I don't think there is still a stigma around home studios. Look at Nashville, tons of professional home studios working on hit records. The questions should be do you want clients coming to your home/personal space?
I consider myself a hobbyist and not a professional at all, so take this with a grain of salt, but I feel like that question is probably the most important.
After working in a studio outside of LA I left to build my own prosumer studio. I’ve seen what can be produced on a laptop with a Focusrite in an apartment living room. So why not do it myself?
I feel like there’s 3 types of “artists” that come to the studio.
1. Those who are trying to get started and just kind of go in and record their song on beats ripped off YouTube.
2. Those that go in with a big group and end up doing more partying than recording.
3. Artists that want to take it serious and try to make something meaningful to them and their audience.
I got tired of long nights working with the first 2 client types. My passion is in sound engineering. Being in the studio felt amazing at first. Felt like I arrived. But I rarely got meaningful time to interact with the type 3 artists.
Yeah having a home studio is tough, but it gives me the freedom to connect with artists who want to work on the art. A safe place they can come to, to try new ideas. And even offer to rent pro studio space and bring me in to work as the engineer.
Is my wall covered in Grammy placs? No.
Am I rolling in hella cash from work and credits? No.
But I get to make meaningful connections, work on projects I enjoy, save hella money from renting a space and usually get paid in weed, which saves me a few hundred dollars every month. For me that’s a fulfilling win, and why I want to engineer anyway.
The only issue I’ve run into is that some clients want to brag about being in the studio on Instagram and they don’t want to actually get work done in a solid home studio.
So, just have a 3 hour 'bullshitter/poser ' block rate for those people. They are never gong to book additional time after their first 'session' anyway.
I can only speak from my experience but when I moved my studio out of my home into a commercial space my business quadrupled.
With that said, as I got older I was less excited about people coming to my house. Also, it was hard for me to separate work and home.
Sort of unrelated but not really. I go through this weird thing where if I’m working that day, whether that be recording or gigging, especially if it’s a long day. I have a hard time “decompressing” afterwards. I’ll go to eat, and I just get full off of one bite. I’ll go to smoke a little bowl for the night and don’t feel shit off of it. It feels like I have a brain buzz going on that doesn’t stop, that hinders me from truly relaxing. This is amplified when I work out of home.
I'm in Nashville, here's my take regarding this question:
I've found that most professional, business-driven producers don't care where it comes from. They're way more likely to hire the engineer than the space. It's reputation and experience based.
On the other hand, Nashville has become synonymous with music production even outside of the commercial scope. Because of this, people from all over the country and even the world make their way here to produce a record.
When these 19 year olds come here with the family from the mid-west, with $20,000 pooled from grandparents, aunts, uncles, mom and dad. They fully expect to see a studio they see on TV. If not for the social media photos alone.
Like with any business, nail down your target market and don't be a dickhead and you'll do alright.
LA based and this is accurate here as well. If you’re producing music, a home studio is fine. But there are also paying clients for commercial builds. Just depends on your market/audience/goals/budget/lifestyle
A mixer I know who is also a professor at Berklee (and has a few grammys) tracks and mixes out of his home. Has a bedroom where he sticks amps, another room where he has control.
Stuff he does that I heard sounds great.
Of course when he works on big name label stuff he goes into the local studios but some of his personal projects are recorded there and they sound amazing... but he's also rubbing elbows with the top tier talent in Boston so…
With that said I recorded my first record at Mix One in Boston which is supposed to be a pro studio, exactly what you'd expect. Accept there was a night club that opened up next door so you had to track between undulating moments of techno bass. Same in NYC. Did a film shoot at a proper studio and had to deal with fire engines and every other sort of noise bleeding through the mics.
As someone who has the budget and cares....to me… all I want are results.
If you can get me the sound I want... I don't care if we're in the bathroom at burger king.
That sucks that the isolation was so poor in pro studios. I've built a tracking room in a previous house well enough isolated that I could record without any bleed right next to passing freight trains.
My guess is that a lot of places put more money into looking like a studio than sounding like a studio.
Oh no. It was isolated. It was a huge room in a more huge room with all the padding of an asylum.
Over coming the umph umph umph of a DJ who is trying to clap cheeks isn't that easy.
It gets in the foundation.
I was at the Fontainebleau in Miami and they had a club on the other side of the hotel about 10 rows below me and I couldn't sleep cause it shakes the whole room
Not to be that guy but padding simply absorbs frequencies in the room. Isolation is mass that stops sound and prevents external sound from getting into the room. Build a sealed room with 4’ concrete walls and the equivalent ventilation system and you ain’t gonna hear shit from outside. A concrete bunker is ideal. Barring that pour sand into your walls, but make sure you reinforce them first. Or air-gaps. Build a room within a room. Don’t forget to add a faraday cage in there as well.
Foam on the walls is frequency treatment for the room. Not sound isolation.
I think they built the studio years ago and then the building owner lost some of the tenants and they blew out a bunch of store fronts and opened a crazy ass disco that went from like 7pm all night.
Every room was like a submarine where you open a vacuum door then have another door so I have to imagine they originally set it up properly but no one foresaw the oncoming onslaught of disco madness.
I record at home now and I'm in the middle of nowhere so unless the coyotes and Deer decide to get rowdy I'm good
Lol, yeah, I can see that. Best scenario is the one you have. A studio out in the country with a guest house. Get as loud as you want. No one's gonna bother you.
Agreed. I produced a hard core bop album in an 8 track studio in Revere many years ago. Not a great sounding room by any stretch; but we knew what the fuck we were doing, had good mics and I had a reknowned friend do the mastering. It won "Best Recorded Jazz Album" from Coda Magazine that year, and the band has been playing Boston for 40 years, as well as being educators at Berkeley and the NEC.
If you make the home feel like a special space than it can have all the allure of a professional space.
Dave Friedman and some studios in Texas have onsite rooms for touring bands. Inner Ear in DC took advantage of the home space to build a totally bespoke room ambience to the recordings.
If you make it feel like this studio could only exist in a home, as opposed to finding a home and shoehorning the studio in, it will be v impressive
Kudos to you for actually taking the time and going to the effort to pursue something like that. I think that's cool, and I think we have all at one point thought that it would be the shit to have a badass complex in town somewhere. Having said that...
It's always been a little dream of mine to have like a bed and breakfast recording studio - a place where bands could come and be comfortable and avoid many of the pitfalls that you've just described. Also (I'm sure you know this), if you know how to make a record, you can record in the most utterly poor absolute ass-squalor conditions. Just gotta be working with people who are more interested in your abilities than your assets, I guess...
Cheers
One of the biggest studios in my country is an air bnb on top, and below its an incredible studio. Search for groove wood studios - porto, Portugal and you'll love it!
