How to build a high-quality home studio:
Our 5-step guide
Want to build a home studio that enables you to create great-sounding recordings and mixes?
There's a lot to consider, from selecting trustworthy studio equipment to applying suitable room acoustic treatment, so we've put together this easy-to-follow guide to help make things simpler for you.
In this short article – and video tutorial – we explain the essentials of making an ideal home studio, so you can achieve neutral, truthful audio monitoring that allows you to dial in mixes that translate consistently to other playback systems.
So, let’s get started!
1. Essential home studio gear
• Computer: The central hub for your audio recording software, which is also known as a DAW.
• Audio interface: Provides high-quality inputs and outputs for sound signals.
• Monitoring loudspeakers: A stereo pair of monitors for your main sound reproduction, allowing you to listen critically to recordings and mixes over the widest part of the frequency spectrum.
• Subwoofer/s (optional): One or two suitable subwoofers designed to complement your monitors will allow you to listen critically lower down in the frequency spectrum – and increase the performance of your monitors.
• Professional closed-back headphones: For monitoring while recording with a microphone.
• Microphone/s: Tailored to your recording needs, whether for vocals or instruments.
• USB MIDI controller and other instruments: Depending on your personal sound.
Genelec 8330A studio monitors with GLM Loudspeaker Manager software application running on the computer.
When budgeting for your studio, remember that the standard of the monitors you use will determine much of your ability to understand the quality of recordings and mixes and how they will translate when played back on other systems. At the same time, consider that equipment forms only one part of the equation – good room acoustics contribute a lot towards a great-sounding and reliable studio space. For example, well-placed rugs can reduce unwanted sound reflections from the floor and ceiling.
2. Selecting your studio room
Avoid using a very small room, if possible
Tiny spaces, such as walk-in closets, tend to negatively affect the reproduction of bass frequencies, meaning you will have difficulty correctly hearing low frequencies and balacing them in your mix. It is also worth remembering that gear and acoustic treatment eat up space, so a bigger room is valuable on a practical level too.
Choose a rectangular-shaped room
Square rooms are challenging to create audio in and to treat acoustically due to their tendency to create standing waves (room modes) from sound reflections. Such standing waves negatively affect the reliability of the listening experience. Instead, if you can, opt for a rectangular room with walls made of soft materials like wood or plasterboard – rather than stone or concrete – as this will reduce the level and effect of sound reflections.
Create a symmetrical setup in the room's end third
Imagine your space divided into three equal sections, and decide which of the two ends is going to be the front end – where you'll position your listening setup. When doing this, avoid any end that has clear inconveniences like protruding doors or fixed furniture. Place your listening position centrally along the side-to-side axis of the chosen front end of the room. Aim to create a symmetrical monitoring setup there, considering the position of your desk and the relative position of nearby walls. Doing all of this will help to balance the sound field around the listening position.
3. System placement, level and room acoustics
Every space is unique, so it is important to pay attention to these issues, otherwise even the finest factory-calibrated studio monitors will be unlikely to sound truthful. Here’s how:
Place the monitors close to the back wall
Place monitors close to the back wall to avoid cancellation dips. Aim the monitors in towards the listening position at 30-degree angles and place them at an equal distance from each other and the listening position to form an equilateral triangle.
If not using any subwoofers, typically the distance from the monitor front to the wall should be less than 60 cm.
When working in stereo, the angle between the left and right monitors should be 60 degrees. The setup is placed correctly (symmetrically) in the chosen front end third of the room.
Place any subwoofers close to the back wall too
Position the subwoofer/s slightly off centre along and close to the back wall to help ensure reliable low-frequency performance.
If using subwoofers, these are the typical recommended distances from the wall.
Sound reflections affect reliability
When audio played back by the monitors is reflected from walls, this causes colourations, which change how the audio sounds. Properly designed and positioned acoustic panels and bass traps can reduce these reflections, helping to preserve the original character of the sound produced by the monitors. Thick panels are required for low-frequency absorption, while heavy curtains, carpets and strategically placed soft furniture can help to control high frequencies.
The distance from the wall where the monitors are placed can be very significant to the quality of sound. Changing this distance directly affects the colour of the sound.
Placing the monitors or subwoofer too far from the wall causes back-wall reflections to reduce the perceived level of low frequencies, and this cannot be fixed properly with playback adjustments.
Bass is the hardest to get right
Troublesome standing waves usually occur in the low frequencies, especially in small spaces. When they occur, it makes it very difficult to trust what you’re hearing and make the right mixing decisions. A rectangular room with soft materials – and adding bass traps where possible – will help. Using a subwoofer or two also helps greatly, allowing better control and optimisation of low-frequency reproduction.
It’s also important to pay attention to the bass levels in the room. Low frequencies are omnidirectional (emitted in every direction) and will naturally build up when loudspeakers or subwoofers are placed near any type of solid wall – increasing the perceived level of bass. This effect is preferred over placing loudspeakers or subwoofers far from walls, as it is easy to compensate for increased bass by simply adjusting the level of the loudspeaker or subwoofer’s low-frequency playback. Increasing bass level playback to try and compensate for low-frequency cancellation (reduced or missing bass caused by placing loudspeakers or subwoofers too far from the back wall) is not effective.
Placing both the monitors and subwoofer/s close to the wall also results in better time domain performance, because sound reflections will be less delayed in relation to the direct sound of the system. This helps to maintain a clear, uncoloured sound image.
Full level calibration completes the picture
To help with managing the unique sound reflections in your room, level calibration should be performed across the frequency response of the monitoring system. While ideal system placement goes a long way towards giving you the best possible sound, calibrating frequency levels after placement – or after both placement and acoustic treatment – will really unleash the potential of your system, so you can have the greatest confidence in what you're hearing.
Many Genelec monitors and subwoofers feature easy-to-use DIP Switches that enable simple manual level adjustment of the frequency response, so they can adapt to the acoustic conditions of any room. Genelec Smart Active Monitors (SAM), such our compact 83XX models, automate such adjustments for you in fine detail – while also giving you access to GRADE Room Acoustic Reports that help to show you where you can improve system placement and acoustic treatment.
In cases where the room’s acoustic influence is extremely detrimental and challenging to manage, you may be able to make the best of the situation by moving your listening position closer to the monitoring system – which should help you to hear less of the room and more of the direct sound of the system. For all Genelec studio monitors, data is available via our website and documentation to help you estimate a typical listening position for monitoring.
This chart estimates Direct Sound Dominance to help you determine a listening position in typical conditions with different Genelec nearfield monitors. The recommended listening distance for monitoring is shown in green. The black bars show where direct sound and room sound typically are equal in level at mid frequencies.
For more information about system placement, level and room acoustics, watch our webinar below:
4. Genelec Smart Active Monitors and Subwoofers (SAM) and automated calibration
Automated room adaptation
SAM monitors work with Genelec GLM software’s AutoCal algorithm to automatically adapt to the unique acoustics of the space and the position of the system within it. This saves you time compared to manual optimisation and results in a reliable monitoring system you can trust to tell you the truth when you record and mix. Even if your room is acoustically challenging, a SAM system – such as a pair of 8330 monitors and a 7350 subwoofer – offers the possibility to create consistently great-sounding mixes that translate properly to other systems.
Genelec 8351B studio monitors with GLM software
GRADE Report for nailing the final touches
GLM software offers the possibility to create GRADE Reports that provide detailed insights about how your SAM Monitoring system is performing in your room. This allows you to understand exactly where and how your room and setup can be improved, so you can get the very best out of your SAM Monitoring system by positioning it optimally and adjusting acoustic treatment.
GRADE utilises the ITU-R BS.1116 industry standard, which is used globally for assessing the quality of listening spaces. With GRADE, it's easy to see whether your room meets these recommendations. Any space that does is deemed to be highly suitable for audio work.
Each GRADE Report includes a brief summary of its key findings in a simple colour-coded table for quick reference and easy understanding.
Green shows excellent system performance. Yellow shows good system performance, but some improvements may be possible. Red shows where improvements could significantly enhance your system.
GRADE’s Frequency Response graph helps you further understand how your SAM system initially interacted with your room and how the GLM calibration has improved its performance. GLM’s correction aims to provide a flat, neutral response, giving you the best possible foundation to create consistently well balanced mixes.
Red shows the measured frequency response of your SAM Monitoring system, blue shows GLM's corrective filtering, and green shows the response after correction.
GRADE’s unique Early vs Late Sound graph allows you to determine the balance between direct sound from the monitors and reflected sound from the listening room at different frequencies. If the listening room dominates, your grip on recorded sound is reduced and your mixing decisions will be less reliable. The results can also help you assess acoustic treatment requirements.
Frequency response (blue) is a combination of direct sound (green) and room sound (red). For precise monitoring, the green line should stay above the red line for as much of the audible frequency range as possible. If this is not the case, your ability to hear the potential auditory envelopment (<1 kHz)) and the clarity (>1 kHz) of the content will be reduced.
5. Stay open to improvements
• Use acoustic tools to re-evaluate the space: Use helpful tools like our GLM software and its GRADE Reporting feature to measure, understand and improve your room’s acoustic performance, both before and after making changes.
• Upgrade acoustic treatment: As your journey continues, perhaps you’ll unlock extra budget to put towards acoustic treatment improvements for your room. These might be bulkier absorptive materials or thicker panels that improve low-frequency control, which are often challenging to acquire when you first build your home studio.
• Extend your workflow to headphones with UNIO: Take advantage of the Genelec UNIO Ecosystem to access accurate monitoring on headphones – giving you the freedom to work with audio effectively anywhere.
• Add items for comfort and inspiration: Make your studio more inviting with a vibe that helps to power your creativity. High-quality studio tools – like Genelec audio monitoring – are essential, yet other elements like personal decor, mood lighting, ergonomic furniture and cherished instruments can really help to fire you up your audio-making engines.
Time to get creative
Be sure to learn more about Genelec’s renowned studio monitoring solutions by clicking here.
