To control or not to control....

[laptoppop]

I'm getting a different house, and in it is a room that I get to play with. :>) Eventually, I hope to build a real studio, but for the moment I am recording at my church and mixing at home.

The room is 21 feet by 15 feet 7 inches. The ceiling is currently 9 feet high, but I'm probably going to open the attic above it to get a lot more cubic feet in the room. I'm thinking that I'll use it for mixing, and for limited overdubs -- direct bass, acoustic guitar, vocals, that sort of thing.

With the room being that small -- should I seperate it and have a control room, or just keep it one room and put my PC in a soundbox or something and wear headphones for monitoring the folks laying down the tracks?

I'm leaning toward keeping it one larger room -- am I right in thinking that a bigger room is typically easier to get to sound good?

Thanks,
-lee-

[Ethan Winer]

Lee,

> I'm leaning toward keeping it one larger room -- am I right in thinking that a bigger room is typically easier to get to sound good? <

Yeah, probably. At the minimum, it will cost a lot less to make one good room versus two!

I have one large room and I love it. The only time two rooms makes sense for a home recordist is when you plan to record other people, and are inexperienced and so need to hear the difference as you move the mikes around. But that problem is greatly minimized when the room itself is excellent. I don't have a problem miking instruments because my room is properly treated with bass traps and absorbers - it just sounds good no matter where I put the mikes.

--Ethan

[laptoppop]

Yeah, if I cut the space up, each room would be so DARN small it wouldn't make sense unless all I wanted was a small vocal overdub booth.

Now I get to optimize for my recording/control room. I've also got the typical problems with keeping the PC quiet. Hmmmm, if I mount the PC in the closet and use extension cables for screen, mouse, keyboard, audio.... Lots to think about!

Thanks,
-lee-

[John Sayers]

OR you could try something like this:
cheers
JOhn

[laptoppop]

Wow - thanks John! That really gives me something to think about.

Nice, symmetric control room. I assume the booth would be expected to be totally lined with absorbing materials - a dead area.

I also have to figure out if my current low end monitors would work in the wall like that. They have no ports or resonators on the sides or back, so it is possible they'd be fine while I save my pennies for better gear. (Fostex PM-1 monitors, active monitors +/- 2dB from 50-20kHz, -10dB down points at 38 and 23.5kHz.)

I've got to decide if I want to make the tracking area that small, but man! that looks like a nice place to mix in. I wish I had it for my last project!

Thanks much,
-lee-