I promised you that I would share my home studio endeavors, and now it is time to show you the ghetto studio. AKA: My Padded Room. My recording booth is in…a closet, and it’s not just a closet. It was ONE OF THOSE closets…DUN DUN DUN!

Abe Lincoln assures me “It’s okay, Prentice. If I can run a country while killing vampires, you can clean and convert this catastrophe!”

We all have one of these closets. You know, the one that got out of control and is a ridiculous, unorganized pit of crap? If you say you don’t have a space like this, you are lying. I understand though. Not all people want their dirty laundry, or closets in this case, out in the open for all to see, but Prentice does not care, so here is what I started with.

And here is what I came-up with for now. Drum roll, please…

TADA!!!!! My Padded Room!

I first cleaned-out the closet, which wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be. Then I hung leftover ceiling tiles on the biggest, blank wall. On top of that, I draped comforters all around the room, and I  installed a furniture cushion below the shelf. I also obtained some egg crate foam bedding and used it to cover the door (it hangs in the doorway like hippie beads) and other spaces. The shelf on the inside is still usable  and I can access the seasonal decor on it with relative ease. I added a rug, and why yes. That is a sink in there. Once my guest room is no longer an apartment, I will replace the sink in the 3/4 bathroom with a pedestal (it will open-up the room and look pretty for guests, but right now we need the counter space for my roomie), but until then, the sink will be useful in a new way…as a mic stand. I also made a pop filter out of a plastic hand towel holder, some pantyhose, a wire hanger and some leopard print duck tape.

I connect my Blue Yeti’s USB cable to my laptop outside the room, and I record with Audacity because it’s installed on that computer. I hit record, hop into my padded room, go crazy and edit my masterpieces.

So far I have done some pickups for a pony related gig, and I’ve recorded auditions for lower budget Voice123 projects. I started with low budget jobs because I could test the waters with my setup with little to no risk of lowering my Voice123 stats with bad scores. I’ve gotten good feedback so far, so yay me. I do my editing in either Audacity on the laptop or in Cool Edit Pro on my desktop. Both programs have their ups and downs, but I like using Cool Edit on my desktop because it has a mouse and better speakers. I need headphones. Because the closet isn’t near anything noisy, like an air vent or kitchen or television, I can get a pretty decent recording, especially if nobody’s home or I tell anybody around to mute games and stfu.

 I’m off to a good start and will continue updating my ghetto studio any chance I get. With the power of fluffy things, arts and crafts, the internet, ponies, leopard print duck tape and the passion and drive and ingenuity and talent and creativity that comes with being a Prentice, I believe this is the beginning of something truly awesome! Now, let’s go book some work!

Remember, Everybody. You can make a clean, well balanced recording without all the store-bought bells and whistles. If it sound great, it does not matter how you did it, so NEVER let a low budget keep you from chasing your ambitions!