Home › Forums › Beginner Guitar Discussions › Setting up my music studio
Tagged: audio acoustics, home studio
- This topic has 26 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 7 months ago by Ron P.
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July 29, 2018 at 2:48 am #105528
I am moving from a small cramped condo to a house and I get one room for my music studio…I have a laptop, monitor speakers, two amps,several guitars…………..I’m shopping for a good chair.
Seems you need to be able to adjust the height…..spin around from laptop to playing position in front of music stand…do I want a seat back?
What are you using and what recommendations do you have for the chair…and the studio?
I’d like to video my playing too….but for today…I need to be a good chair to practise my guitar in.
I'm going to learn to play this thing if it kills me!
Patience grasshopper..
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July 29, 2018 at 6:19 am #105530
For years I used a drummer stool but recently bought an office task chair. It has a back, casters and is adjustable. I just left the arms off when I assembled it. Quite comfortable.
-Doug
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July 29, 2018 at 1:45 pm #105562
XLNT!
I have a chair I can use…adjusts vertically, casters on it..just remove the arms….problem solved.
Thanks.
I'm going to learn to play this thing if it kills me!
Patience grasshopper..
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July 29, 2018 at 6:51 am #105531
Oh Clary, you want a seat back with a nice lumbar support so you can play for hours and hours. Congratulations on the new studio. It’s great to have your own space. I don’t know if you saw my attempt to unclutter.
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July 29, 2018 at 1:44 pm #105561
Thank you for the advice.
I actually have an extra office chair, height adjusts, on casters….remove the arms and I’m good to go?!
I often can’t see the forest for the trees….
Now you have a nice problem…too many guitars!!! They fit nicely…good job.
I'm going to learn to play this thing if it kills me!
Patience grasshopper..
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July 29, 2018 at 7:13 am #105533
My wife bought me a new office chair for last Christmas. Very comfortable, excellent lumbar support and the arm rests fold up out of the way. So when I’m playing, they are folded up, when I’m working on editing, etc they are folded down. Works pretty slick.
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July 29, 2018 at 1:46 pm #105563
Well that’s even better…..I’ll keep that in mind.
I'm going to learn to play this thing if it kills me!
Patience grasshopper..
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July 29, 2018 at 7:45 am #105534
I moved my office chair from our office space into our hobby room a few months back and its perfect.
The arms are adjustable in terms of moving them up down and back a lot of these types of chairs you can just leave them off as well.
The other big thing is a footstool about 8″ high I can put my foot on it when I play and put my feet up kick back and watch stuff off youtube & other sites.
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July 29, 2018 at 1:48 pm #105564
I’ve heard others mention the foot stool, but I don’t understand it.
I play guitar right handed, would I use the stool for only the right foot? To help support the guitar?
I'm going to learn to play this thing if it kills me!
Patience grasshopper..
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July 29, 2018 at 10:01 am #105542
Right now I use a drummers stool as a guitar chair, I also have an old kitchen chair from the 60’s that i use from time to time because it has a back support..never thought about an office chair though.
..Billy..
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July 29, 2018 at 2:58 pm #105569
I have often thought we should skip the Monthly Challenge one month and just invite members to make a video description of their music studios. When I was setting mine up 3 years ago, I went online and searched for photos, videos, or words of wisdom about setting up a music studio and found virtually nothing. Since I set mine up, it has evolved and is now pretty much the way I like it. As for chairs, I started off with a drummers stool with no back, but it became fairly uncomfortable after a short time of sitting in it, especially when I was sitting working with my DAW etc. So I got an armless office chair, like you, and it works well. I tried an adjustable height footstool, because classical guitarists play with their left foot on a stool and hold the guitar over their left leg. But us blues players don’t do that, so I abandoned it. I bought a proper music stand with two racks side by side, and I use that a lot. Then came a second office chair for times when I have a friend over to jam. Also, I have shelving for all the accessories I’ve accumulated, like spare cables, mics, adapters, spare power supplies, picks, capos, string removal tools, etc. Then I put in a small couch, because every so often I have a small audience (usually kids and relatives). I hang my guitars on the wall – readily accessible – but I keep two stands on the floor, one for my guitar of the day, and one for my bass. That way I can swivel around and put them in the stand without even getting out of my chair.
Sunjamr Steve
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July 29, 2018 at 4:53 pm #105578
As a beginner, I’d love to see photos!
