When the Studio Grows Faster Than the Plan

While redesigning my studio, I ran into several major problems—although, to be fair, some of that trouble was also a lot of fun to get into. It wasn’t until I sat down to assemble and edit this video series that I fully realized what had actually happened.

Throughout the filming, I often referred to buying gear slowly over a long period of time, and I genuinely believed that was the case. What I underestimated was just how powerful a synth addiction can be—and how easy it is for reality to quietly slip by when you’re enjoying the process.

Realizing How Fast It Actually Happened

I began filming this series in 2022. While editing, I decided to trace things back properly and realized my first synth purchase—the Yamaha MODX7—actually happened in 2019, just before the pandemic began.

Once I started doing the math, the timeline became much clearer.

Between 2019 and 2022, I purchased:

• Yamaha MODX7
  
• AKAI Force
  
• Roland FA
  
• Korg Minilogue
  
• Behringer DeepMind 12
  
• Arturia MiniBrute
  
• Arturia DrumBrute
  

Then, between 2022 and 2025, I added:

• Roland SP-404MKII
  
• Maschine+
  
• Komplete Kontrol S61
  
• Various mono synths and pieces of outboard hardware
  

Until I sat down to review everything in one place, I hadn’t realized that all of this happened in the span of about six years.

Six years may sound like a long time, and looking back, it was a lot of fun bringing that much gear into the studio. But that speed introduced a real problem.

Owning Gear vs. Knowing Gear

The biggest issue wasn’t the amount of equipment—it was how I was using it.

While I was using these instruments, I was often using them in a fairly superficial way. I’d load a preset, learn a few basic tweaks, and move on. I rarely took the time to do a deep dive into any one piece of gear.

As a result, I ended up redesigning a studio around instruments I didn’t fully understand yet. That made things much more difficult than they needed to be.

Placement became a challenge. Workflow decisions felt uncertain. In some cases, I owned instruments that overlapped in functionality without fully realizing it. When you don’t yet understand what a piece of gear truly excels at, it becomes harder to know where it belongs—or even whether you really need it.

Learning After the Expansion

In the end, things did work out—but not without effort.

Now, instead of constantly expanding, I’m spending time properly learning the instruments I already have. That process has turned out to be incredibly enjoyable. There’s a different kind of satisfaction that comes from depth rather than accumulation.

This experience reinforced something important for me: designing a studio around gear you deeply understand is far easier than designing one around gear you’re still getting to know.

Modifying the Space to Catch Up

Alongside the learning curve came physical challenges.

As the studio evolved, the synth wall needed to evolve with it. One example was the need for a much larger shelf to accommodate instruments like the Roland FA. That meant designing and building a custom shelf rather than relying on off-the-shelf solutions.

While I’m very happy with how that modification turned out, it required a significant amount of planning, research, and structural consideration to make sure it was safe and stable. Once again, the studio layout had to adapt to changing circumstances.

A Studio That Evolves With Experience

This entry really captures a recurring theme throughout the Illustrious Sound series: the studio doesn’t evolve in a straight line.

Sometimes growth happens faster than understanding. Sometimes layout decisions lag behind gear choices. And sometimes you only fully grasp what’s happened once you stop, look back, and connect the dots.

In my case, the studio grew quickly—but it’s now settling into something more intentional. The layout continues to evolve, but now it’s guided more by experience than impulse. And that shift has made the studio a much more rewarding place to work.