Dedicated vs. Multi-Use In-Home Recording Space

[Cheeky Monkey]

I thought I'd set-up this thread up both a poll to find-out how many of you use dedicated vs. multi-use in-home recording space, and also ask for feedback on my own situation.

I have two possible in-home recording spaces:

1) My son's recently vacated bedroom (Dedicated recording environment): A 13' x 10' room with sloped drywall ceiling/wall one side (Cape Cod style house); one window on the sloped wall. The room is carpeted and at some point, I'd acoustically treat it. If I set-up in the bedroom, I can always have everything ready to go, including mic placements. A dedicated recording environment is appealing to me, and may encourage more songwriting/recording. I live in the country and it is VERY quiet, with no traffic or neighbor problems to worry about.

However, I expect to be spending much more time in the basement rec room which might encourage more songwriting/recording for other reasons. Thus my 2nd option...

2) My partially-finished basement (Multi-Use): The advantage is that it's a larger environment, with finished drywall, buy no carpeting or suspended ceiling tiles yet. If I set-up in the basement, I'd plan to use portable office partitions (which I can acquire cheap) as "gobos" that I can position when I record. However, I intend to set-up for home theatre and games room at some point and if the basement is used as a rec room, I expect that I'll have to always set-up and take-down my mic arrangements as well as the partitions. That might quickly become a pain in the ass. Having said that, it's not like pool/ping-pong is going to played all the time, but there's one other drawback to the basement that the bedroom doesn't have -- and that is, whenever anyone walks on the floor above, there's a lot of creaking -- which means I have to ask my wife to not walk around while I'm recording, or record when she's out.

Which environment would you choose? Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[frederic]

Generally speaking, the more air you have in the room, the better it can sound if properly treated. This points you at the basement over the vacated bedroom.

However, if you're like me and prefer natural lighting and fresh air, the vacated bedroom might be a good choice as you'd have bigger windows, allowing in sunlight and fresh air in the spring/fall months (depending where you live, or course). Often basements, even if properly waterproofed, collect a damp, musty smell which is distracting to work in, and really not too good for equipment in the long term. Both comments I've made thus far really are preferences, and you're might be different than mine.

The creaking floor can be fixed, while there is no ceiling in the basement. All that is required is a large box of wedge shaped shims, hammered in between the subflooring that has pulled away from the joists, and the joists themselves. I typically apply some woodglue just to make sure the shim stays put. But that will kill the squeeking.

I'd want to have dedicated recording space, even if it isn't ideal. The reason for this is when I'm composing, recording, mixing or mastering, I prefer absolute isolation from the real world. I find cable TV, radio, the telephone and my wife highly distracting when I'm trying to achieve something. I took over the garage loft for my home studio, and my wife, agreeing with this philosophy, took over one of the larger bedrooms for her home office. I have my private space, where she generally doesn't enter, and she has her space, where generally I don't enter (unless I need to steal sharpie markers ). The advantage of private, dedicated space, is it doesn't get cluttered with inappropriate stuff. Years ago I lived with a g/f and my "home studio" was really the laundry room. While my g/f at the time was a good sport not to come in and do laundry while I was working in there, not a day went by where I didn't have to heave piles of washed and folded laundry off my mixing console.

Anyway, just some thoughts....

 

[The Ghost of FM]

I have a 4 bedroom townhouse and use two of the rooms as my studio. One the control and the other the live room.

The points made about the basement being damp are a good one! My 16 track recorder came from a basement studio in its previous life and I think it suffered from the experience.

My control room is about the same size as your spare bedroom and I did some very low tech acoustic treatment to it and get decent results from mixing in there.

Here's a pic of the control room.

Cheers!

 

[mikeh]

I went from a "multi-use" area in the basement (previous house) to a dedicated bedroom (current house) to a dedicated area of the basement (current house) and am currently building a dedicated space in the basement of my new condo) - so. I've experianced all the various pros & cons.

The multi-use area simply does not work long term!!! For those of us who fit recording time into other parts of our busy lives, it is important to be able to get right to it. Having to set-up gear, etc. is a huge distraction and can/will compromise the effectiveness of your "studio" (thus you will get less quaility recording time).

A dedicated "main level" bedroom is nice because of the natural lighting, etc. etc - but you are stuck with a specific space (13x10 or whatever). This eliminates the potential for live drums or much growth of the studio. Sure, you can drill holes through the floor to run a snake to the basement - or set up drums in the living room, but how practical is that?

I found I quickly "outgrew" a bedroom (even without live drums). So I moved to the basement and took up about 1/4 of the finished half (about 12x12) for a dedicated space. Then I decided to add live drums (later replaced by V-drums) so I needed more space. Then I wanted a small vocal area (even more space). I eventually got rid of the pool table and the ping pong table and now use almost the entire finished basement (I decided I'd rather record then play pool) - but at least the basement gave me the option to grow - a bedroom was never enough room.

At my new place, about half the basement is dedicated to my "studio" - and given the huge compromise on space (going from a large ranch house to a 2 bedroom condo) half the basement is a significnat committement of space)

Granted a basement is not as "healthy" as a main floor space (limited sunlight and some "dampness" during certain parts of the year) - but life is about compromise and trade-offs. As a musician, I've spent most of my life in dimly lit studios and smoky bars - so healthy is already a lost cause.

 

[EdWonbass]

My space is basically half of my garage. It's like a basement with a big drive through door. I have carpeted the end that I use. So far I haven't treated the walls with anything but paint but I may perhaps later. The garage dosen't have heat or A/C so sometimes it can be miserable. I closed half of the garage off so I only have to heat a small area. So far it's working out OK. It's mine and I can leave things out while i'm in the middle of a project and want to take a break for a day or so. We have a spare bedroom upstairs which I thought about moving into but there is a chance my son may move in with us. Right now he lives with his crazy mother.
The bedroom move would be nice for me because of the heat and A/C and a window. Yes a window would be nice.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Well, all things considered, I believe the spare bedroom will be the better option for me. I think a dedicated environment where gear is always set-up and ready to go will provide better focus and encourage more recording. Now I can vote "dedicated" on my own poll. Thanks for sharing your situations.