Most music is now made in rooms that were never meant to be studios: a bedroom corner, a spare room, a desk in a living room. That is fine. A great deal of well-known music has come out of exactly those places. What a home producer's desk needs is a layout that lets you hear properly, a surface that keeps your gear where you put it, and a room that puts you in the mood to work.
This is not a guide to buying equipment. It is about the setup around it.
Start with the listening position
If you use monitor speakers, where you sit matters more than what you own.
- Make a triangle. The two speakers and your head should form a triangle with roughly equal sides. Angle each speaker in toward your ears.
- Tweeters at ear height. Raise the speakers on stands or pads if they sit too low.
- Face the short wall. In a rectangular room, set the desk against a short wall so the sound travels down the length of the room.
- Sit off the back wall. Low frequencies build up near walls and in corners. Pull the desk and your chair away from them if space allows.
- Keep it symmetrical. The same distance from each speaker to its side wall.
If you work only on headphones, none of this applies, and you can put the desk wherever is comfortable.
The desk surface
A production desk collects equipment: a keyboard controller, an audio interface, a pad controller, a mouse, a computer keyboard, a notebook. The danger is that it fills up until there is no room to work.
- Put what you touch most within easy reach, and move the rest to a shelf, a rack or a second tier.
- Keep the centre clear. That is where the computer keyboard and mouse go, and where your attention is.
- Use a desk mat. It stops controllers and small boxes sliding when you press buttons or turn knobs, it takes scratches in place of the desk, and it softens the sound of gear being set down. It also gives a mouse a consistent surface.
We make mats in three sizes, up to 31.5 × 15.5 inches. The desk mat size guide covers which fits what.
Sound: what soft things do, and what they don't
Bare rooms sound bad. Hard, flat walls bounce sound around, and you hear the room as much as the speakers. Soft, uneven surfaces help.
It is worth being accurate about how much.
- Proper acoustic treatment, meaning thick absorber panels and bass traps, is what makes a real difference to how a room sounds. If you are serious about mixing on speakers, that is where to put money.
- Soft furnishings help with echo. A rug, heavy curtains, a sofa, a full bookshelf and fabric on the walls all reduce the harsh, ringing reflections of a bare room. A tapestry on a wall is thin fabric: it takes a little edge off high-frequency flutter and does nothing for bass. It is a small improvement, not a treatment.
- None of this is soundproofing. Stopping sound from leaving the room takes mass and construction, not fabric.
So hang a tapestry because you like it and because it makes the room less boxy. Don't expect it to fix your mixes.
The wall in front of you
You will stare at this wall for hours while you listen. It should help.
- Something with mood. Music is about feeling, and the room should have one. Pick art that matches what you make. Dark, neon city scenes for electronic and late-night work. Soft landscapes for ambient and lo-fi. Something loud for something loud.
- Canvas or fabric, not glass. A hard, flat, glazed picture between your speakers is one more reflective surface. Canvas and tapestries are softer and matte.
- Not directly behind the speakers, if they are rear-ported. Leave them some air.
For pieces that suit a studio, see the creative studio: a wall that feeds the work.
Lighting for long sessions
Production sessions run late. Lighting sets the mood and saves your eyes.
- No bright overhead light. Lamps and indirect light are easier to work under for hours.
- A strip behind the screen reduces the contrast between a bright monitor and a dark room.
- Colour, used with restraint. One colour at a low level. Purple, blue and warm amber are popular for a reason: they are easy to sit in.
- Dimmable. You want less light at midnight than at noon.
Match the light to your art and mat and the corner looks like one thing. Our guide to choosing a desk mat by colour scheme pairs mats with lighting colours.
Cables
A studio has more cables than any other kind of desk. Label both ends of each. Bundle them with reusable ties. Keep power cables and audio cables apart where you can, and cross them at right angles, to reduce the chance of hum. A cable tray under the desk hides the rest.
Comfort
- Screen at eye level, an arm's length away.
- A chair that lets you sit upright and reach the keys without hunching. Armrests can get in the way of a keyboard controller.
- The controller at elbow height.
- Breaks. Ears tire before you notice. Step away every hour, and keep the volume moderate.
Make it yours
A room you like being in is a room you will make more music in. That is the practical case for caring how it looks. A piece of art you love, a mat in your colours, a lamp set low. It takes very little to turn a desk in the corner into a place you go to create. For pairings that work, see desk mat and wall art pairings, and browse the desk mats, canvas art and tapestries collections.