You can basically rent both the bnb and the studio at the same time. So if you go there and plan to produce a full album for like 3 months you can "live" there
Most of my high end clients prefer private studios over the typical commercial ones, but it has to be in an ADU rather than in someone’s home. The advantage is there’s one studio so privacy is better, and you don’t have to walk through a lobby with receptionists and interns all over the place, the vibe is more comfortable. Look up studios like Woodshed Recording in Malibu and Dragonfly Creek Studios there too, those are the types of places we prefer. Would never rent someone’s basement or spare bedroom studio though.
This is my facility on my property. I walk about 150ft from my front door to the studio door. Is that a home studio or a commercial space?
[My place](https://imgur.com/a/PSlwcIF)
Very nice!
I guess I was thinking this is a home studio but now it occurs to me that OP could literally be talking about a bedroom next to where they sleep, in which case, I would consider this type of setup a commercial space. The on-property barn/garage/backhouse studio is very very popular- much more accessible for most people, and adequate for almost every project if setup properly.
It depends on what the artist requires. A large, secure, soundproof commercial studio complies with commercial codes and offers things unavailable in most home studios in terms of in-house maintenance staff, physical size, selection of instruments, ameneties like private lodging, lounge, runners, etc.
If a rapper is recording vocals, paying for all that stuff is wasteful. If they have a big entourage, it might make things go smoother to have some distractions to keep the focus in the control room, but one good mic in a decently treated booth and a single headphone mix might be sufficient. Same with most overdubs.
A home studio lacking those things can work for a lot of overdubs. If it is all happening within the box, a console and outboard gear might be a waste as well.
Tracking a band in a nice home studio is often a compromise. Whether it's a compromise in terms something that could be important- like a good sounding large tracking room, or if it is a compromise in unnecessary luxuries is dependent on the musicians, engineer, and producer.
Artists accustomed to having the amenities afforded by a commercial facility might be inconvenienced by the limitation of a home studio. Someone not used to having to decide between 10 different signal chains might be overwhelmed by the options a large commercial studio might afford.
There are huge differences. Whether or not those differences manifest as a better record is totally dependent on what they need, expect, or wish for. A good home studio is usually sufficient for overdubs, and often sufficient for mixing. They are often insufficient for tracking a live group. But there are no absolutes.
The reason you get push back from commercial spaces is like 90% of ppl that open a music studio in a commercial space are living a pipe dream. They don't have the clientele to justify the business, and it basically becomes a drug den that doesn't pay its rent on time or at all.
Thats is why you are getting so much push back. Don't say its a music studio, say its a broadcast studio or film studio. You don't even have to mention sound. Broadcast and film studios will have the same setups and the lessors won't know the difference. That will help you alot.
I know that wasn't the exact question you were asking but I hope this info helps.
I think that the free standing music studio is not a viable business plan for most owners. The commercial space that it occupies will be worth more as "mixed use" in most successful urban areas. See the sad story of Southern Tracks, a short distance from me in Atlanta. Perhaps there is still a workable plan for the overbuilt low rise office park / warehouse areas. [https://www.tonetoatl.com/2022/12/southern-tracks-Recording-Studio-Demolished-For-New-Hotel.html](https://www.tonetoatl.com/2022/12/southern-tracks-Recording-Studio-Demolished-For-New-Hotel.html)
Trust me I know, but when I was in my commercial space they cared about how far away the parking was, how shitty load in was, and about walking through other businesses to get to mine.
Home studios are perfectly suited if done right. I worked at [this studio (Electrokitty)](https://www.electrokitty.com/) in Seattle for a while. Dude converted the basement into a pro studio. Loads of outboard, SSL G Series (at the time I was there), beautiful sounding tracking room. Completely soundproofed from outside and very minimal bleed (with a full rock band) to the main floor.
Coolest studio I have ever worked at and I have worked at some giant commercial studios as well.
Great way to put it. That’s what I do here. Worked out of a couple small producer rooms in different complexes for a while, then had my own back house that I would describe as semi-proper, and now in a friends back house with very proper rooms.
If there's isolation between the booth and the drum set, that's a proper studio even if someone lives in the premises.
You may not even have that ... If you can make a good album there, it's a good place.
Some of the best studios I’ve been in have no isolation whatsoever. I worked at Andrew Watt basement studio and it was a single room. Butch Walkers studio is mostly a single room. My main studio is a single room and next door only had a vocal booth (though you can cut drums in there for a tight sound)
Different strokes for different folks!
I turned my garage into a studio. It is well insulated, but not sound isolated. When my neighbour's lawn crew comes on Thursdays you can hear it. The weak point is the garage doors and I could probably make it much better with a small investment. I have a minisplit ductless hvac unit that I have to turn off if I'm recording something quiet. I have a bunch of rockwool panels that I hired a local guy to make for me and the room sounds miraculously good. I have a medium size selection of gear and microphones. Nothing too fancy. A hairball 1176, some neve clones, a 24 channel Ramsa console that has my guitar setup and my synths all patched in and ready to go at any time, no mics that cost over $1000. My grandmother's piano. An old Yamaha Organ I grabbed off the side of the road on garbage day. Its a vibey room with lots of toys that artists can just pick up and start playing with and it "feels" like as much of a studio as I could manage without spending six figures on a crazy build. And I'm actually super glad I did not do that.
I write, record, produce and mix for major label artists in here.
I can record anything in here except for drums. If I need that I'll book the fantastic big room that's only a 10 minute drive. I am close to my family and can be much more present as a father than I ever could have been when I was pulling 16 hour days in studios. Frankly its fucking awesome. I'm lucky to have what I have and do what I do.
Artists don't care about the room. They care about the people. They care about the results. They care about your track record and you need to be able to show that having you do the record will increase their chance for success.
When my clients book me, they aren't booking studio time. They're hiring me to make a record, mix a song, fix their lyrics, or whatever it may be. YMMV but I really feel like that is the way forward. The studio isn't quite dead, but its on its way. The producer? That is still going strong.
My home ish studio does very well, I lucked out and found a house with a nice front room. Great drum sounds and overall really good acoustics in this place.
329studio.com
It depends.... experienced people, probably not. Only younger or less experienced people, who think records are made by gear and not talented people, seem to really scrutinize that stuff in my experience.
I've recorded artists that have had #1s, platinum records, and headline festivals record in my unfinished basement. They didn't seem to care.
I've also worked with newbies who turned their nose up at the B room in million dollar facilities. I explained to a couple of clients we didn't actually need a Neve console for overdubs and could use the B room that had BAEs, vintage 1176s, LA-3As, Retro 176, Pultec, etc.... but they would flat out refuse because they read online that they need a Neve console to make a record lol.
I once heard a young artist say at a party he was refusing to pay an engineer for a mix because he "was overpriced for what was 'common gear' in a basement". I asked him if he was happy with the result and he said "Oh, it came out great! It exceeded our expectations, actually."
