Mic'n up an Entire house

[Bguzaldo]

Hey guys,

I just moved into a house with 5 of my friends, everyone plays music (there are 2 bands that live here) and I brought all my recording gear and set up a control room and a spare living room. I'm just wondering what would be the best way to run cables through the entire house...

My idea-Get PVC pipes and run them along the inside perimeter of the house, Make cables of correct lengths to run from all rooms to the control room, and obviously put these cables in the PVC pipes...so they don't get stepped on/fucked with/tangled....What do you think? Any better ideas?

I also need monitoring suggestions. Anyone know of any good (cheap hopefully) headphone distribution systems? It would need to be able to reach any point in the house.

Thanks guys, any input is appreciated.
-Barrett

 

[pure.fusion]

Hehehe. Hope you actually make it happen. It sounds fun.

Staw away from the 240v, otherwise you'll have noise.

FM

 

[dastrick]

I use the Behringer HA4700 for my headphone amp. I've been happy with it.

 

[moresound]

Looks like you'll be punching a lot holes in walls Zaldo .... hope you didn't have to put down a deposit.
May I suggest the Bidford 2000 sawsall.
Small holes about 3" would be big enough and can be very easily patched with dry wall mud when you leave.

 

[haymedic]

umm... yea... before you start running pvc pipes between the interior and extertior walls of the house, you might want to check with the landlord.

...and if you own this house, you might reconsider your 'renovations' for future resale value.

s

 

[moresound]

Just knock the walls down they are there only for privacy anyways!

 

[Bguzaldo]

umm... yea... before you start running pvc pipes between the interior and extertior walls of the house, you might want to check with the landlord.

...and if you own this house, you might reconsider your 'renovations' for future resale value.

s

I wasn't going to run anything between walls, just along the inside of the interior wall. I'll be able to take this out very easily when we move.

 

[Bguzaldo]

Looks like you'll be punching a lot holes in walls Zaldo .... hope you didn't have to put down a deposit.
My I suggest the Bidford 2000 sawsall.
Small holes about 3" would be big enough and can be very easily patched with dry wall mud when you leave.

Our landlord told us to do what we will with it and have fun....How much is this Bidford?

 

[moresound]

Our landlord told us to do what we will with it and have fun....How much is this Bidford?

That's just a running joke line from Tim Alans "home improvement" sitcom.

But what I did was to use the inside diameter of a roll of duck tape to pencil a round circle (much like for a hole in the front of a kick drum head) then just cut it out with a drywall saw.
Very simple to do .... just measure to make sure that you don't end up at a stud in the wall or to close to the floor as you will hit the floor jack, or any edison cables!
If you know of a friend that knows anything bout carpentry he is your *go to man* and I'm sure that with a beer or two he will make all of the necessary hole cuts for you at the correct places.

 

[Terra]

Our landlord told us to do what we will with it and have fun....

uhhh....i would double check...the last thing you want is your landlord telling you owe 3000 in repairs because you "had fun"

 

[Bguzaldo]

uhhh....i would double check...the last thing you want is your landlord telling you owe 3000 in repairs because you "had fun"

We've already painted rooms, ripped up carpets, put other smaller holes in walls for Internet cables...I wouldn't tear through the house just because he told me to have fun

But thanks for the heads up

 

[guitarplayr82]

You could use a headphone amp, or you could get set up with wireless headphones, which might be a smart thing to do if you plan on recording in different parts of your house. Since you'd just be using them for monitoring they wouldn't have to be super high quality, and as long as they didn't make any interference it could be a cool addition. I have a pair I use in my studio and I love them. If you shop around you could get a set with 5 or 6 channels (mine have 3) and give one pair to each person in the house. It would also save you from doing all that extra wiring.

 

[Terra]

We've already painted rooms, ripped up carpets, put other smaller holes in walls for Internet cables...I wouldn't tear through the house just because he told me to have fun

But thanks for the heads up

well sweet dude, my old landlord probably would have killed me. yeah headphone dist. amp would solve it, its just hard in your situation and what you want to do with it. It would be f%^&* awesome to have a giant recording house haha

 

[grimtraveller]

well sweet dude, my old landlord probably would have killed me.

But some landlords are cool with this kind of thing. The landlords I had from '88 through to 2003 were marvelous in this regard. I'm not saying they're cruds if they don't let you rearrange their house {perfectly understandable}, but if they're OK with it, count yourselves blessed, mate !
If there are any rats in the house, you can seriously stick it to them by using wireless phones !

 

[ez_willis]

Hey guys,

I just moved into a house with 5 of my friends, everyone plays music (there are 2 bands that live here) and I brought all my recording gear and set up a control room and a spare living room. I'm just wondering what would be the best way to run cables through the entire house...

why?

 

[haymedic]

haha ... i think EZ willis just hit the nail on the head!

s

 

[Bguzaldo]

Because it would be awesome to be able to utilize every room in the house. From the basement (dead, super dry) to the Main floor (hardwood floors, high ceilings, Big open rooms, very lively) to the upstairs (a mixture of the two, some rooms have carpet some have wood floors, some big rooms some small).

I thought it'd be cool for recording live--Guitars in the basement or bedrooms, drums on the main floor, vocals other percussion and various instruments in any open rooms and then I can mic up the stairwells and throw mics outside to get some different textures.

 

[grimtraveller]

Sounds like a great idea man ! Just watch out for the rats and roaches. Great with percussion, but lousy vocalists both.

 

[moresound]

Sounds like a great idea man ! Just watch out for the rats and roaches. Great with percussion, but lousy vocalists both.

Some of the worlds greatest percussionist were/are rats ....Buddy "Rats" Rich, Ringo "Rats" Starr, Micky "Rats" Dolenz, the list goes on and on ...!!!

 

[stevieb]

If you are using pvc pipe, get a strong drill and a 3" hole saw. That'd be faster and much easier to punch holes thru the walls.