SEEKS ADVICE: Home Recording - Live Recording Room vs. Control Room

FreshChops

New member
Hey all, hope all's well! I'm closing in on finishing my home studio project and I'm running into questions and looking for guidance to well, basically get the most out of it. I've finished out what was a 2 car garage starting with the basics: insulate walls, wood floor, etc.

I will start with my potential questions before details to be fair to any who may know if they can advise based off of my questions first.....

My set-up is limited to everything happening in one room. I'm recording in the same live room, later to mix in the same room. I have, up to this point, made my priority about the gear (namely instruments) with second priority to improve rec. gear and acoustics as I go. I'm set with instruments and have focused on best treating the room and then plug in upgraded rec. gear as needed. I am more confident that I can get pleasant tracks from the set-up but question the room and set-up when it comes to mixing.

So, the first question and issue would be..... is it possible to get a solid set-up for both tracking and mixing in the same room? Up front too, I am sharing my scenario because I've completely open to all's suggestions, ideas and opinions. Please feel obliged to chime in with any ideas.

I want to focus on acoustics and have a little time and money set aside to put the finishing touches on the room. Up until now, what I have done to treat it has been generic and sporatic and I need to make sure my final treatments hit the spot (in other words fine tuned). So far, I have applied a couple wall absorbers built as 2' x 4' acoustic board w/ thick foam, then denim then auralex foam wedges. I have also built 5 roll-away gobos. The paint I used was a granite material which is very coarse. It's almost the texture of sprayed ceilings. The last thing I've done was to add some auralex LERND bass traps to the corners of all walls (excluding ceilings).

A little about the room. It's an approximate 22' x 23' x 9' (high) room, cubed. I have a few permanent items in place, namely a couple desk and cabinents. Other than that, everything else is is pretty flexible to move around. I have set up the recording / mixing console in the corner of one of the rooms.

I made some overhead floor-plan type diagrams to illustrate the space as-is. If anyone can dissect issues via diagrams.... have at it. I really love the sound of the room so far for tracking and all, but I think it's too large and open for mixing.

My current plan is to add a few more wall panels, about 6-8 (like the ones behind the drums) and also put a about 4 ceiling fiber glass diffusers placed around the center of the room. In my mind, I'd hope that would wrap up my acoustic treatment, but I've got a feeling suggestions can steer me elsewhere.

I imagine my questions could seem vague by description alone, but maybe seeing the space and placement of things on a floor-plan will spark some ideas. In summary, given my space and set-up, should I focus on tracking and live room sound or is it possible to get good mixes in a large, live room? I would also appreciate any suggestions and ideas anyone see's... maybe others with just one large functional space.....

thanks for any input and advise!

here's a quick look at the floor space:
tglstudiofloorsm.jpg


here's a scalable PDF file of the same image:
http://www.thegraphixlab.com/transfer/TGL_Studio_floor_STD-sm.pdf

here's a few photos that show some angles and some of the current acoustic treatment placement:

24330141630488829612528.jpg


24330141630496829812528.jpg


24330141630660833912528.jpg
 
here's a couple quick look at some options I'm thinking about with using the rolling gobos. This first one could create a more smaller space for mixing from the corner with the console:

tglstudiofloormixingsm.jpg


full size PDF:
http://www.thegraphixlab.com/transfer/TGL_Studio_floor_MIXING-sm.pdf


this one was just for fun but shows the 5 gobos placed together to make a tight vocal booth environment:

tglstudiofloorvocalsm1.jpg


here's the full size PDF:
http://www.thegraphixlab.com/transfer/TGL_Studio_floor_VOCAL-sm.pdf


as mentioned, everyything I've thrown together up till now has been instinctual if not guess-work, I seriously lack in training with sound and acoustics and would love any guidence offered....... Thanks!
 
first things first, get the desk out of the corner - face it towards the wall opposite the drums.

move the cabs along the [drawn] right-hand wall (left of the drums when sitting at the drums).
 
I agree...your mix position will be better if ya get it out of the corner and set up with your back to the length of the room (such as it is :))

Some nice gear, btw. :drunk:
 
first things first, get the desk out of the corner - face it towards the wall opposite the drums.

move the cabs along the [drawn] right-hand wall (left of the drums when sitting at the drums).


Hey Billy, i think you've got it all figured out..... I've honestly never considered arranging the recording console centered along the wall, squared off to the room (really for mostly space reasons). But the more that I look at it, it certainly frees up more space even for tracking, not to mention a step in the right direction towards better mixing.

I've adjusted my floor plan to reflect the moves..... please take a look at it and offer whatever feedback you can regarding acoustic treatment, even if it's just by hunch. As I mentioned I'm adding about 6 more wall mount absorbers and adding dome fiberglass diffuser boxes on the ceilings. The boxes on the ceiling are shown as the hollow, pink outlined cubes.

My instincts has me wanting to place them in the center of the room to equally benefit all recording scenarios (drums, e.guitar, vox) as well as when mixing. From what I've seen and read, a good bit of mixing sound treatment is done on the ceiling right about the n.field monitoring. Any opinions, would the ceiling diffusers serve well in the center of the room.

tglstudiofloorplanmoves.jpg
 
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