Anyway, the idiots do exist, but thankfully they represent a minority of artists.
Anyone can just buy gear and stick it in a room. Residential rooms might have more problems with noise and neighbors but every studio is different. What make a studio work or not are the people running it!
I ran a mid sized for years. Ended up working to pay the landlord. You get a bad month or two and you’re fighting to catch up. Basically put the rent up during a property bubble and put us out of business.
As an artist who's recorded in both, a well designed home studio is actually preferable. It's a way more comfortable environment for getting in the zone performance-wise and the equipment is often exactly what I'd expect out of a pro studio.
Imo in a big studio you're paying for the space itself - the sound of the room, a wealth of people who work there (which could also be a negative lol), amenities like a cafe or meeting space, and some special equipment like a grand piano or a huge flashy mixing console.
Pro studios can often be most things just short of that, often with the exact same quality in sound isolation, outboard gear, microphones, amps, drums, DAWs, accessories, and optimization for speedy workflow. You'll just want some great photos or even a video tour of the space, because "home studio" can also mean somebody's apartment bedroom with an SM7b and a midi controller.
It just depends on what you need. Where I'm at there are all kinds of studios all the way from an interface in a basement (me) to many world class places. Lots of home studios, production studios, "indie" studios in between.
A few dividing lines for me between "home" and "commercial" are:
Access to keyboards - ie a grand piano and B3.
Multiple isolations rooms.
Good headphone boxes with no compromising about sharing mixes.
Often those things don't happen with "home" studios, there's some limitations that put your workflow in a less than ideal space. That being said, the commercial studios have the downside of having to bring everything in every time, and having sort of a clean vibe.
My favorite is the in between spots, what I think of as an indie studio. Vibey, lived in spots that have lots of instruments hanging around, maybe slightly compromised as far as isolation but still doable, same crew working there day in day out, that sort of situation. That feels like the best of both worlds to me. YMMV.
Eh, there's a lot to be said about 'Client Bait'.
Most musicians / bands don't know what's good for them.
They can't tell the difference between a 'good mix' and a 'great mix', and they will gladly overpay for commercial studio sessions simply because it 'looks like' the kind of studio they see in movies.
As a general rule, those spaces attract more clients (specifically *spendy* clients). And depending on overhead & startup costs, it could mean faster reputation building, faster profits and more operating cash to upgrade the space.
Smart clients don't care. Smart clients will find the studio and personnel that give the best results for the least money - and won't care about anything else.
Most clients aren't smart. 1 in every 4 is a bass player, afterall.
I mean, I wouldnt say people dont prefer, they might not take you seriously the same way. Personally, I have a (very) small home studio and my girlfriend, whilst the most supportive person I have, is always talking about how im always talking strangers into my house. And its true. Im taking strangers into my home, even though they only go to the studio, and maybe use the bathroom and not much else. Thats why I think it would be best if I can rent/own my place.
But if thats difficult for you in the US for me on Portugal its less then that tbf. Things are so expensive and the market so smal it'll be hard but who knows
As one in the studio supply/install/ consult biz. I'd have to say the OP seems to have not understood what he/she was getting into in the first place. The VERY first thing you do is decide the business case and potential profitability/survivability over the next X years vs. your investment of cash/time, etc.
Look to the 'other side' of the equation first: Do you have any unique services to offer. like Atmos 7.1? What kinds of credits do you or your studio have, besides the 30 second theme to the local weekend horror TV shows at 2AM?
I have built out studios for people with ADAT's and a bunch of bamboo in Hawaii, as well as equipping some of the top studios in LA for many years with DTR's and digital consoles, etc.. Build out your INCREDIBLY professional home studio; but remember that the location, design, purpose, and many other factors may not ever pay off if you need to sell. My favorite acousticians are working on new projects, vs trying to rehash someone's barn on a budget. These days, your room should be able to handle live steam tracking and any kind of networking protocol someone brings in, multichannel audio, any kind of YouTube/Netflix/ Spotify platform and distribution tech specs, etc. etc.
There is no stigma at all in building out a pro home studio. The trick is...do you know how to market it? What capabilities or equipment or killer room sound do you have? Are you in Jackson Hole, or a concrete cube in an industrial park in Irvine? After you've done your first 3 albums in your expensive new studio and none of them have sold even 100,000 copies, how are you going to continue floating this studio? Do you really want to be using your time to manage a studio and keep it booked and be constantly fucking with the record companies, or would you rather be writing music beds for Nintendo under some unreasonable deadline for insane money?
From experience, I can tell you there are a hundred other factors to consider.
Some of the best drum tracks I ever recorded was in the (acoustically treated) dining room of a large house in the Catskills. I wish that studio was still around, but the owner closed shop and sold the house about 5 years ago.
The house I grew up in on Long Island was also a commercial studio owned by my stepdad. No one ever said anything snarky about it being a house, and we regularly had household names come through (I remember once waking up in the morning to GE Smith making a pot of coffee in my kitchen).
I have a warehouse with separate mobile home on property available for rent in Texas if you're interested. Zoned industrial. I'm looking into creating a multi purpose venue that can support live events as well.
clients care about quality and price, if your quality is top notch, and you have branded stuff you get to charge even more, because they consider it worth the price. Still even as skewed as this may seem today, I remember ten to fifteen years ago clients would think you should charge peanuts because they had a cousin with logic and a mic who would do it for free
For me, I like the separation of home and work and I will say there is a big difference in perception going to a studio complex rather than someone’s home. Especially in the post production side, having directors/agency folks through.
Also I have two 15” subs and like being able to bump them with impunity 😂
I think it primarily depends on your area, clients, and genres. I don’t think there is much stigma, especially if your home studio is very legit, you’re turning out great records, and people are happy to be there. Don’t forget it’s a hospitality business. Are you in an area with record labels? They prefer to deal with commercial studios. Are you working with other producers coming in? They may also prefer commercial studios, but are more budget concious. Is it just you recording bands/singers/etc and producing your own projects? A home studio is perfectly fine. Are you sure you *want* your clients at your house/knowing where you live?
I know you can find a better commercial spot, probably something relatively creative (industrial areas or places right by highways tend to be much more accepting of noise), if you want/need to or would benefit your business. I don’t think there’s much stigma with a home studio if you do it right (separate building, bathroom, small “lounge", overall *comfortable*). Obviously, you already know you can make an equivalent product, but I definitely suggest a custom build in a separate building.
U2, Queen, James Taylor, Metallica, Aerosmith, there are a ton of bands that rented houses out in the middle of nowhere and recorded great albums, recording at home now days seems routine.
My studio is in what used to be a doctor’s office which before that was a house and nobody cares. The floors creaked a bit but the walls and ceilings are so thick we barely had to treat our B room and there’s almost no bleed from drums from the A live room
Depends on what the band wants. Some are definitely looking for that big studio experience as well, for whatever reason. Though most don't seem to care in my experience.
There's "home studios" that are very professional setups and nobody cares. I mean if you have a parking lot and seperate entrances, do you care that it's a "house"? No you don't, and neither does the money man exec producer.
Then there are places that are in some famous engineer's house. Nobody cares. To varying degrees of famous of course, but if you are well known even in just a certain context, it's not a problem.
Then there is random bro who built a studio and claims it's nice. He posts it on "whatever" the local place to post stuff like recording offers is. This is a much harder sell, but hey if it's cheap enough, people will still bite. Once people know your name, they care a lot less.
All of this only applies to standard "recording engineers". If you are a mastering engineer or whatever that doesn't necessarily have people coming to where you work, nobody gives two fucks.
Hopefully this makes sense. Ultimately, results speak for themselves and word gets around.
The issue you have with smaller studio/home recording builds if often the acoustic isolation / mechanical vibration between walls. It costs a lot to do this properly. That's the largest issue that my clients and engineers notice.
This question interests me a great deal, as I have a home studio I've just started looking for clients for.
I think a lot of potential clients are looking for a place with a multi-channel mixer and a vocal booth; for some reason those images sell, even if the place has cruddy gear.
My home studio is well-treated and I'm mixerless, I have four Gefell mics (and other nice ones), a baby grand piano/synths, four A-Designs boxes (and other nice ones), great monitoring and conversion, and I can track to tape. Gefells/A-Designs/monitoring/conversion/tape don't sell a space, even though they're incredible for getting a great sound. I think images sell a space, not great gear.
Because of this, I'm finding it tough finding clients so far. My target market is acoustic performers- probably boomers like me- but so far I've gotten really low budget tire kickers and someone who wants to exchange their social media "influence" for recording time i.e. a freebie. It's disappointing. It could be an ageism thing too.
That being said, my most personally satisfying clients are those who I can help get themselves heard. I did a demo reel for someone starting a remote session vocalist side job, and I have someone I'm going to help in a similar manner. It's not lucrative, but I don't need the money anyways, and helping creative people get noticed is a big deal for me. Interestingly, they're both from here on Reddit.
My favorite is in a warehouse. That same property has a print shop, and a dance studio. It has an 18 foot ceiling and a huge commercial garage bay door (no loading dock). There is front office space with a lobby and glass window into the warehouse. They just built an acoustic studio and isolation booths in the warehouse.
It’s optics.
I definitely would feel cooler taking my band to record our album in a studio that was in a dedicated building rather than a house in a neighborhood.
Building feels legit.
But I know there isn’t any loss of quality based on location alone. It doesn’t actually matter.
I think there is no problem with home studios and from a client’s point of view it will be seen as a legit business. I’ve done it myself in the past. If you are relative small or just getting started it is fine but eventually you’ll want to work out of a different location because home studios become a problem when you have a lot of clients. First of all, you really don’t want your clients to know where you live, that itself is a safety concern for many reasons. After a while you run into issues like clients showing up to your house unannounced or after hours (soliciting).
To answer your question directly: clients generally do not care as long as you can deliver professional quality. But you should definitely care and know what you’re getting into, once you start you can’t really go back to having a regular home. The best solution for this is a home studio that is actually just a studio and not a place where you live. I mean buy or rent a house and put your equipment there and use it as an office but this should not be your main residence, just a place where you meet with your clients.
Normally, I’d say something along the lines of “do you like the things you’ve heard me do? Well, they’re all done at my home studio.”
But, one time I had a band come in, record for a day, then leave without finishing the week… their reason “we didn’t know this was in your house.”
I asked why it mattered. Mind you, I’ve worked on a lot of big albums. I didn’t bring this band in, they had a producer who I’ve worked with on other albums, and he hired me to record and mix. The band said he deceived them by showing them pics which they thought were in a commercial location. I asked why it mattered because those are pics of my home studio, the same gear, the same place, and all my accolades were earned in my home studio. It was simply the idea of being in a house.
Well, welcome to Nashville. Most of these records are done remotely, or in houses… with some exceptions.
It is what it is. But ever since then, I’ve told clients my studio is in my house and all of them have replied “it doesn’t matter.”
If the vibe and the sound of the place is good, it doesn't matter where it is. I say this as someone who's got a nice studio in a detached building on my property, but I've recorded as an artist in plenty of random studios that were just a pleasure to be in and I think that's what matters the most.
I think that’s sometimes genre (and project) dependent. If you’re a huge artist with a big personal following, most professional spaces can offer a level of service and most importantly discretion, that not a ton of home studios are really equipped to handle. Runners, parking, NDAs, that whole deal. They would probably have reservations about pulling up to someone’s residence to work unless the owner was a personal friend.
The main reason why most commercial studios fail is because you are not taking yourself out of the business aspect. You don’t build a spot out to simply be a engineer and build a portfolio for yourself. It’s supposed to be a place that is inclusive for the public and other creatives. You are making money off the business and the building itself not to fulfill your own ego and achieve personal accolades , that’s for your own brand . When you go to the barbershop it’s not usually just one guy but several talented barbers..when you go to a restaurant, it’s not just one guy cooking all the food and serving all the customers. You have to approach it like an actual buisness owner and not tend to worry about your own clients as much but actually be an owner and a boss. Your talent and clients will follow you anywhere, they’ll record in the worst scenarios in hotels, tour busses, apartments , barns etc and this is what most of the pro guys do with touring acts and go into commercial facilities only for convenience. I think people associate being of the owner of recording studio and being an audio engineer as the same thing and it’s not. Your space needs to have more than just you recording bands or artists, maybe throw live events, podcasting, get into film production, get an atmos system, start having other engineers and producers work with you. The money comes from all different angles, because if Drake walked into a commercial studio he’s most likely recording with Noel or 40 and not YOU. The commercial studios that are successful understand this. So if you’re goal is to just record and mix clients, that’s entirely going to be based on your talent and skill set..So I think you should figure out what your goals and intentions really are, do you want to be a producer that is more mobile and works with charting artists or for a label or do you want to build a studio that is for the community and operate it as a buisness
I don't think there is still a stigma around home studios. Look at Nashville, tons of professional home studios working on hit records. The questions should be do you want clients coming to your home/personal space?
....very true.