My “office” in condo is so congested I’d really like to see how people organize their studios.
I don’t even have one pedal yet…still wrestling with holding a pick!! haha
I think the office chair, height adjustable, wheels, no arms is the way to go, sounds like you’ve got a very nice set up. This will be my first. I have laptop, monitor speakers, Focusrite with two inputs and an amp…two electric and two acoustic guitars.
Thanks for your input.
I'm going to learn to play this thing if it kills me!
Patience grasshopper..
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July 29, 2018 at 3:09 pm #105571Anonymous
Lets see. I have a stool I bought from a casino that was a slot machine chair…really good! Then I took a rocker from the living room, hauled it outside and took the arms off with a skill saw. I wanted the laz-y-boy so I could lean back and drift off watching netflix in there. Duck tape the carnage from the saw.
The hardest thing a about music room is keeping people out. The constant knocks on the door. Dinners ready, what are you doing, meow, bark, phone, you name it. It is my fortress of solitude and I put a lock on it .
Yes Steve….it is important to have two stands. Primary and secondary guitar so you don’t have to get all the way up to change them. Running cables into switch boxes with electric by the side of the chair….super important. Oh and a little table just lower than the chair to hold stuff. Small fridge and microwave when you get real serious. Oh ya, guitars and amps and stuff.
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July 29, 2018 at 5:12 pm #105581
Tom,
Can you please explain? I don’t understand……two music stands? I have one. Cables and switch boxes???
Yes Steve….it is important to have two stands. Primary and secondary guitar so you don’t have to get all the way up to change them.
Running cables into switch boxes with electric by the side of the chair….super important.
I'm going to learn to play this thing if it kills me!
Patience grasshopper..
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August 23, 2018 at 5:07 am #107962
i HAVE MY COMPUTER RUNNING THROUGH MY AMP ( AUX INPUT) AND HEAD PHONES FROM THE AMP GIVE ME THE LESSON ON LINE AND i CAN HEAR MY GUITAR AS WELL. AT THE MOMENT i AM IN A CLOSET SET UP AS AN OFFICE, i PICKED UP A DECENT OFFICE CHAIR (NO ARMS) AT THE THRIFT STORE FOR $10 i WILL BE MOVING TO A LARGER ROOM LATER
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September 16, 2018 at 6:02 pm #111535
This is my music studio setup.
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September 20, 2018 at 12:43 am #111678
Very efficient..nicely organized.
I'm going to learn to play this thing if it kills me!
Patience grasshopper..
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September 16, 2018 at 6:32 pm #111539
Nice set up!
Rudy
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November 22, 2018 at 3:43 pm #117207
Hey guys…update on my music room:
It’s about 11 x 11 with about 10′ ceilings, laminate flooring.
I’ve torn the baseboard out and putting in new and repainting it this weekend.
I have a rug in there about 10 ‘ x 10’ and it sheds a lot, thinking of removing…or…replacing?
For acoustics….better to have a rug for some sound dampening or no rug, just hardwood/laminate floors?
Nothing on walls..I’m not trying to soundproof it.
TIA for your input…
Clary
I'm going to learn to play this thing if it kills me!
Patience grasshopper..
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February 20, 2019 at 2:09 pm #125908
Hi, I have a small (11x10x 9.5) studio in my basement,I did a medium soundproofing job on it. But, of interest to you, I treated the room with home made acoustical panels to tame the room’s reverb. I used rockwool insulation,1×1 wood frames and speaker cloth in 2inch and 4inch x 2×4 ft frames for mid and bass traps. I have a total of 16 panels in the room and it sounds great. I use a wall mounted sound level meter to monitor the db levels of all my amps(great harmony and happiness with the wife). The labour and money was well spent. If you want high quality sound out of all your audio systems it’s the way to go.
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December 2, 2018 at 2:48 am #117809
It is incorrectly thoughts, that not big speakers can`t play sound as well as big HI-FI systems. Thereby, there are a monitor sound players, that can play sound in high quality. I understand this after compared here advantages of sound systems here https://musiety.com/a-review-of-the-best-small-amp-models/.
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December 19, 2018 at 10:08 pm #119544
Here’s where I’m at now…so confused.
got the studio set up ok…a little clumsy with cords, stands etc….but I’ll get that sorted out the more I play.
