Thread: Search for room -> studio installation

Are you looking at building a 'room within a room'? Once again weight/load factors have to be looked at. Why a control room - are you planning on making this a business? Is your control room going to be used for mixing? If so, then it needs to be big enough (and acoustically treated) to make it practical.
 
A cellar? Assuming the floor above it is wood they will be "connected" at low frequencies. This means you can put bass trap material in there. Need not be fancy, GF or rockwool left in bags and stacked in corners. Hopefully there is nothing noisy in there? Furnace, AC?
Dave.

Will make a note to check the cellar for sources of noise. Just remembered there's no heating or cooling in the building. The hot water has to come from somewhere though and there might be sewage lines somewhere too. Will make sure to check that out and deal with it if needed. Thanks!
 
Cables: Put in loads and I mean a S***T LOAD! Clip some 1.25" PVC water wastepipe to the walls and runs wires in that (and always leave a strong plastic line in there as a future "pull thru') . Don't buy expensive HD super flexible balanced mic cable and hide it! Foil screened two core is actually better for RF screening. Only 3-4mm OD and the drain wire means it is a dream to strip and connect. You can also use CAT5/6 shielded (FTP) cable. Cheap as chips and each 6mm cable gives you 4 twisted pairs. Not only can CATX carry audio but there are cheap adaptors that allow video (HDMI over a pair) S/PDIF down it plus of course Ethernet!
Dave.

Will put in a ton of cables when the time comes. Honestly don't know a lot about cables and things like that, but will read out and make sure to consult this forum before purchasing and running them. Thanks for the tips about the types to look at!
 
Err? "Control room"? Do you intend two separate spaces a la "posh" studios with double (triple!) glazed window between? If so why? You can't monitor/watch yourself! The problem with HS'es is almost always small rooms. Use ALL the volume you can for both recording and mixing.

After your advice and others I think I'll just have the control room and use all the 11x20 space for it. I think I read somewhere around 225 sq feet is about the minimum recommened square footage for a control room. So you're right I shouldn't cut into that.
 
Why a control room - are you planning on making this a business? Is your control room going to be used for mixing? If so, then it needs to be big enough (and acoustically treated) to make it practical.

Hoping to invite other local rappers / producers over to work on songs together. Potentially I would like to charge for use of the studio / my time yes. I'd like to use the room for mixing.

As far as big enough I'm thinking 11x20 which I think is a bit smaller than optimal, but probably big enough to get resonable results?

You're right I'll need to accoustically treat it!
 
I personally would go with the 11 X 20 room. Acoustically treat that well so that you can do vocals in same room without wasting money on an isolation booth for vocals. Every singer, rapper, yelling guy in my studio has loved the fact that they are not isolated. The only negative is that I personally hate headphones. But that is essential when you record in the main room.

So, what I have done in my control room is open ceiling with pink fluffy stuff. As advised by JH Brandt. It is covered in cloth to just behind my listening position. I have 6" thick rockwool panels behind the desk in corners from floor to ceiling. I also have a 4" thick 2'x4' panel 'cloud' above me at listening position. When mixing, I bring in two panels from my drum room at reflection points on side walls at the reflection point from monitors.

In the rest of my 13x30' room I have 4" 2'x4' panels hanging on walls with 1.5' gaps in between. So 8 of those panels down the walls at the long walls. I haven't had reason to place/build bass traps at the end of the room as it defeats my purpose for the room. At that end is a $2500 watt PA system that some live guys love to hear when drums are recorded in it's 13 x 30" isolation room. In which the ceiling is completely filled with 4" rockwool with 6" gap between the insulation and subfloor above. Again covered with cloth. Then 6 of the 4" 2 x 4' rockwool panels staggered on the concrete walls. There are also a few hanging office dividers that I have at angles to reflect the sides. It is a haphazard thing that just worked really well. Though the drum room is a different animal, and treating it has much to do with trial and error. This just worked well for me.
 
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Just the quickest I could find a pic of my control room desk setup.

I can take and send more pix. Been a while since I uploaded my current setup.

And many things have changed. The room acoustic treatment has not other than addition of the cloud and side panels.
 

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From what the OP just posted, he's not going to have a separate control room, just one 'everything' room I think.
 
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