Some pictures of my construction so far..

D

djgc

New member
My friend and I decided to build our own recording studio because we wanted a work place for the both of us.

We did a lot of research just on google and youtube and in the end we decided to take on this mission..

We have never done any construction work before so it was more like a trial and error. So far this is what we have. I was just wondering if we're on the right track?


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heres part of the wall in the live room.

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this is the window seperating control room and live room.

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this is the view from control room into live room.

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this is the view from live room into recording room.

The whole place is a concrete building and we basically bought steels and built a frame just like what people do with wood and then we insert 48 density of glasswool in them and 2 layers of drywall.

The flooring we will use wood. We were deciding whether to build a frame for the floor too but then because of our budget we decided not to. I'm wondering if thats ok too? our floor is concrete atm.
 
Well...it looks good in terms of ordinary construction so far, but typically you'd be building a different way for a studio. For example, two layers of sheet rock - 48 kg/m3 mineral wool - two layers of sheet rock is good, but really not much more than ordinary domestic construction. For a studio you'd usually have two stud wall assemblies separated by an air space with two layers of sheet rock on each side floated from the studs with iso clips. You'd also have insulation in addition AND probably have the layers of sheet rock floated with Green Glue. What you're building are basically 43-45dB walls. Is that what you were after?
 
you should find someone to help or at least give you some pointers on mudding drywall... :):p

Probably a little late now, but are you sure you want to make such apparently small rooms?
 
This whole thing of dividing rooms and putting glass between them is so 1975... :(

I'd die for ceilings that high... and tear those divider walls out in a heartbeat.
 
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Jeff_D said:
you should find someone to help or at least give you some pointers on mudding drywall... :):p

Probably a little late now, but are you sure you want to make such apparently small rooms?
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haha ya im still getting use to the mudding lol
 
StonedSunset said:
are you saying that we no longer need a control room?
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Depends who "we" is. I'm perfectly happy functioning in one large room used for tracking and mixing. I'm also one of the performers in the band that I record most, so there is a matter of convenience. I will say, my room is a bit oddly shaped (really big "L" shape) but I'm making it work.

Also, regardless of how I *want* to work, if I have a limited amount of space to work with and I have the option to split it into two acousticly awful rooms vs a single larger more acoustically usable room, I'll live with the downsides of functionality of a single room anyday. IMO acoustics trumps desired workflow environment.
 
yeah...I had the 2 small room setup and ended up takin down the separating wall.
I can't really say how much it helped because when I took out the wall, I also raised and angled my roof and hung some more treatment.

I do know it made my workflow easier. ;)

IMO, I think you'd be better off with a large room vs multiple small rooms :drunk:
 
StonedSunset said:
are you saying that we no longer need a control room?
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yes, most people do not have a large enough room in the first place to subdivide it any.

I made a dividing sliding glass door when I made my studio in the late 80's and have regretted it since - total waste of energy, time and money.
 
Bottom line...if you are going to operate a busy commercial studio, a control room may be a necessity, but again, it's all about the size of the rooms.
If they are going to be small boxes...even then you might as well keep it one larger room as it will be a bitch having people moving around in two small rooms.

If you are mainly a solo musician/songwriter and most of your recording is done piecemeal (track-by-track)...and even if you do the occasional band...
...one larger room beats two small rooms any day.

Sound quality is one concern...but IMO...comfort, ergonomics, ease-of-use are very important, and a large single room just makes all that better.

I never bothered with a "control room" in the different iterations of my studio space over the years from one location to another to yet a third...
 
What I'd want if I redid it today would be one big room with high ceilings and a bunch of dividers I could move around and make "rooms" within the room for the different musicians.

Drum booths, vocal booths, phone booths... they are of yesteryear to me.

There seems to be an obsession with having zero bleed from one track to another today. To me one of the major flaws in 2010 recording is that we expect the sound to "mix" inside the computer. In the old days, the sound mixed in the air. So when a drummer hit a crash cymbal, the vibrating air from his cymbal mixed with the vibrating air from the bass player - it mixed then and there.

The result was that the sound blended. You could have glitches, clammed notes and kick drum/bass player flams that didn't sound that bad.

Today if there's the slightest imperfection in a part it sticks out like a sore thumb, and I think this whole isolated/mix inside the computer vs the air in the room is the culprit. It's not a musically good thing.

I saw these old pics of the Muscle Schoals Rhythm Section recording in the same room with chin-high dividers and thought that that was the best way I've seen of doing it.
 
+10000000 Dinty.

Having 100% seperation is for people who refuse to make decisions. Put a band in a room. Mic the amps/drums. Mic the room. Count off and rock out. (or folk out, or swing, or whatever.)

BTW: have some rep dinty.
 
dintymoore said:
I saw these old pics of the Muscle Schoals Rhythm Section recording in the same room with chin-high dividers and thought that that was the best way I've seen of doing it.
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I started as an intern in a VERY high-end, very busy private studio when I was 14. Everybody who came in recorded that way. We'd track vocals and OD's separately, but that's it. That's still my favorite way to track for exactly the reason Dinty pointed out: it forces everybody to make decisions early, then you don't end up with 80 tracks at mixdown. Of course, we only had 24 tracks available on the A80, so we were bouncing by the end anyhow.
 
dintymoore said:
What I'd want if I redid it today would be one big room with high ceilings and a bunch of dividers I could move around and make "rooms" within the room for the different musicians...

I saw these old pics of the Muscle Schoals Rhythm Section recording in the same room with chin-high dividers and thought that that was the best way I've seen of doing it.
Click to expand...

thanks, this helps put the answers into a bit of perspective. i also have the first pics of my studio to be. 16x22, 11 foot ceilings. as you can see this is why i was curious. i have a large, high ceiling room but cant really think of a good way to put in a control room and keeping the space useful if we decide to move. the drywall cuttoff is where it actually used to be two rooms before i ripped down the wall to start fresh.
 

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StonedSunset said:
thanks, this helps put the answers into a bit of perspective. i also have the first pics of my studio to be. 16x22, 11 foot ceilings. as you can see this is why i was curious. i have a large, high ceiling room but cant really think of a good way to put in a control room and keeping the space useful if we decide to move. the drywall cuttoff is where it actually used to be two rooms before i ripped down the wall to start fresh.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm saying...DON'T put in a control room. The space is too small to divide in half.
 
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