Studio Ventilation

I have seen this pop up on some other feeds which got me interested.

I've been in some recording/practise studios and some get very hot/smelly (definitely not my fault XD). Obviously you can't leave a window open or have a fan on soooooo....

How do you ventilate your studio?
 
Honest to Jeebus -- Call a local HVAC specialist and have them come out and look around.

I tried it DYI - Then I called a pro to "tell them what I wanted" - Then I called a pro to do what they told me.

And I'm *still* only "within reason" (because I went with the "well, this will keep you within reason" suggestion instead of what they really wanted to do).

But long story short -- Even if you're doing it yourself, find out what a pro would do first and go from there.
 
My latest studio has split system air cons, these don't supply any fresh air, but we just open the doors between takes and during breaks. At my last studio I had ducted air con which was much better as we could leave the fan on the whole time and it had a system of adding 20% fresh air all the time. The down side was that it was expensive to run and install. The ducting had to have sound capturing boxes installed (which I made) and where the ducting come through the walls, which is why I went split system in the new place.

Alan.
 
I have seen this pop up on some other feeds which got me interested.

I've been in some recording/practise studios and some get very hot/smelly (definitely not my fault XD). Obviously you can't leave a window open or have a fan on soooooo....

How do you ventilate your studio?

Air conditioning isn't in my budget (damned little actually is, at this point), and my studio is probably exceptionally small. It's cold right now, so the equipment brings it up to a nice comfy temperature, so ventilation isn't that much of an issue.

Except, of course, for oxygen.

My present plan is to install two fans in the studio walls (opposite walls), with a couple of high CFM fans, one exhausting, and the other feeding fresh air in. These will be blocked with thick MDF doors. During breaks, or when I'm not doing stuff that requires sound isolation, I will open up the doors, and turn on the fans for a bit. That should make things bearable in the summer, particularly because I almost always work at night. . .

And it's cheap. :cool:
 
Ok so it seems that the anwser is pretty much just opening doors/windows and putting on an air con in between recordings.

Lets go the other direction. Has anyone had a studio that was too cold?
 
I should point out that when I was referring to air con earlier, I was referring to reverse cycle cooling/heating, not just cooling. While my control room never needs much heating due to the gear heat, the recording room gets cold during winter, especially when there is only one person in there singing or whatever.

I suppose it boils (excuse the pun) down to where you are based and how hot/cold it gets, where we are often gets to 40degC (104F) in summer and below 10degC (50F) in winter. If I lived in a cold place I would want some heat and a hot place some cool. Split air cons are very cheap nowadays, a small home studio control room would need a small unit.

Alan.
 
That is a very handy feature, I haven't heard of anyone needing to heat their studio but the option is always nice

P.S. I loved the pun :p
 
I live in Florida and I'm in the process of converting a small 10x14 storage shed into a project studio. I plan to go the split AC rout and was concerned about ventilation. Looks like opening the door occasionally will be my best bet. Certainly the least expensive solution; All the comments were very helpful hopefully someone from the States can give me some advice on split AC intallation. I don't plan on DIY for that but I heard that a lot of companies charge rediculouse prices to install a split AC unit; especially if you didn't buy it through their company.
 
My advice is to get quotes from air conditioning companies to supply and fit the split system, this way if there are any problems they have to fix it not shift the blame to the fitters.

Also you get the correct size quoted for the job, room size, how much heat is generated by the gear, how many people will be in the room (people generate heat too 70 to 116 watts). If you buy the air con at a discount store where the price looks lower, you buy from a salesperson that sells toasters, kettles and televisions, then you need to arrange to get the air con fitted by someone else. Most quotes from air con companies includes all fitting. I also recommend Mitsubishi Electric MSZ-GE Series, they run very quiet (30 dBA @ 1.5mtrs/5' = Whisper Quiet Library at 6') and in silent mode you can usually leave them on while recording.

Aan.
 
The trick with ventilation for sound studios is to use very large cross section duct work (with multiple baffles inside to prevent sound getting in) and very slow moving air.

It sounds simple but getting it right is the work of specialist professionals.

So my usual solution at home is to run the air conditioning (which also provides heating) on high between takes and turn it off when actually recording.
 
I got lucky with A/C for my studio.

When I decided to install central air conditioning in the house...the main goal was the upstairs, which is where the heat was the worst, and downstairs it's pretty cool except maybe in the two hottest months.
So as they were running the ducts, I asked the guy if he could run one all the way down to the studio...and at first it seemed like it would not be possible, but I showed them how they could run it through an existing closed porch, through the floor, and then a hard L-turn into the studio.
Ended being a piece of cake, and due to the extra length of duct...you can't even hear the A/C noise or are rushing in.

I then wrapped heavy insulation around the duct, then boxed it off, and by the time I was down with trim-n-paint....you couldn't even tell there was an A/C duct in there.

So my studio has great A/C and I can run my gear even in the dead of summer, and it's very comfortable and quiet. I just leave my studio door open, and the A/C return upstairs pulls the hot air out at the one end and the duct serves cool air at the other.
 
I worry that I've made my booth so sound proof that it's also "airtight"?

How concerned should I be about fresh air (oxygen) getting into the room for the performer?

Does anyone have a similar experience?

(BTW The room does have it's own window AC unit that I built into the wall to cool the room in the summer. Some O2 may come in through it, I don't know yet.)

I'm afraid the first session I do in there, I'm going to turn around and see the drummers lips turn blue right before he passes out.:facepalm::eek:
 
I worry that I've made my booth so sound proof that it's also "airtight"?

How concerned should I be about fresh air (oxygen) getting into the room for the performer?

It might discourage time-wasting.

Get them into the studio, tell them they've got five minutes to get it right before their air runs out.
 
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