Proper Recording Studio Setup

It doesn’t matter if you’ve got the best gear money can buy if your recording studio isn’t properly set up. I can’t tell you how many home studios I’ve seen with improperly positioned monitors, uncomfortable workstations, and a poorly tuned room. What you end up with are mixes that sound fine in your recording studio but don’t translate well at all to the outside world. And you’re left scratching your head, wondering why you just bought the best gear you could afford but your mixes aren’t sounding right? Well, you’ve got to set everything up correctly in order to truly hear what you’re doing. This doesn’t mean you have to build your own room from scratch, or spend a ton on acoustic material, you just need to understand basic acoustic principles and apply some common sense.

When I did consulting, I used to go into home studios and help clients set up their gear for the best possible sonic results. So in 2012 when I saw Grammy-award winning audio engineer Francis Buckley’s Studio Rescue series (sponsored by RØDE microphones) on YouTube, I said to myself, “Wow, that’s exactly what I would have recommended. I’ve got to tell my students about these YouTube videos!”

The videos in this series are really excellent. Buckley knows what he’s talking about and offers practical advice on working with the space you have, and how to tune it using furniture placement and a few strategically placed acoustic foam panels. And though technology has certainly moved forward since RØDE first put out these videos, the concepts within and the techniques for tuning your home studio are evergreen.

Watch this video series if you’re unclear on how best to position all the gear in your home studio. I guarantee you’ll find these videos useful.

There are 13 episodes posted so far. Here are a few direct links: