Home Studio (version 2.0)

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cincy_kid

cincy_kid

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Hey all,

I am back in the studio building thread! Woot! :D

Anyways, if you dont remember my current set up, you can see it here.

I am now exploring the idea of expanding into our current office which gives me TONS more space.

In the diagram below you can see the dimensions with my current recording space at the bottom. I track and mix and do everything in the small 6.5' x 6.5' closet. You will also see the layout of the office space.

new.gif


If I end up moving forward with the expansion, I want to get some ideas on how I should set up, where I should track, listen, etc.

First here is something to keep in mind:
** The built in counter top desk must stay in place and can not be moved or taken down. Preferrably the cabinet stays put as well since its mounted to the wall but I could move it if it is necessary. **

My initial ideas are this:

1) Keep my desk in the closet where i can keep my computer which will record all the tracks into it. Also leave the monitors so that I can have a small little listening room which is already treated with absorbers.
2) Keep my mic stand in there also since its a smaller room and I still have room to sing still and easily access the computer to stop and record when necessary.
3) Move the amp out into the office space and set up a live area for electric, acoutsic and bass guitar tracking. This will give me MUCH more elbow room when playing guitar which I lacked in the closet.
4) The office area's cabinet is a nice place to store all of my cables, cords, headphones and any other things I need to store and keep out of the way.

(I thought at first about keeping the closet for just a vocal booth and bringing the desk and computer out into the live area, but with the built in desk it is kind of akward to set up the desk, having the monitors and myself at an equilatteral triangle and STILL have space for the guitar tracking areas...but of course this is why I am asking for advice since I am a noob and trying to get a nice set up going)

Initial concerns / questions:
1) If I follow what I said above and move the guitars out into the office area, how do you go back and forth from playing guitar to the computer in the closet to stop, record, etc...? What is the best way to achieve this?
2) Will I need some more absorbers and/or bass traps in the live area or can I just build a few absorption panels that I can put in a semi circle around my amp when recording?
3) Whst the best use of the bigger office space?

Ok, I am sure there will be many many more questions as some people start chiming in with soem setup advice, so I will just leave it at this for now.

Thanks in advance!!
 
No time right now to reply, and I assume most people are in the same boat.

I figured you were going to expand your "studio" though. That little room is just so small.
 
yea, hehe just convincing the boss :D

Anyways, take your time, any and all suggestions are appreciated.
 
I'm no expert, so far-be-it for anything I say to hold any water on a scientific scale as far as room acoustics, etc are concerned. However, I would put my gear in the "office space" and leave the closet as a vocal booth, I'd also put my amps in there and work on some isolation between the closet and office area.

As far as controlling the DAW from inside the closet, you should be able to run a control surface OR the most simple solution would be using a legnth of extention to your PC keyboard and using a few keybinds to start and stop the project, just drag the KB with you into the closet, hit the button and have at it. Kind of a pain with a lengthy ps/2 extention though, if you are in front of the PC. You could also pick up a switch so you could have 2 KB, 2 mice, 2 monitors. One of each in the office and one of each in the closet (assuming you either have the gear laying around or want to spend a few extra bones) and your DAW would be fully accessible from both areas at the flick of a switch. By now, you're asking yourself, why go to all that trouble when you can just keep the setup in the closet and get the same results (I asked myself this as I was typing it) That'd be an option if some of the gurus deem the office space more sound friendly than the closet, monitoring wise.
 
Thanks for the reply Creamy...

There is also this to help out being in 2 different rooms, but still wondering the best place to mix, track, monitor etc...

Keep the replies coming! :)
 
That'd be perfect, I may just add that to my wish list as well. Just from what I've read, and my understanding of things (you know me though) I'd say you'd be better off in the bigger room. May take some tinkering, and alot of moving to get it "perfect"...well....as perfect as one can do with what they have, you know what I mean, but I think the closet would be pefect for vocals and to mic your amps in if nothing else.
 
Can you snap some pictures of the cabinent and counter?
 
