These are a great way into building your own gear.ĭIY Recording Equipment are a US company who specialise in their 500 series Colour range of EQs, mic pres and tone processors. If you are new to using soldering irons, wire strippers, side and end cutters I would probably steer clear of some of the more complex 500 series and rack-based units but guitar pedals can be very easy to build as the vast majority do not contain many components and can be put together quite quickly. There are plenty of companies out there online who will sell you the parts for simple guitar pedals, 500 series modules and even reproductions of studio classics.
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Luckily, broadband acoustic panels can be made by hand for a fraction of the cost with some basic materials and hand tools as you can see in our article Acoustic Panels - Learn How To Build Your Own For Under £50īuilding your own studio gear can be both very rewarding and can save you a stack of cash.
Factor in multiple panels for treating an entire studio sufficiently and you’ll end up with quite a sizeable bill. This is where acoustic panels do much better, but many off the shelf options can cost upwards of $100 per panel. Thin foam, which isn't usually that dense either, generally performs poorly in critical mid to low frequency areas within a room. Generic foam shouldn't be considered as the only line of defence against poor room acoustics. While a foam only approach isn’t always ideal, it can help tame flutter echoes and dull down overly bright sounding rooms. Those starting out setting up their first studio often opt for cheap, generic studio foam readily available online from sites such as Amazon and ebay. Without some level of absorption positioned at first reflection points, a studio will generally sound too reverberant, making it a challenging place to record and mix in. If you are based in Europe our partners at Studio Spares have everything you need to enable you to build custom cables for your studio.Ī key component in any recording and mixing environment is acoustic treatment. If you do want to build your own cables, then you are going to need good quality cable, jacks and XLR plugs to connect your studio gear together.
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Watch the free pureMix tutorial below showing how to solder your own studio cables. An added benefit to making your own cables is that you will know how to repair them if they break in the future, which also represents a cost-saving over buying replacements. Soldering is a simple skill to master, which is quick enough to achieve if you need to make lots of cables in one go.Ĭonnectors and cables are relatively inexpensive, but by making your own cables you have the option to make them to the exact lengths you need. Of course, this will take time and, if you are new to soldering, demand a lot of patience while you burn your fingers but the rewards are well worth the effort. Buying pre-made cables in bulk is the easiest way to get your hands on a bunch of cables fast, but the cost will add up fast.Ī smarter, more affordable way is is to make your own.
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Studio cabling can get very expensive, especially if you have lots of outboard gear that needs connecting to a mixer or patch bay. The following studio DIY projects are ordered in complexity level, starting with the simplest suggestion to try for yourself… Making Your Own Cables
The following ideas do require basic skill and confidence with hand tools, woodwork and electronics.ĭisclaimer: While we encourage you to consider these options do seek assistance from skilled tradespeople or friends to help you if you feel you are not competent enough to complete these projects safely. In this article we suggest several achievable studio DIY projects you can tackle yourself on modest budgets. The rewards of your hard work will not only represent a cash saving compared to buying off-the-shelf alternatives but will also enable you to get your studio tailor-made to your requirements. With some ingenuity, commitment, creativity and planning you can tackle some DIY studio build projects that you may also find very satisfying. Luckily, there are many ways to get all of the above on modest budgets simply by constructing them yourself by hand. Regardless of studio size and gear, spending often becomes quite alarming when factoring in the costs of other studio essentials such as acoustic treatment, furniture, cabling and room isolation. Setting up a recording studio from scratch is rarely a cheap undertaking and can take a long time to get to a point in which you feel it’s suitable for use.