First post! Need advise please

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Braxton

Braxton

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Hello to everyone, I have been reading post now for about two weeks, It has now come to the point i bought a 20x24 building that will be delivered on Sept 4, 2007 this room was going to be a practice room so my son and I could have a place for two drum sets, guitars and a kustom PA, Now from reading the post we are going to try to advance to a studio type room. My question is this do you think the room is big enough, also we have a computor and protools to work with. The ceilings are not very high in this building im just hoping we did not make a 7,000.00 dollar mistake. Any advice would be most helpful, and id also like to say this is a great place. Thanks for having me on the Home recording BBS...
Braxton :)
 
Welcome to the forum.

There are a ton of people that would absolutely kill to have 20x24'.

If you're going to track in there, the most important thing being an external building is to make sure you make it quiet inside. Plan on insulating all the walls, drywall inside (or some sort of hard material), etc. to keep out outside noise out.

How low is not real high on the ceiling?

Bryan
 
Keep reading, you will discover lots of people are using much smaller rooms and getting good results. You may want to add an extra layer of dry wall ( gypsum board, sheet rock or whatever the locals call it in your area) to all the walls and ceiling. This is costly, time consuming and messy but well worth the effort. More mass in the walls and ceiling is what does the most to keep sound in/out. As the need arises you will probably want to add bass traps, diffuser panels, a cloud or two and a few gobos (check various threads on each of these.) You may also want to add an isolation booth for vocals and isolating amps. A 20X24 room is ample space to record in (should be enough to record a band all at once if you place things just right) so your main concern should be in making the room sound as good as possible. Don't hesitate to ask questions, someone around here has "been there, done that," and most are more than willing to share what we have learned from experience. Welcome to the world of home recording, if it doesn't drive you crazy (or bankrupt) in a year, give it two. Don't loose your sense of humor, home recording can get frustrating at times.
 
Thank you, I have been reading so much here, I know one thing is for sure when the building gets here i must plan way ahead before any walls electrict or anything else starts. Thanks for the replys!!! Braxton:)
 
I would agree with Dani Pace on possibly adding an isolation booth. My buddy and I rented this warehouse space and we ended up just building our own booth for recording vocals and guitars. You will need to treat your space, acoustic foam, bass traps, ect. As far as the booth, there is a company called Dawbox, which sells a dvd and plans on building a vocal booth. The DIY method shouldn't cost you more than $3-500. I looked into the Whisper rooms and just couldn't fork out over $1000.
Your son is going to be in heaven in a week or two. Just listen to how the room sounds once you get your new space. Good luck!
 
I would agree with Dani Pace on possibly adding an isolation booth. My buddy and I rented this warehouse space and we ended up just building our own booth for recording vocals and guitars. You will need to treat your space, acoustic foam, bass traps, ect. As far as the booth, there is a company called Dawbox, which sells a dvd and plans on building a vocal booth. The DIY method shouldn't cost you more than $3-500. I looked into the Whisper rooms and just couldn't fork out over $1000.
Your son is going to be in heaven in a week or two. Just listen to how the room sounds once you get your new space. Good luck!
 
here is my building

ok here it is, i have a long way to go...
 

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*drools at the thought of having that much space*

I could fit my room in a small corner of that building :(
 
That's very cool! You will need to acoustically treat the space. Be forewarned; there's a lot of snake oil out there. A good place to start is www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html. Auralex offers a service whereby you call them or fill out a form describing a room and they model it in the computer and make recommendations based on the results. It's difficult to understate the importance of acoustical treatment.
 
It's difficult to understate the importance of acoustical treatment.

I don't think it's that difficult, let me try: "Acoustical treatment doesn't matter at all." ;)
 
I don't think it's that difficult, let me try: "Acoustical treatment doesn't matter at all." ;)

Oops. Goofed that one up, didn't I?

Let's try again.

Acoustical treatment is much more important than most people realize because none of the other things in the room, ie, instruments, mics, monitors and ears can accurately connect to each through the air because the sound waves are corrupted in an untreated room.

How's that?
 
I was just making joke... you always articulate is .
 
One more thing often overlooked... install more electrical outlets than you think you will ever need. (Wish I had done this.) And be sure they are all grounded properly. And NO aliminum wire whatsoever.
 
Check out the stickys in Studio Construction, Studio Design and Acoustics over at John Sayers. It will be a long read - but man it is worth it. : http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

I'll give a nod to Rod's book too: "Home Recording Studio: Build it like the Pros"

Good luck man. The space looks awesome.
 
new question for the group.

Hey everyone i have a new question please, the 20x24 i have, how many of you would make the control room 8x20? or is this too big. it seems i would be cutting down on the live room area a bunch. anyways thank you and i still have a long way to go. Braxton
 
its important to consider the room height as well as the length and width. let's suppose you have a ten foot ceiling. if so, the looking at optimal ratios for the room, you could build it 14 feet x 19 feet (1:1.4:1.9) which is a decent ratio (which means you'll have less problems when you go to treat it).

another option is to choose a smaller CR with a proper ratio that gives you room for other parts like live room etc...
 

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