Building a Studio in a Van, One Rattle at a Time

The van is a 2009 long-wheelbase panel van with 240,000 kilometres on it and a heater that only works on setting three. I bought it in October 2024 for 3,200 euros, because a rehearsal room in this city runs 280 a month and I wanted the room to come to the band instead.

Fourteen months later it is a working control room. One point nine metres by one point six of usable floor, a desk that folds flat against the bulkhead, four preamps in a short rack, two small monitors that I no longer trust, and enough battery to run the lot for nine hours with the engine off. It has recorded three EPs, a podcast season, and a church organ through the open side door on a Tuesday morning in February.

It has also taught me the thing nobody tells you, which is that a van is not a small studio. A van is a resonant steel box on rubber mounts, and every decision you make inside it is a negotiation with that fact. Here is the order I would do it in, if I were starting again.