A fairly decent computer, some decent headphones (maybe a DAC too) and Ableton...that's really all you need. Having hardware synths is cool and al if you want authentic analog sounds from the 70s and 80s and having monitoring speakers in a room treated for sound is ideal but let's be completely honest with ourselves here. The average listener doesn't care if your kick sounds like it came from a machine that came out 40 years ago. If a track has a good groove and a sound isn't grating to the ears then most people are happy. I'm writing this just to give some perspective. I'm just as guilty as anyone when it comes to spending hours looking for the perfect sound, dropping cash on plugins and hardware to try to recreate the feel of something I heard decades ago and I'm not trying to dismiss good hardware by any means. But for anyone watching this video looking to get into music production, especially dance music, don't think you need lots of hardware to get going. You can make a track as good as anything with nothing more than your computer, headphones and a decent DAW like Ableton, FL Studio or Logic that has stock plugins that are really good. If you want to expand with more hardware and software in the future, go for it, but don't let it be a block on creativity.
AMEN!!!!!!! I was about to write the same. you basically said everything i was going to. from my experience its quite easy to delude yourself into thinking that you need more gear to make better music. you dont. its usually just an excuse to avoid the hard work u have to put in, to achieve great music.
I have both DT770 and DT990 headphones. The DT770s are more appropriate when you are using microphones and don't want sound bleeding from the headphones to the microphone (they are closed back). If sound escaping the headphones is not a problem, the DT990, like the Sennheiser's, are open back.
@@EDMTips yeah I had octamed too and one called protracker I think (30 years ago so its a bit hazy haha). did you ever get into those turtle beach sound cards that you had to fill up with ram to load with samples?
@@EDMTips OctaMED was flipping great, never forgot when I also got my first sampler to use with my Amiga 500, and could sample a few seconds, was so cool
The soundtracks of Pinball Dreams / Fantasies dudes, how about Leander, Jaguar XJ 220, Monkey Island, Operation Stealth... If you were into the demo scene: The music of *Alcatraz Odessey....* Those were the days !!!! 👍
The only thing I would add - and this is a necessity in my opinion - is some really good, strong, hot coffee! Would have been first on my list anyway... Seriously though, great video and very helpful. I would love to see a tutorial on the SoundID. Thank you sir.
I am actually planning on selling most of my hardware with the exception of a small midi keyboard. i have a s61mk2, a maschine, an atom controller and dropping them all but keeping a small native instruments midi keyboard with just 32 keys. Going back to basics! The way I have made music I almost never use the hardware.. I use captain plugins for chords so rarely touch the keyboard at all.
Great video Will, I’d like to add a little color commentary to your wonderful points. When we are educating clients in music production, I think it’s the inspiration we like to deliver. To inspire someone to learn music theory at the same time to learn recording sciences and techniques are two different mindsets however in today’s modern studio songwriter/producer you have to know both hand-in-hand. So definitely having a good key controller Is a must, because whomever is sitting in front of the DAW needs to understand why you hit three keys together at the same time, which keys to hit together at the same time and having a good key controller will allow this functionality with the least amount of frustration and the highest amount of inspiration. It’s all about the learning and the education. You need a solid computer. It doesn’t matter which OS, you need it working and you need this computer to sort of be by itself and once you get it running you don’t need to install other applications that you might use it for your personal life outside of creating or learning music. Because most of those just slow your system down and make it more frustrating for you. So you need a separate computer or device to learn your music on. Yes To create music, to edit music and master it. Get a cheap computer to run the Internet… movies games etc. don’t use your music computer for anything other than music production. A clean install of your operating system get rid of all of the unwanted background processes. Yes definitely a great pair of studio headphones is going to make the difference. And then a good set of monitor speakers. In that order unless you just despise headphones on your head. if you are on a budget and need to determine which one to get first. Headphones. I am a proponent of having some type of mobile musical instrument that is not codependent on a computer to operate in it’s full functionality. And you can take this instrument device with you wherever you go to get away from the computer. This is going to be a groove box or it can be a sampler, it can be mobile Synthesizer, some piece of music instrument hardware. And if it means taking a paper and pen with you, a notebook and writing down your ideas that you come up with when you are away from your studio and you have this mobile Synthesizer instrument device thing … then so be it make it so. I have way more information to share however I’ve already gone a little bit longer than I intended to with this post. May the force be with you.