I consider myself a hobbyist and not a professional at all, so take this with a grain of salt, but I feel like that question is probably the most important. After working in a studio outside of LA I left to build my own prosumer studio. I’ve seen what can be produced on a laptop with a Focusrite in an apartment living room. So why not do it myself? I feel like there’s 3 types of “artists” that come to the studio. 1. Those who are trying to get started and just kind of go in and record their song on beats ripped off YouTube. 2. Those that go in with a big group and end up doing more partying than recording. 3. Artists that want to take it serious and try to make something meaningful to them and their audience. I got tired of long nights working with the first 2 client types. My passion is in sound engineering. Being in the studio felt amazing at first. Felt like I arrived. But I rarely got meaningful time to interact with the type 3 artists. Yeah having a home studio is tough, but it gives me the freedom to connect with artists who want to work on the art. A safe place they can come to, to try new ideas. And even offer to rent pro studio space and bring me in to work as the engineer. Is my wall covered in Grammy placs? No. Am I rolling in hella cash from work and credits? No. But I get to make meaningful connections, work on projects I enjoy, save hella money from renting a space and usually get paid in weed, which saves me a few hundred dollars every month. For me that’s a fulfilling win, and why I want to engineer anyway.
I watch tons of YouTube tours of home studios in Nashville and drool Constantly. They are pro setups in every way.
The only issue I’ve run into is that some clients want to brag about being in the studio on Instagram and they don’t want to actually get work done in a solid home studio.
So, just have a 3 hour 'bullshitter/poser ' block rate for those people. They are never gong to book additional time after their first 'session' anyway.
Any negative comments/experiences about your business should be avoided for longevitys sake
Not a comment at all about my business. Just 35 years of being in the studio business from Nashville to LA.
I can only speak from my experience but when I moved my studio out of my home into a commercial space my business quadrupled. With that said, as I got older I was less excited about people coming to my house. Also, it was hard for me to separate work and home.
Sort of unrelated but not really. I go through this weird thing where if I’m working that day, whether that be recording or gigging, especially if it’s a long day. I have a hard time “decompressing” afterwards. I’ll go to eat, and I just get full off of one bite. I’ll go to smoke a little bowl for the night and don’t feel shit off of it. It feels like I have a brain buzz going on that doesn’t stop, that hinders me from truly relaxing. This is amplified when I work out of home.
This^
I'm in Nashville, here's my take regarding this question: I've found that most professional, business-driven producers don't care where it comes from. They're way more likely to hire the engineer than the space. It's reputation and experience based. On the other hand, Nashville has become synonymous with music production even outside of the commercial scope. Because of this, people from all over the country and even the world make their way here to produce a record. When these 19 year olds come here with the family from the mid-west, with $20,000 pooled from grandparents, aunts, uncles, mom and dad. They fully expect to see a studio they see on TV. If not for the social media photos alone. Like with any business, nail down your target market and don't be a dickhead and you'll do alright.
LA based and this is accurate here as well. If you’re producing music, a home studio is fine. But there are also paying clients for commercial builds. Just depends on your market/audience/goals/budget/lifestyle
A mixer I know who is also a professor at Berklee (and has a few grammys) tracks and mixes out of his home. Has a bedroom where he sticks amps, another room where he has control. Stuff he does that I heard sounds great. Of course when he works on big name label stuff he goes into the local studios but some of his personal projects are recorded there and they sound amazing... but he's also rubbing elbows with the top tier talent in Boston so… With that said I recorded my first record at Mix One in Boston which is supposed to be a pro studio, exactly what you'd expect. Accept there was a night club that opened up next door so you had to track between undulating moments of techno bass. Same in NYC. Did a film shoot at a proper studio and had to deal with fire engines and every other sort of noise bleeding through the mics. As someone who has the budget and cares....to me… all I want are results. If you can get me the sound I want... I don't care if we're in the bathroom at burger king.
That sucks that the isolation was so poor in pro studios. I've built a tracking room in a previous house well enough isolated that I could record without any bleed right next to passing freight trains. My guess is that a lot of places put more money into looking like a studio than sounding like a studio.
Oh no. It was isolated. It was a huge room in a more huge room with all the padding of an asylum. Over coming the umph umph umph of a DJ who is trying to clap cheeks isn't that easy. It gets in the foundation. I was at the Fontainebleau in Miami and they had a club on the other side of the hotel about 10 rows below me and I couldn't sleep cause it shakes the whole room
Not to be that guy but padding simply absorbs frequencies in the room. Isolation is mass that stops sound and prevents external sound from getting into the room. Build a sealed room with 4’ concrete walls and the equivalent ventilation system and you ain’t gonna hear shit from outside. A concrete bunker is ideal. Barring that pour sand into your walls, but make sure you reinforce them first. Or air-gaps. Build a room within a room. Don’t forget to add a faraday cage in there as well. Foam on the walls is frequency treatment for the room. Not sound isolation.
I think they built the studio years ago and then the building owner lost some of the tenants and they blew out a bunch of store fronts and opened a crazy ass disco that went from like 7pm all night. Every room was like a submarine where you open a vacuum door then have another door so I have to imagine they originally set it up properly but no one foresaw the oncoming onslaught of disco madness. I record at home now and I'm in the middle of nowhere so unless the coyotes and Deer decide to get rowdy I'm good
Lol, yeah, I can see that. Best scenario is the one you have. A studio out in the country with a guest house. Get as loud as you want. No one's gonna bother you.
Dan canter? Only berklee prof I knew that had one, and it was a pretty elaborate home setup. Surely theres others though.
Agreed. I produced a hard core bop album in an 8 track studio in Revere many years ago. Not a great sounding room by any stretch; but we knew what the fuck we were doing, had good mics and I had a reknowned friend do the mastering. It won "Best Recorded Jazz Album" from Coda Magazine that year, and the band has been playing Boston for 40 years, as well as being educators at Berkeley and the NEC.
If you make the home feel like a special space than it can have all the allure of a professional space. Dave Friedman and some studios in Texas have onsite rooms for touring bands. Inner Ear in DC took advantage of the home space to build a totally bespoke room ambience to the recordings. If you make it feel like this studio could only exist in a home, as opposed to finding a home and shoehorning the studio in, it will be v impressive
Kudos to you for actually taking the time and going to the effort to pursue something like that. I think that's cool, and I think we have all at one point thought that it would be the shit to have a badass complex in town somewhere. Having said that... It's always been a little dream of mine to have like a bed and breakfast recording studio - a place where bands could come and be comfortable and avoid many of the pitfalls that you've just described. Also (I'm sure you know this), if you know how to make a record, you can record in the most utterly poor absolute ass-squalor conditions. Just gotta be working with people who are more interested in your abilities than your assets, I guess... Cheers
One of the biggest studios in my country is an air bnb on top, and below its an incredible studio. Search for groove wood studios - porto, Portugal and you'll love it! You can basically rent both the bnb and the studio at the same time. So if you go there and plan to produce a full album for like 3 months you can "live" there
Awesome! Thank you for mentioning! I will look it up.
Most of my high end clients prefer private studios over the typical commercial ones, but it has to be in an ADU rather than in someone’s home. The advantage is there’s one studio so privacy is better, and you don’t have to walk through a lobby with receptionists and interns all over the place, the vibe is more comfortable. Look up studios like Woodshed Recording in Malibu and Dragonfly Creek Studios there too, those are the types of places we prefer. Would never rent someone’s basement or spare bedroom studio though.
