Where to move in nashville area? (Murfreesboro, Franklin: apartment, neighborhood, living)

[Lehmeow]

Hello everyone...First let me tell you a little about myself. I'm thinking of moving down to the Nashville area because I'm looking for knowledge and work in the audio engineering field. I'm looking for a nice area, an apartment, to move to that has a safe/nice neighborhood and is away from the craziness of downtown Nashville. I have been doing a lot of searching and it seems like Franklin, Goodlettsville, Hendersonville, Brentwood, Belmont, Hillsboro may be some good choices. Would it be an easy commute getting into downtown. I'm looking for somewhere that would take a max of 30 min. to drive into downtown, that's a nice neighborhood, and has an affordable cost of living. What other places can you suggest? I want to find somewhat of a peaceful area, and that may also have its own music scene, but not necessary since I can commute to downtown. I love blues and jazz, I've heard Murfreesboro has a good scene but that's a little too far from downtown Nashville. Hope I described what I'm interested in enough. I'm sort of undecided if I would want to live in downtown or nearby surrounding area or not. Is commuting a pain?
Thanks in advance for the help.