Cleaning the goddamned studio

[losthighway]

Hey all. Not a question here, just a space to commiserate.

The immaculately curated Wilco loft came up on my social media as it often does and I just thought, "Damn, that looks like a much more comfortable place to make music than mine is right now." So I had to get out and attack it. It was bad.

Part of the problem is when I'm not taking clients the space is mine. I follow a whim, I get a setup going and I tire myself out. Then I leave. Then there's more stuff just kind of up and around.

I probably spent two hours today wrapping up random cables, putting random mic clips on the shelf, putting the three guitars on the couch back in their cases, throwing away the giant pile of beer and Topo Chico bottle caps on top of the mini fridge away. My first thought after I finished is I wanted to mess with my synth and my pedal board, but that I'd better mic up my little amp in case something unique was coming out. Then I thought, "Shit, I'm already messing it up again."

[Scodiddly]

The Wilco loft is really big, though, right? So they can leave various setups active in various corners without it looking too messy.

[losthighway]

The Wilco loft is really big, though, right? So they can leave various setups active in various corners without it looking too messy.

Yeah, and they have someone who's full time job is to keep things nice and organized. Definitely not something I should even bother wanting- that loft setup, more of a good motivator to make my little world comfy and efficient. I think artistic process leads to messes, and sometimes messes can start to interfere with artistic process.

[roscoenyc]

As a producer booking studios for myself and my clients in the early 90's I never felt more disrespected for all of us than when
walking into a place and finding a full trash can with somebody else's old pizza in there. Especially
when I had not beaten the guy up on his price and brought a 50% deposit to give the guy before I even said hello.

When I'd have my own place, which I finally did a few years later, I made it habit to clean up before leaving the studio.

First impressions are just that, you can't turn back the clock on somebody walking in the door for the first time.
To me having the place cleaned up and ready for your next client is equally as important as staying on top of maintenance (drilled into me by going to studios and seeing tape marked 'DNU' on non functioning gear.)

You don't have to be a nut about it during a lockout but at least collect cups, glasses and cans and empty that trash before you leave. You are the last guy in there and that's the easiest time to do it, like when making backups.

Don't you want your client to walk in there the first time and go "wow" (in a positive way)?

[losthighway]

Don't you want your client to walk in there the first time and go "wow" (in a positive way)?

Totally. That part is actually easier. What I struggle with is the many months of the year I don't take clients and it's just my space. I think then it's more like how a painter can let their studio get crazy messy, or the way my desk at work is a dumpster fire. Something about the way I think spreads things out, and I have to pause to rehab the area. Sometimes the greater the inspiration the worse the mess.

[trodden]

Cleaning the studio now vs. ten years ago.

Now, I find that pair of reading glasses that somehow fell between the racks and got swallowed up by the snakes.

Ten years ago, "OH FUCK, THERE'S THAT BAGGIE!

[trodden]

As a producer booking studios for myself and my clients in the early 90's I never felt more disrespected for all of us than when
walking into a place and finding a full trash can with somebody else's old pizza in there. Especially
when I had not beaten the guy up on his price and brought a 50% deposit to give the guy before I even said hello.

Totally. My OCD goes overboard when shit like that happens, because I work so hard on making sure it doesn't happen after I leave the studio.

[trodden]

Don't you want your client to walk in there the first time and go "wow" (in a positive way)?

Totally. That part is actually easier. What I struggle with is the many months of the year I don't take clients and it's just my space. I think then it's more like how a painter can let their studio get crazy messy, or the way my desk at work is a dumpster fire. Something about the way I think spreads things out, and I have to pause to rehab the area. Sometimes the greater the inspiration the worse the mess.

My wife's art studio is a fucking disaster and part of the work in this relationship is to not let her manner of "organization" bother me because it's not my fucking room. Granted, i can get annoyed when I'm looking for something that lives in her studio and can't find it, and then she cannot find it, but then I realize that I need to get my own set of X-acto knives/metal rulers/glue gun/etc. if it's going to be a big deal.

[vvv]

I live in a 3 bedroom ranch house with my 20-something daughter.

Together we live with a dog, ~ 50 guitars/basses/mandos, about 15 amps, mebbe 10 keyboards, 6 stereos, a cuppla thou CDs, a cuppla hunnert DVDs ...

Besides breaking down amps set up in various rooms and wrapping mic and guitar cables a cuppla times a week, there's piles of pedals and mics, amps to put back in the office, 5 TV's, 7 computers, the occasional mis-placed baggie ...

We're good about the kitchen mostly, and don't drink beer, and she vacuums, when I yell enough.

For me, then, it's more like "cleaning the goddamned house".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOuQywiRUJo

[A.David.MacKinnon]

As a freelance producer/engineer nothing pisses me off more than showing up to a filthy studio. Actually second only to a studio full of broken gear but it's a close call.

Clean up your shit. Even if it's your own place and you are the only client. A dirty, dusty studio can really quickly become a studio full of gear with scratchy pots and intermittent switches. The two things are directly connected.

I just did post Covid maintenance on one of my regular freelance locations. They were complaining about bad channels on the board. I vacuumed about 10lbs of mouse poo out of it. "Oh, here's your problem!".

[markjazzbassist]

my studio is only for personal use and the term "studio" i would consider very liberal in regards to what it is. all that withstanding, i still try and clean it up once a week, cables usual go everywhere, pedals out and about, it really is a lot easier to work when it's clean

[Colorblind]

My first thought after I finished is I wanted to mess with my synth and my pedal board, but that I'd better mic up my little amp in case something unique was coming out. Then I thought, "Shit, I'm already messing it up again."

This is the constant battle I have at my place. I love the idea of a studio where everything is mic'd up and ready to go as soon as I walk in, but I can never seem to keep it that way for long. Taking a Coles off the drum kit to mic a guitar amp soon leads to mic stands, instruments and cables haphazardly scattered across the room until it really starts to drive me crazy, at which point I clean everything up and the whole process starts over again.

[markjazzbassist]

My first thought after I finished is I wanted to mess with my synth and my pedal board, but that I'd better mic up my little amp in case something unique was coming out. Then I thought, "Shit, I'm already messing it up again."

This is the constant battle I have at my place. I love the idea of a studio where everything is mic'd up and ready to go as soon as I walk in, but I can never seem to keep it that way for long. Taking a Coles off the drum kit to mic a guitar amp soon leads to mic stands, instruments and cables haphazardly scattered across the room until it really starts to drive me crazy, at which point I clean everything up and the whole process starts over again.

great point, that is a battle i go through too. i think your point brings it back to the beginning. it is very easy to have a clean studio when you are the Wilco Loft situation, they don't have to take a mic and move it to another amp, they have multiples of everything in every space so they aren't moving gear around like we are. i have thought of doing this, like having 2 of the same pedal, one for electric piano pedalboard, one for guitar pedalboard so i never have to move them, never have to move cables, etc. but then i realize i don't have the money to basically have a ton of redundant gear just so i don't have to move stuff around and make a mess. so i live with the mess and "gear/cable/mic" sharing and understand i'm saving money for more important things.

[vvv]

I like yer idear but besides the gear cost - ya need lotsa room.

[roscoenyc]

There are fancier versions of this quick release mic adaptor but having these things on stands makes swapping out various microphones a whole lot easier.