I spent £3000 on a new PC to make music on in the summer. It's as powerful and as up to date as you'd imagine. What you wouldn't have been able to imagine is that after the first day it hasn't worked and the sheer mess around sending it to be fixed over and over again is so defeating. So when you invest in your computer .... Please do it from a reliable source. I'm stuck making music on a broken, out dated laptop as a result whilst looking at a pretty expensive ornament in the corner.
@@milanmakelove Windows. It just won't display at all (black screen - no boot display). I have a 4K tv in my little home set up it just hates. It does display on a 1080 tv though. The card (a 3090) has been replaced, I have a (stupidly) expensive 4k HDMI and it still only ever displays for a few minutes whenever I get it back. Luckily my beat up, old laptop still has life in it otherwise I'm sure I would have killed someone by now out of frustration. As to how long the laptop will work is another thing!
@@dylvasey whats the power supply in the PC like? I got just as frustrated as a kid that's why I know what im doing now xD so it does work (for a bit) on the 4k tv using the hdmi output of the graphics card? and then a few min later fails?
@@milanmakelove I'm a complete novice to be fair, I've always just bought and used. Never having the issues I'm having now. The power supply is 650W, which I'm told is adequate. It works on a normal TV (HD), but of course I don't have one in my ''man cave''. Whenever it comes back from the supplier it's completely ready to go, and will work on the 4K TV. But only for around 10 - 120 minutes. It then goes back to being completely black. I'm only using the HDMI on the card itself. I have read online that the new Nvidia cards can do this. I bought the thing to make music on, but also as it's in my ''man cave'' I also had the 3090 installed so I could play games etc. I'm starting to wish I hadn't. I even tried putting in a 3070 just in case to no avail. The screen always goes black when I'm trying to update something (whenever it comes back to me it's been factory reset so to speak). Thanks for lending me your ear. I really appreciate it. This is driving me nuts. It's like having the worlds most expensive RGB lamp! The supplier is refusing to refund me because they always say it's working fine.
honestly at the core you only need a sequencer. when i started all we had was stuff like fast tracker and some shitty samples, we made tracks with that without audio interfaces monitor or midi keyboards, even today really all you need to get started is a DAW, once you become more experienced you can buy extra stuff because by then you will know what you actually need. if u have no audio hardware or external instruments an audio interface really doesn't add that much imo. 11 esentials is a bit much.
Will thank you for the amazing video, it's really useful for us who are new to music production. I just got the Audio Technica ATH-M50x as you recommended and I can say that it is really good value for money spent. Differently, a tutorial on how to use a sound id reference tool will also be very helpful. Thanks! 👍
Great vid as usual, but can you cut down on the constant zooming in and out? It makes watching the vids a quite bit more stressful, when trying to focus on your excellent advice 😅
might not be much of a consideration with the M1 MacBooks, but if you want to use VCV Rack you NEED discreet graphics. My MacBook Pro 2020 absolutely dies when I try to put more than a few modules in a rack. And there's the jet engine of a fan.
I wished you would have talked about Bitwig as well, since it has a lot creative tools as stock plugins. And I would love to know your opinion about it 🌻
@EDM Tips If I buy a VST\DAW to make songs with analog sounds, what do I have to have to work on? A) Personal computer with what technical characteristics? My personal computer game tower "HP PC OMEN 880-009np" is ok? B) My "Korg Krome EX” 88 keys workstation" is ok? Thank you.
Thanks for an informative video. I'm just curious if you are still using your i7 MB pro or whether you have updated to a new one? If so, which one please? I'm upgrading my 2009 iMac and now realise there is a lot of choice out there.
I switched to a Motu M4 instead of a Focusrite, never looked back. If you have the chance to listen to Kali monitors, do yourself a favour and listen to them. The Apple M1 Macbooks are really a miracle, so fast and effecient. Need half the memory the Intel generations needed. Officially the M1 Air doesn't support more than one external monitor, that can be solved by a bit of software and a compatible docking station. The technology is called displayLink and the software displayLink Manager. With this fix even the cheapest Air M1 is really a very powerfull laptop. If you want to use Windows, consider a desktop, the AMD Ryzen's are really really fast ;)
Has anyone tried the new Sennheiser HD 400 PRO Studio Reference Headphones? The frequency response is pretty flat and comparable to the HD600, just with a slight bump between 4-6kHz. The bottom end actually looks to be a couple of dB up on the HD6xx. With a saving of £130 they seem to good to be true.
