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It is idiotic, but you have to wonder why some people are so adamant they hear an improvement when it's simply not possible for the sound to have changed at all. Whether you agree with me or not :D I'm convinced this is the same reason people swear they hear an improvement with other things that...

Interesting, thanks for explaining that. --Ethan

I should have also mentioned more modern programs like Sibelius and Finale combine MIDI and scoring. The full versions of those programs are not cheap! But both have "junior" versions that are affordable. One big advantage of such programs is they know how to interpret standard musical notations...

I play the cello too, and record myself and others all the time. I agree that a live sounding room is more inspiring, and your room is large enough to achieve that. However, you can get plenty of inspiration by simply adding reverb to your headphones while recording, but without recording the...

I'm not a full time composer, but I've written several works for full orchestra as well as a number of large-scale pop music productions. When I went to music college in the 1970s we did everything on paper, but I could never go back to that! Today I create everything in SONAR as MIDI, then...

Probably! :D The goal for a room like yours is to be neutral. Once it's treated for that, there's no need to add or remove treatment other than maybe putting a throw rug under the drums but not under an acoustic guitar. --Ethan

Use brown cardboard used for shipping boxes instead of wood or plastic. It's cheaper, and will also work better if you space the foam off the wall a bit for increased absorption. --Ethan

The spec that matters here is Joules, and the inexpensive unit on Amazon has much greater capability than the Furman. However, the spec for the Amazon model seems unreasonably high, so it might be bogus. I'm not saying it is bogus! Just that it might be. This article explains the basics...

There are many different types and models, ranging from an MOV in a $8 power strip to units costing $5,000 or more. If there's anything not clear enough in my posts above, let me know and I'm glad to explain further. --Ethan

The Room EQ Wizard program is freeware, and it's excellent. This article explains all about measuring rooms and what the graphs mean: Room Measuring Primer You do need a small diaphragm condenser microphone, but those don't have to be expensive, and it's useful to have one around anyway for...

Right, adding a surge protector won't hurt anything. But again, the cheap ones don't do much and the good ones that actually protect well are expensive. --Ethan

That's not likely. That's possible, but adding "small room" ambience is not a solution. Just add reverb to the drummer's headphones while recording. Then again, I don't mind drums in a dead room. --Ethan

Guys, there's a huge difference between a surge protector and a power "conditioner" product. A surge protector can be useful if it's robust enough, though many of them are not. The potential damage from lightning strikes is real and easy to document, as David pointed out. I've owned audio and...

Wow, you totally nailed it. :thumbs up: --Ethan

Not bad, though you'd do better with thicker absorption on the front and rear walls, and real diffusers where you show those plastic thingies. I wouldn't worry about the room being too dead. It's too narrow to get a "good" sounding ambience. --Ethan

What evidence will convince you that power products are a sham? The standard metrics for fidelity are all that's needed to assess changes to an audio signal. Then there's the null test which is even more convincing because it shows all changes including those you might not think to look for. So...

The problem with most claims for "power" products is they never include credible evidence. What they say can sound logical to people who don't understand much about electronics, such as "noise riding on the power line gets into your audio gear and degrades the sound." But they never actually...

There are no reflection points on the front wall because your speakers face the other way. But adding bass traps in the front wall corners, and even all over the entire wall, will certainly help. This article addresses the front wall in more detail: Front Wall Absorption --Ethan

Well thanks very much. I should have mentioned that the section on synthesizers is extremely detailed, and explains how they work as well as how to use them. --Ethan

Yes! When I owned a professional studio in the 1980s I would have killed to have a modern DAW setup like I enjoy now with SONAR. We had more than $100,000 worth of gear, yet SONAR with a 16-input interface running on a modern PC for a total cost of a couple thou kills what we had back then. Not...