Studio Stories

Buying a house is a big investment, so it's important to pick the right property, and if you are a recording musician you will probably want it to include a suitable space for a studio. We weigh up the pros and cons of different studio locations within a typical small home, and also look at the kind of work that each space might require to make it usable.

Tony Global's background is in the dance music/DJ scene. The SOS team help him to polish his vocal sounds and improve his mixes.

The SOS team ride to the rescue of a budding media composer who is having trouble with his mixes.

We help television composer Dave Lowe transform a cavernous-sounding spare bedroom into a usable home studio.

Setting up your studio in a cube-shaped room isn't a very good idea, as Pete Keen and Nick Smith found out to their cost. So the Studio SOS team set off to Kidderminster to help find some solutions to the inevitable acoustic problems.

Shaun Hayward & Joe Kenny of Chunc Productions reveal their gear setup and musical motivations.

The SOS team help Peter May to brush up his drum sounds and put more life into his mixes.

This month, the SOS team help The Arcades to rock even harder than before!

The SOS team apply themselves to the task of mixing Chinese traditional instruments with mainstream Western sounds at reader Jiang Li's home studio.

Chris Brockis had been having trouble mixing in his attic home studio, so he enlisted the help of the trusty SOS team.

The intrepid SOS team travel to Nigel Helm-Nurney's London studio to help his band Pombokiwi do battle with unwanted spill, uninspiring guitar sounds, and masses of egg boxes!

David Ashman felt that his mixes lacked energy and were sounding 'too digital', so the SOS team set off to his home in Bristol to sort out his monitoring system and mix processing.

We visit two readers who have set up a studio in a small corner of a small room in the West Midlands...

During the October 2003 AES Convention in New York, the SOS team managed to make it to Amityville to help reader (and SOS Forum regular) Glenn Bucci with his recorded guitar and bass sounds.

Recording piano was turning out to be a grand challenge in Clive John's home studio, so the SOS team headed over to sort things out.

The SOS team visit the West Midlands, where Gordon Giltrap's home studio needs help, nestling as it does in the shadow of one of the UK's most powerful TV and radio transmitters.

Liam Watson went against the grain to build a studio with the retro sound he loved. And now that sound is back in fashion, he's had a number one album with the White Stripes.

This month the intrepid SOS team travel to Wigan to address Allan Murrell's recording, monitoring and mixing problems.

The SOS team battles through snowdrifts to help Nick Redman and Mike Sinnott with two different vocal sounds.

The SOS team visit reader Dave Stevens' home studio to sort out a chesty vocal sound, investigate a mystery digital buzz, and hand out some mastering tips.

Dave Wraight had been having trouble with his mixes, despite twice upgrading his speaker system, so the SOS team set about diagnosing and treating his monitoring problems.