zoom
- AKAI
- Art Pro Audio
- Korg
- Roland
- Arturia
- Behringer
- Cre8 Audio
- Studio Projects
- Beyer Dynamic
- AKG
- Rode
- Universal Audio
- Focusrite
- Nektar Technologies
- Warm Audio
- Auralex Acoustics
These, of course, are just a few links of the many thousands available to you when checking out supplies for your studio, and one other important link I use all the time in my studio:
On Amazon, you can buy great stands, cables, cable organizers, USB hubs, headphone stands, mounting equipment, lighting, etc. I found that you can find things on Amazon that you just can’t find in other retail stores, especially if they are unique, odd little things that don’t have a substantial local high sales history.
I hope you have fun making your own creative space, no matter the size of the space or budget.
