This episode archive includes gear deep-dives, synth setups, MIDI puzzles, wiring disasters, and the occasional small victory. Each year is organized into a season. Click any title to watch the episode and download companion PDFs when available.
Planning vs. Diving In How Timing, Economics, and Instinct Shaped My Studio Redesign Two Ways to Start a Project There are two kinds of people when it comes to starting a project: Those who meticulously research every detail before making a move Those who jump in...
A One-Time Window Opportunity, Chaos, and Why I Let the Camera Keep Rolling A Rare Economic Moment In several previous posts, I’ve mentioned the unusual economic moment that made my studio redesign possible at the speed it happened. Gear prices were...
When Is Time Wasted… Well Spent? At first glance, this may sound like a ridiculous question. But if you’ve followed my studio redesign from start to finish, it might make a little more sense. Over the course of this project, I: Built multiple rack units—only to...
Finding the Layout That Feels Right During the course of my studio redesign, I moved just about everything—often more than once. That process kept pulling me back to memories of my original, software-based studio, and how different it was from what I work in today....
Imitation, Inspiration, and Making It Your Own Imitation is often said to be a form of flattery. When it comes to studio design, I think that idea fits surprisingly well. I’m probably not alone in occasionally going online to look at photos and videos of both home...
When Looks Get in the Way of Function One of the issues I repeatedly stumbled into during my original studio design—about a year earlier—was placing a synth or a piece of gear somewhere because it looked great, only to later realize it was completely impractical to...
How Your Perception of Your Studio Changes Over Time It’s interesting how your perception of your studio can shift as you move through the process of designing—or redesigning—it. In earlier posts, I talked about how the idea of building a hardware-based studio took...
When to Put Down the Measuring Tape and Just Try It During my studio redesign, one idea kept resurfacing again and again: At some point, you have to throw away the pen and pencil, put down the measuring tape, and simply try things out. Planning a studio—especially...
When an Idea Starts to Take Shape Have you ever had a moment during a studio design—or redesign—where an idea you weren’t even sure would work suddenly begins to click? Where you can almost see it forming in real time? For me, that moment came from something...
Patience as a Design Tool If I had to do this entire studio redesign over again, there’s one small thing I might change. I would slow down. Not across the board.Not in every decision. But specifically in how I approached building and finishing certain elements of...
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