If you’re a musician, then a personal music studio in your home or condo is something that you’ll want to get. It can be quite a task to take your equipment, go to a remotely hired studio and work your magic, only to pack up your stuff and come all the way back home. To avoid such a tedious hassle, you can turn your condo apartment into a music studio if you have the budget, skill and will to do so.
Transforming your condominium, like the Museum FLTS Condos, into a music studio makes more sense since they are already closer to the top business and cultural hub of the city. As a professional musician you get to meet a lot of new people and home spaces closer to good restaurants and commercial centers come in handy when you have an appointment with someone.
In this article, we look at the pros and cons of turning your condo into a music studio while highlighting the conflicts that may come up.
Pros of starting a home music studio
Convenient and cost effective
The convenience of a home music studio setup is unparalleled. The comfort of strumming your instruments without having to worry about the number of takes, time and money is never found in hired spaces. Instead you end up saving that money and using it for high quality recording equipment so that you churn out professional stuff from your jam pad. You can also use your place as an alternative source of income by renting out to others.
More creativity and control over work
You can finally be the master of what you create at your own place with your own setup. Many artists feel a sense of achievement of giving their best when they record at their own studio. It becomes your abode of creativity where you can spend time with an open mind and leave content.
Your own place gives you the control of your work flow as it allows you to track all the equipped facilities and gives freedom for development. This will allow you to record tracks and mix them any which way you like without outside interference, bringing versatility into your mix.
Cons and conflicts in turning your condo into a music studio
Legal issues
Before you get your hopes up of owning and running your own music studio, you will have to undergo a slew of checks and one of the major issues is whether or not your condo building association or apartment residents group allows it. You will have to go through your lease document that you signed during the successful purchase of the condo and check if there’s a clause and restriction attached to it when it comes to further renovation inside the rooms and property area. If these terms aren’t clearly mentioned then you’ll have to sit and discuss with your residential authorities about the dos and don’ts and work out a deal to convince them that you’re going to convert your condo into a music studio. When you’ve gotten the permission, be prepared to do the hard yards of filing the paperwork, legal documentation and permit arrangements.
The construction
This will cover locating the area of your condo; cleaning it thoroughly and starting the reconstruction work on it so that you can have your own musical haven. Clear out anything you think that can cause disturbance and start from scratch. Procuring all the stuff necessary for constructing your studio can be quite a task so be prepared to get your hands dirty and overestimate your budget to cancel out last-minute teething issues. And now to the most important part….
Soundproofing
Gone are the days when people used egg trays, styrofoam, blankets and mattresses to cancel out sound both to and from your music room. There’s no cheap way now that will cut your sound and your neighbor’s while you’re busy making amazing music. The key to this will be to make an airtight space and that won’t be inexpensive.
To balance the sound frequencies, you will need to get acoustic panels, bass traps and diffusers that may include hardboard sheets, mineral wool slabs and dust sheets. One way of soundproofing is to create a smaller airtight room inside the six walls of your room. However, you’ll have to provide an air vent for natural air ventilation so that it doesn’t get claustrophobic inside. Once you’ve covered this, you can go into designing your studio, budget permitting of course.
Gear management
This is one of the biggest reasons why artists choose to practice at a hired studio. It is less of a worry when something goes wrong in a rented place, like a software problem or a hard-drive failure or electricity issues. Therefore, you must always have a safe backup of your produced music. At your own space, you’ll have to ensure safekeeping of all the musical instruments, the wires, the cables, microphones, stands, ports and the sound system. If you’re particular about these things, you’ll do a good job at it otherwise this can become a headache.
Do weigh in your options financially before deciding to turn your condo into a music home. You know that it is your dream project so why hurry and stumble on the way while you can wait a little longer, get all the right stuff and make some magic.
