How To Save Money In The Studio

I recently spoke to a friend who runs a jamming studio. You might scoff at the price per hour charge at the jamming studio but really, there are lots of cost involved when you run a studio. Studio equipments and music gear are expensive and they do break from time to time. The thought of running a jamming studio where you allow people to come in and use or mis-use your studio equipments is really scary.

If you’re like me you run a project studio, a jamming studio or maybe you’re just starting out in the home studio. The money saving tips that I’ll tell you from experience would be applicable. Ready?

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1. Build it yourself!

The best way to save some cents and even dollars is to build things yourself. You could easily build your own pop filter out of your girlfriend or wife’s stockings. Use a worn stocking and put it over a sewing loop. In fact, that is how I exactly started with last time. Works well too, so nothing too shabby about it.

Bass Traps – You can easily build your own bass traps using plywood and some old rags. Buying commercialized studio foam is expensive and one can easily get obsessed in making their room sound good with all this treatment. However take my advice. Focus on the music more and less on the treating. And to treat your room even more, use things like your couches and sofas. Works well all the time.

Cables – Learning how to solder your own cables is not only a cheaper option but also a good skill to learn. While you save money soldering your own cables from loose parts, you also become a good self troubleshooter when cables go wrong during a recording session or a performance. You don’t want to screw up because of cables when an important person is in your studio for recording.

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2. Buy Used Gears

You don’t only get to own great gear with less money but you also save the landfill! It is surprising that many people want to own new shiny gears but used gears are actually the same. If you’re like me, I prefer focusing on the music rather than to fill my studio with blings.

People don’t usually sell spoilt items. They sell them off because they no longer use them either because they are upgrading or switching to a different gear and they simply want some money back from the gears that they bought so expensively.

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3. Squeeze Your Computer

Your computer is undoubtedly one of the most important gear in your studio. It’s the heart of the modern studio. I recently made the switch from the Mac platform to the PC platform. And on the PC platform I found out I can overclock the CPU. Overclocking is also possible on Macs nowadays so it isn’t an issue for Mac users. If you find your computer sluggish, you can always turn to overclocking as a cheap way to squeeze more processing power from your computer.

Do upgrade your computer instead of changing the whole system. Sometimes a RAM upgrade will make lots of difference. A thing to note is that RAM normally affects how many instruments and tracks you can have up at a go. On the other hand the playback & processing of the effects of your sequencer utilizes your CPU.

Great way to save some CPU power is to remove regions on your arrangement that you do not need and also to freeze up instrument tracks. Virtual instruments generally uses more CPU processing compared to normal audio tracks, so once you finalize a midi sequence it is always to wise to transform or freeze them into audio. That way you can have more tracks in your DAW without having your computer overloading.

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4. Record Your Own Samples

Samples and instruments can be really expensive to buy. While there are many loops, software synths and instrument samplers in the market, nothing beats recording your own sounds and samples. Picking up an instrument to learn and then to record can often give you more musical ideas. Besides, recording your own samples can give a different impact to your music production.

I always carry a Zoom H4n, wherever I go so I can quickly record sounds and ideas fast. There’s also a cheaper one called the Zoom H1, which you can look into.

What are your money saving ideas and how do you save money in the studio? Add in the comment below!

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[quote author=”Reuben Ch’ng, audioMentor.com” image=”https://www.audiomentor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/reuben2.png” w=”160″ h=”160″ image_align=”left”] Hi! I work at Audio Mentor & I enjoy teaching music production & business while inspiring people! Learn how to make money with your music in the premium section![/quote]