​The music world is teeming with young, fresh artists, all endeavouring to somehow stay ahead of the pack and stand out with unique talent. It's a competetive industry, made that bit harder with the influx of new technologies and new opportunities for those willing to work at a career in music.

 The early days can be tough, often hampered by a lack of funds to produce the best music with the best software or space to record. But this is where those with more drive and innovation will excel, filling their bedroom with musical influences, their favourite music magazines, band posters, vinyl records, books, CDs—all listed chronologically and in specific genres. However, not a huge amount of aspiring artists go that step further into the progression of home recording, saving every penny to create the ultimate home music recording room.

 There are many different techniques to achieve the perfect recording room at home and with a bit of research, you can set up a room complete with proffessional-standard sound and production space.With the help of some up-and-coming British music stars and technical soundproofing and technology companies, this article provides essential information about setting up your home music room to advance those prospects of you becoming the next hot music star, all made possible from your bedroom...

Home Music Room Advice from Musicians

From extremely talented hip-hop word artists to up-and-coming British rock bands, if you're a young artist and producing music at home, these top tips from some of the UK's rising music stars will provide you with all the know-how you need to produce quality sound from your home studio.

Solomon O.B

After winning this year's Hammer and Tongue, the UK-wide national poetry slam, hip-hop-poetry fusion artist, Solomon O.B, has gone on to become one of Britain's most exciting young music artists.

"For me making needs to be as simple as possible. I try to limit the things I 'need' to be able to create. The more I tell myself is necessary the more limits I have to stop me making my art.

Creating anywhere is possible, especially as a writer. When it comes to recording my set up is pretty minimal. An SE studio Mic I bought for £200, a Focusrite interface and a seven year old laptop that's on it's last legs but still gets the job done!

Image: Solomon O.B - Credit: Jack Edwards Photography

I think making an investment in your own equipment is a smart thing to do. The equipment has already paid for itself in what I've saved in studio fees making my demos, and it means that my ideas are far clearer when studio time does come, so I'm quicker and execute better. Plus you can't beat practicing at home in a relaxed environment. Red light syndrome is pretty much gone for me... Almost." — Check out Solomon O.B's Sofar Sounds session here 

​Veridian

 Already on an extensive tour of the UK, this newly formed alt-rock band are making huge waves and are one to look out for in 2016 with their catchy choruses, melodic harmonies and huge riffs.

 "​As a band we are quite lucky in the fact that our singer Simon Jackman is a professional music producer who has his own home studio. This home studio has slowly been built up and improved over the years, although it wasn't always that way... We can remember once using a sleeping bag and mic stands to form a sort of enclosed soundproof vocal booth. 

Image: Veridian

The idea behind the 'vocal booth' is to try to eliminate flat and reflective surfaces which the sounds bounce off and try to keep the recording area as 'dead' as possible. We threw up a mattress and some quilts and boxed ourselves into the corner of the room and the results are infinitely better than they were before.

 As for tips I would suggest never recording vocals in the middle of a room, if you can find a corner, tuck yourself in there. Make sure all doors and windows are closed and perhaps most crucially, shut the curtains because windows are very reflective and can play havoc with your sound."

Man & Wife

 Man & Wife are an electronic duo from London. They split their time between the UK and Berlin where they are working on their first album.

 "For recording vocals we use an Audio Technica AT2020 which is a really affordable microphone of pretty decent quality. To record instruments like guitars we just plug directly into a Scarlett Focusrite 2i2 Audio Interface which is another superb bit of kit at a very affordable price.

Everything else we just program into Logic with the midi keyboard! We didn't want to spend a lot because firstly we didn't really know what we were doing, and secondly we didn't have a lot of money.

Image: Man & Wife

We also have access to Outhouse Studios in Reading where Simon works, however for our own material a lot of the work is done in the home studio. This gives us endless time to play around with different instruments and ideas helping towards the creation of our material.

