Help on a one room (maybe) studio layout

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Goldcan

New member
I've been reading through the forums for the last couple of months, just recently decided to register and start posting and finally get rolling on all of this.

My problem/dilemma is that I have a room, usable area is 13' x 18', and what I'm having trouble with is what would be the best over all layout.

I've seen a lot of pics of studios, most smaller ones do not have acoustic drums, which mine MUST have and still accommodate 2-4 other band members for recording all at one time. I'm not talking a huge kit, snare, h-hat, 2 mounted toms, floor tom, 2 crash, a ride, and kick/bass drum. I was originally thinking of just having everything in one room, mixing area and performance area in one, with say a 4'x4' vocal booth in the corner.

But the more I see and read, the mix area is separated from the performance area with the iso/vocals booth thrown in there somewhere. I like the look of a studio setup like that, but I don't think I have the room.

If I do, then I'd like to compress the mix area as small as possible and still have the room to be able let my monitors do their job, and give the most room to the recording area. I was thinking about closing the drums in, but that just doens't seem natural to me, and I'm pretty sure it would sound like ass.

I know that I could just split it all evenly and record everyone one at a time, but that is such a pain in the ass, a band paying me by the hour to record their songs is not going to want to play each song one track at a time, then deal with having to do punch-ins or recording the whole track over, hell I don't even want to record everyone one at a time unless I have to.

Like I said the usable space is 13' x 18', the ceiling slopes from 12' down to 8', the whole room is "sunk" into the ground 3 feet, so about 2' 1/2 ft (floor up) is 12" thick (brick and mortar) except for the side attached to the house (18 x 12 (ceiling)) and that is running about 6 inches of brick.

Here are some pictures if I can get them to work, one of the floor space w/ doors, and one of the Left wall, the other pics were too big and they look the same as the "left wall" pic minus the door and the "wall" that is the house.

Any help would be much appreciated
 

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s'n bitch, the "left wall" pic is the Right wall, so picture double doors on the them and you have the "left wall", doesn't matter really, those doors will likely disappear soon enough.
 
With that size room there is no way you'll sqeeze that into two or more useable rooms. Best to just focus on eliminating the parallel walls and making it sound good.
 
That's what I was thinking/afraid of. With that being said would you place the mixing station against the wall or maybe something like this: with the console and drums facing each other.
 

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Goldcan said:
That's what I was thinking/afraid of. With that being said would you place the mixing station against the wall or maybe something like this: with the console and drums facing each other.
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In my plans for my new studio :) I have a flexible desk that is oriented as in your drawing for tracking, and can be easily reversed for mixing--you don't want your monitors firing into a back wall that is only a few feet behind your head.
 
mshilarious said:
In my plans for my new studio :) I have a flexible desk that is oriented as in your drawing for tracking, and can be easily reversed for mixing--you don't want your monitors firing into a back wall that is only a few feet behind your head.
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Bingo!

If you don't want to be able to move it as mshilarious stated, you'd at least need reverse it to be facing the wall.
 
Makes perfect sense, thank you two very much. Now I believe the final question is, "mshilarious, did you just put casters (wheels) on your desk, is that what you meant by 'flexible', or did you create something where the floor the desk and chair sit on swivels?" :)
 
All I wanted was a frickin' rotating chair, people.

Would it also be a viable option to place the drum kit in the corner facing out into the room. I'd read on a post that I shouldn't put them in the corner, but I don't remember if that was facing the corner or just the corner period.

And VSpaceBoy, if I were to angle my walls, does it matter if it's 10 degrees or 30 degrees?
 
You don't want to place any instrument or anything emitting sound in a corner because it causes the bass to buildup and it'll throw off your tracks.

The angles do matter. For the mix position, you'll want to have enough angle to keep all sound and reflections from the monitors to hit behind the mix position. For the rest of the room, you'll want a total angle of at least 12 degrees to eliminate flutter echo. (ie 6 degrees on each opposite wall to achieve 12 degrees total.)
 
can you point me in the direction of a book/forum/thread on doing the math of figuring out how to focus the sound so it falls behind the mix position, and where did you learn about the 12 degrees, I'd like to be able to find the material so that I don't have to waste your time with so many questions.
 
Goldcan said:
Makes perfect sense, thank you two very much. Now I believe the final question is, "mshilarious, did you just put casters (wheels) on your desk, is that what you meant by 'flexible', or did you create something where the floor the desk and chair sit on swivels?" :)
Click to expand...

No, I just turn the monitor and keyboard around, and work from the other side of the desk :)
 
bah, that's too easy, where's all the bells and whistles? Is there a reason you need to be facing the opposite way during tracking? Why not just have to permanetly facing the way you want it to be during mixing?
 
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