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Are you a fan of incremental improvements? Making yourself 1% stronger every day until you’re as undeniable as compound interest? Or perhaps you like to wait until you can’t take it anymore and perform a complete and drastic overhaul. You say you want a revolution?

 

Being a music producer, your studio is your professional world. Every time you add a new tool to your toolbox, or improve your skills, you’re improving your setup – but what about improving the studio itself? It’s easy to forget those four walls and the equipment you use to get your sound.

 

In this article, we’ll give you advice ranging from simple to slightly complex, and from free to modestly priced. There’s something for everyone in here, whether you’re looking for micro-improvements or to spend some cash that’s burning a hole in your pocket.

 

So here are our 12 ways to improve your home studio setup. 

 

 

Monitors and headphones – get ahold of both

 

Listening on different sound sources can be a great way to level up your production game for a number of reasons:

 

• A different perspective: Sound interacts differently with the environment in speakers and headphones which can change how your tracks sound. Are you really a producer until you’ve got a mix sounding incredible on headphones but then it sounds underwhelming when you play it on monitors?
• A more translatable mix: Listeners consume music using different mediums that each add their own “colour” to a sound, so in general, the more sources you can test your tracks on, the better (you might like to include phone speakers when testing out your tracks as well, especially if you make music for social media). 

 

If you already have headphones, getting monitors can be a great way to hear your music in a bigger space, hear how it reacts to the room, and to get another perspective on things. Getting headphones alongside monitors can give you a way to hear certain things in more detail.

 

Monitors and headphones both have their place in a music producer’s workflow

 

 

Cost to Upgrade: $100 - $500

Ease of Upgrade: Simple

 

 

Rethink your desk position

 

Your listening position in your home studio can impact audio clarity and quality, affecting your mixdowns and your enjoyment.

 

Where is your desk currently sitting in your room? When thinking about desk positioning, it’s important to consider the shape of your room. Rectangular rooms are typically the better shape out of the common room shapes. The next few points will give possible suggestions for a room this shape.

 

Which direction should my desk face?

It's typically best to position your desk away from the closest end (short) wall of the rectangle, pointing down the longest dimension in the room. This is to reduce reflections.

 

How far away from the walls should my desk be? 

There are differing opinions on the optimum rectangular room listening position. Some say you should sit at 38% of the room's length for optimal bass response. This is based on a recommendation from studio designer Wes Lachot.

 

Moving your desk away from the back wall could give you space to position your monitors in an optimal position (more on this later) and room for reflection absorbers behind it.

 

How far away should my desk be from the side walls?

Typically you want your listening position to be directly in the middle of the two side walls in your room, to keep reflections even on each side. 

 

Please note these are just possible options, it’s important to test out different desk and sitting positions to find out what works for your room.

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Your listening position in your home studio can impact audio clarity and accuracy, affecting your mixdowns and your enjoyment

 

 

Cost to Upgrade: Free

Ease of Upgrade: Simple

 

 

Monitor setup and wedges

 

Your monitor positioning is important to ensure you are getting consistent sound, audio quality, clarity; and that you are sitting in the sweet spot for the stereo field.

 

The classic equilateral triangle shape is a popular choice here, with each monitor speaker and the listener’s ears the same distance from each other. To level this up even further, think about the height of your speakers in the room. Many manufacturers recommend aligning your ears with the tweeters of their speakers for the best audio experience.

Another point to bear in mind, is that speakers placed directly on a desk can cause sound conduction that can muddy mixes. To solve this problem and the above, consider getting some monitor isolation pads, also available as wedges.

 

Speakers placed directly on a desk can cause sound conduction that can muddy mixes

 

 

Cost to Upgrade: $25 - $50

Ease of Upgrade: Simple

 

 

Apply basic acoustic treatment

 

We won’t go hugely in-depth here, as this can get deep, but the common aim with acoustic treatment is reducing sound reflections from your room that bounce off things and travel back to your ears, causing issues.

 

There can be multiple practical reasons for controlling reflections in a room:

• To reduce your own reflections, so that you aren’t hearing them alongside the original audio, causing muddiness and generally annoying producers.
• If you have a small room with short reflections, you’ll always hear these. 
• If you’re monitoring a reverb that’s larger than the room you’re in, you’ll hear the reflections of the room before the reverb’s reflections.

 

Acoustic treatment can reduce reflections by absorbing or diffusing sound. There are a wide range of options available, with differing price points. A good place to start could be sound absorbing tiles to the sides of your desk and possibly behind your monitors. You can get different thicknesses of sound absorbing tiles depending on your needs. Possibly adding treatment to the ceiling could be a good choice as well (the ceiling reflects too), you can get specific solutions for this area.

