# Working from home



## Johannes (Nov 7, 2010)

I´m used to working from a studio, but 1) the recording rooms don´t get used very much nowadays so I can´t justify the extra cost, and 2) I don´t have much daylight in the studio, so it´s not comfortable to work there for a longer period of time. Since more of my work now is about writing music (I did more production work earlier), I´m considering setting up a writing studio in a spare room in my relatively small appartment and work from here. If I need to record anything live, I know a bunch of engineers making it easy to rent a studio at any time I want.

Do you work from home or from a studio elsewhere? What is your experiences from working from home? Pros and cons? How do you keep your work and personal life separate? Any tips?

My biggest concern is falling into bad habits, getting burned out from staying at the same place for days. And getting little done. I´m also a natural born procrastinator, so it´s easy ending up spending days on the couch, and evenings on work


----------



## rabiang (Nov 7, 2010)

I built a porch with a studio and a big room that can also be used as a recording room. 

pro's: always available, close to wife and kid, can work a bit then do something else.

con's: disturbances. for me its mostly pleasant but can be work disruptive.

i think its not possible to keep personal life and work seperate, so i dont even try . i think one needs an understanding wife (or dog or whatever lives with u).


----------



## dannthr (Nov 7, 2010)

Benefit number 1: Home Office Tax Deduction.


----------



## noiseboyuk (Nov 8, 2010)

I think I agree with Rabiang that trying to keep the 2 lives totally separate is virtually impossible, even though it's what we're all "supposed" to do. However, the advantages DEFINITELY outweigh the disadvantages for me (he says typing this from home while rain pours down in sheets outside). The biggest thing I've found is that if I exclusively work from home for weeks / months, I start to go stir crazy. I find myself going to the supermarket in the middle of the day just to get out. But at least, in the mad busy times, I do still see the family for meals etc - can't really put a price on that.


----------



## autopilot (Nov 8, 2010)

yep to all of that 


I work from home - use / hire recording studios when I need 'em. 

I do maintain a regular work schedule though - I seriously do 9 to 5 and try to not work weekends. 

That said when my wife wnet away for a month, I could do kids and work after their bed - though I'm only just recovering from those stupid hours now  

I think you only need the "writers" studio if your project needs directors, or producers that want to drop in and give their 20c worth, and you don;t know them well enough - or you live to far from the geographic centre of town that they won't want to travel. 

So if I get to a point where that is necessary / a financial plus then I'll think about it - otherwise I totally dig the home thing


----------



## dannthr (Nov 8, 2010)

I always tell myself I'm going to abide by the shoes rule and then bam!

I'm crunchin' on a deadline with just a few hours of sleep a night, in my underwear eating cold left-overs out of a tupper-ware with a knife 'cause I haven't done the dishes in a bit.


----------



## charlieclouser (Nov 27, 2010)

I would ONLY work from home. Even when I lived literally across the street from a large studio facility that I had a room in, I was never in my own home... as in only there to sleep and shower. My wife would come across the street to eat take-out with me in the studio lounge... it was awful, and no more productive than what I'm doing now.

Every time I visit colleagues at places like ZimmerCo™ HQ I get so depressed and anxious in that "professional environment" that I can barely spend an hour there before I have to make excuses and escape..... hoping I don't run into Lumberg in his suspenders stalking the cubicles.

Plus, if I'm feeling lazy or uninspired I can just watch "The First 48" on the big screen for a while without being embarrassed at my laziness or guilty for having employees on the clock while I waste time until I feel like working again (usually at 2am or later, once Adult Swim's programming starts to loop).

The one thing that is VERY nice is that my work rooms, while part of the house, can only be accessed by walking outside and across the yard; there isn't a hallway or anything for direct access from the house. That's exactly the right amount and type of separation for me, and it means that I must get showered and dressed and have shoes on to "go to work". I don't keep a fridge or kitchen out there so I'm constantly back and forth for refreshments and such, which keeps me in touch with what the family is up to... minus the possibility of rugrats trying to stuff a grilled cheese sandwich into a SuperDrive!