I added an extra wall.. Just wanted to see how it would look that way.. Probably not practical, at this point..but adding it would mean better isolation to the rest of the house and vocal/amp booth.. I staggered the doorway for more isolation, but mainly for more a more symmetrical mixing room...

Any thoughts?



cincystudio0015pt.jpg
 
You could always build the wall I added and remove the current closet doorway wall... Recycle the door and hopefully studs... That would make for a pretty cool live room or mixing room.....
 
peritus said:
You could always build the wall I added and remove the current closet doorway wall... Recycle the door and hopefully studs... That would make for a pretty cool live room or mixing room.....

Something like this:

cincystudio0021xn.jpg
 
wow, thanks for all the replies Peritus!

(I can snap some pictures later this evening if needed)

Ok a few things:

1) Really didn't want to tackle the heavy construction (IE building walls and tearing walls down..), was hoping for a simpler set up. But I must say that's a cool idea that I never thought of and I may look into it further hehe :D

2) Even if I explored the construction route, and had it set up like your latest diagram, why would it be better to monitor in the one space and track in the other? I mean, its better to monitor in a larger room or something?

3) I had the monitors on the desk shelves because of the small closet space. If I did your diagram, wouldnt it be better if they were further back against the wall on shelves or something and not a few feet from me?

4) what program do you use to mess with my diagram? I see a lot of people doing diagrams that have similar looks/styles to them but I always just use photoshop and it takes mne forever lol

Again, thank you for taking the time out and any other ideas or suggestions are much appreciated.
 
This is what i'd do.
 

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heya Panda, we meet again! :)

Thanks for the reply.

Is the extra countertop install necessary? It was a pain hehe. I like your placement of absorbers however and even the monitor placement. Whats the other 2 things on the front counter?

Thanks again
 
cincy_kid said:
wow, thanks for all the replies Peritus!

(I can snap some pictures later this evening if needed)

No prob.. It's all good... I enjoy the studio planning thing...

cincy_kid said:
Ok a few things:

1) Really didn't want to tackle the heavy construction (IE building walls and tearing walls down..), was hoping for a simpler set up. But I must say that's a cool idea that I never thought of and I may look into it further hehe :D

Yeah.. I can undertand that.. I'm unable to do any major changes in my studio too..

cincy_kid said:
2) Even if I explored the construction route, and had it set up like your latest diagram, why would it be better to monitor in the one space and track in the other? I mean, its better to monitor in a larger room or something?

I would be concerned about early reflections and room for good bass traps, in the small room.. Otherwise, I'm sure there are reasons on both sides of the coin.. I get scared of running outta space for gear.. hehe.. Plus, if someday you got a big mixing board.. You'd be ready...(which appears to be that black rectangle in Panda's version)...

cincy_kid said:
3) I had the monitors on the desk shelves because of the small closet space. If I did your diagram, wouldnt it be better if they were further back against the wall on shelves or something and not a few feet from me?

Yes, prolly so (further back).. I think we touched on this back at 1.0... I was wondering how high the desk counter was... I wouldn't do shelves though.. Unless you had too... (good stands will give you better sounding speakers, so the story goes..)... You question leads me into my next proposition..

First off.. Panda's version is the best of the bunch, in my opinion...

Only two things I see that I would change are....

1.That counter in the top portion of the room might be useless.. You might be better off just having identical counters on your left and right... Two good speaker stands and some simple platform for the lcd screens (the screens should be further from you than the centerline of each speacker)..

Depending on how the counters are constructed, you might be inviting move problems than good, by moving out into that room., as is.....

2. The "immediate reflection zone" isn't covered... (On my original pix, its the topmost horizontal blue line)... It is the point of equidistance betwen you the speakers' "line".. Notice how, on my pics, the aborbers are directly centered on that line..


cincy_kid said:
4) what program do you use to mess with my diagram? I see a lot of people doing diagrams that have similar looks/styles to them but I always just use photoshop and it takes mne forever lol

I use The Gimp...http://www.gimp.org/windows/

It's a open source photoshop clone.. Pretty cool once you get the hang of it.. Few quirks... but it's free! :)


cincy_kid said:
Again, thank you for taking the time out and any other ideas or suggestions are much appreciated.