I’m going to upgrade my home studio equipment to the HD650 and focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd generation. Do I need to get an additional amp to drive the HD650s to get the best out of them?
This is probably a stupid question, but if i was going to use a windows laptop then does that mean i wouldn't be able to use the logic pro digital workstation as its for apple?
if you got beyerdynamics dt 770 250ohms, in combination with sonarworks to get them to true flat frequency response.. will you get the same benefits of flat monitors? in terms of sound quality?
Is there any decent support for audio interfaces ? Windows is also a bit of pain in the ass in this subject, there's asio but it's not perfect. Always wanted to run Ableton in Wine but never took the time to try.
@@wernerxldata in general, if you choose a known compatible interface, everything works well. i have good experience with older NI and modern Focusrite interfaces, and Zoom LiveTrak mixers too.
Yep. I bought a headphone amp, but ended up sending it back because I couldn't tell the difference (apart from going louder, which my ears definitely don't need)
@Triunn Yeah I was about to get a Clarett pre 2 but went with an SSL2+ instead, it's better overall and in the future I'm thinking of getting a pair of HD6XX which I've read run better on the SSL
I'd recommend Presonus 24C audio interface which is rated for up to 300 Ohm, so just about enough for HD600 or 650. Does get loud enough but not too much.
@@VV-yh3ni Second this. My 26c has no problem at all driving my DT990s louder than I care to listen. (Actually though I also have a 2i2, I've not tried out the headphone socket of the 2i2 so far as driving DT990s is concerned, though they drive my 80Ohm DT770s just fine.)
That foam will only help with spoken word, high frequencies such as clapping your hand in the room. Takes a lot of thick insulation (not foam) to absorb low end - AND YOU WILL STILL HAVE issues even after a reasonable amount of bass traps and absorption panels. Use SOund ID / Sonarwarks to get you the rest of the way there. Much can be done in headphones and SOund ID is quite helpful for this too.
Unfortunately, I get hundreds of requests like this every day and had to make a decision to prioritise my students as there are simply not enough hours in a day.
Good advice, but your room treatment is hardly doing anything. The Amazon foam is only useful for reducing the very high end of the frequency spectrum, which is often the easiest to handle. You need broadband absorbers and thick bass traps, even more so if you're in a small room. Please don't waste money on Amazon foam, as it does nothing for the low end, which is the most troublesome in all studios.
Whilst the low-end is indeed the most troublesome, the high end is still important. Some bass traps in the corners and a sofa along the back wall help wonders with the low end
A fairly decent computer, some decent headphones (maybe a DAC too) and Ableton...that's really all you need. Having hardware synths is cool and al if you want authentic analog sounds from the 70s and 80s and having monitoring speakers in a room treated for sound is ideal but let's be completely honest with ourselves here. The average listener doesn't care if your kick sounds like it came from a machine that came out 40 years ago. If a track has a good groove and a sound isn't grating to the ears then most people are happy.
I'm writing this just to give some perspective. I'm just as guilty as anyone when it comes to spending hours looking for the perfect sound, dropping cash on plugins and hardware to try to recreate the feel of something I heard decades ago and I'm not trying to dismiss good hardware by any means. But for anyone watching this video looking to get into music production, especially dance music, don't think you need lots of hardware to get going. You can make a track as good as anything with nothing more than your computer, headphones and a decent DAW like Ableton, FL Studio or Logic that has stock plugins that are really good. If you want to expand with more hardware and software in the future, go for it, but don't let it be a block on creativity.
Very true!
AMEN!!!!!!! I was about to write the same. you basically said everything i was going to. from my experience its quite easy to delude yourself into thinking that you need more gear to make better music. you dont. its usually just an excuse to avoid the hard work u have to put in, to achieve great music.
Absolutely agree!
@@EDMTips Full disclosure, I was on the sauce when I wrote that lol
Throw on a midi keyboard, though. Just a 150 dollar one. But that's about it.
I have both DT770 and DT990 headphones. The DT770s are more appropriate when you are using microphones and don't want sound bleeding from the headphones to the microphone (they are closed back). If sound escaping the headphones is not a problem, the DT990, like the Sennheiser's, are open back.