In my guitar playing efforts, now that I’m sitting down and trying to play the same old stuff I always play…..please allow me to digress;
I owned a guitar for a long long time, acoustic…only fiddled around with it, I know open chords and barre chords…where I’m feeling like a dog chasing his tail is if I look at a beginner course, I blow it off telling myself I know all that.
so I bought a DVD course to teach me to play blues solos….but it makes it sound so easy to learn all those scales….Iodian, Dorian, Phrygian Mode, etc…..I can learn one position but not all 5 positions and definitely not all those different “modes?”……I’m stuck, but wanting and willing to learn. So confused..maybe it’s my age, 67…or just diminished learning ability.
I do enjoy trying to learn the new stuff Brian gives us and all the lessons but feel I’m really missing some basics.
do I really need to learn every note on the fretboard and those scales?
I could use some encouragement please….
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
(tired of struggling)
Clary
I'm going to learn to play this thing if it kills me!
Patience grasshopper..
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February 3, 2019 at 10:34 am #123980
Can anyone suggest a method to copy lesson videos for later practise while away from internet service?
We are spending more time at the lake away from internet service and i miss being able to practice with the help of videos.
Thanks,
Jace -
February 20, 2019 at 3:59 pm #125911
Can anyone suggest a method to copy lesson videos for later practise while away from internet service?
We are spending more time at the lake away from internet service and i miss being able to practice with the help of videos.
Thanks,
JaceJace
sunjamr Steve made these suggestions recently in another post
Mozilla Forefox, then install the Videodownloadhelper plug-in. I spend quite a bit of time in a place with no internet, so my solution is this:
(1) print out the lesson tab
(2) watch Brian’s lesson videos, and make notes on the lesson tab (bend and hold, slide down here, palm mute here)
(3) download the lesson’s MP3 files – both Brian’s demo and the jamtrack
(4) From the demo MP3, listen to Brian play a lick, then read the tab and try to make it sound the same.One side benefit of this approach is that you get very good at reading tabs. I can literally sit down and play a lesson off the tab, if I’ve gone through it a few times.
Source: https://www.activemelody.com/forums/topic/copy-lesson-videos/
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February 20, 2019 at 5:20 pm #125917
You need to learn one small thing at a time. That’s it. Your knowledge will accumulate and begin to interconnect.
Don’t get confused about modes and exotic scales to start with. Learn something basic and usable – say the pentatonic minor scale in one key in one position. Or a major scale in one key, one position.
When you do that, it can be helpful to sing along with what you are doing. By pitch, or maybe by number. So let’s say a pentatonic scale. The notes are 1 b3 4 5 b7 back to 1. As you play the scale starting from the root, also sing the numbers. This will help you connect the visual pattern to both the sound and the underlying theory. It’s not any harder than just learning the scale, but will really accelerate your ability.
As for learning the notes, just do it slowly, one string at a time. Start with the E string and play the scale you are using horizontally up and down the string, naming the notes. So, for E minor pent, its e g a b d e, frets are open 3 5 7 10 12.
But really, one thing at a time. The only way to learn quickly is by learning small things carefully, one step at a time. Before you know it, you will know a lot.
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August 30, 2019 at 2:33 am #142236
Just so your room looks even better and you can produce better music – buy a guitar. There are countless styles of guitars available, and everyone has their own personalities and tastes. Above all, the instrument should inspire you, and make you want to practice more frequently. I first fell in love with my guitar on some store and after that, I knew that I had to get my bad boy. I am really happy that I did, I got my guitar at a good price. Before you go into the store, make a small list of some professional guitar players or guitar songs you like. It will be easier for the workers there to understand what you want.
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August 30, 2019 at 5:16 pm #142268
Music studio? What’s that? Oh, I had one at one time, complete with 4-track recorder, my amps, a couple of my guitars. No computer or internet, as they weren’t around back then. A couple of the band members had full-blown studios, so would do a lot of practicing there.
Now, well not going to set up a studio. Just use my “office”, that’s been used for photo/video editing for years now, to view, download lessons. My house is just too small, BUT I have big detached 2 car garage. Going to be somewhat of a hassle to load in and out my guitars and amp, but to me it will be worth it. I do have a laptop I can view the lesson videos on while out there. I might even get a booster for my modem for out there. Yep, I’m looking at a one-man garage band.
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