So Cheap

So my latest project is building a recording studio in my upstairs guest bedroom.  I’ve decided to call it “Studio Siesta,” (get it?) although I have toyed with the name “Foodio Siesta….”  (get it?)

Don’t worry, this gear is all easy to put away in a flash, so if you need a place to crash in Seattle it can revert to a guest bedroom in a flash.  At the moment there’s a digital piano in here, and I think soon there will be a couch… because couches make recording studios better.  And they help with the acoustic profile, right?

I decided to build this studio as a hobby once I found out how cheap it was.  When I was at ILL I was annoyed that we had to schedule our recordings in a rented studio, which was often not ready when we showed up, gave us crappy quality audio, etc.  Luckily the engineers were cool, and it was great to get out of that damn office.  I missed the old Praxis days, when we recorded whenever we damn well felt like it, and it was always ready to go and it always sounded good.  So I told the guys at ILL, we should build our own studio; they told me “no, we priced it out and it would cost about $10,000 USD.”

Which of course, is a lie, that figure was pulled straight of of someone’s ass.  I sat down and found a website pricing a podcast studio out at under $400 (minus the computer).  They ignored me, of course.

Anyway, don’t ask a young  sound engineer how to build a studio; they’ll fantasize about all the best equipment and all the unnecessary gear that they dream about.  Instead, ask an experienced engineer, who actually records things regularly, works with a budget, and solves problems.

That’s what I did here.

So Studio Siesta cost me just a little more than $400, because once I saw how cheap it was, I decided I could afford to take it up just a notch.  But honestly, it doesn’t take much.

I have a month left of school, but maybe in June I’ll be less busy and might start publishing some personal stuff.  My family is full of characters and stories, so I imagine the first thing you’ll hear from me will be a series of family history interviews.  But then again who knows… maybe I’ll sell all this gear back and buy a pastry shop…