 

There can be multiple practical reasons for controlling reflections in a room

 

 

Cost to Upgrade: $38 - $600

Ease of Upgrade: Medium

 

 

Monitor and room calibration

 

Got bad acoustics? There’s an app for that…well it’s not quite that simple, but it’s surprisingly close.

There are a number of packages out there such as Sonarworks SoundID Reference and IK Multimedia ARC Studio that can measure the frequency response of your room and speakers, and then help to correct it to a flatter response. This can give you better sound quality, clarity and help you to create mixes that translate on a variety of audio sources.

 

There are a number of packages out there…that can measure the frequency response of your room and speakers, and then help to correct it to a flatter response

 

 

Cost to Upgrade: $256 - $308

Ease of Upgrade: Medium

 

 

Bring in some sound-absorbing furniture

 

One for the bedroom producers and home studio heroes. Again, the aim of the game here is to reduce the reflections in your room. Placing a sofa in the right position could help. You could get some heavier curtains, choose a room with carpet, maybe bring in a rug? Or you could get more creative, depending on what you need at the time! Maybe bring in a mattress and lean it against the wall, or hang a blanket? Record vocals in a wardrobe if it works for the sound you want! It might also add a unique edge to your sound.

 

Again, the aim of the game here is to reduce the reflections in your room

 

 

Cost to Upgrade: $40 - $500

Ease of Upgrade: Medium

 

 

Rethink your subwoofer position

 

If you have a dedicated sub, its position is also important. You can use the "crawl test" to help find the best spot for it. This does mean you are going to have to do some studio yoga, but it should be worth it. Place your subwoofer in your listening position in the room. Play a track with good bass that you know well. Crawl around on the floor near the walls until you find an area where the bass sounds most balanced. Now you can place the subwoofer in that position for clearer bass and increased bass face.

 

"...this does mean you are going to have to do some studio yoga but it should be worth it"

 

 

Cost to Upgrade: Free

Ease of Upgrade: Simple

 

 

Use two displays – and mount them

 

If you haven’t gone from one monitor to two, it can supercharge your workflow faster than a hard-tek thumper.

 

For starters, we all know how small the controls on DAWs can be, getting more screen real estate can be a game-changer. Two screens give you room to view additional plugins, zoom in on their controls, and give you more information in real-time. Plus, you can customize your view to suit your workflow.

 

However, we have found diminishing returns as you add more screens, with a third one not making quite such a difference.

 

If you haven’t gone from one monitor to two, it can supercharge your workflow faster than a hard-tek thumper.

 

 

Cost to Upgrade: $100 - $500

Ease of Upgrade: Medium

 

 

Up your keyboard shortcuts game

 

Learning shortcuts can seem tedious, not something you want to spend your time on when you could be making music, but learning some can transform your workflow, helping you to flow in the studio, get creative ideas down quickly and before the spark runs out. Check out Editors Keys to instantly remind yourself of your DAW’s shortcuts. Also, Loopcloud has its own shortcuts for further optimisation.

 

...learning some can transform your workflow, helping you to flow in the studio, get creative ideas down quickly and before the spark runs out

 

 

Cost to Upgrade: $100 - $200

Ease of Upgrade: Medium

 

 

Manage your cables

 

A disorganised studio can distract you, make it harder to switch off and to get in the creative zone, plus it can make it harder to find out what is wrong if things aren’t working correctly. Velcro cable ties or cable sleeves can help to organise wires. Clearly label your cables for easier troubleshooting. You can mount cables under your desk to declutter the floor.

 

Velcro cable ties can help to organise wires.

 

 

Cost to Upgrade: $50 - $300

Ease of Upgrade: Medium

 

 

Get an output interface

 

Getting an output interface such as a Mackie BigKnob or the Focusrite® Scarlett 4i4 can offer a number of improvements to your home studio:

 

• They are likely to have a better soundcard giving you enhanced sound quality, better mixes and more audio immersion when in the studio.
• The option to turn the volume down with one, actual, real-life knob, not one on a screen, is a great option, and mixing slightly quiet is usually a good call.
• You can quickly sum to mono to check compatibility for mono systems. No one wants a lush, spacious, stereo mix that disappears on a mono system.

 

You can quickly sum to mono to check compatibility for mono systems.

 

 

Cost to Upgrade: $62 - £497

Ease of Upgrade: Medium

 

 

Invest in Decksaver protection cases

 

Continuing the clean and uncluttered vibe for a more creative workspace. Remove distractions and help to protect your decks with some decksaver protection cases. These come with a bonus benefit - it might stop the temptation to procrastinate a mixdown by practising beatmatching or set ideas.

 

Remove distractions and help to protect your decks...

 

 

Cost to Upgrade: $80 - £112

Ease of Upgrade: Medium