emStudios
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MAPLE GROVE, MN — HOME RECORDING STUDIO

Your Voice — Your Music Worth Recording

A small home studio built for the inspiring solo artist — quality sessions, mixing, and mastering, so you can share your music and talent without straining your budget.

Behind the board

About & equipment

"Music is not only a hobby for me, but a passion. The industry is tough on those that simply want to share what's in their hearts. I wanted a studio for myself, and thought I could share the opportunity with you."
— Brian, emStudios
Brian's home recording studio — Maple Grove, MN, with acoustic treatment, guitar wall, and mix desk

DAW & Plugins

  • Studio One 7 Professional
  • TH2 by Overloud
  • SoundToys & Spitfire Audio (Labs)
  • Melodyne by Celemony
  • Finale 25 / Garritan Personal Orchestra 5

Interfaces

  • Audient EVO 16
  • Focusrite Scarlett 4i4
  • MOTU 828mkII

Monitoring

  • Kali Audio 6.5″ (LP-6)
  • KRK Rokit Monitors
  • DT 770 Pro Headphones

Controllers

  • PreSonus FaderPort V2 & 8
  • PreSonus ATOM SQ

Keyboards & Instruments

  • Roland XP-80 / Yamaha A-10 upright piano
  • ESP LTD M-200FM, Lava Me 2, two Washburn acoustics, Yamaha 12-string
  • Dusty Strings hammer dulcimer, HandPan (22″ Dm)
  • Alesis NitroPro electric drum kit

Mics & Misc

  • Shure SM7B & SM58
  • Roswell K67x, MK-319, PreSonus Revelator
  • Shakers, harmonicas, misc. percussion

Signal chain

Services

No published rates — every session starts with a conversation via phone or in person, about what you would like to accomplish and the dream you have for your project.

Tracking

Recording studio time

Book the room, bring your songs, leave with real takes.

Post

Mixing & mastering

Polished, release-ready mixes without the big-studio price tag.

Lesson

Guitar & music theory

One-on-one lessons for players who want to actually understand the fretboard.

Transfer

VHS to digital

Rescue old family tapes before they're gone for good.

Transfer

Cassette to digital

Same rescue mission, for the cassette shoebox in the closet.

Maintenance

Piano tuning

Keep the upright honest between sessions.

The archive

The Vault

A working record of sessions, covers, and originals recorded at emStudios — pulled up from the tape library.

Raw + mixed

"The Siege"

Final project for the RRFC course — unmixed take side-by-side with the professionally mixed version.

▶ Listen on emstudios.net
Original

"You Are the Lighthouse for My Heart"

An original composition, dedicated to Brian's spouse.

▶ Listen on emstudios.net
Collaboration

"The Highway of Life"

A collaboration between Brian and Kirk of Natural Aura.

▶ Listen on emstudios.net
Cover

"Conviction of the Heart"

A Kenny Loggins cover, lead vocals.

▶ Listen on emstudios.net
Original

"When the Rain Falls Down"

An original composition, tracked start to finish in the home booth.

▶ Listen on emstudios.net
Video · dual mix

"Inside Out"

Two versions — the original video recording, and a revised mix with enhanced effects.

▶ Watch on emstudios.net

Each card opens the track's real home on the current live site until the rebuild ships — at that point these become native embedded players. Video sessions ("The Wedding Song," a piano reception intro, a DaVinci Resolve trailer experiment) and a password-protected sheet-music archive round out the full Vault, plus a SoundCloud profile — all wired in as native embeds during the coded build.

Tape counter

Building the room

The studio didn't start as a studio — it started as a closet vocal booth and a stack of gear wishlists. The public build log, condensed:

2018

Gearing up

Picked up a Focusrite interface to fix latency issues and started re-recording early songs from scratch.

2019

Drums, DAW, and a real program

Added an Alesis NitroMesh kit and a PreSonus FaderPort, upgraded to Studio One 4, and enrolled in the Recording Connection program with an internship at Winterland Studios.

2020

emStudios goes public

A Lava Me 2 and a 5-guitar rack joined the collection; the "small home studio for the inspiring solo artist" positioning launched on the home page. A WhisperRoom isolation booth was priced out and shelved — modular, but $7k is $7k.

2021

Treating the room

Upgraded to Kali Audio LP-6 monitors, finished the flooring, and installed acoustic curtains and foam panels. The public build log goes quiet here — current state to confirm directly with Brian for the rebuild.

Patch in

Let's make something.

Let's not keep stories untold, hidden away.

Call 612-217-4397 Email brian@emstudios.net
Location Maple Grove, MN
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