why people build studios

[brendandwyer]

our studio pays for itself through the work we do recording artists and bands, making it possible for my partner and i to produce our own work.

It was in my basement up until three months ago, when we were offered a seven room facility upstairs in a historic building with high ceilings and wood floors. If i get time, i'll throw some pictures up here. It's been 3 months of wiring, patchbays and tests, but our first session is sunday night with an acoustic artist.

 

[tzer]

My reason is "for the love of the process".

I love playing and will always play. I love recording what we play. I love mixing and producing what we play. So for me, it's the process that one follows to take music from an idea in one's head to a thing that can be shared with the world.

The other reason is to save money - not by eliminating a pro studio from the equation, but by making my project band so studio-savvy by practicing studio stuff in our little project studio, that when we do buck up the $$ for a real-deal studio, we don't show up and go, "Oh... we can do that? Wow! What else can we do? Really? Oh... Ok... let's practice that thing... it costs HOW MUCH PER HOUR! Damn... let's just get it in the can and move on..."

Ya know?

 

[zed32]

i think my current motivation for having my studio is #1 because i love it. i do work for friends and family and i never really charge anyone, to me it's just fun to work with music. #2 because i find myself liking less and less music as time goes on, so i just want (someday) to record music that i can listen to for my own enjoyment that doesn't suck (IMO of course). i want to make 3 albums for myself...one punk, one metal (like double-kick style metal), and one nu-metalish early deftones style.

 

[true-eurt]

It is great that decent recording quality has become accessible to the masses. So much money and politics involved in the industry, as well as censorship. Although this has flooded the internet with some not-so-good attempts, in general I think it allows music to be raw art and the individual's or group's success to be measured by talent and effort, not money and politics. I have heard some great tunes in the Mixing forum that I probably wouldn't have otherwise heard were it not for this home recording trend.

How's that new studio of yours been treating you Seeker?





I decided to start putting together my little studio, for my own pleasure and love of music.

I had been recording in a living room oblivious to what I could actually do with a room.



My love of instruments and passion for purchasing them, has interfered enormously, with the proper treatment of my studio......I've still a long way to go.

 

[witzendoz]

I built mine as recording has been an infection of mine since I was 12 years old. There is no cure.

Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) once said in an interview about his own studio;
Question: "What advice can you give anyone wanting to start up a recording studio"
Answer: "Open a Trout Farm, you will make money from a trout farm", (He owns both).

I have never forgotten this, but I still own a studio and no Trout Farm ha ha ha.

Cheers

Alan.

 

[stevieb]

No studio building for me. My son is building HIS pro rehersal/recording studio in New Orleans, and because of my support to his persuit of that career all these years, I get my projects recorded for free.

Now, all I have to do is put together a project worthy of being recording...

 

[smuffjules]

I bought some gear because it was cheaper to buy the gear I needed to record the project I wanted to do, than to rent a studio, and not really know how long it would take to record. You could spend hours getting something right and have to watch the clock and spend a fortune on studio time.

Well, once you do one project, you do another, and you buy a little more gear and so on. You read the recording books, you listen to music in a different way. Not the licks, but the sound etc.
Once you get into it, you then want a better recording space etc.

You start reading the studio mags etc and you get inspired.

Also, as a professional musician myself, I'm on the road a lot, and want to be able to earn money locally while i'm off the road too. A home studio is a great way of doing that.

I play mainly solo guitar instrumentals, which has a limited audience, but I'm not selling out. This is what I want to play.
With a studio, I'd totally be okay selling out, because it wouldn't be me having to perform commercial songs.
I'd have fun producing/engineering, but not touring with it under my own name. Once it's done, it's done with.

Also, I own the studio. That means that I'm able to help someone out if they have no budget at all for an album. If they're a musician friend that has no dough, I can record them for free and do them a favor, and get them started.
A cd or at least an album of MP3's to download or whatever, is essential in getting gigs today. A CD is almost like having a card.

Having a studio give you absolute freedom musically to do any project with no constraints and no time limit.

Technology and manufacturing techniques in the last 15 years or so has enabled companies to produce studio gear that is affordable to the consumer.
So, the musician consumes.....

 

[Rokket]

When did I vote on this poll?

And why would I do that on a thread that was started a full 15 months BEFORE i joined this site? This is my first post in it.

It was dead over a year ago, why revive it?

 

[rockerdude]

I have a home studio because I run it as a business.I record local songwriters and bands.It makes money.I get to write off all my new gear on my taxes and working from home is nice.I am a pro guitarist/songwriter,drummer,bassist.My house was pretty much setup and good to go when I bought it.I diden't have to build anything.If your a weekend warrior musician you don't need a huge studio and big$ in gear but if you plan on recording people for money ez drummer and cakewalk wont cut it. check out my studio at www.sterlingsoundstudios.com

 

[hungovermorning]

Other studios are terrible.

I do it because I've recorded at quite a few different commercial studios (a couple all analog with 2 inch tape machines, ADAT, harddrive digital) and every experience was a nightmare. I would go in with a concept of how I wanted the record to sound and either by inability or his own tastes the engineer would make it sound like something else. Five years into it, I've done a few recordings that I've really liked at home, although they can always get better. My G.A.S. has gotten really bad however...

 

[Baster]

I build(still building... hhh) studio because I really love music production, also to record my self without stress or time loosing in some other studios..I stared with integrated sound card on my mother board and computer lan chat microphone that coasted around 5$ and i tough I will make album with that... But no, it had to much noise, distortion and stuff...) So i found that i can make studio at home, and i did lots of research how to make really professional studio with sound proofing and good equipment... Now its almost finished and time to work... Yay...

