Home Recording Studio Photos & Set Up Ideas

Pictures of Recording Studios to Help with a New Studio Set Up

Description and comments for each recording studio photo, plus additional resources below the photo gallery.

We picked some sample photos of various different home or project recording studios to use as a reference. We’re not looking at commercial facilities here as the assumption is if you have enough money for a Neve, then you probably already know how to design and build a room (or can hire a good acoustics firm to do it for you)

Below we’ll take note of the reasons why each photo was selected (some good reasons, some bad) and point them out based on the caption for each recording studio photo.

1. Studio Photo: Neat and Clean Pro Tools Studio. We know now everyone can afford to buy a proper Argosy desk to house your outboard gear and small audio console or control surface, but you can see how that greatly helps with the presentation of the control room. We like this because of how clean it is, how there is a clear balance between analog and digital gear (the two racks have a fair amount of audio gear that can be put into the signal chain). If you own your space, then you can take it one step further and soffit mount your studio monitors as shown here. Building additional walls, angled, in the front of the room and leaving enough space to soffit mount the speakers. This gives a cleaner sound, but also significantly boost the presentation. Do this, and you can have clients in your home studio more than willing to pay a regular commercial studio rate (And it really isn’t that hard to do. Can get most of the framing done in a weekend.)
2. Studio Photo: Small space rack gear. This is a good set up for a long and narrow room. All the rack gear is in the desk with computer monitors on top and studio monitors to the sides (computer tucked away underneath most likely). Keyboard controller fits easily further back in the room. They bought acoustic treatment for the room (note heavier in front to prevent as many early reflections as possible plus bass traps in the corners). It’s fairly clean and has a diversity of gear to get the jobs done. The colors, though… bit over the top. You do want your studio to have character, but you don’t want to make it too… too. Control rooms should be comfortable, not just trendy. Traditional, more timeless colors are a better bet. Dark is always good, and then work on more custom lighting that you can change to fit the mood for each recording session.
3. Studio Photo: Pro Tools w/ small console. Older example of working in a small space to build a control room. This one is a little bit tight. We’re getting to the point of “Sometimes less is more” situation that a lot of home studios run into. Good is that they managed to fit all of this into what looks like a walk in closet. Bad is that the sweet spot for the monitors looks impossible to be in without leaning over. Overkill: you don’t need a console with that many inputs for a studio that size. Even if they’re treating it as a split console, I doubt that recording room can handle a session that requires that many mics, and with the version of Pro Tools, it’s not going to do discrete outputs to mix on the console, anyway. Vocals in that space, overdubs for most instruments, great, but live band or a full drum kit where your spot mic’ing the whole thing…. small room = not so good sound. Big console isn’t always better. Also: the more you can avoid cheap Sonix foam panels the better. It looked cool in the 80′s but doesn’t to much to treat a room and looks… not good, really.
4. Studio Photo: Monitor Overkill. Stuff like this happens a lot when someone “makes” a home recording studio because if you are, then chances are you’re a bit of a gearhead. Gearheads like a lot of gear. Just the way it is. My point: less is often times more; and more doesn’t mean better. The studio furniture works, holds what gea that’s there. The monitor situation is pretty bad, though. I count FOUR different sets of monitors (all not very good), and in varying placements. Buy ONE GOOD set and the same cost and set them up correctly. Then use your car or your home stereo as secondary listening areas. The shotgun mic is an interesting choice… and never leave your coffee close your your gear! Point: don’t be a gear head. Don’t go overboard. Get what you need and compile money to good recording and audio gear, not just a lot of gear.
5. Studio Photo: Tall Audio Rack. Back to a cleaner look in what looks like a small living room. This one gets a nod because of the rack. It’s an easy solution to a common problem: where does the rack gear go. Most people will buy specific furniture so it’s close to the mixing spot… but that creates a lot of clutter if your space is small. There’s no rule that says your rack has to be within 2 feet of your mix chair. By removing it from the main studio furniture, you can also pretty much build a rack yourself: buy some rack rails and some wood and do it in a couple hours, so that its size is perfect for what you need. Getting up out of your chair is good for you anyway. That move alone allowed this home studio to be very clean and confortable.
6. Studio Photo: Cool idea control room. While I do NOT like using pine wood in studios, I like this idea. Basically… think of it as building a closet organizer by yourself, but putting it at the end of an entire room (note of the desk is part of it. you can see the actual room wall underneath). I mentioned soffit mounting monitors for another studio photo, but this is taking it one step further so that your rack gear is also “part of the room”. It gives a very unique impression, and you can do a lot of bass treatment inside the additional space created by building this extra integrated wall in your home studio room. The vertical monitors might be a little strange, though. Unique, but not the best use of screen real estate.

Tags: diagrams, examples, home recording studio | January 15, 2012 in: Recording Studio  | ADD COMMENT