Room / monitor calibration tutorial would be awesome Will 👍
Hell Yea, and Amen Brother ! Thank you WIll
amiga 500 running mod-tracker and an 8bit sampler, them were the days, then Atari st with cubase ;)
Yep...It was OctaMED for me :)
@@EDMTips yeah I had octamed too and one called protracker I think (30 years ago so its a bit hazy haha). did you ever get into those turtle beach sound cards that you had to fill up with ram to load with samples?
@@EDMTips OctaMED was flipping great, never forgot when I also got my first sampler to use with my Amiga 500, and could sample a few seconds, was so cool
Atari !!
The soundtracks of Pinball Dreams / Fantasies dudes, how about Leander, Jaguar XJ 220, Monkey Island, Operation Stealth... If you were into the demo scene: The music of *Alcatraz Odessey....* Those were the days !!!! 👍
Yes you have my vote for a tutorial using your SonarWorks SoundID Reference tool ! Thanks for the all of the great info!
You're welcome! 🙂
First of all BIG thanks to You Will. You are great guy and your tips and tricks are priceless. Amen brother 🙌
🙌🙏
Thanks will I am
Mate, please do a video on Sonarworks. 👊🏼
Good idea!
@@EDMTips My mentor uses it and swears by it.
Good and sound advice dude, anyone wanting to get into production can take note 📝 even if you’ve just got a DAW, headphones and computer
Thanks for watching!
Would be great to see a video on the acoustic treatment & how you set it up in your room with the Sonarworks soundid reference :)
Acoustic treatment is a dark art for me
Ok, duly noted!
Well done for mentioning acoustic treatment. So overlooked.
The only thing I would add - and this is a necessity in my opinion - is some really good, strong, hot coffee! Would have been first on my list anyway...
Seriously though, great video and very helpful. I would love to see a tutorial on the SoundID. Thank you sir.
Good point! :) ☕
Thank you sir, always a pleasure!
This is a great insight into music gear Will! Loved this!
Cheers, Jesse!
Cool video, reminds me I could do with a new chair.
Definitely recommend!
Thanks William
You're welcome! 🙂
I am actually planning on selling most of my hardware with the exception of a small midi keyboard. i have a s61mk2, a maschine, an atom controller and dropping them all but keeping a small native instruments midi keyboard with just 32 keys. Going back to basics! The way I have made music I almost never use the hardware.. I use captain plugins for chords so rarely touch the keyboard at all.
I sold almost all of my hardware quite some time ago as I travel a lot and honestly can say that you don't need much to produce these days.
You forgot in your list the essential EDM Tips coffee mug.
True! 😆
Thanks. I personally add a nice paintbrush to the list for dusting off synths, mixers etc.
Great video Will, I’d like to add a little color commentary to your wonderful points.
When we are educating clients in music production, I think it’s the inspiration we like to deliver. To inspire someone to learn music theory at the same time to learn recording sciences and techniques are two different mindsets however in today’s modern studio songwriter/producer you have to know both hand-in-hand.
So definitely having a good key controller Is a must, because whomever is sitting in front of the DAW needs to understand why you hit three keys together at the same time, which keys to hit together at the same time and having a good key controller will allow this functionality with the least amount of frustration and the highest amount of inspiration.
It’s all about the learning and the education. You need a solid computer. It doesn’t matter which OS, you need it working and you need this computer to sort of be by itself and once you get it running you don’t need to install other applications that you might use it for your personal life outside of creating or learning music. Because most of those just slow your system down and make it more frustrating for you.
So you need a separate computer or device to learn your music on. Yes To create music, to edit music and master it.
Get a cheap computer to run the Internet… movies games etc. don’t use your music computer for anything other than music production. A clean install of your operating system get rid of all of the unwanted background processes.
Yes definitely a great pair of studio headphones is going to make the difference. And then a good set of monitor speakers. In that order unless you just despise headphones on your head.
if you are on a budget and need to determine which one to get first. Headphones.
I am a proponent of having some type of mobile musical instrument that is not codependent on a computer to operate in it’s full functionality. And you can take this instrument device with you wherever you go to get away from the computer.
This is going to be a groove box or it can be a sampler, it can be mobile Synthesizer, some piece of music instrument hardware. And if it means taking a paper and pen with you, a notebook and writing down your ideas that you come up with when you are away from your studio and you have this mobile Synthesizer instrument device thing … then so be it make it so.
I have way more information to share however I’ve already gone a little bit longer than I intended to with this post.