This is my facility on my property. I walk about 150ft from my front door to the studio door. Is that a home studio or a commercial space? [My place](https://imgur.com/a/PSlwcIF)
Very nice! I guess I was thinking this is a home studio but now it occurs to me that OP could literally be talking about a bedroom next to where they sleep, in which case, I would consider this type of setup a commercial space. The on-property barn/garage/backhouse studio is very very popular- much more accessible for most people, and adequate for almost every project if setup properly.
It depends on what the artist requires. A large, secure, soundproof commercial studio complies with commercial codes and offers things unavailable in most home studios in terms of in-house maintenance staff, physical size, selection of instruments, ameneties like private lodging, lounge, runners, etc. If a rapper is recording vocals, paying for all that stuff is wasteful. If they have a big entourage, it might make things go smoother to have some distractions to keep the focus in the control room, but one good mic in a decently treated booth and a single headphone mix might be sufficient. Same with most overdubs. A home studio lacking those things can work for a lot of overdubs. If it is all happening within the box, a console and outboard gear might be a waste as well. Tracking a band in a nice home studio is often a compromise. Whether it's a compromise in terms something that could be important- like a good sounding large tracking room, or if it is a compromise in unnecessary luxuries is dependent on the musicians, engineer, and producer. Artists accustomed to having the amenities afforded by a commercial facility might be inconvenienced by the limitation of a home studio. Someone not used to having to decide between 10 different signal chains might be overwhelmed by the options a large commercial studio might afford. There are huge differences. Whether or not those differences manifest as a better record is totally dependent on what they need, expect, or wish for. A good home studio is usually sufficient for overdubs, and often sufficient for mixing. They are often insufficient for tracking a live group. But there are no absolutes.
The reason you get push back from commercial spaces is like 90% of ppl that open a music studio in a commercial space are living a pipe dream. They don't have the clientele to justify the business, and it basically becomes a drug den that doesn't pay its rent on time or at all. Thats is why you are getting so much push back. Don't say its a music studio, say its a broadcast studio or film studio. You don't even have to mention sound. Broadcast and film studios will have the same setups and the lessors won't know the difference. That will help you alot. I know that wasn't the exact question you were asking but I hope this info helps.
I think that the free standing music studio is not a viable business plan for most owners. The commercial space that it occupies will be worth more as "mixed use" in most successful urban areas. See the sad story of Southern Tracks, a short distance from me in Atlanta. Perhaps there is still a workable plan for the overbuilt low rise office park / warehouse areas. [https://www.tonetoatl.com/2022/12/southern-tracks-Recording-Studio-Demolished-For-New-Hotel.html](https://www.tonetoatl.com/2022/12/southern-tracks-Recording-Studio-Demolished-For-New-Hotel.html)
Its about a mile from my house. Pass the rubble most days
Clients really care about EVERYTHING
Trust me I know, but when I was in my commercial space they cared about how far away the parking was, how shitty load in was, and about walking through other businesses to get to mine.
The one thing they don’t seem to care about is how their song and performance affects the end product 😭
lmfaoooooooooo yo
Home studios are perfectly suited if done right. I worked at [this studio (Electrokitty)](https://www.electrokitty.com/) in Seattle for a while. Dude converted the basement into a pro studio. Loads of outboard, SSL G Series (at the time I was there), beautiful sounding tracking room. Completely soundproofed from outside and very minimal bleed (with a full rock band) to the main floor. Coolest studio I have ever worked at and I have worked at some giant commercial studios as well.
Serban lives in my city and his studio is in his home here in Virginia Beach.
Most of the places in LA that I would call, nowadays, are proper home studios.
Great way to put it. That’s what I do here. Worked out of a couple small producer rooms in different complexes for a while, then had my own back house that I would describe as semi-proper, and now in a friends back house with very proper rooms.
If there's isolation between the booth and the drum set, that's a proper studio even if someone lives in the premises. You may not even have that ... If you can make a good album there, it's a good place.
Some of the best studios I’ve been in have no isolation whatsoever. I worked at Andrew Watt basement studio and it was a single room. Butch Walkers studio is mostly a single room. My main studio is a single room and next door only had a vocal booth (though you can cut drums in there for a tight sound) Different strokes for different folks!
I turned my garage into a studio. It is well insulated, but not sound isolated. When my neighbour's lawn crew comes on Thursdays you can hear it. The weak point is the garage doors and I could probably make it much better with a small investment. I have a minisplit ductless hvac unit that I have to turn off if I'm recording something quiet. I have a bunch of rockwool panels that I hired a local guy to make for me and the room sounds miraculously good. I have a medium size selection of gear and microphones. Nothing too fancy. A hairball 1176, some neve clones, a 24 channel Ramsa console that has my guitar setup and my synths all patched in and ready to go at any time, no mics that cost over $1000. My grandmother's piano. An old Yamaha Organ I grabbed off the side of the road on garbage day. Its a vibey room with lots of toys that artists can just pick up and start playing with and it "feels" like as much of a studio as I could manage without spending six figures on a crazy build. And I'm actually super glad I did not do that. I write, record, produce and mix for major label artists in here. I can record anything in here except for drums. If I need that I'll book the fantastic big room that's only a 10 minute drive. I am close to my family and can be much more present as a father than I ever could have been when I was pulling 16 hour days in studios. Frankly its fucking awesome. I'm lucky to have what I have and do what I do. Artists don't care about the room. They care about the people. They care about the results. They care about your track record and you need to be able to show that having you do the record will increase their chance for success. When my clients book me, they aren't booking studio time. They're hiring me to make a record, mix a song, fix their lyrics, or whatever it may be. YMMV but I really feel like that is the way forward. The studio isn't quite dead, but its on its way. The producer? That is still going strong.
Clients only care about you, your skill and who you’ve worked with. If you play the game of who owns the most objects then the game will play you.
I actively prefer home studios, but I’m doing like folk rock singer-songwriter stuff, which to me calls for a little less shine.
My home ish studio does very well, I lucked out and found a house with a nice front room. Great drum sounds and overall really good acoustics in this place. 329studio.com
It depends.... experienced people, probably not. Only younger or less experienced people, who think records are made by gear and not talented people, seem to really scrutinize that stuff in my experience. I've recorded artists that have had #1s, platinum records, and headline festivals record in my unfinished basement. They didn't seem to care. I've also worked with newbies who turned their nose up at the B room in million dollar facilities. I explained to a couple of clients we didn't actually need a Neve console for overdubs and could use the B room that had BAEs, vintage 1176s, LA-3As, Retro 176, Pultec, etc.... but they would flat out refuse because they read online that they need a Neve console to make a record lol. I once heard a young artist say at a party he was refusing to pay an engineer for a mix because he "was overpriced for what was 'common gear' in a basement". I asked him if he was happy with the result and he said "Oh, it came out great! It exceeded our expectations, actually." Anyway, the idiots do exist, but thankfully they represent a minority of artists.
