Old house for studio

MrZekeMan

MrZekeMan

New member
I recently acquired the use of an old house to convert for use as a recording studio. I am going to be asking for a lot of advice in the coming weeks and months on how to best utilize the space for my studio. I will have some specs in the future as to how many rooms it has and the measurement of the rooms.

My question today is about a glass between control and tracking room. How great of a disadvantage is it not having a window? It seems that having a talk-back system and being able to communicate to the tracking room would be the main thing.

I want to set up one of the rooms as a drum room and maybe another as a vocal room. Any advice or input would be appreciated.

Taylor
 
There are much better experts here - but my understanding is that visual link puts more of a connection between the engineer and the artist. Talkback is great, but being able to see where the mics are, whether the artist has kicked one over, or whatever - very useful

You could use closed circuit tv to get some of that, but a window is the "normal" way

CCTV has the advantage, of course, of not transmitting sound. windows are tricky to insulate properly.
 
Thanks for the reply OldGrover,

I never thought about closed circuit TV. It makes sense though. That would be something I could ad when I get the money, and just make do until then.

Taylor (Dilbert also)
 
I was at Sams club the other day, an was just amazed at how cheap (inexpensive too!) the closed circuit[burgler protection] setups were.......like starting at less than a 100 bucks for a camera and a small b/w monitor.....great for watching the youngers as they sleep too! For $500, some nice setups with larger (like 19" color) with multi split screen option and 4 cameras. ...great for a house/studio setup....maybe...??
 
Then you have to worry about hum with the monitors. Ever played geetar around your tv. The amp has a nice buzzing noise to it! I'd say sack up and put a window in. More "pro" looking and if you install/design correctly you'll be just fine!
 
I guess there is no easy answer :)

If you put the tv up in a corner and put it on a seperate electrical circuit, you'd probably be fine, but....
 
Wallycleaver said:


No Way! That would be half the fun!
Click to expand...

LOL!!!

Yea, I could just call him up and ask him what he wants me to do with all these walls I just tore out.

Actually I don't think he will mind. It's his mom's old house and it's, in his opinion, in to bad of shape to rent out for habitation. Ha, little does he know, I've lived in much worse. (and been happy there)
 
I have mixed feelings about the window/CCTV thing. As a rule, artists like to record where they are in actual contact with anything resembling an audience. At the same time, they all seem to feel stupid making faces and gyrating around while they're laying down their best tracks- especially with people watching. Yeah, musicians are weird. So, I put windows in the studios I design. The problem is, they're expensive, hard to build right, they screw up the acoustics of the control room and they require constant cleaning. But the bit about interference is right on the nuts. Those CCTV systems you can buy cheap leak noise like a seive. Also, everybody on them looks like they're about to rob a convenience store. Put in windows! Call it a tradition and everybody will think you're noble.
Buick
 
I got a look at the house today. There are two back rooms that appear to be the most useable. They are both 11'9" by 8'6". The ceilings are only 6'8". One of the rooms has what appears to be 9" acoustic tile on the ceiling. They are definitely the two quietest rooms in the house, less sound coming in from outside. One only has one small window. They both have concrete floors. One is bare and the other is covered with linoleum. It smells pretty moldy in the whole house.

Any suggestions?

Taylor
 
...and, he said I could tear out walls or do what ever I wanted to do in there.

I just got an e-mail notice that frederic had replied to this thread, but I don't see any response here.

Taylor
 
MrZekeMan said:
Oh yea,

It has a two foot wide closet between the two rooms.
Click to expand...

Unless you have a smooth layout in your studio, CCTV solves a lot of problems. For example, my studio has a 18x20' console room (garage loft) above a 2-car garage, so obviously there are no windows in the console room floor :)

The vocal booth is in the console room, but collapsible against the wall via the way it was constructed.

Anyway, CCTV and two switchboxes allow the vocal booth to view either the engineer, or the band in the garage, the band in the garage can view the engineer or the vocal booth, and the engineer (using small LCD panels) can view both cameras in the garage, the vocal booth, and the outside front door. All are engineer controlled.

The reason for two cameras in the garage allows the engineer to pick one of two cameras that allow the vocalist to see the drummer more clearly, if so desired.

The cameras are tiny 2"x4"x1" NTSC color fixed-view cameras, which are not professional class cameras, but they work, and were purchased as "surplus" for about 30 bucks a pop. The 25" RCA tv in the garage was an old TV I had, and the five LCD displays are 5" NTSC surplus units that were about 50 each. *I* felt it was well worth the investment - as otherwise, no would would have a chance in seeing each other.

Hope that helps!
 
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