When rehearsing we have a room in Simon's house that is soundproofed with second windows and two sets of doors. This was designed by his dad who previously played in bands in his youth. The once active double patio doors are now sealed to help soundproof the room and it's all wired in to a desk upstairs in Simon's bedroom. The room had various old electric, acoustic and bass guitars hung on the wall, some still used and some not. In addition, there are a couple of graffitied posters of influences such as Foo Fighters and Funeral For a Friend torn from old magazines. Some old set lists and gig posters hang on the wall from previous bands' shows and a classroom-type white board sits below the window with a few pens for scribbling down lyric ideas. All in all, working within a comfortable environment certainly brings out the best in us." — Check out Veridian's latest single here

Benjamin Ramón

 Performing as a professional guitarist for many years now, French musician Benjamin Ramón tours across Europe and composes/records for various documentaries and films.

 "When recording audio in a profesionnal way, you need it to be done in the cleanest way. Acoustic isolation is quite unaffordable, but there are many solutions to capture clean tracks.

 First of all, you'll need your place to be silent. Check out the quietest place in your flat. Might even be a small corner or a closet, far enough from doors or windows. The bedroom room is often chosen due to the absorbing quality of furniture like beds, carpets, curtains, clothes etc!

Image: Benjamin Ram​ón

 This is usually the place I will record vocals or small percussions. I once used the natural reverb from my bathroom as an effect.Nowadays, with tablets and even phones you can control your DAW (digital audio workstation) remotely, allowing you to avoid noises like keystrokes or computer fans. I usually record electric guitars and basses by plugging them straight into my Mbox audio card. As for keyboards and drums, a small keyboard with rubber pads like the Akai MPK mini works great!

Recording quality obviously depends a lot on your gear. Your microphone needs to be good and close enough to the source so it won't capture too much of the sound of the room. Buying an expensive microphone is useless for home recording. I use an Audiotechnica AT2035. It's quite inexpensive and does a great job for vocals and acoustic guitars." — Check out Benjamin Ramón on Soundcloud

Professional Advice from Acoustics and Soundproof Companies

If you're really striving to make the best recording space possible from your home studio, then tune in here as these tips from the pros will give you all the technical advice you need to create the ultimate home music room.

Richard Groborz — Trim Acoustics

" There're two main factors that are important in the design of a music studio: Attenuation and Absorption.

Attenuation is the control of sound through the structure of your room—basically this involves making the walls, floor, ceiling out of heavy materials. And if possible isolated from any existing structures i.e. a room within a room.

You would build a timber stud framework, infill it with a high density mineral fibre, and fit a product called a resilient bar onto the stud and then fix a heavy acoustic product like Maxiboardor several layers heavy plaster board. On the floor you would use a layered product like our Defenderwhich is heavy and resilient (helps stop drum noise going through the floor).

Image: Richard Groborz, Trim Acoustics

Absorption is the control of sound within the room /studio. Sound will bounce off of hard surfaces and in a studio there can be multiple reflections off the walls, floor and ceilings which can distort any sounds made and cause an echo. To control this echo or reverberation you need to introduce absorptive panels into the room. They come in all shapes and sizes but basically the thicker the panel the lower the sound frequency they control, so a combination of thick and thin panels can be used to tune the room to the way that sounds best to you (egg boxes don't work). However, too many panels can make a room feel very dead which is fine for a control room but not for a live performance area. If you're having your friends round to your home studio to lay down a few tracks, you may want some reverberation in the room.

Drew McLaughlin—Soundproof Cow

Most home music room projects need both soundproofing and sound absorption materials. To understand what materials you need, you first have to think about how sound acts.

 Sound absorption material is applied to the interior of the room. These materials soak up sound waves, preventing them from bouncing back off the walls. Echo and reverberation is minimised. These products are excellent for improving sound quality; they are not made to block sound.

Soundproofing products stop sound from moving from one space to another. The sound is contained within the room. 

Image: Soundproof Cow

These products also stop unwanted sound from entering the room. Often musicians think soundproofing means creating a totally soundproofed area, which is an extreme undertaking. The actual need is Sound Isolation. This requires a sound barrier between your music room and adjacent rooms. One option is a sound barrier product. Sound Barrier is a heavy mass material that blocks sound. Another option is to create air space between walls and reduce the number of contact points between building materials. This is called Structural Isolation. When construction elements aren't physically touching, the sound waves can't be passed from one to the other. Structural Isolation is a very effective construction method used for sound mitigation in music studios.