Budget Home Studio for Home Production

Many people have become new to home production due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but many of you probably don't have a good setup for work to allow for everything to be done on time and in good quality. This project started as an idea to make a budget studio for content creators (youtubers, streamers) but evolved into more than that. my goal is to bring the availability of a pro studio to existing youtubers and content creators for a fraction of the cost of a big recording room.

• Skill Saw (Circular Saw)
• Drill w/ Drill bit set + 1" drill bit
• Screw Gun. I recommend a battery powered one.
• Stud Finder
• Level
• Drywall Utility Saw (depending on wall type)
• Caulking Gun w/ Caulking
• Paint Brush
• Paint Roller
• Plyers
• Hammer
• A prepped Room (see step 1)

Hopefully you have a place in mind for your space to convert, however here are a few things to consider before you start:

1. does the room have electrical attached?
2. does the room have a window?
3. what are the dimensions of the room?
4. is there any other primary use for the room? (such as basement access or storage)
5. is the room separated by a door?
6. is the room an extension of a larger room? (room shape is not square)
7. can the room accommodate all of your equipment?

once you have a space picked the first thing to do is to clear it out and clean it. when doing work like this it is important to have a well prepped room. once cleared and clean take measurements of the room very carefully and write them down. It is very important that these numbers are 100% correct. The measurements you want are:

• Length x Width x Height
• entrance space
• Stud locations (use stud finder)
• electrical lines (use stud finder)

Once gathered make sure you keep this measurement page safe.

Next you will want to figure out the size of desk you will want, for me i wanted as much space as i could get so i made on to span my entire room, but every situation is a little different. based on the measurements you took draw out a diagram of how you want the room to look from a top down perspective, this will let you visualize how it will look and function as a room. This is a great time to iron out any possible issues the room could have and plan anything out differently.

After planning your desk its time to look into materials. Some basic materials that's a stable desk will use are:

• Ply Wood or Particle Wood (here is a good article that explains how to pick out plywood)
• Paint (Look for a high quality indoor paint such as: this one)
• thin rubber mat (i used this in my room)
• 90 degree steel bracket(S)
• high durability screws
• 2x4s or 1x4s (an Instructables guide for picking them out)
• sound proofing panels, search for 2nd hand ones, often times the people that have some of the best stuff get upgrades. this is a great way to save some money as well.

Make SURE to check level often;

Cut the ply wood to the size wanted for the desk. make sure that the desk is cut to size of the room and has tight edges, with little gap. cut the 2x4 and or 1x4 to support the desk against the wall. install the desk into the room and make sure that the support bracket is in stalled in at the point of the most predicted stress, as well as on a stud.

once installed, its recommended to paint the desk inside the room to reduce paint used. let the paint dry and clean the room as there will be drips of paint as well as dust accumulation.

cut a hole for the cables, a 1 inch drill bit will be ideal.

lay the mat over the desk and secure with drywall screws or short wood screws. then tape the front down to smoothen the front edge. cut access to the hole through the mat.

Complete!!!

Now would be the easiest time to install sound panels. Keep the position of the mic in mind this way you can install the sound panels in close to optimal positions, try and put sound panels in front of where you speak (above the monitors area) and behind where you speak (best in a corner, which is the biggest point of reflection in a room).

adding the motinor/monitors would be the next step making sure the location is perfect for you comfort and eye level.

OPTIONAL (but recommended)

The following steps will be tweaking and setting up digital presets. having the setup nice and clean will speed up the steps greatly.

First clean up saw dust and any paint that may have spilt. Then my least favorite... cable management, this can be done for an infinite amount of time, I recommend just doing this to your personal satisfaction. This guide is great place that can help you organize your cables.

My personal cable management is not the greatest but I keep it off of the ground, which was my main goal.

So although all your physical additions will make a massive impact sometimes digital tweaks can have a great effect on sound quality: Using OBS (Open Broadcasting Studio) you can set filters in your mic input:

set the following:

• use an expander with the release set to roughly 550ms
• add a gain filter through the filters tab in needed (this gain setting seems to be more clean that the default one)

the next step is to do some trials, this is the best step to complete trial and error with position of the mic and possibly adjust the sound pads. depending on circumstances you can add more sound proofing in the form of blankets or pillows or just more foam.

In this step its time to make sure you have the functionality that you want out of the room. my recommendation is to use the room for 1 week and see of its lacking any functionality that you may want. If there is any functionality missing you should try and fix that, this is where you will need to work with your particular situation. for me I am adding a curtain bar over the window in my room, currently I am testing a towel in place of the curtain. This is so that i can reduce noise reflection.

End - hopefully you learnt something or maybe even have a studio room!!