May the force be with you.
I spent £3000 on a new PC to make music on in the summer. It's as powerful and as up to date as you'd imagine. What you wouldn't have been able to imagine is that after the first day it hasn't worked and the sheer mess around sending it to be fixed over and over again is so defeating. So when you invest in your computer .... Please do it from a reliable source. I'm stuck making music on a broken, out dated laptop as a result whilst looking at a pretty expensive ornament in the corner.
What's wrong with it and is it windows or mac?
@@milanmakelove Windows. It just won't display at all (black screen - no boot display). I have a 4K tv in my little home set up it just hates. It does display on a 1080 tv though.
The card (a 3090) has been replaced, I have a (stupidly) expensive 4k HDMI and it still only ever displays for a few minutes whenever I get it back.
Luckily my beat up, old laptop still has life in it otherwise I'm sure I would have killed someone by now out of frustration. As to how long the laptop will work is another thing!
@@dylvasey whats the power supply in the PC like? I got just as frustrated as a kid that's why I know what im doing now xD so it does work (for a bit) on the 4k tv using the hdmi output of the graphics card? and then a few min later fails?
@@milanmakelove I'm a complete novice to be fair, I've always just bought and used. Never having the issues I'm having now.
The power supply is 650W, which I'm told is adequate.
It works on a normal TV (HD), but of course I don't have one in my ''man cave''. Whenever it comes back from the supplier it's completely ready to go, and will work on the 4K TV. But only for around 10 - 120 minutes. It then goes back to being completely black. I'm only using the HDMI on the card itself.
I have read online that the new Nvidia cards can do this.
I bought the thing to make music on, but also as it's in my ''man cave'' I also had the 3090 installed so I could play games etc. I'm starting to wish I hadn't. I even tried putting in a 3070 just in case to no avail.
The screen always goes black when I'm trying to update something (whenever it comes back to me it's been factory reset so to speak).
Thanks for lending me your ear. I really appreciate it. This is driving me nuts. It's like having the worlds most expensive RGB lamp! The supplier is refusing to refund me because they always say it's working fine.
@@milanmakelove Sorry ... Just checked and its a 750W ''Gold'' Power supply for what its worth ha.
Always very useful tips for beginner’s… keep up the good work will!👌🏻
Thanks! Will do :)
honestly at the core you only need a sequencer. when i started all we had was stuff like fast tracker and some shitty samples, we made tracks with that without audio interfaces monitor or midi keyboards, even today really all you need to get started is a DAW, once you become more experienced you can buy extra stuff because by then you will know what you actually need. if u have no audio hardware or external instruments an audio interface really doesn't add that much imo. 11 esentials is a bit much.
Awesome video, thank you! I've been curious about SoundID reference for a while now and I'd love to learn more. Plus 1 for the video!
Will thank you for the amazing video, it's really useful for us who are new to music production. I just got the Audio Technica ATH-M50x as you recommended and I can say that it is really good value for money spent. Differently, a tutorial on how to use a sound id reference tool will also be very helpful. Thanks! 👍
You're welcome, and ok....good idea! 🙂
You forgot to add the link for persistence and drive! ;)
Truth! 😎
@@EDMTips Your videos help a lot. Thank you for the amazing work, Sir!
Kinda expected a Men In Black reference at 7:27 haha
Good call! 🛸
Please make a video about speaker calibration with SoundID Reference! 🙏
Great video! And yes, please 🙌do a review of SoundID Reference
Great vid as usual, but can you cut down on the constant zooming in and out? It makes watching the vids a quite bit more stressful, when trying to focus on your excellent advice 😅
Thanks, and duly noted! 😆
Could you do a vid showing how to use sonar works please
might not be much of a consideration with the M1 MacBooks, but if you want to use VCV Rack you NEED discreet graphics. My MacBook Pro 2020 absolutely dies when I try to put more than a few modules in a rack. And there's the jet engine of a fan.
Hi Will. I have just got the HD650s, and on my Motu Ultralite MK5 they are pretty quiet. Do you use a headphone amp for yours?
I wished you would have talked about Bitwig as well, since it has a lot creative tools as stock plugins. And I would love to know your opinion about it 🌻
@EDM Tips If I buy a VST\DAW to make songs with analog sounds, what do I have to have to work on?
A) Personal computer with what technical characteristics? My personal computer game tower "HP PC OMEN 880-009np" is ok?