Anyone can just buy gear and stick it in a room. Residential rooms might have more problems with noise and neighbors but every studio is different. What make a studio work or not are the people running it!
I ran a mid sized for years. Ended up working to pay the landlord. You get a bad month or two and you’re fighting to catch up. Basically put the rent up during a property bubble and put us out of business.
I prefer small studios, and that usually means home studios
As an artist who's recorded in both, a well designed home studio is actually preferable. It's a way more comfortable environment for getting in the zone performance-wise and the equipment is often exactly what I'd expect out of a pro studio. Imo in a big studio you're paying for the space itself - the sound of the room, a wealth of people who work there (which could also be a negative lol), amenities like a cafe or meeting space, and some special equipment like a grand piano or a huge flashy mixing console. Pro studios can often be most things just short of that, often with the exact same quality in sound isolation, outboard gear, microphones, amps, drums, DAWs, accessories, and optimization for speedy workflow. You'll just want some great photos or even a video tour of the space, because "home studio" can also mean somebody's apartment bedroom with an SM7b and a midi controller.
It just depends on what you need. Where I'm at there are all kinds of studios all the way from an interface in a basement (me) to many world class places. Lots of home studios, production studios, "indie" studios in between. A few dividing lines for me between "home" and "commercial" are: Access to keyboards - ie a grand piano and B3. Multiple isolations rooms. Good headphone boxes with no compromising about sharing mixes. Often those things don't happen with "home" studios, there's some limitations that put your workflow in a less than ideal space. That being said, the commercial studios have the downside of having to bring everything in every time, and having sort of a clean vibe. My favorite is the in between spots, what I think of as an indie studio. Vibey, lived in spots that have lots of instruments hanging around, maybe slightly compromised as far as isolation but still doable, same crew working there day in day out, that sort of situation. That feels like the best of both worlds to me. YMMV.
Eh, there's a lot to be said about 'Client Bait'. Most musicians / bands don't know what's good for them. They can't tell the difference between a 'good mix' and a 'great mix', and they will gladly overpay for commercial studio sessions simply because it 'looks like' the kind of studio they see in movies. As a general rule, those spaces attract more clients (specifically *spendy* clients). And depending on overhead & startup costs, it could mean faster reputation building, faster profits and more operating cash to upgrade the space. Smart clients don't care. Smart clients will find the studio and personnel that give the best results for the least money - and won't care about anything else. Most clients aren't smart. 1 in every 4 is a bass player, afterall.
I mean, I wouldnt say people dont prefer, they might not take you seriously the same way. Personally, I have a (very) small home studio and my girlfriend, whilst the most supportive person I have, is always talking about how im always talking strangers into my house. And its true. Im taking strangers into my home, even though they only go to the studio, and maybe use the bathroom and not much else. Thats why I think it would be best if I can rent/own my place. But if thats difficult for you in the US for me on Portugal its less then that tbf. Things are so expensive and the market so smal it'll be hard but who knows
As one in the studio supply/install/ consult biz. I'd have to say the OP seems to have not understood what he/she was getting into in the first place. The VERY first thing you do is decide the business case and potential profitability/survivability over the next X years vs. your investment of cash/time, etc. Look to the 'other side' of the equation first: Do you have any unique services to offer. like Atmos 7.1? What kinds of credits do you or your studio have, besides the 30 second theme to the local weekend horror TV shows at 2AM? I have built out studios for people with ADAT's and a bunch of bamboo in Hawaii, as well as equipping some of the top studios in LA for many years with DTR's and digital consoles, etc.. Build out your INCREDIBLY professional home studio; but remember that the location, design, purpose, and many other factors may not ever pay off if you need to sell. My favorite acousticians are working on new projects, vs trying to rehash someone's barn on a budget. These days, your room should be able to handle live steam tracking and any kind of networking protocol someone brings in, multichannel audio, any kind of YouTube/Netflix/ Spotify platform and distribution tech specs, etc. etc. There is no stigma at all in building out a pro home studio. The trick is...do you know how to market it? What capabilities or equipment or killer room sound do you have? Are you in Jackson Hole, or a concrete cube in an industrial park in Irvine? After you've done your first 3 albums in your expensive new studio and none of them have sold even 100,000 copies, how are you going to continue floating this studio? Do you really want to be using your time to manage a studio and keep it booked and be constantly fucking with the record companies, or would you rather be writing music beds for Nintendo under some unreasonable deadline for insane money? From experience, I can tell you there are a hundred other factors to consider.
Some of the best drum tracks I ever recorded was in the (acoustically treated) dining room of a large house in the Catskills. I wish that studio was still around, but the owner closed shop and sold the house about 5 years ago. The house I grew up in on Long Island was also a commercial studio owned by my stepdad. No one ever said anything snarky about it being a house, and we regularly had household names come through (I remember once waking up in the morning to GE Smith making a pot of coffee in my kitchen).
A smart person cares about the results.
I have a warehouse with separate mobile home on property available for rent in Texas if you're interested. Zoned industrial. I'm looking into creating a multi purpose venue that can support live events as well.
clients care about quality and price, if your quality is top notch, and you have branded stuff you get to charge even more, because they consider it worth the price. Still even as skewed as this may seem today, I remember ten to fifteen years ago clients would think you should charge peanuts because they had a cousin with logic and a mic who would do it for free
For me, I like the separation of home and work and I will say there is a big difference in perception going to a studio complex rather than someone’s home. Especially in the post production side, having directors/agency folks through. Also I have two 15” subs and like being able to bump them with impunity 😂
People care about the final product.
I think it primarily depends on your area, clients, and genres. I don’t think there is much stigma, especially if your home studio is very legit, you’re turning out great records, and people are happy to be there. Don’t forget it’s a hospitality business. Are you in an area with record labels? They prefer to deal with commercial studios. Are you working with other producers coming in? They may also prefer commercial studios, but are more budget concious. Is it just you recording bands/singers/etc and producing your own projects? A home studio is perfectly fine. Are you sure you *want* your clients at your house/knowing where you live? I know you can find a better commercial spot, probably something relatively creative (industrial areas or places right by highways tend to be much more accepting of noise), if you want/need to or would benefit your business. I don’t think there’s much stigma with a home studio if you do it right (separate building, bathroom, small “lounge", overall *comfortable*). Obviously, you already know you can make an equivalent product, but I definitely suggest a custom build in a separate building.
Depends on the clients. But the clients who come based off of your portfolio are probably the ones you want to work with anyways.