 

[Schism]

I'm just a guitarist that started recording for a band I was in. I
like making my music heard so I got into recording, buying the equipment necessary to do it and do it well. I'm Bo where near the level a lot of you are at, but I'm progressing all the time. I'm starting to develop a strong passion for recording, and it sounds corny but it seems real "magical" to me how everything layers and layers and sounds so great together, to the point where I want to direct my career in audio recording.

My "studio" is a lot less "studio-like" than most. I do everything digital (yes everything, including drums and distorted guitars) so
I don't need a room built to take sound good, you kno? Since it's all direct into a computer, the room will not affect the sound. A minor exception is coming up tho, I might start dabbing into vocal recording, but idk how long I will stock with that, I'm going to see how I sound in a regular room, if I feel that I am going to pursue singing then of course I will need to make a room that cooperates with that.

We all have different stories, but we all just love recording

 

[grimtraveller]

My "studio" is a lot less "studio-like" than most.

We all have different stories, but we all just love recording

I remember the first "studio" I ever went in. It was in the basement of this producer's flat and having been enamoured of studios for years, I was quite surprized. It wasn't a dump, but it wasn't Abbey road or the Record plant either. This was about 18 years ago and I've not forgotten what he said to me - "a studio is just a room". The word 'studio' sounds so exotic and I jokingly give my recording spaces names {my kids' room that I do most of my recording in is called "Blue Carpet studios" because.....} but I've never 'built' one, as such. It would be interesting to but in my hobbyist scenario, I keep in mind what that producer said. It's a room. It's not Narnia.

 

[Lance Lawson]

I have a home studio because I like recording and I like ability to record myself.

 

[buzzard bass]

I remember the first "studio" I ever went in. It was in the basement of this producer's flat and having been enamoured of studios for years, I was quite surprized. It wasn't a dump, but it wasn't Abbey road or the Record plant either. This was about 18 years ago and I've not forgotten what he said to me - "a studio is just a room". The word 'studio' sounds so exotic and I jokingly give my recording spaces names {my kids' room that I do most of my recording in is called "Blue Carpet studios" because.....} but I've never 'built' one, as such. It would be interesting to but in my hobbyist scenario, I keep in mind what that producer said. It's a room. It's not Narnia.

I guess I'm not really building a studio, just getting the things needed to record well. Leaving me as the weak link. Guess my little hole in the wall would be Cthulhu Studios.

Ever noticed how studios is always pleural? Even when there's only one.

 

[D_Vincent]

When it comes to home recording it seems like one thing leads to another and you tend to start building a home studio without even realizing it.

 

[grimtraveller]

When it comes to home recording it seems like one thing leads to another and you tend to start building a home studio without even realizing it.

^^^^^This is exactly how it was for me. It wasn't an initially conscious thing.

 

[buzzard bass]

It's a helluva lot of fun too, and the learning curve is interesting. Also meeting new people like the folks on here with some great advice. It's addictive.

 

[stainlessbrown]

why people build studios... actually it just sorta happened-

I'd been out of any serious 'band' effort for a few years and started up with a new band in the late 90's... and like most bands, rehearsing in the living room became a hassle always moving furniture out of the way, so out to the garage- I had an old Fostex 4 track cassette that I'd used in the late 70's to capture song ideas (I had interned in a commercial studio in the mid 70's and had accepted a reality that musicians needed good studios and visa-versa)- that band effort comes to an end so another few years of occasional jams with friends and all else that goes with life, until 2000

a new band and the Fostex just wasn't really useful (quality wise) for even rehearsals... so I got a Boss BR8. Some inheritance was spent on a PA, and again out to the trusty garage. PA in the garage wasn't really working with a 7 piece band- feedback was constantly a pain and we moved to headphones, and at about the same time I bought a Digi 001- some DI boxes, some Aurelex foam, carpets on the concrete floor, a bigger board- the rehearsal takes got better and we went to a commercial studio, paid $1200 for a 6 tune demo and not long afterwords we came to the conclusion our rehearsal recordings were 'almost as good as what we'd gotten from a 'real" studio...

We were rehearsing more and I was worried about the neighbors so I built another set of walls to try and keep the peace... and as I was sick and tired of all the dam cords all over the place I decided "Why not hard wire for inputs, headphones, etc" Fortunately I did some research and kept AC away from audio... but still tried the poor mans approach on the sound proofing (sound board and insulation)... and several hundred $$ worth of Aurelex foam.... it was better, but the room was boomy as all hell and even with wall to wall Aurelex all I'd really managed to do was kill upper mids and HF's... but i should be abe to fix this in the mix right?

and it was getting crowded... so I took over what used to be a den as a 'control room" , cut a hole in the wall for a window into the garage and a door, and rewired ... 48 XLR's ( 4 plex) and 14 headphone jacks - I moved the 001 into the den and started buy more gear thinking it would make my mixes better... several thousand dollars later I had to admit that I really needed to look at acoustic treatment and spent close to a year building bass traps, diffusers, and moving them all over the place in search of a better sound.... it paid off- it really paid off

that band that had started this latest adventure? long since melted down and a new band is cooking along- I do some recording for others, some voice-over, but mainly it's a project studio for myself and friends that teeters on insane- but I'm having a good time and it keeps me out of the bars! LOL

 

[diggy_dude]

I'm gonna go over to the rice burner forum and ask them why they put supercharged engines in their econoboxes.