Home studio space - from the ground up

  • Thread starter Thread starter Berlingj
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Berlingj

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I am in the process of turning my basement into a home studio/rehearsal space.

I have two goals for this space: first, to create a place just to play - really LOUDLY; second, to utilize that space for recording as well.

The space is approximately 1400 square feet with 9 foot ceilings (used to be a store front), and I have spent a few thousand dollars and a few hundred hours sound-proofing it. The space is now pretty good, acoustically - almost zero echo or reverberation - and I don't get any complaints from upstairs, even when I'm ridiculously loud.

I have a not unlimited, but nonetheless substantial, budget (50K?) for outfitting this room, and I'm curious what suggestions folks might have for:

A PA/Mixing system for the space
(NO Peavey or Mackie equipment, please)

A digital recording system for the space
(Preferrably with full PC interface - but not strictly PC)

Microphones, permanently placed & moveable

Other electro-mechanical systems for the space
(Power conditioners, Patch Bays, Rack Systems, etc...)

Contacts for professional sound engineers to help me create the space (I am a professional mechanical engineer)

Individual equipment, so far, includes:

10 guitars, acoustic, electric & combinations
A fender Twin Amp & Marshall 100 watt stack
4 Basses, acoustic & electric
A Crate B50 & A Crate B165 Amp
(thinking of replacing with the Ampeg 8x10 stack)
A Roland Juno106 keyboard
A Casio CTK keyboard (el-cheapo, but fun)
Yamaha 7 pc Drum Kit
A Fostex FD-4 multitracker (which I despise)
A half-barrel Beermeister
A fairly sad looking old blue couch


I want to create a space that can be used for both informal jams - any time, night or day (without bothering the neighbors or getting the cold shoulder upstairs later), that at the same time is fully equipped for making fully professional CD recordings.

Sorry to be so verbose...
 
How can you put Peavey and Mackie in the same group?
Baffles the mind

H2H
 
Sorry - due to the recent proliferation of Mackie equipment, I was worried that might "offend" someone. Nevertheless, I, personally, have had equally bad experiences with both - thus, for me, they go in the same group...
 
Go to the topic on studio design??? That might be a way to start..............
 
info...

There is a lot of information in a different forum on the BBS call Studio Building and Display...try it out...

As for recording I use a Dell 700mhz PIII computer running Sonic Foundry and Cakewalk programs. I went to a studio last week and started using Pro Tools for the first time, and if you have the money it's a great system. The learning curve is real easy on it too, (as long as it's configured correctly)

An UPS system so if the power ever goes out when your doing something, you can safely shut down everything.

As far as mics...get a few Shure SM-57's (standard in any studio), a couple of condensor mics. Think in terms of what you'll be micing ie, drums, guitar cabinets, vocals, you know...etc...

Take a look at www.omnirax.com for some studio furniture for your monitors, racks for effects....

I can't wait to have a permanent place to settle down. Especially with a budget like yours you should be able to get a lot of equipment.

Check out the Studio building section part of the web, there are a lot of pros in that section and maybe you can save some more $$$ by getting help from them and doing a lot of the work yourself...

Good luck....
 
I am currently looking for a new mixer and was wondering if you could tell me what your problem with Mackie is. I seem to hear nothing but good things about them but I know nothing is perfect, I would really appreciate hearing your opinion.

Thanks
 
Hey Berlingj,

Could I suggest something? You are asking a large number of questions all in one go.
Breaking them down into groups would alow you to go to different forums on this site, where you can obtain help and input from dedicated amateurs as well as seasoned audio professionals.

First - you seem to have a nice space there, and you wish to use it for recording as well as rehearsals. Therefore your priority should be to design and build something in there good for both purposes.
Do a drawing of your space and clearly describe your objectives, then post it on the "Studio Design and Display forum, accompanied by some pictures. Also visit the website of one of the key guys there, Australian producer / engineer / studio designer John Sayers www.lis.net.au/~johnsay/Acoustics where you'll find a lot of information, including data and pictures of the places other forum members have build / are building.

Do this first. Then we'd be able to give you good advise on choice of equipment.

With a $50k budget, common sence and logic, you should be able to get a very decent place! I have designed and build "home" studio's for established artists for much less, placed which have produced hits (even gold and platinum ones)
 
Thanks to everyone

Thanks to everyone for your replies. Just to follow up, here is where I am:

A local group here in Cincinnati, ICB Audio, has been very helpful. I don't know if these folks are strictly local, but if they're not, then I highly recommend them.

In general, it occurs to me that ANY strictly Pro Audio (not Mars, or equivalents) store is the place to start....

To answer the questions I've been asked about Mackie, I should say that my avoidance of Mackie products is based strictly on a bad experience with the one and only Mackie product I ever owned. It was an 8 channel powered mixer with a bad power supply. I took it back, and the replacement was bad as well. The third time, then, I took it back and said, "keep it."

However, the folks at ICB have convinced me to give Mackie another try, and the core of my new studio will be made up of the Mackie d8b 24-track digital mixing board and the Mackie HD24 hard disk recorder.

This is a very nice set-up and it promises to do exactly what I want to do - dump up to 24 post-mixed inputs (all at once) directly onto a hard disk for editing and then transfer onto CD.

The warranty is good, and I'll just hope I don't have to use it!

They have also convinced me that I really don't need much in the way of "front sound" for my rehearsal space - that in fact it will get in the way. So, I will be sending a powered mix to various monitors (and 8 busses let me vary the content of that mix, monitor by monitor), but not sending anything to regular cabinets.

The one thing, then, that this mixer doesn't give me is a set up that I can use for "playing out". Right now, I don't care about that, I'm not interested in gigging, but it does bother me that a ten thousand dollar mixing board is no good for live applications (according to ICB)...

Thanks again for your suggestions.
 
Your studio

Awesome! You should take some pictures on the construction of your studio and post them somewhere to see! It would be interesting to see your studio come alive from start to finish!!
 
Berlingj,
There is no reason whatever not to use a D8B for live gigs - just make sure you put the thing , and especially the CPU, in a good shockproof case.
I know a couple of theaters and one band that uses them solely for that.
The only restriction is that you only have 12 mic pre's - and you can olways buy some more of those.
 
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