The Home Music Production Studio Setup Guide

The introduction to my guide: Hi, I am Justin and I have been producing music for over five years now. I started out like most aspiring producers, at home, in my bedroom. I’m sure you might have dreams of working in a pro-studio one day but the truth is that many experienced producers also have studios at home and even beginners can achieve great results this way too. In fact, I still work in my home studio and only step foot in to a professional studio once my track is ready to master. It really isn’t difficult and you can easily do it without a degree in the music science! I know from my own personal experiences over the years how frustrating it can be when you just can’t get the results you want from your home studio, whether it be too much or too little bass, high frequencies bouncing around like crazy or a general muddy / distorted sound. In case you didn’t know this, sound has the ability to play all sorts of tricks on you. It can appear and disappear just like magic. This might explain why, when you take your music and play it on other systems like a car stereo, Hi-fi or even another studio, it sounds totally different. I am sure you’ve told yourself at least one of following when testing your tracks on other systems... “Where the hell has the bass gone?” “Where the hell is that bass coming from?” “Why can’t I hear the vocals?” “Now the vocals are too loud!” “Those Hi Hats are all over the place now, huh?” ...the list can go on and on and if you’re still having any of these problems, this guide is for you. I had all these problems when I started out as a music producer. I only wish that at the time I could have had access to the information that I am giving you. This would have saved me loads of time, money and frustration of sifting through the internet to find good advice at the same price as a sandwich. In this guide I will focus on two primary subjects in detail, speaker placement and room acoustics. That’s it! The reason for these two topics is that I firmly believe that these are the two fundamental areas within any studio. Once you know the facts about them, you can apply this knowledge to pretty much any room and get great results. Of course your choice of studio monitor speakers, amplifiers, audio interface and instruments etc. will also have an impact. After all, you cannot expect a pair of £30 desktop speakers to sound anything like a pair of £900 Genelec studio monitors, but without the fundamental studio rules in place, even the best equipment will deliver terrible results. This guide will NOT teach you what music equipment to buy as there are so many great products out there and I believe it to be largely a matter of personal preference and budget when deciding which ones to go for. Perhaps I could write an entire new guide on this. This guide will teach you what you need to know about how to set your studio up once you have decided on all the bits of studio equipment that you prefer and how to get the best results from them and your room. It doesn’t get much easier than this. In This Book: Section One Speaker Placement Symmetry & Stereo Imaging There is only one sweet spot! Speaker Height Section Two Acoustics What Are Acoustics? Wall Treatments Explained In case you are thinking that this simply could not be enough to get your studio sounding great? Well, it is. This 15 page guide will explain everything you need to know and you will be amazed at what results can be achieved when applying the fundamental rules based around these two topics. Why Pay? While it is true that there is a lot of free information out there, trust me, I have scanned through most of it. This guide aims to save you the time, money and hassle of searching through all the junk, irrelevant and badly written information on the internet. I’ve been there and done that. All I wanted when I was starting out was for somebody to make it nice and easy for me, without using words longer than the great wall of china. I want my speakers to sound great, that’s all, without obtaining a sound engineering degree! With over five years of production experience in home studios, working with various industry professionals as well as extensive research into the fundamentals of getting the best sound from any room, I have compiled this guide. It’s totally up to you to take the long way, but if you believe in the age old saying, “Time is Money” then that’s what my guide is for. A no-nonsense, reader friendly guide to get working on your next hit instead of hitting your head against the wall. Just think of the small fortune this guide could save you on the final stages of getting your track mastered. Less time in a pro-mastering studio means more money in your pocket, a lot more! Next time you buy a sandwich at the local supermarket and say to yourself, “I could have spent this money on getting my studio sounding great in no time” One More Thing! Once you get this guide you will also get me! This means that if you have any more questions about your home studio you can contact me personally and get my personal feedback and assistance. To be honest after reading my guide I don’t think I’ll be hearing much from you, but just incase, I’ll be there for you! Send me some before and after pics of your studio too, I would like to see what changes you’ve made after using this guide. This will be a great way to get more tips from me and feedback from you too. Have Fun!