Gotta help out my fellow ohio people.. Enjoy your studio fun!

Edit: here is a pic of my studio... it exemplifies some of what I'm saying...

10008346402xu.jpg
 
I should clarify, real quick..

Having the speakers really close to the wall would be bad... You might look in the manual of your monitors to be sure.. If it doesn't say.. I'd go about a foot or a foot and a half from the wall... Sounds reasonable to me...
 
Peritus said:
I would be concerned about early reflections and room for good bass traps, in the small room.. Otherwise, I'm sure there are reasons on both sides of the coin.. I get scared of running outta space for gear.. hehe.. Plus, if someday you got a big mixing board.. You'd be ready...(which appears to be that black rectangle in Panda's version)...

The reflections you may be right on and as far as the big mixer I dont see it happeneing since I am not recording bands, just me myself and I :) but I guess planning ahead in case I ever decide to do more isnt a bad thing, just not in my immediate plans (within next few years).

Peritus said:
Only two things I see that I would change are....

1.That counter in the top portion of the room might be useless.. You might be better off just having identical counters on your left and right... Two good speaker stands and some simple platform for the lcd screens (the screens should be further from you than the centerline of each speacker)..

The top counter may be useless (all of the counter may be useless, but I cant remove it, and really dont want to add a left side either if I can help it).

Yea speaker stands sound better if my final layout allows me to have them.

Peritus said:
Depending on how the counters are constructed, you might be inviting move problems than good, by moving out into that room., as is.....

yea, thats what I am thinking, but geesh way more space and seems like I could/should take advantage of it somehow...

Peritus said:
Gotta help out my fellow ohio people.. Enjoy your studio fun!

Hey, thanks! Where abouts in OH?

Peritus said:
Edit: here is a pic of my studio... it exemplifies some of what I'm saying...

Nice man! But I always wonder when I see people's setup (and its quite a few I see), that they have the dual LCDs going. What is the exact purpose of this? I just go tmy 19" LCD and seems to be plenty of room for me to track. Is there another reason I am missing?

Thanks again Per ~
 
cincy_kid said:
Whats the other 2 things on the front counter?

Thanks again


PC monitors I'd say. Looks like you've got some pretty good ideas, atleast a starting point anyway.
 
cincy_kid said:
as far as the big mixer I dont see it happeneing since I am not recording bands, just me myself and I :) but I guess planning ahead in case I ever decide to do more isnt a bad thing, just not in my immediate plans (within next few years).

The top counter may be useless (all of the counter may be useless, but I cant remove it, and really dont want to add a left side either if I can help it).

Yea speaker stands sound better if my final layout allows me to have them.

yea, thats what I am thinking, but geesh way more space and seems like I could/should take advantage of it somehow...
[/QUOTE]

Cool.. I can dig that...


cincy_kid said:
Hey, thanks! Where abouts in OH?

Greater Dayton area... AKA quality recording equipment wasteland :p

cincy_kid said:
Nice man! But I always wonder when I see people's setup (and its quite a few I see), that they have the dual LCDs going. What is the exact purpose of this? I just go tmy 19" LCD and seems to be plenty of room for me to track. Is there another reason I am missing?

I chose to go this route, so I can have the song timeline on the left, mixer/faders on the right... Works out pretty well.. Although, I 'd rather have a real nice projector.. lol.... Then I could project onto some giant accoustic absorbtion project. :D



cincy_kid said:
Thanks again Per ~

Forgeddaboutat :cool:
 
Controlling the DAW from a vocal booth

Here's a way you can run things from a vocal booth and avoid the keyboard / extension cord thing. The unit works remotely and is not limited to line of sight. So you could keep the vocal booth area separate and still control things from within it.

Frontier TranzPort It's available for about $200.

[Edit]: I note CincyKid beat me to it... :cool:
 
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