Our Story

Studio Solutions designs and manufactures desktop synth stands, tiered equipment stands, rack ears, wall mounts, monitor risers, studio furniture and custom equipment solutions from our studio workshop in Loughborough, UK. Everything we make as a family team grows from decades spent making music, working with equipment and solving practical problems in real studios.

Built by musicians, for musicians

My own musical journey started in 1984 with a Westone Concord I. Like many first guitars of the time, it arrived with an action high enough to slice eggs and very little chance of encouraging a beginner.

That experience stayed with me. Good equipment is only useful when it is properly set up, comfortable to use and suited to the person in front of it.

Guitars led to amplifiers, effects and recording equipment. Synths brought drum machines, sequencers, mixers, patchbays and increasingly complicated ways of connecting everything together. Over the years, the collection has included vintage instruments, modern controllers, analogue originals, affordable recreations and all manner of strange studio hardware.

To us, original instruments and modern recreations can happily exist in the same studio. The important question is not whether a piece of equipment impresses somebody online, but whether it helps you make music.

From free festivals to free parties

Our outlook was shaped by the free-festival scene and, later, the UK free-party movement of the early 1990s.

Those scenes were less concerned with polished presentation or owning the “correct” equipment than with creating an experience. Music was there to bring people together, make a space come alive and, ideally, keep a room or field moving until morning.

That DIY attitude and old-school punk ethos still informs the way we think about equipment today. Gear is a tool, not a status symbol. The real purpose is what happens when people use it—whether that means writing, experimenting, performing, recording or simply making something that goes doof-doof loudly enough to make everyone grin.

Solving real studio problems

Following the launch of our YouTube channel in 2018, where we shared tutorials and reviews, Studio Solutions began as a business venture in 2020, growing from the practical problems that appear whenever musicians try to fit real equipment into real rooms.

Synths and controllers come in awkward shapes. Rear sockets protrude farther than expected. Screens disappear behind other devices. Patch cables need room. Controls sit too close to an edge. Desk space vanishes remarkably quickly.

Many standard stands are nearly right, but nearly right is often not enough. They may be the wrong width, the wrong depth or set at an angle that does not suit how the equipment is actually used.

We began making our own solutions because the products we needed either did not exist or did not quite do the job properly.

A simple desktop stand led to more sizes and angles. Those developed into tiered stands, rack ears, wall mounts, monitor risers, rack pods and larger workstation designs. Customer requests introduced new combinations of equipment and new problems to solve. Some of those one-off projects later became standard products when other musicians needed the same thing.

Most of what we make begins with a real piece of equipment, a real setup and a practical reason for improving it.

From the studio to the workshop

Studio Solutions now operates from a 2500 sq ft loft space in a historic former 19th Century foundry in Loughborough, Leicestershire, bringing the studio, design space and workshop together under one roof.

The space continues to evolve around the business, with recording equipment, guitars, synthesizers, drums, drum machines, mixers, patchbays and manufacturing equipment all sharing the same building.

That means an idea can begin at the studio desk, move into design and production, and then return to the studio for testing with actual equipment.

Clearances, balance, control access, cable routing, screen visibility and playing position can all be checked in normal use rather than guessed from a product photograph.

Depending on the project, we use additive manufacturing, timber construction in our new woodwork shop and other workshop processes. The method matters, but it is never the reason for the product. The reason is always to make a studio or performance setup work better.

Designed around the way people actually work

No two studios are identical.

Some musicians want a low 15-degree stand that keeps pads and controls in a familiar playing position. Others need a near-upright 60-degree solution because every centimetre of desk depth matters.

One person may need a simple set of rack ears. Another may need several unrelated instruments arranged across multiple tiers without blocking screens, connections or controls.

That is why we offer both standard products and custom design work.

We pay attention to details that are easily overlooked:

  • the true overall dimensions rather than only the manufacturer’s quoted chassis size;

  • feet, ventilation and uneven undersides;

  • rear sockets and connected cables;

  • controls positioned close to the edges;

  • screens, handles and other projections;

  • the way pressure is applied during normal playing or performance.

We also try to be honest about compromise.

A steeper stand can improve visibility and save desk space, but it may not be ideal for forceful pad playing. A lower angle can feel more natural but will generally occupy more depth. A highly compact arrangement may require more careful cable planning.

There is rarely one perfect answer for every person. Our job is to help customers choose the solution that best suits their equipment, space and way of working—not to make wild promises.

Still making music

Studio Solutions remains closely connected to our own musical lives.

The studio continues to grow alongside the business, filled with guitars, synthesizers, drum machines, recording equipment and an increasingly improbable amount of routing.

As we develop our own new studio space, we are also expanding into complete studio-build solutions. Drawing on our experience in construction, electrical work, fabrication and music technology, we can design and build recording spaces, drum rooms, isolation booths and custom studio interiors. Our own conversion allows us to document and refine solutions including isolated floors and walls, acoustic treatment, purpose-built furniture, integrated power and practical cable management.

We still write, record, experiment, repair instruments, rearrange the room and discover new problems that need solving. That ongoing use keeps our products grounded in reality.

We understand the frustration of equipment that almost fits, the satisfaction of a clean and playable setup, and the particular madness of deciding that one more synthesizer can definitely be squeezed onto the desk.

Studio Solutions exists to make that last part a little easier.

Practical studio equipment, designed by musicians, tested in a working studio and made in our UK workshop.