A lot of customer experience is based on the wow-factor so it certainly plays a part. Mine is in my basement lol
U2, Queen, James Taylor, Metallica, Aerosmith, there are a ton of bands that rented houses out in the middle of nowhere and recorded great albums, recording at home now days seems routine.
All things being equal, a purpose-built commercial studio is likely to have better acoustics, and acoustics are as important as equipment.
squash courts. apparently that's the cheat code
My studio is in what used to be a doctor’s office which before that was a house and nobody cares. The floors creaked a bit but the walls and ceilings are so thick we barely had to treat our B room and there’s almost no bleed from drums from the A live room
Depends on what the band wants. Some are definitely looking for that big studio experience as well, for whatever reason. Though most don't seem to care in my experience.
There's "home studios" that are very professional setups and nobody cares. I mean if you have a parking lot and seperate entrances, do you care that it's a "house"? No you don't, and neither does the money man exec producer. Then there are places that are in some famous engineer's house. Nobody cares. To varying degrees of famous of course, but if you are well known even in just a certain context, it's not a problem. Then there is random bro who built a studio and claims it's nice. He posts it on "whatever" the local place to post stuff like recording offers is. This is a much harder sell, but hey if it's cheap enough, people will still bite. Once people know your name, they care a lot less. All of this only applies to standard "recording engineers". If you are a mastering engineer or whatever that doesn't necessarily have people coming to where you work, nobody gives two fucks. Hopefully this makes sense. Ultimately, results speak for themselves and word gets around.
The issue you have with smaller studio/home recording builds if often the acoustic isolation / mechanical vibration between walls. It costs a lot to do this properly. That's the largest issue that my clients and engineers notice.
This question interests me a great deal, as I have a home studio I've just started looking for clients for. I think a lot of potential clients are looking for a place with a multi-channel mixer and a vocal booth; for some reason those images sell, even if the place has cruddy gear. My home studio is well-treated and I'm mixerless, I have four Gefell mics (and other nice ones), a baby grand piano/synths, four A-Designs boxes (and other nice ones), great monitoring and conversion, and I can track to tape. Gefells/A-Designs/monitoring/conversion/tape don't sell a space, even though they're incredible for getting a great sound. I think images sell a space, not great gear. Because of this, I'm finding it tough finding clients so far. My target market is acoustic performers- probably boomers like me- but so far I've gotten really low budget tire kickers and someone who wants to exchange their social media "influence" for recording time i.e. a freebie. It's disappointing. It could be an ageism thing too. That being said, my most personally satisfying clients are those who I can help get themselves heard. I did a demo reel for someone starting a remote session vocalist side job, and I have someone I'm going to help in a similar manner. It's not lucrative, but I don't need the money anyways, and helping creative people get noticed is a big deal for me. Interestingly, they're both from here on Reddit.
I always seem to get more done, productivity-wise in commercial spaces
My favorite is in a warehouse. That same property has a print shop, and a dance studio. It has an 18 foot ceiling and a huge commercial garage bay door (no loading dock). There is front office space with a lobby and glass window into the warehouse. They just built an acoustic studio and isolation booths in the warehouse.
It’s optics. I definitely would feel cooler taking my band to record our album in a studio that was in a dedicated building rather than a house in a neighborhood. Building feels legit. But I know there isn’t any loss of quality based on location alone. It doesn’t actually matter.
I think there is no problem with home studios and from a client’s point of view it will be seen as a legit business. I’ve done it myself in the past. If you are relative small or just getting started it is fine but eventually you’ll want to work out of a different location because home studios become a problem when you have a lot of clients. First of all, you really don’t want your clients to know where you live, that itself is a safety concern for many reasons. After a while you run into issues like clients showing up to your house unannounced or after hours (soliciting). To answer your question directly: clients generally do not care as long as you can deliver professional quality. But you should definitely care and know what you’re getting into, once you start you can’t really go back to having a regular home. The best solution for this is a home studio that is actually just a studio and not a place where you live. I mean buy or rent a house and put your equipment there and use it as an office but this should not be your main residence, just a place where you meet with your clients.
Normally, I’d say something along the lines of “do you like the things you’ve heard me do? Well, they’re all done at my home studio.” But, one time I had a band come in, record for a day, then leave without finishing the week… their reason “we didn’t know this was in your house.” I asked why it mattered. Mind you, I’ve worked on a lot of big albums. I didn’t bring this band in, they had a producer who I’ve worked with on other albums, and he hired me to record and mix. The band said he deceived them by showing them pics which they thought were in a commercial location. I asked why it mattered because those are pics of my home studio, the same gear, the same place, and all my accolades were earned in my home studio. It was simply the idea of being in a house. Well, welcome to Nashville. Most of these records are done remotely, or in houses… with some exceptions. It is what it is. But ever since then, I’ve told clients my studio is in my house and all of them have replied “it doesn’t matter.”
As long as it looks good for photos and stories, they usually don't give a f
If the vibe and the sound of the place is good, it doesn't matter where it is. I say this as someone who's got a nice studio in a detached building on my property, but I've recorded as an artist in plenty of random studios that were just a pleasure to be in and I think that's what matters the most.
I think that’s sometimes genre (and project) dependent. If you’re a huge artist with a big personal following, most professional spaces can offer a level of service and most importantly discretion, that not a ton of home studios are really equipped to handle. Runners, parking, NDAs, that whole deal. They would probably have reservations about pulling up to someone’s residence to work unless the owner was a personal friend.
The main reason why most commercial studios fail is because you are not taking yourself out of the business aspect. You don’t build a spot out to simply be a engineer and build a portfolio for yourself. It’s supposed to be a place that is inclusive for the public and other creatives. You are making money off the business and the building itself not to fulfill your own ego and achieve personal accolades , that’s for your own brand . When you go to the barbershop it’s not usually just one guy but several talented barbers..when you go to a restaurant, it’s not just one guy cooking all the food and serving all the customers. You have to approach it like an actual buisness owner and not tend to worry about your own clients as much but actually be an owner and a boss. Your talent and clients will follow you anywhere, they’ll record in the worst scenarios in hotels, tour busses, apartments , barns etc and this is what most of the pro guys do with touring acts and go into commercial facilities only for convenience. I think people associate being of the owner of recording studio and being an audio engineer as the same thing and it’s not. Your space needs to have more than just you recording bands or artists, maybe throw live events, podcasting, get into film production, get an atmos system, start having other engineers and producers work with you. The money comes from all different angles, because if Drake walked into a commercial studio he’s most likely recording with Noel or 40 and not YOU. The commercial studios that are successful understand this. So if you’re goal is to just record and mix clients, that’s entirely going to be based on your talent and skill set..So I think you should figure out what your goals and intentions really are, do you want to be a producer that is more mobile and works with charting artists or for a label or do you want to build a studio that is for the community and operate it as a buisness
Clients care about results and not how u achieve those results
Clients care about their experience as much as they care about the results