----------



## jeffc (Nov 27, 2010)

I agree that I think the benefits of working from home outweigh the negatives. I've struggled with this for years, and have rented a studio outside of my house a few times because I missed being around people and random bs chit chat and such. Both times I realized that once you close the door in your studio - whether at home or outside - it's pretty much the same thing. Composing, at the end of the day, is not a very social job. I've found that doing things outside of work is better for for social interaction than trying to find it at the studio. 

On the plus side, there are so many more benefits to working at home. I can't tell you how many times I would be driving home from my rented studio, or just get home, when there would be a note on a cue that required me to turn around to make a small fix that would take 2 minutes, but an hour and a half round trip drive! With a studio at home, that doesn't happen anymore, and just a few of those makes it SO worth it. 

I've also found that working at home, trying to make sort of regular hours, makes finding some type of work/life balance a bit easier. It's easier to take off for a few hours for a dinner or time with your kid or girlfriend or whatever, without the formality of 'going to the studio'. It kind of makes me be able to fit in hours of 'outside life" more randomly throughout the day that I couldn't otherwise. Because, in all honestly, composing at the end of the day is a 24x7 gig. Even if you're not actually writing, it's still running though your head while you're doing other things. I've never been able to say "I'm not working weekends or nights" or anything like that. The schedule seems to constantly ebb and flow, and having a studio at home, seems to make it easier to kind of adapt and make the best use of the personal time, whenever that may come. Or maybe that's just me....


----------



## midphase (Nov 27, 2010)

HA....funny! I have the same set up here where there is no direct connection between the house proper and the studio...but I still manage to get my ass in there while still wearing pajamas and barefoot! The main thing which keeps me going back and forth is that I don't have a bathroom in the studio...and I drink A LOT of tea while I work.


----------



## choc0thrax (Nov 27, 2010)

charlieclouser @ Sat Nov 27 said:


> I would ONLY work from home. Even when I lived literally across the street from a large studio facility that I had a room in, I was never in my own home... as in only there to sleep and shower. My wife would come across the street to eat take-out with me in the studio lounge... it was awful, and no more productive than what I'm doing now.
> 
> Every time I visit colleagues at places like ZimmerCo™ HQ I get so depressed and anxious in that "professional environment" that I can barely spend an hour there before I have to make excuses and escape..... hoping I don't run into Lumberg in his suspenders stalking the cubicles.
> 
> ...



Hmmmmm are you really Mr. Clouser? I'm a big fan of that dude.


----------



## Ned Bouhalassa (Nov 28, 2010)

One of the things I like best about working at home is being to make my own lunch and snacks for much less than what I would pay in a restaurant. The food tastes better, I know what's in it, and I can make/eat it on a whim.


----------



## Guy Bacos (Nov 28, 2010)

This is such a no-brainer. Where I live the winters can be hell going to work, and traffic, car problems and expenses, add all the time you loose, restaurants, etc...

So while people are doing this I get up, go downstairs to my studio, make a cappuccino and I'm off.... o/~


----------



## tabulius (Jan 20, 2011)

This is very interesting topic - and very current in my life.

We have four people in our company, nowdays two of us are working full time and other two part time. We have a great studio that we have build ourselves. However our studio rent has risen up and we have also given up of recording and production work more or less. So now we have found out that we two are trying to keep the big studio "alive" and half of it is empty.

So I have thought about leaving the studio and taking my music business to home. Pros and cons are:

Pros: Much more money for our wages, equipments, software updates etc.

Cons: I'm worried how we can function as a company if we all work at home. Of course there is skype, emails, and occasional lunch meetings, but still the collaboration is more difficult. What do you think?
Cons: I would lose the great acoustics, what I can't get from my small appartment.
Cons: I couldn't do music with monitors in certain times, because of the neighbors.
Cons: We have some occasional recording gigs, so we would lose those.

I see that most of you like doing music at home, more than in studios. I'm a bit suprised about that. Howcome no one doesn't prefer the studio? I like the idea of going to work, but as I said, I'm not sure am I willing to pay for that so much that I can't pay for myself  But I'm hoping that we'll have so much composing gigs that we don't have to worry about rent anymore.


----------

