How are you going to be heating/cooling the studio?
The cooling will be from a mini split AC unit...we just have to see what to do about the bathroom/foyer area, as I would like to have cooling running through there too, otherwise they will be a hot zone in-between my studio and the rest of the house. I'm waiting for the HVAC guy to come and look at the build, and to tell us if it would be easier to run a duct from my existing central AC for the bathroom/foyer (my preference) or get a mini split that can also use ducts, and feed a small one off the studio into the bathroom/foyer. Either option has some complexity bringing the duct to them...but I would rather have the mini split solely for the studio.
The heat is a little different...the studio will have hot water baseboard on just the one window wall, added as a 3rd zone from my furnace, and the mini split will also include a heat pump, so I can chose which to use, depending on the temps outside, since the mini split heat pump isn't very effective when temps get into the teens.
The bathroom/foyer will also have hot water baseboard added, and that will be tied to my 1st zone in the house, which is my upstairs living area...and that's also why it would make sense for the AC to be tied to that same central air that covers my house.
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If you have the skills to do it and patience to source the parts, it's brilliant stuff. And you can customize them for your own space's needs. Just sayin'!
Making snakes isn't a problem...I've done more soldering and wiring than I care to remember.
The decision is really about how "clean" I want to keep things. With wall plates and running the cable under the floor and into the walls...it's very clean.
Having a snake(s) across the floor...not as much...but it's the easier way to go, and faster...since I still need to solder the Mogami to the wall plates connectors, and also at the other end for interfacing with preamps.
At this point I'm not buying any ready-made snakes...so it's just a question of what I want to do with the Mogami multi-channel cable...and I'm not yet decided on that. As clean as the wall plates would be...it's also a whole bunch of wall plates on the walls...which is a pretty permanent thing. I mean, yeah, they can be removed at some point down the road if no longer needed, and the walls patched...but I'm also considering that the less holes I need to make in the walls, the better for the long run.
This was never meant to be a commercial studio build...so the new studio space is more than just a studio...and in time, when I get to a point where I no longer have the motivation and interest to record (hopefully not until well into old age)...I would like the room to be a nice space for other interests too.
Along those lines of thinking (not too many permanent wall/floor holes)...I am also reconsidering how I want to set up my studio racks. Initially I was pretty set on creating that typical 4-5 slanted rack setup directly behind the mix position, like you see in many studios...since that is the ideal location for rack gear when mixing, because you can just roll back in your chair, and pretty much stay in the mix sweet spot while you adjust something in the racks behind you.
So I was going to do a more permanent rack installation, with audio cables and power coming up from under the floor...which really didn't appeal to me.
Now I'm thinking more about just having a longer "umbilical" connection from the console to the racks...and with the racks on wheels, which they already are, I can roll them into any position I want during tracking or mixing, since I am often recording on my own, so being able to "spin" the racks around so I can see them, would be great...and when not needed, just roll them back against the wall on the console side, leaving the central floor area wide open, if I want.
It would take about 15' of umbilical from the console to the racks, that would be easily folded behind the racks when they were up against the wall.
That said...the umbilical cabling would be the same thing as snakes on the floor to the back of the room (regardless if I made my own or bought them)...so there's that "keep it clean" thing again.
On the other hand...it may not be as big a deal as it seems. I can lay studio snakes along the perimeter when needed, out of the way for the most part... and any kind of umbilical cables from the console to the racks behind me, would only create a small "watch your step" situation, and not something that would be messy.
Believe me...I've had multiple options running through my head these days, but as I get closer to it...something will just make the most sense, and then that will be it, and I will live with my choices.
I'm still going to run my power distribution through the walls...I already bought the wall plates, so no turning back. My only thought is the power for the racks, if they will be rolling around...but I can set it up so that a single power chord will feed all of them, and just run that separate from the audio umbilical cables.
The idea of more flexibility really appeals to me...but it will come at the price by not having that real clean in-wall/in floor permanent installation...though maybe not such a big price.