Why Am I Building A Studio? (and your other questions)

[Music] okay so we are a week into the studio build down here i'm currently sitting in what will be the control room so i figured this might be a good time to do another tuesday q a so reach out to you guys on instagram had you send in questions and we got a lot of studio and recording questions so that's what we're going to answer today quick plug though if you want to help support the build of the studio uh you can do so by buying a video course they're all on sale currently via the link down below that's the fretboard fundamentals course the nashville number system course and the tone course are all on sale uh and i appreciate the support because you buying a course is going to help me buy some more lumber and cheat rock for the studio so thank you so the first question that came in is why are you building a new studio okay so the reality is i've wanted my own studio space for a really really long time ever since i started working at rick biato studio years ago and started doing sessions i realized that one day i was gonna want to become more of a producer and writer than being just a guitar player to make a living in music and music production and writing today you have to be able to wear multiple hats you have your primary instrument or your skill set and then on top of that you need to know how to do things like engineer and produce and edit and do other types of production and creative work like a youtube channel in order to make a living so that's the practical side of it i want a space to be able to produce and work with bands work with artists and have a space that's mine not have to rent out other studio spaces to work on those projects the other part of it is when you have your own space that you work in day in and day out you really learn that space you learn its strengths you learn its weaknesses and you can use that space and those strengths to your advantage if you're going in and out of different studios all the time and working with different people different engineers different assistants it's just not as cohesive as having your own space with your own crew of people to work with consistently in fact jimmy our studio builder ran his own studio here in atlanta called king mattress for years and i you'd say that's true right sure yeah why did you build king matt well everything rhett just said is right right on point um i too was a working guitar player and one of my very dear friends and great engineer mentors if you will uh donald jones one day called me up and said he found the perfect space for us to put a rim in and so i had been building studios for a number of years at that point so that was the first room i designed and what rhett says is absolutely true you become very familiar with the sound of the room the equipment that's in the room the microphones that you have to work with and you really learn an awful lot about your own skills the more you do that and being able to go to the same place every day and have tools that you're familiar with really takes just a leap and a bound in a positive direction with your skills yeah so that's a big part of it and then on a more personal note i want to make records this is a part of my career and things that i want to do that i haven't been able to do quite yet and it's something that in order to make the records that i want to make it requires a space like this i want to track with a full band in a room and then aside from that there's also some ideas that i have for this youtube channel that i really want to do that i can't pull off without a space like this that i can work in consistently and that's all i'll say about that for now but that's why i'm building a studio second question asked how will you document the studio build for youtube will there be a series yes we're actually in the middle of shooting the series we are planning on doing about a six-part video series it's going to document the entire build from start to finish it's something i'm really excited about we're putting a ton of work into on top of building the actual space filming and getting angles of everything it is slowing us down a little bit but it's going to be worth it in the long run the idea behind the series is not just to show you my studio build but to actually share some information about how these things go together if you were to build your own studio or even if you're going to try and outfit a room in your house to make it sound better a studio designer jimmy bird who's heading this whole project is a mad scientist with this stuff and he is sharing decades and decades of wisdom when it comes to studio builds and we're gonna put all that down now the thing is you won't see the studio build series on the channel until we're pretty close to being done which realistically means you won't see the first episode till probably early next year january february time frame but just know that once the videos start rolling out they will be continuously rolling out that's why we're waiting i want to release it like a tv show schedule one video a week until the whole thing is done so yes you will see the entire build on my channel this question came in from stevenshaw91 on instagram steven asks what advice do you have for someone wanting to become a session guitarist so if you want to start playing sessions there's a few things a few skill sets that you need to have under your belt first of all you absolutely need to be able to play in time with a metronome or a click track that's an essential skill the next thing i would tell you is practice recording yourself if you're new to a recording situation you can encounter something called red light syndrome and it happens to everybody even seasoned studio people but it's the idea that when the red light comes on it's a struggle to try and play something cleanly or get a good takedown and a really good way of working on that and getting past red light syndrome is to practice recording yourself even if it's just with your phone and a voice memo app after that i would tell you to do a lot of listening listen to great records not just guitar records not just transcribing guitar solos but listen to really great records things that are produced really well that are written really well and then hone in on those guitar parts even the most simple and subtle guitar parts because oftentimes they're the most important they're the ones that will make or break the session and on top of that you need to be a great rhythm player you need to have your rhythm chops together because most of the time in a studio setting you're going to be relying on your rhythm chops and not your lead chops at least in my