No More Making Music in a Vacuum
Come join a global community of musicians and producers as we do monthly challenges to help each other make better and better music.
You're reading this because you love music like I do. There's something endlessly fascinating about creating something from nothing. We start with a blank piece of paper on a desk, or an empty session on a screen, and we transform that nothingness into something beautiful, a piece of art we can share with the world.
But making art is a lonely endeavor. Chances are good that most of your friends don't know the first thing about making music in a home studio. They think it's cool you know how to do all that stuff, but their eyes glaze over when you tell them about this new mix you're working on.
We as humans are wired for community; we long for a place to share what we're working on, to interact with like-minded people who understand how incredibly fun and frustrating making music can be.
Here are some of the problems we face as home studio musicians:
- Isolation - We weren't meant to create music in a vacuum. We need feedback and interaction. It's hard to do that in a room by yourself.
- Boredom - Doing everything yourself is fun at first, but it gets old quickly. Other people bring new ideas and perspectives, which keeps the music exciting.
- Lack of access to good musicians - What if you want to have drums on your song, but you don't know any drummers? Are you stuck using drum loops and virtual drum plugins? Or could you connect with a real drummer who could record those tracks for you?
- No clear path to collaborate with others - You know collaboration is a thing, but you don't know where to find collaboration partners.
- Crickets - This is when you release a piece of music, but no one comments on it. This can be a hard pill to swallow, and it can make us not want to make anymore music.
- Lack of direction - You're working on music without a purpose, goal, or endgame.
- No safe place to ask questions
- Too much pressure to release a song, EP, or album. Maybe you just want to practice some skills first?
My VIP Membership solves all of these problems for you.
Mini-Courses, Challenges, Community, and Collaboration.
The Home Studio Corner VIP Membership is the best place to hone your production skills through new mini-courses, regular challenges, a thriving community, and worldwide collaboration.
Mini-Courses
This is brand new to VIP as of 2022. Rather than only doing musical challenges ever month, I'm adding 6 new Mini-Courses to the members area, one every two months.
The first Mini-Course is available right now. It's called How to Write a Song in 45 Minutes.
Challenges
Every 2 months, I issue a new 2-month VIP Challenge. These challenges are designed to get you in the studio working on music every month. We have mixing challenges, production challenges, recording challenges, and collaboration and songwriting challenges. We mix things up to make sure you're honing all your recording and production skills.
At the end of each challenge period, we sit down together via livestream (you'll have two to choose from) to listen to the challenge submissions. We celebrate when someone posts their very first challenge, and we marvel at how great these challenges sound, from both new members and veterans alike.
Community
I'm an introvert myself. I love my alone time. I love getting lost in the creative process for hours, but when I come up for air, I want a place to share my music. The VIP Forum is the perfect place to do just that.
Rather than sharing your work-in-progress on Facebook or emailing it to friends, you can post share it with your fellow VIP members. There's a thriving community of people just like you, people working on projects, making music, getting better.
Members can give you valuable insight on your project in a safe, kind, respectful environment.
Collaboration
Every month different VIP members are teaming up to work on projects. One person might record a guitar part, then someone else records vocals, and a third person adds drums and bass. As a VIP member you have access to literally hundreds of talented musicians all over the world. You're no longer limited by geography. You could be collaborating on someone from the other side of the planet by this weekend! And if you're unfamiliar with how collaboration works, no problem. We've been doing this a while, and we can walk you through it.
What's Included
The VIP Membership opened its virtual doors in 2011. Since then, it has evolved into a beautiful community of people genuinely eager to help each other make better music.
Your membership includes access to:
- 6 New Mini-Courses Per Year
- 6 Monthly VIP Challenges Per Year
- Members-Only Forum
- Challenge Livestreams
- Monthly VIP Newsletter
Whether you want to join and "observe" for a few months or just dive right in and knock out the current challenge, we're ready for you. Choose one of the two options below and come say hi!
The Most Ridiculous
Guarantee on the Internet
I fully believe that you'll make better music as a result of this VIP membership. In fact, you have a full year to decide if it was worth it for you. If you decide 364 days from now that it wasn't a good fit, just send me an email, and I'll issue a full refund. Easy peasy. And we can still be friends. 😊
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this. If you've got a nagging suspicion that you would LOVE being a VIP member, go ahead and join. If you need a little more encouragement, check out the customer testimonials below. They were copied and pasted straight from the VIP forum.
See you inside,
Joe Gilder
Home Studio Corner
Steve Rosbotham
Challenges each month that WILL improve every aspect of your home recording, and a global community to collaborate with that has given me genuine new friends. Being a VIP member is the best musical move I ever made.
Ben Holmes
Before becoming a VIP member of Home Studio Corner I was trying to write and record music on my own. This was frustrating, limiting and lead to songs I was not happy with. Now I am a member of an amazing community who support, help and collaborate all the time. On top of this there are monthly challenges designed to make me a better artist, songwriter, recording engineer, producer.... you name it, it's covered. My music has never been better and I have made new friends from every continent on earth..... amazing.
Hershey Bell
It wasn't until I became a VIP member that I was able to unleash my full potential as a musician. The transformation has been so dramatic that I can barely listen to my music pre-VIP! The monthly challenges and the amazing community of collaborators are like nothing else you'll find anyway on the Internet. Joining VIP was the best decision of my musical career.
Scott Parker
The Home Studio Corner VIP membership has been invaluable to me as a fun and practical way to put into practice what Joe already teaches so well, resulting in the ability to finally get my music out of my hard drive and into the world, which has been a long time goal of mine.
Ron Hatfield
In my first month, I not only mixed one of Joe's songs but I've also co-written, mixed and produced a song (which I thought I'd never do) complete with piano, drums, guitar, sax, pan-pipe, lead and back up vocals: to say I've grown in the first month would be an understatement.
