New studio construction

picostudios said:
So where did you get the money for all this?
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Sorry, I can't figure out the quote thingies. Anyway, the money came out of my pocket...which is why it's taken me more than two years to do this. A lot of the work has been done with friends. The equipment (most of it, anyway) has been acquired over many years. Some has been purchased in the last two years and never used, but not much. Can you understand how I outgrew a "home" studio?
 
frederic said:
Looking very good Rick.

What kind of room treatments are you planning, if any?
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Thanks! I've been doing a lot of thinking about that. I'm sure I'm going to need some bass traps. I have some Auralex that I'll be using. I'm really not sure what else I'll need until the glass goes in. Then I'll have a better idea of what each room sounds like independently. It'll be tricky for a while. Like I mentioned before, I'm paying for things as I go along and can afford it, and I'm also learning the construction end of it at the same time. So, I can only do what I can do. If anyone wants to come and lend a hand, please do! :-)
 
Cool!

I didn't have to figure out the quote thingies - it does it automatically!!

Learn something new every day.
 
RickW said:
I'm paying for things as I go along and can afford it, and I'm also learning the construction end of it at the same time. So, I can only do what I can do. If anyone wants to come and lend a hand, please do! :-)
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Construction, electrical and plumbing are not difficult. Its a matter of knowing how to do it, and there are many resources.

If you really want to learn generic construction techniques, your Home Depot (and Lowes) have racks of hardcover $25 books covering framing, roofing, plumbing, electrical, etc, and well worth building a small library if you're building a studio, or remodeling a home.

The unfortunate thing about construction studios is this... its fun for a few weeks... its exciting, its exhilirating actually, knowing what you're building is going to be a really fun room, or set of rooms. Then after a few weeks its a friggen drag, as you start to realize the amount of work you just embarked on <G>

And sometimes a break is good. I stopped halfway through the spackling stage as after 6 months of back breaking hard physical labor every night after work until about 1am, and every weekend, my body simply revolted. But its been six months now, I should get back to spackling before the 5 gallon pails dry up :)
 
This is great stuff Rick! I'm a forum lurker, just soaking up information - hopefully I'll be ready to build some stuff in a year or so. I was curious about one point though: you say this is rented factory space, do you worry about putting all of this time and money in a rental space? I would be sooo unhappy if I had done this and then the property owner decided to not renew my lease :-\

psmurf
 
Thanks, psmurf. Actually, I don't worry about that at all. The factory is owned by a very cool guy that bought it from the town. He's been a business tenant himself there for 30 years, and coincidentally, my day job is working for him. So my landlord is also my boss! He's a very old-school, trustworthy handshake kinda guy, and he's been more than straight with me...and I've been behind on rent a few times.

He just wants to see the whole building get rented with good tenants (the place is enormous!). I realize that under normal circumstances, putting this much work into a rented space isa gamble...probably even crazy. :-)
 
frederic said:
The unfortunate thing about construction studios is this... its fun for a few weeks... its exciting, its exhilirating actually, knowing what you're building is going to be a really fun room, or set of rooms. Then after a few weeks its a friggen drag, as you start to realize the amount of work you just embarked on <G>
:)
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That is SOOO true! I absolutely bit off more than I could chew. I seriously didn't envision going this far, I just wanted a cool recording space. Once I got going, I figured I should do some things "correctly" since I'm building anyway. Then it was..."well, I've gone this far, might as well keep going". Then everything got elaborate. Better electrical, better insulation, better heating and AC...more, more, more.

On the plus side, besides having a room I can enjoy, I also learned a lot along the way. Some of it I didn't want to learn, but it was done out of necessity and I don't regret it. Whether or not I retain it is another story! lol
 
Man, that is incredible. I would love to be able to afford a studio like that. Some day, (maybe after I learn how to use the equipment that I already have). I built a little room in my garage and semi-soundproofed it. It works for my needs right now but eventually I am hoping to get to your level. I enjoyed seeing the pics of the progress. Great job man. I can't wait to hear some of the tunes that come out of there.
 
carvin said:
Great job man. I can't wait to hear some of the tunes that come out of there.
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Neither can I!! lol

Thanks. I'm sure what you have is more than sufficient for recording, and probably sounds pretty good too. My problem was I didn't HAVE a garage. I live in an apartment, so when I found a big space cheap.....well, it's a long story. I'll continue to keep posting progress reports. Thanks again for looking.
 