experience most of the sessions that i've done have relied mostly on writing simple parts pentatonic melodies uh understanding your triads up and down the neck those are the meat and potatoes uh guitar session skills at least for the sessions that i do which is you know not typical of every type of session out there but no matter what type of music you might be playing if you can play in time you can get a takedown within one or two tries and you can write interesting unique parts that fit the songs with the tones that fit the song you'll be golden the jeff harris asks why do you and other youtube creators change video titles and thumbnails after you post them it's simple sometimes you make a video and people don't click on it and when people don't click on it to watch it then youtube doesn't push it as hard the algorithm doesn't push it as hard for better for words running a youtube channel is basically like a marketing gig you are trying to make something that people will click on and engage with and watch and a huge part of that is titles and thumbnails so myself and a lot of the other youtube creators that you probably follow pay attention when a new video goes up and it's not performing very well one of the first things we will attempt to do is change the title and change the thumbnail and the reality is it works a lot of the time it will turn a video around in fact i've had now some of my biggest videos on my channel started off as complete flops people just weren't watching them and we changed the title sometimes three or four times change the thumbnail three or four times and then the video takes off doesn't always work but when it does it's worth it so that's why we do it gbergman8 asks what is the studio name going to be we don't know yet it's one of those things that will happen when it happens but i will say we're going to be releasing a whole line of merch based off of the studio name and logo whenever we get it and i'm actually thinking about starting a channel that is for the studio uh a studio youtube channel and my idea with that will be to have some more technical like in-depth recording and production videos maybe some vlogs of what's happening in the studio i don't know yet but i think it'll be cool to have a channel dedicated to just whatever this studio ends up being so whenever we have a name it will be revealed in good time but we don't have one yet jason on instagram asks how did you create the mindset to start a channel let alone build a new studio that's a really good question it took me a long time to decide to start the youtube channel in years in fact and i actually started one and then quit back in 2014-2015 so it wasn't an easy decision but it was a decision that i took a lot of time thinking about and once i decided that that's what i wanted to do i just started doing it you start making videos you start posting videos you start coming up with ideas and then there comes a point where you just decide okay this is what i'm doing now i have this goal and in order to reach that goal i need to do these things and you just take it one step at a time when i was in music school pretty early on i had a meeting with one of my teachers and i was kind of freaking out i didn't think i was going to be able to complete school i was struggling in a lot of the classes i wasn't doing that well and it was steve rick one of my teachers at aim that told me i was looking at it all wrong i was sitting there staring at the top of the mountain standing at the bottom and wondering how i was ever gonna get there and what i should be doing is looking down and focusing on one step at a time and before you know it you're gonna be at the top of the mountain and that's what got me through music school that's what got me to my first 10 000 subscribers on youtube and that's what's getting us through this whole build process there's been several points during this week building that i've had a moment where i've sat and looked around and just thought oh my god what have we gotten ourselves into this is a massive project but then you just stop look down and take one step at a time cut the next board hang the next sheet of drywall and you do that over and over and over again and before you know it you're building a whole new studio so i would say that's the mindset take it one step at a time have a goal have an endpoint in mind and just chip away at it time after time after time and you'll get there meet up in hamburg yeah so in a few weeks my friend phillip conrad and i will be flying out to hamburg germany for three weeks to play on a record uh and yeah if there's people that want to meet up and maybe there's a guitar store or someplace that would want to host a meetup we could do that i've never done something like that before but if people are interested and there's a place in or around hamburg and we have the time to get away from the session to go do it i could see phil and i wanted to do a meetup so yeah do you plan on renting the studio space for other people outside your circle no this is not going to be a commercial studio space this is not going to be a space for hire this is gonna be my studio for my projects for bands and artists that i work with for this youtube channel and for other projects that i haven't even thought of or haven't encountered yet but this will not be a public studio for rent or anything like that so there you go that's this episode of tuesday q a thank you guys so much for watching don't forget if you want to support the channel or support the studio build buy a video course currently on sale via the link down in the description box below you can also sign up for the inner circle down there for ten dollars a month and get access to my video courses and the inner circle live hangs that we do every month that's linked down below as well if you haven't done so already be sure to subscribe here on youtube follow me on instagram and tick tock at retro and be on the lookout for the studio build series when it comes out early next year that's it thanks so much for watching and remember there is no plan b you

Channel: Rhett Shull

Views: 66,168

Keywords: tuesday Q&A, rhett shull, studio build, recording studio, music production, home studio, recording studio tips, first time in studio, audio engineering, home recording studio, how to record, recording studio session, home studio acoustic treatment, home studio desk, home studio design, home studio recording, recording studio vlog, music production course, music production software, music production tips, recording studio equipment, recording studio build

Id: 0BcxlIGDfLo

Length: 13min 8sec (788 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 12 2021