Building a studio on a VERY limited budget?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ian Lund
  • Start date Start date
I

Ian Lund

New member
Here is the deal. My band just happened upon a frickin HUGE fallout shelter in between Chicago and Milwaukee. It is a huge space with concrete floors walls and celings. there are cement pillars every 15 feet square. Its big enough to be a roller rink or indoor skatepark! The celings are about 12 feet high. The landlord told us he is not going to be using the space for 2 years. So we have a place to record and practice for 2 years. The problem!! Its is so big and there is so much reverb that we cant practice or record. SO... I want to build a recording space with a control room for as little money as possible. so i need ideas from you guys as how to go about it. I was think of a layout based on this picture.

https://img439.imageshack.us/my.php?image=untitled12pj.jpg



This would be in the corner of the room using the two exsisting cement walls. and building the other walls. The black squares represent the pillars.
OK... With all that said. We really have no money so we need to build this on the cheap..really cheap.. any ideas on tricks and techniques or better ideas for layout would be appreciated. I am going to the space this week and will post some real pictures..Thanks in advance for your responce
 
oh yeah ..Here is what i will running

Dual 867 Mac, 002rack, M-audio Octane,2- Apex 207's, Alesis monitors, 2 Aphex 420's, 2-mk 012, 1-MK-319, 2-57's, 2- cad glx3000's, 1-AKG d 112.
I will have pictures of the space this week. Thanks Ian
 
Ok, what exactly is your budget? What skills/tools do you have? What are you looking to record? Will it be for commercial use or just you and friends? Please give us as much detailed info as you can.
 
If you have no money, you will basically just have to look for construction scraps or foam scraps or textile scraps or something. Just look for anything you can put on the walls to either diffuse or absorb sound. Thicker the better for absorption. Try not to make a fire hazard.
It will be expensive to properly treat a room that large, so maybe figure out a way to section off a corner of it to focus on?
 
Ian,

the layout is a bad one - the control room needs to be symmetrical - if it isn't you will not have proper stereo imaging during mixdown.

You need to redesign it, keeping that in mind.

Rod
 
Once the landlord needs the space again do you have to tare down what you're planning on building? If that's the case I'd make it as simple as humanly possible. Building something of quality could easily take up half the time you've got the place. I mean, I've been building my studio for 6 years, this stuff isn't easy. Get a bunch of moving blankets and hang a ton of them to make faux walls. At least then you'd be able to practice without all the echo.
 
pandamonk said:
Ok, what exactly is your budget? What skills/tools do you have? What are you looking to record? Will it be for commercial use or just you and friends? Please give us as much detailed info as you can.
Click to expand...

Budget, about $1500. Our singer is a house builder and I have built many a skate ramp in my day! It will mostly be for our records but I will be recording other band projects here and there when the band is not using it.
Ian
 
Man oh man..

all i gots to say is when I build this place and decide to stick the drums in the big room... WHOA!! A stereo pair in a near coincident pair about 20 feet back... watch out!!
 
post detailed measurements of the place including where the posts are and any plumbing and electrical. keep in mind you will likely need permits to build and possible insurance... you might want to pop over to www.johnlsayers.com with all the info and a drawing with the measurements to get input from the folks there.
 
What i'd do with that room and a $1500 budget is build 2 booths. 1 for drums, and 1 for everything else. Or maybe even just one booth. I'd build it in such a way, that it can be easily taken down without damage and used elsewhere. Then i'd hang moving blankets around the mixing position. Check the attached pic.
 

Attachments

  • design for Ian lund.webp
    design for Ian lund.webp
    14.7 KB · Views: 182
How about this...
 

Attachments

  • untitled12pj.webp
    untitled12pj.webp
    22 KB · Views: 182
How can a room be too big? Have you actually tried playing in there? Recording drums in a little booth when you have a warehouse sized room seems insane to me.
 
Here's my two cents worth. Considering your budget, I didn't include windows for the drum and vocal booths.

t7z9fs.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top