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[Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Björgvin Benediktsson of Audio-Issues.com]

Today, everyone can easily record songs in their bedroom studio. Creating a home recording studio has never been cheaper, and you’d be surprised how great the sound quality of your home studio can be.

But the problem is, as with many home offices, procrastination is a big problem. It’s hard to sit down and become creative when you’re at your house. You know you need to take care of a hundred other things, so it’s hard it sit down and be productive with all those chores hanging over your head.

But if you set up your workspace so that it’s easy to start working right away, you might actually get some stuff done.

Set up an Ergonomic Workspace

It’s preferable to have everything within easy reach around your studio. If you always have to set everything up from scratch every time you want to record a song, you’re just wasting time you could otherwise use on your productions. Try to maintain a simple workspace where everything is right there at your disposal.

• If you play keyboards, have it plugged in and ready to go by your side.
• If you play guitar, make sure you have your sound from your amp ready to go. Don’t waste time dialing in a totally new sound every time.
• For acoustic guitar players that also sing, have a microphone handy to capture ideas. You don’t always need to put your microphone away. You can leave it on its stand and just put the microphone bag over the mic when you’re not using it.
• Separate left and right brain tasks

In my home studio, I have everything right there where I can access it quickly. From my desk, I run my audio software that’s connected to the interface and the monitors. When I’m mixing this is the sweet spot. But if I need to produce or record anything I have both my acoustic guitar, midi keyboard controller and electric guitar amp handy and ready to go at any moment’s notice.

Recording in a Roomy Room

The downfall of the home recording studio is usually the sound of the room itself. If you always end up with lousy sounding recordings, it can really drag your productivity down. I mean, who likes recording music if they know it’s going to sound terrible. Luckily, it’s usually not your equipment that’s at fault. It’s the room you’re recording in. You see, the acoustics of a bedroom aren’t designed for recording music. The walls cause reflections from your instrument that the microphone picks up, resulting in a sound that has distinct “room” flavor that’s not always so great.

But creating simple baffles, with thick blankets on the walls and around the microphone when you record can reduce those nasty reflections really well.

If you’re singing, make sure you put an absorptive surface like a thick blanket behind you when you sing. Also, try to shield the microphone from anything except your voice when you’re recording vocals.

The closer you record, the less reflections will end up in your microphone. If you record a lot of acoustic guitar, try recording very close to the 12th fret. Don’t record it further away since then you’ll get a much more roomy sound. Record closer and potentially add artificial reverb later on. It’s a much simpler solution and your audio will sound much better.

Simple but Productive

You see, it’s easy to be productive when you have a workspace that fuels your creativity. Keep everything close at hand so that you can quickly and easily record during that burst of inspiration. And while you’re at it, make sure you won’t get discouraged with the sounds of your recordings. Just a few simple baffles, blankets and absorptive surfaces around your microphone can go a long way towards fixing a roomy recording.

You can follow Björgvin on Twitter as well as learn more about audio at his website, Audio Issues.

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