My tiny studio

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mshilarious

mshilarious

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Well I think the latest round of upgrades are done, and to celebrate, here's my happy home:

It's an 8.5' x 11' room in a tiny house, so that's all I'm ever going to get. The major construction was done 5 years ago (before I found this site :( ), but I managed to get most of the basics done OK. The walls are offset stud, further buffered by utility rooms and closets, so the isolation from the rest of the basement is good. The ceiling isolation is nonexistant--just a drop ceiling with 12" of insulation above. Thus I don't allow stomping in the bedroom above :) and next winter I'm hoping to rebuild the ceiling.

The wall surfaces are 1" rigid fiberglass insulation and the floor is carpeted. Bass trapping is provided by the ceiling, as well as the soffit and that little notch in the corner, all of which are filled with insulation. I need to measure the response, but I think it sounds pretty good.

The key for me is preserving floorspace, and to that end, I racked everything in a glass door stereo cabinet. I built in patch panels on the side of the rack, so I don't have to access the back of the rack, and I can close the door once levels are set. With the door closed, the rack is quiet enough for cardioid condensers on quiet instruments.

I have a little 16" x 26" control desk that holds an LCD monitor, wireless keyboard, and mouse. I can place it anywhere in room--it's pushed against the wall in the picture, but for mixing I turn it around to the 'sweet spot' in the room. Guitars and monitors are wall-mounted--soffit mounting wasn't possible for the monitors without sacrificing precious floor space.

Other than that, I can configure the room any way I need--right now you see my portable rig in the southeast corner, which I can roll into the room to transfer tracks to PC for mixdown. Alternatively I set up drums or the keyboard in that corner, or even the trusty ol' Tascam 488 sitting on top of the rack.

Well, that's it, thanks for visiting!

(Oh, in the layout, up is west)
 
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Looks very comfortable. I dig the "potato bug" mandolin on the wall. :D
 
Track Rat said:
Looks very comfortable. I dig the "potato bug" mandolin on the wall. :D

Unfortunately it's a piece of crap. Looks nice though :)
 
i laugh at the fact that the circuit box is in the control room.....completely understandable though :)
 
distortedrumble said:
i laugh at the fact that the circuit box is in the control room.....completely understandable though :)

It was that or the furnace :eek: What's worse is the little notch in the corner is the water supply & drain, so there's a wee bit of noise that leaks in if somebody flushes a toilet. I usually work so late at night that I haven't bothered with better isolation there.

And that ain't just the control room, it's the only room! Mostly I just mixdown stuff I record remotely, so small noise sources don't trouble me. I only track my own stuff, which will never see the light of day :(
 
lol thats why i love being in a house with 3 other musicians...if you say "shut up, I'm recording" they understand and are quiet or just leave the house. and our studio is set up in the upstairs kitchenette lol
 
Cool setup. I have the same exact rackmount computer chassis.
 
reshp1 said:
Cool setup. I have the same exact rackmount computer chassis.

Mine was an eBay special--the former owner had modded it down to 16" deep, which just fits my rack. The guy must have had a metal shop because you'd think it came from the factory that way.

I sprayed the face black and added the blue LED fans :D
 
Hey ms, very clean setup. I would have traded anything for what you have a few years back. Regardless of our difference of opinion on other things, all I can say is you've built a nice studio. Hell, what the heck else do us geetar players need anyway, except room for our butts and a guitar neck!! Hahaha! :)
 
RICK FITZPATRICK said:
Hey ms, very clean setup. I would have traded anything for what you have a few years back. Regardless of our difference of opinion on other things, all I can say is you've built a nice studio. Hell, what the heck else do us geetar players need anyway, except room for our butts and a guitar neck!! Hahaha! :)

Really? I thought you had a sweet setup, not sure where I got that from.

Don't worry I don't let music theory discussions bother me . . . for too long ;)

I was fortunate in terms of construction, having a good friend as a builder, and getting the wall treatments professionally installed (for free :D ). But I still wish I'd have done a couple of things differently, I sure could have used some of those nice CAD drawings :) Maybe I can redo in three or four years.
 
I see Johann Sebastian on the wall, and I think I see Ludwig van up there on top of the rack. If so, you have excellent taste in muses.

Enjoy your studio, MS. It looks really good to me.
 
You use what you've got,and it looks like you've made the most out of it.
Nice setup and room.

Cool!

Take 'er easy,..
Calwood
 
Really? I thought you had a sweet setup, not sure where I got that from.
Hahahahaha! If you only knew. I've been moved into my place for 20 months. So far I haven't even finished setting my console up. Between the shop, work, honey do's, the house, firewood, cars.....er lets see, oh yea, plumbing, electrical supplys, .....sigh, crap. I'm too worn out to work on it most of the time. Ha! One day though. I just finished changing a throwout bearing/clutch on a Mustang...fords... :rolleyes: A 12 hour project turned into 36 hours. Just because of lack of one piece of knowlege. Pulled the transmission TWICE because of it. Once I found it on the net...ha...one minute later...VOILA!! A ratchet mechanisim up behind the dash on the..."quadrant"... fuck me. I could murder car designers. :D
fitZ
 
distortedrumble said:
lol thats why i love being in a house with 3 other musicians...if you say "shut up, I'm recording" they understand and are quiet or just leave the house. and our studio is set up in the upstairs kitchenette lol

No frying bacon while someone is tracking - house rules, man!
 
RICK FITZPATRICK said:
Hey ms, very clean setup. I would have traded anything for what you have a few years back. Regardless of our difference of opinion on other things, all I can say is you've built a nice studio. Hell, what the heck else do us geetar players need anyway, except room for our butts and a guitar neck!! Hahaha! :)

I second this. It's a good example of knowing your limitations. Based on your budget, physical space available, and acoustical knowledge at the time, you seem to have maximized your results.

Looks orderly and functional.
 
MadTiger3000 said:
I second this. It's a good example of knowing your limitations. Based on your budget, physical space available, and acoustical knowledge at the time, you seem to have maximized your results.

Looks orderly and functional.

It was trial and error. My first setup was a typical mixer & 19" CRT approach on a 5' x 5' corner desk. If I set up the drums, you had to turn sideways to slip into the desk :eek: But back in 2000, LCDs were expensive as hell, and I didn't realize that Peavey RQs weren't the be-all and end-all of preamps :rolleyes:

Plus I didn't know how to solder :o
 
Nice setup! I especially luv seeing the A&H Mixwizard 16:2DX in the corner :D Did you do the mods you suggested to me a while ago? I'm a bit reluctant to open the mixer and mess around with my soldering iron!

How about putting some acoustic panels on the walls?
 
Giganova said:
Nice setup! I especially luv seeing the A&H Mixwizard 16:2DX in the corner :D Did you do the mods you suggested to me a while ago? I'm a bit reluctant to open the mixer and mess around with my soldering iron!

I've done opamps, caps, and power supply upgrades. I still need to switch the direct outs to prefader.

How about putting some acoustic panels on the walls?

The walls are acoustic panels :)
 
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