Links Roundup: Acoustic Treatments for Home Recording Studios

by Brian Casel | February 13, 2009 | Add Comment

With the state of today’s economy, everyone is looking to save cash and cut corners wherever they can. Songwriters and producers are no exception. Instead of paying by the hour at expensive recording studios, they’re turning to the home recording set up as a way to save money and avoid time-constraints. Having a comfortable space to let the creative juices flow and lay down recordings is great way to keep churning out music during these rough economic times.

Today’s topic covers a key component in any home recording set up. It’s acoustic treatments for the walls of your studio space. A fancy computer / DAW with loads of expensive plugins and pricey microphones will do you no good unless the room in which you’re capturing the performance is acoustically sound. Every great production begins with a great sounding instrument in great sounding environment. Acoustic treatment helps you achieve this.

I have compiled a list of links which provide a ton of useful information on acoustic treatment. Dig in…

Acoustic Treatment For Home Studios – This page from UC Santa Cruz packs in a ton of good info. Mostly covering the ideal construction for recording studios. They label it “home” recording studios, but these guidelines take you closer to how commercial studios are built. Nice to have an ideal goal to shoot for.

The Studio SOS Guide To Monitoring & Acoustic Treatment – Creating a great sounding room for tracking is super important. It’s also key for monitoring purposes. This article from Sound on Sound covers what you need to know for setting up an effective monitoring environment in your home studio.

Home Studio Acoustics – Two part article covering a variety of things to take into account when planning and constructing your creative space.

Tutorial: How to Build a Vocal Booth – Here’s a great tutorial with lots of helpful photos which lays out step by step process for building your own professional vocal booth.

Build a $21 Vocal Booth – This struck me as the most interesting solution for setting up a vocal recording environment. Not only is it a cheap way to go, it’s also very portable and good for small and crowded rooms.

YouTube: How To Build a Vocal Booth on a Budget – This video takes you through a simple process of utizing a small closet for vocal recording.

Foam by Mail – This is a great place to purchase acoustic foam products. The website is a bit weak, but they’re products are excellent. I recently ordered a whole bunch of foam from them andthey worked out great. This was my honest experience. They’re not a sponsor.

How to Build a Quiet Studio Environment – Here’s a good look at the other side of this topic. Reduce the amount of noise happening in your room by minimizing the sources of unwanted sound. Lots of interesting ideas here.

Over to you…

What types of acoustic treatment or other ideas have worked for your home recording set up?

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