Hello,
My not-quite-finished basement studio space is approx. 12' x 12' with an open sheet-music closet off one corner. It's a room within a room, with approx. 14" between each of three walls and the basement poured-concrete walls. The fourth wall is directly coupled to another, unrelated room. I'm at the point of mudding the walls and laying the ceiling.
I'll be the only one using the space, and my question is, given the kinds of equipment I have, what are people's thoughts on laying out the space to be used efficiently? I have:
Roland A-80 (basically a full-length MIDI controller keyboard); this is my main instrument;
6 rack-mountable modules (some sound modules, an effects box, a sampler);
A Mackie 1202 (small end) mixer;
A pair of Alesis One monitor speakers and a power amp;
A pair of "huge" (compared to the amount of room I have) SoundTech speakers and power amp (for gigging, but they'll probably have to sit in the room anyway);
A tower computer and video monitor that I'll be using for recording and composition.
Currently, I have my rack-mountables and mixer in a "portable" (hand carrying) Raxxess case, but I'd really consider a more permanent placement, even a dedicated, wheeled case.
I also have a single mic and a drum pad I use, but their placement isn't so important.
A couple of times a year I tear down all my equipment (sans computer) and cart it to the local theatre for a couple of weeks at a time, but the rest of the time, it remains in place. (Currently, "in place" means in the dining room!)
The computer dedicated to this effort is a new addition... For recording, I used to lay everything to a dedicated sequencer (Roland MC50) and hope I didn't run out of polyphony on my sound modules. From there, I'd play back directly to audio tape or CD. For composing, I'd lay my ideas down to the sequencer and cart the sequencer to a computer elsewhere. My point being ... I've not used the computer directly with my setup yet, so I don't know how close I need it to be to my MIDI keyboard.
So... more specifically... Should I invest in a prefabbed piece of studio furniture that could hold my keyboard, computer, and modules? Or are there better ideas? Remember, I'm the one pressing all the buttons to record, play my stuff, and then stop recording and my room is only 12' wide. Should I aim to be surrounded by all the equipment or would it be usable spreading it around the room?
I know the correct answer is "What ever suits me best", but I'd really like to hear what other people in the same boat like about their way of doing things.
Thank you very much,
James
My not-quite-finished basement studio space is approx. 12' x 12' with an open sheet-music closet off one corner. It's a room within a room, with approx. 14" between each of three walls and the basement poured-concrete walls. The fourth wall is directly coupled to another, unrelated room. I'm at the point of mudding the walls and laying the ceiling.
I'll be the only one using the space, and my question is, given the kinds of equipment I have, what are people's thoughts on laying out the space to be used efficiently? I have:
Roland A-80 (basically a full-length MIDI controller keyboard); this is my main instrument;
6 rack-mountable modules (some sound modules, an effects box, a sampler);
A Mackie 1202 (small end) mixer;
A pair of Alesis One monitor speakers and a power amp;
A pair of "huge" (compared to the amount of room I have) SoundTech speakers and power amp (for gigging, but they'll probably have to sit in the room anyway);
A tower computer and video monitor that I'll be using for recording and composition.
Currently, I have my rack-mountables and mixer in a "portable" (hand carrying) Raxxess case, but I'd really consider a more permanent placement, even a dedicated, wheeled case.
I also have a single mic and a drum pad I use, but their placement isn't so important.
A couple of times a year I tear down all my equipment (sans computer) and cart it to the local theatre for a couple of weeks at a time, but the rest of the time, it remains in place. (Currently, "in place" means in the dining room!)
The computer dedicated to this effort is a new addition... For recording, I used to lay everything to a dedicated sequencer (Roland MC50) and hope I didn't run out of polyphony on my sound modules. From there, I'd play back directly to audio tape or CD. For composing, I'd lay my ideas down to the sequencer and cart the sequencer to a computer elsewhere. My point being ... I've not used the computer directly with my setup yet, so I don't know how close I need it to be to my MIDI keyboard.
So... more specifically... Should I invest in a prefabbed piece of studio furniture that could hold my keyboard, computer, and modules? Or are there better ideas? Remember, I'm the one pressing all the buttons to record, play my stuff, and then stop recording and my room is only 12' wide. Should I aim to be surrounded by all the equipment or would it be usable spreading it around the room?
I know the correct answer is "What ever suits me best", but I'd really like to hear what other people in the same boat like about their way of doing things.
Thank you very much,
James