B) My "Korg Krome EX” 88 keys workstation" is ok? Thank you.
Thanks for an informative video. I'm just curious if you are still using your i7 MB pro or whether you have updated to a new one? If so, which one please? I'm upgrading my 2009 iMac and now realise there is a lot of choice out there.
I switched to a Motu M4 instead of a Focusrite, never looked back. If you have the chance to listen to Kali monitors, do yourself a favour and listen to them.
The Apple M1 Macbooks are really a miracle, so fast and effecient. Need half the memory the Intel generations needed.
Officially the M1 Air doesn't support more than one external monitor, that can be solved by a bit of software and a compatible docking station. The technology is called displayLink and the software displayLink Manager. With this fix even the cheapest Air M1 is really a very powerfull laptop.
If you want to use Windows, consider a desktop, the AMD Ryzen's are really really fast ;)
Cheers, Werner!
hi! i really love all the content of this channel
I'd go M1!
@@EDMTips OMG thanks for the fast answer, I really appreciate it! 🔥
Only the Native Instrument Machine is still available for purchase as far as midi controllers. Do you have any good alternatives?
Sir wat u think about (Komplete keyboard) ???
Has anyone tried the new Sennheiser HD 400 PRO Studio Reference Headphones? The frequency response is pretty flat and comparable to the HD600, just with a slight bump between 4-6kHz. The bottom end actually looks to be a couple of dB up on the HD6xx. With a saving of £130 they seem to good to be true.
I’m going to upgrade my home studio equipment to the HD650 and focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd generation. Do I need to get an additional amp to drive the HD650s to get the best out of them?
No, you don't :)
This is probably a stupid question, but if i was going to use a windows laptop then does that mean i wouldn't be able to use the logic pro digital workstation as its for apple?
if you got beyerdynamics dt 770 250ohms, in combination with sonarworks to get them to true flat frequency response.. will you get the same benefits of flat monitors? in terms of sound quality?
using Linux machine with Bitwig.
Is there any decent support for audio interfaces ? Windows is also a bit of pain in the ass in this subject, there's asio but it's not perfect.
Always wanted to run Ableton in Wine but never took the time to try.
@@wernerxldata in general, if you choose a known compatible interface, everything works well. i have good experience with older NI and modern Focusrite interfaces, and Zoom LiveTrak mixers too.
Cubase? 😲😲😲
And Cubase!
Can you drive the HD6XX with the Scarlett 2i2?
Yep. I bought a headphone amp, but ended up sending it back because I couldn't tell the difference (apart from going louder, which my ears definitely don't need)
@Triunn Yeah I was about to get a Clarett pre 2 but went with an SSL2+ instead, it's better overall and in the future I'm thinking of getting a pair of HD6XX which I've read run better on the SSL
I'd recommend Presonus 24C audio interface which is rated for up to 300 Ohm, so just about enough for HD600 or 650. Does get loud enough but not too much.
@@VV-yh3ni Second this. My 26c has no problem at all driving my DT990s louder than I care to listen. (Actually though I also have a 2i2, I've not tried out the headphone socket of the 2i2 so far as driving DT990s is concerned, though they drive my 80Ohm DT770s just fine.)
Your studio’s looking good, Will! Do you apply the room correction offered by SoundID after you’ve set up your acoustic foam? Or before?
That foam will only help with spoken word, high frequencies such as clapping your hand in the room. Takes a lot of thick insulation (not foam) to absorb low end - AND YOU WILL STILL HAVE issues even after a reasonable amount of bass traps and absorption panels. Use SOund ID / Sonarwarks to get you the rest of the way there. Much can be done in headphones and SOund ID is quite helpful for this too.
@@itsthedj2041 True!
Hey. can I show you a track, and get your input on it?
Unfortunately, I get hundreds of requests like this every day and had to make a decision to prioritise my students as there are simply not enough hours in a day.
Good advice, but your room treatment is hardly doing anything. The Amazon foam is only useful for reducing the very high end of the frequency spectrum, which is often the easiest to handle. You need broadband absorbers and thick bass traps, even more so if you're in a small room. Please don't waste money on Amazon foam, as it does nothing for the low end, which is the most troublesome in all studios.
Whilst the low-end is indeed the most troublesome, the high end is still important. Some bass traps in the corners and a sofa along the back wall help wonders with the low end
Actually you need TIME above everything else.