Building a Home Recording Studio? Here's What You Need. Experts break down the home studio setup and share tips to create a pro-level recording space on any budget.
By
John Mirisola
March 5, 2025
Image by Maddie Ross, courtesy of Tape Op magazine
Some of the greatest recordings of all time have been made with remote recording setups and minimal equipment. Consider Billie Eilishs When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? Or Bruce Springsteens Nebraska, or Bon Ivers For Emma, Forever Ago.
Theres a distinct charm to records made in DIY settings. Sometimes this results from the less pristine recording environment (say, the sound of the ambulance crossing through the background of Bon Ivers The Wolves) or the limitations of the equipment (the way the tape machine peaks and distorts as Springsteen howls on State Trooper). But its also due to the often less structured kinds of creative flow recording outside of a studio setting offers. Recording at home makes it easier to get ideas down quickly, and capture the raw joy of creation (I have taken out my Invisalign, and . . . this is the album, Eilish laughs with her brother, Finneas, in their childhood home at the start of her debut album).
The advantages of home recording are many and obvious: it can be more affordable, more flexible, more comfortable, and more portable than making a record in a large format recording studio. But setting up a home studio can be a daunting task. From how you arrange and treat the space, to what equipment you use, to how to get the most out of your home recording projects, there are so many choices to make along the way.
In this article, well cover:
How to set up a home recording space
How to orient that room and when to apply targeted acoustic treatments
Gear recommendations for building out your home recording toolkit
Basic home recording concepts and common challenges
Tricks for microphone placement and recording techniques from acoustical engineer Yuri Lysoivanov BM '05
Practical tips from Sarah Tudzin BM '14 and Suzy Shinn '11, two professional producers and musicians who regularly use their home studios in recording projects
Produce professional-quality music anywhere. Learn more about studying music production at Berklee.
Setting Up Your Home Recording Space
John Storyk in front of Electric Lady Studios
Image courtesy of the artist
John Storyk, who has taught courses in acoustics and studio design at Berklee for more than 20 years, is among the worlds most accomplished studio architects and acousticians. Since building his first studio (nothing less than New Yorks Electric Lady Studios, commissioned by Jimi Hendrix in 1969) Storyk and his firm, Walters Storyk Design Group, have been responsible for designing some of the worlds premier recording complexes and performance spaces-including Berklees own studios at 160 Massachusetts Avenue. But over the years he has also designed personal project studios for artists such as Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, and Jay-Z, applying his top-tier professional insights to smaller-scale spaces. So we asked Storyk for his best advice on how musicians can build out their own studios:
Orient Your Room CorrectlyDont position the listener in the center of the room, and try to place your speakers in the room symmetrically with respect to boundaries. Both of these steps help ensure the listener gets an accurate picture of the mix.
Use Quality EquipmentMake sure you have one or two really good mics . . . a quiet interface . . . [and] one or two good preamps, which may or may not be included in the interface.
Make the Room QuietThis could involve setting up a smaller, separate booth for recording-or, if youre recording in the same room where youre mixing, youve got to figure out how to make the room quiet. This might involve housing equipment in a sound isolation rack, using an air conditioning system thats designed to be quiet, or simply turning off the AC while youre recording. The solutions will scale with your budget and your ambition.
Introduce Some Targeted Acoustic TreatmentFocus on the first reflection position-the first position where your speaker is going to send sound off a close boundary. . . . That could be your console, it could be a close wall, it could be a ceiling. For absorbing high and mid frequencies, Storyk says there are a number of effective products on the market. They all say theyre better than the next, but thats just marketing.
Manage Your Low-Frequency ResponseThis is much more difficult in a personal studio without access to, say, the twisted propeller ceiling covered in air-entrained plaster that Electric Ladys Studio A has. Low frequencies arent effectively absorbed by standard home acoustic treatments. However, Storyk says, Do the best you can. Focus on the rooms corners, since they have the most surface area and low frequency is always going to build up on surfaces. . . . So even if you were to just put anything in the corner-maybe some foam, or tube traps, or anything, youre going to be helping yourself.
Ask for HelpIts always an option to seek some consulting on personal studio design. Its funny, Storyk says, people have no problem spending thousands of dollars on plug-ins, but they wont get $500 worth of advice to get in the right position in your room.
Make It Fun Yet FunctionalEvery studio has to have some kind of signature. . . . Youre supposed to have fun in these studios. Theyre supposed to have your personality. On the other hand, Ive always thought that there has to be a kind of neutrality in the studio.
More Lessons from Electric Lady Studios
Architect John Storyk talks to Berklee Today about designing Jimi Hendrixs iconic studio, and offers advice on how to make the most of your recording space.
Finding the Right Home Recording GearIn Berklees independent recording and produc
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
Building a Home Recording Studio? Here's What You Need. Experts break down the home studio setup and share tips to create a pro-level recording space on any budget.
