What Is Illustrious Sound, Anyway?

In this post, I want to take a moment to talk about my YouTube channel, Illustrious Sound — what it is, why it exists, and who it’s really for.

At its core, Illustrious Sound is an online studio vlog. It documents what I’m working on in my studio as it happens — the ideas, the experiments, the mistakes, the rethinks, and occasionally the small victories. That naturally leads to the question: why would anyone care?

For some people — myself included — there’s something genuinely interesting about seeing how others explore their own creative spaces. Sometimes it’s curiosity. Sometimes it’s problem-solving. Sometimes it’s looking for ideas or inspiration. And sometimes it’s simply reassuring to see that someone else is also figuring things out as they go.

For me, though, the main purpose of the channel is much more specific.

A Resource for My Students

I’ve been teaching for well over 25 years, and despite what this video series might look like at times, I’ve helped many of my students design and build their own home studios. Over the years, I’ve been asked everything from:

• “Can you explain what an audio interface actually does?”
  
• “Which keyboard should I buy?”
  
• “How would you design a studio in this space, with this budget?”
  

In many cases, students are still using the gear I helped them choose years ago.

Ironically, I found it much easier to help students design their studios than to design my own.

Why?

Because when helping others, there are usually clear constraints: a defined purpose, a fixed budget, a specific space, and a timeline. When I redesigned my own studio, I had almost none of that. I had a vague idea of where I wanted to end up, no fixed budget, a flexible space, and a timeline that turned out to be very… negotiable.

That made my own project far more open-ended — and far more chaotic.

An Unscripted Studio Journal

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts and videos, there was very little scripting or planning involved in this channel. I knew I was converting my studio from a software-based setup to a hardware-focused one, and I simply rolled the camera and started documenting what happened.

Most of the early videos are essentially brainstorming sessions captured on camera. The redesign unfolded in real time, with all the confusion, trial and error, false starts, and occasional successes included.

There were plenty of challenges along the way:
space limitations, knowledge gaps, supply shortages, rushed decisions, lack of research, over-expansion, and the constant cycle of discovering problems and then solving them — or creating new ones.

Because of this, the videos were never about high production value. Lighting, colour, sound — all the things that make a “proper” YouTube video — were often far from ideal. I didn’t want to spend time scripting, setting up shots, refilming, and then editing endlessly. That was never the point.

The point was to capture the process, not polish it.

Where the Channel Is Headed

Now that the bulk of the studio redesign chaos has passed — and the studio is closer to being “done” than ever before — there’s a little more room to breathe. With fewer drastic changes planned, I can afford to put a bit more effort into filming in 2026. Whether that’s noticeable or not remains to be seen.

That said, Illustrious Sound will never be a high-production YouTube channel — and that’s intentional.

It’s not meant to be a tutorial channel or a step-by-step “how-to” resource, although the occasional instructional video may appear. Instead, it’s meant to spark questions, encourage observation, and give my students something to think about — and talk about — as they explore their own creative setups.

Think of it less as a guidebook and more as a studio journal.

An Open Invitation

I do plan to make the videos a little more presentable where I can, but the heart of the channel won’t change. It will remain an unfiltered, lightly edited record of what it’s like to build, rethink, and live with a creative space over time.

So if you find something on the channel useful — or if my occasional confusion is at least entertaining — I’m glad you stopped by. And if it helps you think differently about your own studio, even better.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my unfiltered studio journal.

I hope you have a wonderful time designing your own creative space.