Acoustics / Studio Design

The Studio SOS team pay a visit to the lucky winner of the spectacular £30,000 SOS Dream Studio giveaway we ran at this year's LIMS show, to help him get his unbelievable studio prize up and running.

Ever wanted to set up both a control room and live room in two tiny bedrooms? On a budget? With remote-control facilities? Actually, it can be done!

We show Tom Hennessey that as long as you have good ideas and a good ear, you can put together decent recordings and mixes on the smallest of budgets.

We lend some practical studio advice to a seasoned pro guitarist who is rather newer to the world of songwriting and home recording.

Even if you have the space and the gear, like reader Kevin Brown, you still need to know how to make the best of it. We paid a visit to help him optimise his new garage-conversion studio.

We turn a less-than-ideal square rented room into a workable recording and mixing space.

We turn a family homes garage into a usable recording studio, and take reader Danny Williams through a number of gear maintenance, recording and mixing tips.

Ever wondered how to tame a large, lively room without drills, nails or glue? Or how best to mount monitors without speaker stands? Then read on to find out how we helped Simon Mayor and Hilary James.

Drums, doors and damping... the Studio SOS Team get to grips with Teddy Pagano's London studio.

We take a distance-learning approach this month, to help US reader Jody Whitesides improve the sound of his home studio.

A dead live room, a live control room and faulty monitors... sounds like a job for the Studio SOS team!

SOS's crack studio squad tame unwanted reflections, track down strange noises coming from a Mac, and make some good-sounding drums sound even better!

Reader Stu Evans has a smart studio but a lacklustre drum sound. Can the team breathe life into it?

This month we tackle problems that were causing a bass-heavy mix and use coat-hangers to produce better vocal recordings!

Calderdale College in West Yorkshire gets the Studio SOS treatment, as we turn a concrete room into a working studio.

To accompany this month's Acoustics article, open this page and download this MP3 of a Bass Staircase test sequence, then audition it on your own monitors.

This month we play the role of studio design consultants... and leave the heavy work to the studio owners!

In this episode, the SOS crew sort out monitoring problems and offer some practical mastering tips to another reader.

This month we journey to the Outer Hebrides, where a college teaching Gaelic music has more than a few wires crossed...

The SOS crew go hob-nobbing at a stately home this month, and get to grips with the acoustics of a large and lively room.

The SOS crew visit reader Chris Walker's home studio and help solve amplification problems for his tea-chest bass.