Trevor Baron is a piano and theory teacher with years of experience and the creator of Illustrious Sound—a blog-style magazine and video journal shaped by student questions and a love of learning. He shares tools, reflections, and experiments from his own path into music production and home recording.
When the Hardest Studio Decision Is… a Chair When you’re faced with a critical decision, what do you do? Alright—critical might be a stretch in this case. This one’s about a chair. Somewhere along the way, I’ve clearly lost touch with what you’re “supposed” to...
When “This Has to Go” Becomes a Studio Staple In a previous post, I mentioned how this channel is a little different. I unboxed a phone charger on camera—and in the very next video, it was a trackball mouse. Not exactly headline material for a studio channel, but...
Why I Filmed an Unboxing of a Phone Charger During this series, I filmed an unboxing of a phone charger. Yes—a phone charger. On the surface, that probably makes no sense at all for a studio-focused YouTube channel. It’s not exciting, it doesn’t blink, it doesn’t...
When Is a Studio Ever Really Finished? As more rack unit cables arrive at the studio, I can’t help but reflect on how far this space has come since transitioning from a purely software-based setup to a hardware-focused one. It was not a small shift. It required...
Studio Gear, Late Nights, and the Cost of Running on Empty In this post, more rack unit cables arrive. And in the next post, even more rack unit cables arrive. Apparently, rack units require an impressive amount of cabling. But surprisingly, this post isn’t really...
Why My Illustrious Sound Channel Looks the Way It Does If you’ve been following this series at all, you may have noticed something a little unusual: I document everything. From unboxing a phone charger to setting up full synthesizers, it’s all there. My YouTube...
When One Studio Ends… Does Another Begin? In my last post, I wrote about what it might feel like to receive the final package—the one that officially finishes my studio. I admitted that I genuinely enjoy opening gear, installing parts, modding setups, and endlessly...
When the Boxes Stop Arriving One of the things I enjoyed most throughout my studio rebuild wasn’t just the big, exciting purchases—it was opening everything. The large boxes with the “fancier” gear, sure, but also the smaller utility items: Velcro straps, cables,...
Labeling the Patchbay: A Surprisingly Satisfying Problem to Solve I’ve mentioned my patchbays more than once in previous posts, and that’s not by accident. They genuinely changed what my studio ended up being. The ability to connect almost anything to anything else...
Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should: Cable Choices and Signal Reality One of the recurring challenges my students face when setting up their studios has nothing to do with microphones, plugins, or synths—it’s cables. There are so many types, formats,...
The creative divisions of Bach To Basics Inc., each rooted in music education and inspired by the interests of my students—from teaching and publishing to recording and studio learning.
Live online piano and theory lessons for students of all ages—personalized and taught worldwide via Zoom through my teaching studio, Bach To Basics Music. Visit Site
My independent music label for sharing recordings, creative experiments, and behind-the-scenes studio work—often tied to lessons in recording and music production. Visit Site
A blog-style magazine for home studio learners and curious creatives—featuring real-world tutorials, tools, and discoveries inspired by my students and teaching experience. Visit Site
A personal space where I share my work as a composer and orchestrator—alongside study notes, sketches, and insights into learning music through composition. Visit Site
Educational resources and sheet music for students and teachers—designed, tested, and self-published based on real classroom and studio use. Visit Site
Each issue of Illustrious Sound brings together the blog articles you see here into a curated, downloadable PDF magazine. Whether you’re a music teacher, student, or just love learning about the creative side of music and audio, this free magazine is a great way to dive deeper. No email signup required—just click and enjoy.