Home Studio Setup: What to Buy and What to Skip

The Short Answer

How to set up a home studio in India

We are Onewrk. We design and fit studios for companies, not homes. At home you need the right kit in the right room, set up well. Kit prices here come from OneProGear, our own gear store. Buy there, or use the lists to shop anywhere.

Step 2

Fix the problems every Indian home has

Many Indian homes share the same few problems. Most fixes cost little.

Tiled floors and bare walls make echo

Tiled floors and plain painted walls are hard and flat. Your voice bounces off them and reaches the mic a split second late. That is the hollow, bathroom sound on many home videos. To test, clap once where you will record. If you hear a ring after the clap, the room echoes.

The fix is soft things: a thick rug, heavy curtains, a sofa, a bed, cushions, a shelf of books. An open wardrobe full of clothes helps too. Fill the room first. Buy panels only if that is not enough.

If you need home studio acoustic treatment, use thick panels where your voice hits first: the wall in front of you and the side walls level with your head. Our soundproofing and acoustic treatment guide covers where panels go and what they cost. OneProGear has a short guide to treating a bedroom.

Ceiling fans and split ACs

A ceiling fan makes a steady whoosh and pushes air across the mic, which can sound like wind. A split AC's indoor unit hums. Your ears tune these out. Your mic does not.

Cool the room first, then switch the fan and AC off for each take. Record in short blocks with cooling breaks. Noise removal software can lower a hum, but pushed hard it makes your voice sound thin.

Traffic, horns, neighbours and the pressure cooker

You cannot keep a city out of a normal flat. Real soundproofing means heavy walls, sealed gaps and solid doors. That is building work. At home, work around the noise.

• Record at quiet times, often early morning or late night.
• Use the room away from the road. Shut the windows.
• Keep a dynamic mic about a hand's width from your mouth and turn the gain down. It hears you loudly and the street softly.
• Point the back of the mic at the noise. Most podcast and vocal mics hear least from directly behind.
• Ask the house for quiet during takes. The pressure cooker can wait.

Power cuts

A power cut can kill a desktop computer mid-take, and the file with it. The Wi-Fi router dies too, so live calls drop. A small UPS keeps the computer, router and one light running long enough to stop and save. Pick a pure-sine-wave UPS for audio gear, as we do in company studios, and use a surge-protected strip.

Monsoon damp

Lenses can grow fungus in damp air, and condenser mics are fussier about damp than dynamic ones. Store both in a closed box with fresh silica gel, or in a dry cabinet. Gear carried from an AC room into humid air fogs up, so let it warm up first.

Step 3

Which room in your house is best for recording

The biggest, emptiest room is usually the worst. A big hall with tiles and bare walls echoes the most.

Bedroom studio setup: often the best start

A smaller room full of soft things usually wins. For many people that is the bedroom, with a bed, curtains and a wardrobe. It is often the quietest room too. A mini studio setup in one corner is enough for most people. Avoid rooms that sound like a bathroom: tiled walls, glass walls, the kitchen, or a big window onto the road.

Where to sit

• Sit away from the walls, so your voice does not bounce straight back into the mic. It also keeps your shadow off the wall.
• Stay out of corners. Low sounds build up there and make your voice boomy.
• Keep soft things in front of you and behind you.

Step 4

What to buy first: sound, then light, then camera

Spend in this order. Each step does more, for less money, than the one after it.

1. A dynamic mic, close to you

A dynamic mic hears what is close to it and not much else. Close to your mouth, it hears you, and far less of the fan, the street and the echo.

Recording alone? A USB mic plugs straight into a laptop. If a second person may join later, get an XLR mic and an audio interface or recorder. Some mics do both, like the RØDE PodMic USB and the Shure MV7+. The Shure SM7B is a classic, but it needs a strong preamp, so budget for one. Add closed headphones, so sound does not leak back into the mic, and a desk arm to keep the mic close without hiding your face.

2. One good light

One soft light in the right place beats three in the wrong place. A small bi-colour LED light with a softbox is enough. Bi-colour lets you match daylight or warm bulbs. If the light has a fan, it needs a silent mode, or the mic will hear it.

3. The camera you already own

Use your phone's back camera. On most phones it is the better one. Put it on a stand at eye level, and lock focus and exposure so the picture does not shift. For calls, a webcam like the Logitech C920S or Brio is a big step up from a laptop camera. Buy a proper camera only once your sound and light are sorted.

4. Then the small things

A UPS. A spare drive, so every recording has two copies. A tidy background. They cost little and save good takes.

Save Your Money

What to skip in a home studio

These do little in a normal home. Skip them, or buy them last.

• A big condenser mic in an untreated room. Condenser mics are sensitive. In a tiled room with a fan, they hear the echo, the fan and the road. For singing in a home recording studio setup, a condenser is often the right mic, but only once the room is soft.
• Foam egg-crate tiles as "soundproofing". Thin foam does not keep outside noise out. It only softens some high echo. Soft furniture can do as much. For real echo control, use thick panels.
• RGB strip lights before a key light. Coloured lights behind you look fun. But people watch your face. Light it first.
• A 4K camera before your sound is clean. A sharp picture does not hide echo or hiss. Fix the sound first.
• A cheap ring light as your main light. To be fair, ring lights are fine for quick calls. But they light you flat from the front, put a ring in your eyes and glare in glasses. One soft light from the side looks better.

Light

Home studio lighting: one window or one soft light

Start with a window

Face a window, or sit with it a little to one side. Never sit with it behind you, or the camera turns you into a dark shape. A thin white curtain makes the light softer. But daylight changes through the day, so for regular recording a light gives the same look every time.

One soft light at about 45 degrees

Put your main light about 45 degrees to one side of the camera, a little above your eyes, pointing down at your face. That is your key light. On the other side, a white wall or a dimmer second light fills the shadows. Our YouTube studio setup guide goes deeper.

Keep the background darker than your face

Switch off the overhead tube light. Light from straight above puts shadows under your eyes. Turn off warm bulbs that clash with your key light, or set your light to match them. Keep the wall behind you a little darker than your face.

Costs

Home studio setup price: a kit for every budget

Ready kits from OneProGear, our own gear store, cheapest first. Under ₹10,000, the video call kit is the only ready kit. For recording, the cheapest is ₹12,870. The last two rows are what Onewrk does.

Your Options

Two ways to get it done

Plan it yourself, free. The OneProGear Studio Planner takes your room size, furniture and number of people. It gives back a layout and a gear list.

Who We Are

Who wrote this guide

Onewrk is two partners in Bengaluru. Kishore T builds and fits our studios. Nikhil Bhansali handles strategy, audits, consulting and training. There are no account managers. You talk to the people who do the work.

We publish our gear lists and prices, here and on our studio plans page. Already posting videos? Ask us for a free private review of your channel.