RickW said:
That is SOOO true! I absolutely bit off more than I could chew. I seriously didn't envision going this far, I just wanted a cool recording space. Once I got going, I figured I should do some things "correctly" since I'm building anyway. Then it was..."well, I've gone this far, might as well keep going". Then everything got elaborate. Better electrical, better insulation, better heating and AC...more, more, more.

On the plus side, besides having a room I can enjoy, I also learned a lot along the way. Some of it I didn't want to learn, but it was done out of necessity and I don't regret it. Whether or not I retain it is another story! lol
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...and now you're on to the really fun part - learning the way your room(s) work, and discovering different ways to use them to get different sounds and such. So, have you recorded anything (just screwing around) yet? Good results, bad results, interesting results?
 
Nope. Haven't recorded anything yet, but have plans to later in the week. It may take a while just to make sure everything's working and all the connections are made. It's Monday afternoon right now and I was supposed to hear from the glass people today....nothing yet. I have a couple more snakes that have to be soldered (I didn't have enough...go figure). I wanted the place up and running by the end of April and here it is...the end of May. I can't take much more!!

;-)
 
RickW said:
Nope. Haven't recorded anything yet, but have plans to later in the week. It may take a while just to make sure everything's working and all the connections are made. It's Monday afternoon right now and I was supposed to hear from the glass people today....nothing yet. I have a couple more snakes that have to be soldered (I didn't have enough...go figure). I wanted the place up and running by the end of April and here it is...the end of May. I can't take much more!!

;-)
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It's a fact that most studios open when they're still under some form of construction, and often it's because they need money to keep the construction moving. You've avoided that, so you can't be doing too badly! I can't wait to hear a report of the first sessions...

John L
 
Actually, that's what I'm trying to do. I am still under construction, just not the recording area (except for the glass, which is being installed Friday...finally!). I still have to work in the halls, kitchen and lounge. Some sheetrocking to do (with all the other fun stuff involved in that), painting, suspended ceiling, etc. This must be what owning a house is like!? Does it ever end??? :-)
 
Finally!!

Well, the glass is finally in. I'll be posting pics in a day or so. Will be recording by the end of the week, but only to make sure everything is wired up and working properly. I have a few people lined up to be the guinea pigs to get things rolling. Have a couple of bands interested in working here (still haven't seen any money yet though). Guess I better get serious with spreading the word! :-)

Thanks to all for your comments, advice and questions. I'll continue to keep you posted.
 
tubesrawsom said:
hey rick i see u use 2031 truth moniters and i think audiophile bx5 wuts the one in the middle?
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You're right, they are the 2031's (which I'm fairly impressed with, actually). The M-Audio's are the SP5P's (which I belive are pretty much the same as the BX5). The one's in the middle are....gulp.........Peavey's. They're really studio monitors that they made after acquiring AMR, but they never caught on. These sound pretty good, but are on the for sale block since I got the M-Audios. I should just take them out of there since they're not even hooked up anymore. Thanks for noticing.
 
no problem
i resently got 2031's for my first set of moniters and yes there impressive espesially tht they carry the behringer name
peace
 
Rick,

I'm dying over here... have you recorded something in there yet? What's the place sound like?

John
 
JohnL

Yes, we've recorded a couple of singers to backing tracks. We're still making sure everything is working correctly. The connections all seem to be fine. Having a problem with my board, but we'll get that worked out. We've been recording direct to hard drive, so I haven't used the ADATs yet (don't know if I ever will now). The rooms still don't sound the way I'd like. The control room is actually pretty good...surprisingly. That's the least of my worries. The vocal booth has a creak in part of the floor that we didn't notice before the carpet was put in, so that's a drag but I can work around it. Haven't worked in the "drum" booth yet, so don't know what that sounds like. The main room is kind of muddy (I'm going by what my band sounds like rehearsing there). I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it. I'm having a little too much leakage between my doors for my taste, so I have to rectify that. I guess the work will never end! :-)

Anyway, the tracks that were recorded sounded good. Gave me a chance to try some new mics and headphone amps. There's a light at the end of the tunnel!
 
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