AKARSH SHEKHAR
How To Organize a
Messy Studio Space?
Everyone wants a studio that oozes creativity and learning. A dirty, cluttered studio space isn’t conducive to creativity. If you’re
falling down over cables, staring in disgust at a pile of dirty dishes, or wasting time looking for a file, you’re not creating music.
1: Keep Your Space Clean
Let’s start with the most obvious: vacuum the carpet, dust off
the furniture, wipe down your computer’s peripherals and use
compressed air to blast dust off delicate items. Lastly do not eat
inside your studio. You don’t want to look at dirty dishes and get
stressed. You’re here to savour your music, not a smelly studio.
2: Get Rid of the Clutter
It’s difficult to concentrate if your studio looks like a place
scattered with endless piles of stuff. A clean space equals a
clean mind. So remove unrelated clutter like papers, books,
magazines, and miscellaneous items from your work space.
It is less stressful and more relaxing to come to a place
that is neat and clutter free. So, designate a place for
everything: Keep instruments and microphones in their
cases when you’re not using them. Fold your mic and
music stands and put them away. Put your redundant or
rarely used pieces of gear into storage (or better yet, sell
them or else they’re basically expensive paperweights).
3: Keep Your Computer Organized
With any modern studio’s workflow, it’s important to keep
your physical space organized. So it’s also imperative that
you keep your virtual space organized. Keep your computer’s
desktop clear — if you’re not actively working on it, put it
somewhere else. Archive old files, folders, and documents. Use
a consistent filing system with logical folders and uninstall
unnecessary software. Audit your plug-ins — nobody needs 71
different equalizers. Lastly, close non-music applications —
email, web surfing, social media, etc. they’re creativity killers.
4: Make Your Gear Accessible
If you have to walk across the room every time you want to
increase your preamp’s gain a couple of dB, you’re losing creative
vigor with each unnecessary move. To resolve this, keep the gear
you use the most within direct reach of your chair. Rack up the
most popularly used processors like your monitor controller,
audio interface, preamps, and keep them close to you. Ensure that
everything is at a comfortable height too because having to bend
over or crane your body to reach your gear is not efficient. Your
mixer or control surface, as well as your computer keyboard and
mouse, should be arranged so you can use them with your wrists
in a neutral and relaxed position. And while you’re at it, get a
comfortable, ergonomic chair, it’s cheaper than a chiropractor.
5: Organize Your Cables
Recording studios use a lot of cables. And it doesn’t take
long for them to get out of hand, creating a confusing, messy
bowl of spaghetti. That’s why organization is vital — it will
keep you from yanking on wires, wasting time trying to set
things up, and potentially plugging something in wrong, and
damaging your equipment. So what should you do? For starters,
clean house — sort through your oversized assortment of
cables and dispose of any that are damaged or don’t work.
Create a logistical storage system so you can find what you’re
looking for in an instant and store them on pegs or in drawers for
easy access. Label or color-code them so it’s easy to distinguish
one from the other. Run them along walls and furniture to
avoid walking (or tripping) over them. Bundle them with hook-
and-loop fasteners or zip ties. Moreover, if it takes you over a
couple of minutes to hook something up, just get a patchbay.
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
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