R
Renascent
New member
Hello ladies and gent's
I'm still a little new here, and I'm still very new to studio construction although I've been reading until my eyes hurt on these forums, Jon Sayers, and a few others.
Anyway, I've got a basement that is practically my own (living with parents still, but theyre very receptive to the whole idea. Not to mention they're helping to pay for me to goto SAE in new york, a recording/production school. woohoo!)
My goals -- To have an environment where I can apply the things I learn while @ SAE.
To have the ability to record at least decent sounding demo's and other things for bands, songwriters, etc in the area(Nice enough to charge a little bit of money, but nothing so crazy that i HAVE to charge money to pay it off!)
Produce songs of my own. I'm going to be pushing to do a "Chemical Brothers'ie" sound, most likely alot of "real drums" with synths and crazy trippy stuff going on.. you know the drill. I'm very sporadic though, and the songs ive been working on have been anywhere from "house" to "ambient" to .. who knows. I write too, so I will most likely do vocals for the tracks as well.
My budget is anywhere from $500 (ideal) to $1500 for construction. Obviously I'd like to be able to keep it under $1000 if at all possible, and that's probably the number I'm going to work with assuming I'll probably end up spending 50% more then I intended to anyway.
The good stuff--
The basement ceiling is a drop ceiling, with roughly 15" between the ceiling top, and the bottom of the floor above
The ceiling is 7' high, probably a little higher then the average basement, even with the drop ceiling.
The basement is "Finished" (Has carpet, has that cheesy lamenant fake wood stuff on the walls to cover the studs, lights in the ceiling, power, etc)
I've had bands play down here and with the 2 windows closed, the bilco doors closed, and the door to upstairs closed, the (loud) band couldn't be heard any closer than my mailbox, and they were SERIOUSLY loud.. hardcore metal, screaming, loud drummer, etc. With the doors open (when everyone was sweating their ace's off) it was semi loud.. whatever.
I live in a pretty rural area.. the closest neighbors are about 80yards away on either side, the road is about 80 yards as well, little traffic during the day, almost none at night. I can't hear anything short of the occasional dump truck (flying) down the road even with music off, and windows open
This is a (roughly drawn) picture of the basement and its dimensions.
The NO area I can't really work with. My dad has a big lifting apparatus and a treadmill there, other assorted basement junk. My computer and synth/mixer/etc sit under the window on the left as we speak.
This is a picture with what I'm considering doing. This is totally up in the air, and I haven't started construction, nor will I , until I have a better understanding of why I'm building walls where I am (this is where I need help!) as well as how to build the walls (I've been learning this, slowly, and I'm patient so I'm not too worried about it)
So there we have it. My questions are as follows..
What dimensions should I aim for for the control room? The "live" room? Should I build a seperate smaller room for guitar amps? Is it very nessisary to isolate a mic for vocals? I guess i have a shizload of questions, so once anyone shows interest in helping me I'll keep ya busy! Thanks much in advance
Please feel free to contact me via AOL/AIm-- SuperEZScreename. This is definatly the best way for me as i will probably have a few questions regarding your anwsers Smile
Scott
I'm still a little new here, and I'm still very new to studio construction although I've been reading until my eyes hurt on these forums, Jon Sayers, and a few others.
Anyway, I've got a basement that is practically my own (living with parents still, but theyre very receptive to the whole idea. Not to mention they're helping to pay for me to goto SAE in new york, a recording/production school. woohoo!)
My goals -- To have an environment where I can apply the things I learn while @ SAE.
To have the ability to record at least decent sounding demo's and other things for bands, songwriters, etc in the area(Nice enough to charge a little bit of money, but nothing so crazy that i HAVE to charge money to pay it off!)
Produce songs of my own. I'm going to be pushing to do a "Chemical Brothers'ie" sound, most likely alot of "real drums" with synths and crazy trippy stuff going on.. you know the drill. I'm very sporadic though, and the songs ive been working on have been anywhere from "house" to "ambient" to .. who knows. I write too, so I will most likely do vocals for the tracks as well.
My budget is anywhere from $500 (ideal) to $1500 for construction. Obviously I'd like to be able to keep it under $1000 if at all possible, and that's probably the number I'm going to work with assuming I'll probably end up spending 50% more then I intended to anyway.
The good stuff--
The basement ceiling is a drop ceiling, with roughly 15" between the ceiling top, and the bottom of the floor above
The ceiling is 7' high, probably a little higher then the average basement, even with the drop ceiling.
The basement is "Finished" (Has carpet, has that cheesy lamenant fake wood stuff on the walls to cover the studs, lights in the ceiling, power, etc)
I've had bands play down here and with the 2 windows closed, the bilco doors closed, and the door to upstairs closed, the (loud) band couldn't be heard any closer than my mailbox, and they were SERIOUSLY loud.. hardcore metal, screaming, loud drummer, etc. With the doors open (when everyone was sweating their ace's off) it was semi loud.. whatever.
I live in a pretty rural area.. the closest neighbors are about 80yards away on either side, the road is about 80 yards as well, little traffic during the day, almost none at night. I can't hear anything short of the occasional dump truck (flying) down the road even with music off, and windows open

This is a (roughly drawn) picture of the basement and its dimensions.
The NO area I can't really work with. My dad has a big lifting apparatus and a treadmill there, other assorted basement junk. My computer and synth/mixer/etc sit under the window on the left as we speak.
This is a picture with what I'm considering doing. This is totally up in the air, and I haven't started construction, nor will I , until I have a better understanding of why I'm building walls where I am (this is where I need help!) as well as how to build the walls (I've been learning this, slowly, and I'm patient so I'm not too worried about it)

So there we have it. My questions are as follows..
What dimensions should I aim for for the control room? The "live" room? Should I build a seperate smaller room for guitar amps? Is it very nessisary to isolate a mic for vocals? I guess i have a shizload of questions, so once anyone shows interest in helping me I'll keep ya busy! Thanks much in advance
Please feel free to contact me via AOL/AIm-- SuperEZScreename. This is definatly the best way for me as i will probably have a few questions regarding your anwsers Smile
Scott