As a second part to our series looking at the development of our studios over time, after Mike Thornton’s super-detailed history of his studio, including a flashback to this first studio all the way back in the late 70s, we pick things up with other members of the Experts team, starting with the Post Production studio of Graham Kirkman:

First Steps Towards A Home Studio

When I set up my first home studio I wasn’t doing it to use as my main studio as a freelancer, I was still in full employment, so I did it more as an experiment to see if I could possibly work from home the occasional day? I bought a Focusrite Saffire Pro 24, Apple mac laptop, small monitor and an iPad for faders (I’m not too sure, but I think it was Neyrink’s V Control?) and 2 Dynaudio BM5MkII speakers. (Quite an expensive experiment now I think about it!!) I didn’t do much actual work with this set-up as the company I worked for didn’t like anyone working from home. But it did instil in me the idea that after working for years with AMS gear that took up massive racks of gear that you could never put in your house because of the size (and ,of course, the price) now suddenly I could tracklay and prep (but maybe not yet final mix) from my spare bedroom. Working like this was surprisingly realistic.

The problems I remember from the time were.

1. Noise. My neighbours were right through the wall so I always felt self-conscious that they could hear everything I was playing. (They definitely could!)

2. Acoustics. I didn’t have a single baffle, bass trap or any sound absorption of any kind

3. Pain. I’m not kidding, I love using faders but couldn’t afford a proper surface so mixing with your fingertips on a glass surface causes friction which, very soon starts to really hurt.

4. No dedicated picture screen. You can see in the picture that I would just have to shrink the PT video engine picture down to a small square on one of the monitors. Not ideal!

A Move To The Loft

As I moved companies I found that my new employers didn’t mind me doing the occasional tracklay/prep from home. So I moved upstairs into my loft (It was a horrible space where I was surrounded by all the crap you usually keep in a loft and would regularly find spiders crawling about the space) I also upgraded some of my equipment by purchasing an Avid Artist Mix (My fingerprints had worn smooth by now) Still had the same Mac and speakers, although I’d now bought another 3 to make this new ‘loft’ studio 5.0 (No sub yet). This ‘new’ studio space actually sounded way better than the spare bedroom although I still didn’t have any professional sound absorption, all the crap in the room did that for me. I would eventually sometimes final mix here and it translated perfectly to proper London studios. After roughly 2 years I made the leap to freelancing and used this studio as my base for over 2 years!!

The problems I remember from the time were.

1. Noise. Yup - still a problem as even though I was further away from them, because I was now tracklaying and prepping and mixing I had to play everything at a louder level and so I was always apprehensive that they could hear the noise. My neighbours never said anything, but when I eventually moved out to my garden studio I met them and they said “Kinda glad you’ve built that - we could hear you all day long when you were in the loft!

2. The Weather. In the winter the loft would get so cold that I would be up there mixing dressed for the Artic. I even wore woolly hats with the sides pulled up so as not to cover my ears! But it was the summer that was worse. I remember that when the temperature got to around 22 degrees outside I would have to physically move the studio into my bedroom as it would be SO HOT in the loft that it was actually hard to breathe and the Mac would get so hot that its fan made it almost hover! This was such a pain as moving everything took a whole day and my bedroom was NOT the ideal place to be mixing. If you don’t believe me ask my wife…

Out Into The Garden

Eventually, when we decided to turn the loft into an extension I had to figure out what to do with the studio. But basically it came down to renting a room somewhere or get one built for myself in the garden. So, that’s what I did.

My new (and hopefully last) Studio was built in 2020 and is SO different from my first foray into home studios. By this time I was fully freelance and wanted a 7.1.4 setup with professional acoustic treatment and more (better) faders with LOTS of screens. You can read more about my current studio in my article Building A Dolby Atmos Equipped Garden Studio - A Complete Guide. 

Looking at the evolution of my studio space over the years It does make me wonder just what home studios will look like in another 10 years??