gonna be building a 7' x 7' control room

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biz markie

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I was told in another forum that 7' x 7' is too small for a control room, but this is all the space that can be accomodated and I'm hoping I will be able to make it work. The room isn't built yet and I'm wondering what I could put in the walls to make it relatively sound proof. I also plan to buy a new set of monitors and maybe a sub. I'm thinking of going with Yorkville brand speakers, these models in specific:

http://www.yorkville.com/products.asp?type=33&cat=20&id=118

http://www.yorkville.com/products.asp?type=33&cat=20&id=207

I'll be using my computer for recording. It has a M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 sound card. I plan to eventually buy a 12 or 16 track mixer, maybe Behringer. I've got a couple mics and guitars, a bass, and amps and such as well. I plan to have the amps set up in the next room and have the cables travel through the wall into the control room so it is isolated from the amps. What would be a neat and tidy way of passing the cables through the wall?

Thanks for any input!
 
to make it soundproof?

ok... so,

having a 7X7 space is one thing, we've all had to work in spaces that are limited for various reasons, and far less than ideal, and I don't know anyone who has never been told that the only way to do produce quality music is by spending 100,000 and building a nice big free standing speace with an LEDE control room, proffesionally designed... don't worry about it, the trick is to live in your room when you're done and listen to all of your favorite music all the time on your setup.

that being said, unless you're in an apartment with a psychotic neighbor, I'd recommend against trying too hard to soundproof the room. The combination of really small size and deadening would be nasty, my rec, is try to sound proof the wall against the recording room to prevent that bleed, but the sound and particularly the bass is going to have to go somewhere, and a 7X7 room is just not enough space to trap all that low end.

just my 2 cents. good luck with your room.
 
Are you gonna do all the tracking from the other room, or just amps? Cause I can't imagine how else you could use 16 inputs in a 7x7 room.

My space is 8.5x10. I very quickly got rid of the 12 channel mixer and the 5x5 L-shaped computer desk it sat on, and went to a single rack case & LCD monitor, that's it. I mean in a 7x7 space you'll barely have enough room to open the door with the desk.

I should also point out that minimum code for a habitable room is typically 7x10.

For cables through the wall, get XLR panels from partsexpress.com.
 
jazzrich9 said:
ok... so,

having a 7X7 space is one thing, we've all had to work in spaces that are limited for various reasons, and far less than ideal, and I don't know anyone who has never been told that the only way to do produce quality music is by spending 100,000 and building a nice big free standing speace with an LEDE control room, proffesionally designed... don't worry about it, the trick is to live in your room when you're done and listen to all of your favorite music all the time on your setup.

that being said, unless you're in an apartment with a psychotic neighbor, I'd recommend against trying too hard to soundproof the room. The combination of really small size and deadening would be nasty, my rec, is try to sound proof the wall against the recording room to prevent that bleed, but the sound and particularly the bass is going to have to go somewhere, and a 7X7 room is just not enough space to trap all that low end.

just my 2 cents. good luck with your room.

Ok, thanks for the input on sound proofing. I like your idea of only sound proofing the wall between the rooms. The other walls will have normal insulatin for heating purposes.
 
biz markie said:
Ok, thanks for the input on sound proofing. I like your idea of only sound proofing the wall between the rooms. The other walls will have normal insulatin for heating purposes.

Unfortunately it doesn't really work that way. Sound and vibrations can also pass through the floor and ceiling. Check out the Studio Building forum for more info on construction and acoustics.
 
yeah tex, that's sort of what I was suggesting to him, though hastily.
I was more conceiving of him worrying about the 'recording room' if there was to be one, sound proofing that, but not worrying about having a 'dead' control room. It's really just a point of diminishing returns when you have that little space to not expect some bleed.

Thanks for catching me.

There are some fantastic resources on the studio building forum and on John Slayer's site as well. Read everything you can before you pick up a tool.
 
potential problems

The biggest problem with your room is the dimensions. :eek: A 7'x7' room will have very bad standing waves at 161.43 Hz (80.71 Hz half wavelength), meaning colouration and reinforcement of the note 'E'. :confused: Rectangular rooms are best but I'm guessing that you have no choice. You will need sound absorption at around these frequencies on at least two coincident walls to improve this. :( Good luck!
sonic
 
sonic edwards said:
The biggest problem with your room is the dimensions. :eek: A 7'x7' room will have very bad standing waves...

Sonic edwards is right. What even makes it worse is that the room probably has 7' or 8' ceilings as well, which would make it almost a perfect cube! I'm sure you've heard of room nodes, like having a room that is 12x6x8 is bad because the numbers can evenly be divided into each other and create a mess of standing waves in the same frequency. WELL, A CUBE IS A SONIC NIGHTMARE! No acoustic treatment will save it, and soundproofing will only make it worse. If these are the dimensions you are forced to work with then I would suggest scrapping the whole Idea of a separate control room and just mix and track in the same room the instruments are in.
 
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