Nick O
Since becoming a VIP'er, my mixing has grown as a result of the diverse talent of the VIP'er community who provide a variety of insight and are helpful in sharing experiences both good and bad.
Nate Kelmes
Getting better and building confidence by learning *and* doing each month with a great group of people.
Joseph Teresi
I may not have the time to get involved all the time, but watching others and applying what I’ve learned has been so beneficial for me.
Terry Miller
Working through the various VIP Challenge projects, hearing/observing how other members approach them, and interacting with these members via feedback, I have learned a great deal and now write, record, and mix with a whole new level of confidence.
Timothy Scott
With respect to the mixing quality and process, I am thankful that each of the 108 songs that I have recorded, mixed, and published since joining HSC has progressively improved.
Ken Beck
Being a VIP member has drastically improved the quality of my mixes and clarity of the tracks. Thanks Joe!
Chris Janton
I was lost, but now I'm found...I needed a gentle introduction to how the home studio world works. Tools, techniques, and rationale got focused for me...and some tasty music too...
Alan Collins
The difference made to my life and music by being a VIP member is incalculable...I've been a member for a long time, and yet... I continue to learn something new, inspiring or just musically interesting each time I log-in! Made a lot of great friends too!
David McKnight
Monthly challenges open your mind to new things, as I type this I'm co writing a song with another VIPer across the country who I've never worked with before. Super fun and rewarding!
Jon Wymore
Being a VIP member has helped me release more and better music and given an opportunity to collaborate with others from all over the globe!
Mark Young
Being a VIP member has helped me expand my range of music I listen to, play and record. Having a monthly challenge to work towards helps me set aside time to practice and improve and are often a springboard for other ideas which get me excited about music. The best thing is that it has helped me to remember that I do this for fun.
Bill Dyer
Since I became a VIPer, I have renewed my enthusiasm for music. Whether it is writing, recording, producing, or just listening, being a VIPer, just makes it better. We also have a fantastic community that has fun and supports each other!
Scott Kornblatt
I was looking for a way to have making music as daily staple in my life again and knew that I needed a community of like minded people that write, collaborate, perform, record, mix, master and just generally get better through interaction and repetition. I immediately found that within the VIP Community and Joe Gilder.
The monthly challenges are perfect, challenging while at the same time not rushed, and the talent and support of the other members is extremely encouraging no matter what your skill level is. Whether you are a content contributor to the forums or just a casual observer, the VIP has so much cool discussion and openness around making music in a comfortable atmosphere. Everybody starts from somewhere and everyone seems to understand that here.
Now, music is a daily thing for me, whether is tracking a vocal or mixing my tracks and I know I'm learning more than I ever have before from an online community, just by being here.
Douglas Gilham
As a VIPer I am given the knowledge to test and the community to give me feedback so I may learn the "why" I need to explore certain procedures to make better music, or truth that tells me to start over and GIRATS.
John Phinney
As a VIPer I get Bite sized, digestible information that matters!
Randy Roe
For me, HSC VIP membership is an unbelievable global knowledge and talent resource; but also a structured opportunity for me to discover not only how I can best utilize those resources for my own musical goals and skill set, but also what's truly possible in a home studio. What's more - you won't find a mix (or Life) coach who's kinder, more supportive, or more inspirational, honest, and accessible than Joe.
Martin Borsanyi
HSC VIP Membership has plugged me into a talented, supportive community of like-minded, collaborative musicians who've helped me make more, and better music.
Alfred Key
As a long time "VIPer" I have learned a ton of Song Production techniques from the great work of other Home Studio Corner VIPers.
Martin Dunlea
Since becoming a Viper my recording, mixing and mastering skills have improved enormously enabling me to self-produce my own solo album.
Ben Berman
Education and community - worth waay more than the asking price!
Steve Azevedo
It's great to have the Viper security blanket to goto for quick problem solving.
James Hyfield
Between this and a return to D&D after 30 years, I am averting my midlife crisis!
Dennis Urquhart (aka Canyon Depths)
HSC VIP has provided me with a foundation of knowledge to make my own music — including writing, arranging, collaborating, recording, mixing, mastering and sharing my music.
Pat McKenna
I’ve been a Viper since 2014 and although I’ve been in the background because of my busy life, I have learned a lot from Joe and all the other vipers just from listening to their music, watching videos and reading all the comments, my music and mixes have gotten way better over the years, I’m really glad I joined the group!!
Shane Huckeba
I signed up to learn about mixing, and while my mixes have gotten better I've also learned about production and recording techniques. I've also learned a lot from our great positive community. Always a great place to get feedback, tips and ideas.
Greg Covington
Since becoming a VIP'er my mixing skills have steadily increased and I can listen to my older mixes and can see the growth that has taken place. Not only have I embraced the backward mixing philosophy, but I also have learned a lot by listening to the tracks of your releases and your mixing process and them mixing them myself.
Randy Landenberger
Great information about techniques, good motovational encouragement, fantastic challenges to get us to stretch and work our recording, engineering and business skills, along with a fantastic support community make this a no-brainer for beginners and experienced alike. This is the best money I've spent in learning how to record, mix and market myself in the music arena. Thanks, Joe.
Tom Ace
I enjoyed all HSC tutorials on YouTube and Joe gave so many information, tips and tricks for free that I decided to join as a VIP member. I signed in at the beginning of that corona plague and I thought I would have a little more time to contribute something to the community. But daily business got back to normal pretty quick (I am thankful for that) and now I do not have the time to participate as I wish I could. But still no regrets. In one sentence the benefits are: Very interesting content and if you need help the community members are a great source of knowledge and support.