Studio in a Backyard Shed?

rob aylestone said:
I bought one of these.
Mic screen
To be honest, it's well made, heavy and rather pointless. I wanted to record some stuff in the office studio that has external noises - notably a railway crossing with beeping warning and the trains. It's just a layer of perforated metal and foam, and made minimal difference. You can hear the effect is produces, but frankly maybe I expected more? Minimal impact down low, as you'd expect but some top end removal as outside noise goes through it. It works, after a fashion, but the thing is that singing or speaking into it is a bit oppressive and worse, it blocks vision, so a script or words doesn't work, and seeing the computer monitor is impossible too. Great idea for a project, but after the first use, it's back in the box.
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Thanks for the information.
 
rubbertrampray said:
Yes! I am ignorant! I know nothing about this. I'm not trying to challenge anyone. I'm trying to understand.

I'm a 60-year-old truck driver that's played guitar for 45 years and I'm pretty damn good at it. As I look forward to retirement, I'd like to do more with my music. I am confused by all this modern equipment and only want to learn.
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Great, my son is a very guitarist (and keys and clarinet...sod im!) and for sure, recording a guitar with a mic and even a modest amp, 5W is plenty, can be done with minimal noise intrusion. But when he wants to record classical Bach in his flat in France he needs to do it at about 2am and STILL the odd car comes past.

Other stuff, drum machines, bass, can be direct injected and you can make a fair job of mixing on cans but as a recording/monitoring space friend it won't IMHO wash.

You have not said AFAICS anything about interfaces or DAWs? For my money get a MOTU M4 and Reaper.

Dave.
 
A 10'x12' room (solidly built) is ok (but not 'good') for basic home recording/mixing that is mostly going to be DI. Treat corners and points-of-first-reflection with rockwool or compressed fiberglass traps. You won't have a lot of room inside after doing that, certainly not enough to make non-parallel walls as in that sketch you posted (notice there is no way to get in/out of that room - no door!)
 
ecc83 said:
Great, my son is a very guitarist (and keys and clarinet...sod im!) and for sure, recording a guitar with a mic and even a modest amp, 5W is plenty, can be done with minimal noise intrusion. But when he wants to record classical Bach in his flat in France he needs to do it at about 2am and STILL the odd car comes past.

Other stuff, drum machines, bass, can be direct injected and you can make a fair job of mixing on cans but as a recording/monitoring space friend it won't IMHO wash.

You have not said AFAICS anything about interfaces or DAWs? For my money get a MOTU M4 and Reaper.

Dave.
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I have Reaper (and I paid for it).

I'll be recording my guitars out of the back of my Boss Katana Artist into my Yamaha AG06 interface connected USB to my laptop. I'll be using Hydrogen drums software or I have a Digitech Trio+ band creator/looper. I've used it to make bass and drum tracks in the past and it works just fine. I would like to find a drum machine or software that will play a decent 12/8 groove though. I hear good things about the Beat Buddy but haven't tried it myself.

I don't think I'll be doing any mixing. I think that's above my pay grade and at age 60 my ears probably aren't up to the task. I'll hire someone for that if I can find someone with whom I get along. I just want to get the noises recorded.
 
mjbphotos said:
A 10'x12' room (solidly built) is ok (but not 'good') for basic home recording/mixing that is mostly going to be DI. Treat corners and points-of-first-reflection with rockwool or compressed fiberglass traps. You won't have a lot of room inside after doing that, certainly not enough to make non-parallel walls as in that sketch you posted (notice there is no way to get in/out of that room - no door!)
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Don't take this wrong. I really am asking because I don't know the first thing about recording.

If I'm recording direct (without using a mic) does the size and composition of my room really make a difference?
 
It's been pointed out to me that my Asperger syndrome is showing. Sometimes (especially in text) I can come across badly. If I've offended anyone, I offer my sincerest apologies.
 
Ha - no, don't worry about Aspergers, In think those familiar with how it impacts would perhaps have spotted it, but npc big deal - we're OK with pointed questions that generate slightly unexpected responses.

In your case, you could record in almost any space, but what will happen is that you will get deeply involved with the process and then you won't stop and go somewhere else, you will want to carry on and carry on - I record quite a bit in my office studio and being honest, when I load the tracks up in the decent sounding treated space, I hear things I did not hear when I recorded it, and then I have to fix it. This is the kind of process that would drive my good friend with Aspergers round the bend. He finds it very difficult to stop without finishing, so I suspect your aim to not do mixing will go out the window very quickly once you get into the process deeply. So, no, you don't need perfect acoustics for track laying and composing, but you need better for balancing and tweaking, and poor soundproofing and boxy sounding spaces won't do your head any good at all.
 
rob aylestone said:
Ha - no, don't worry about Aspergers, In think those familiar with how it impacts would perhaps have spotted it, but npc big deal - we're OK with pointed questions that generate slightly unexpected responses.

In your case, you could record in almost any space, but what will happen is that you will get deeply involved with the process and then you won't stop and go somewhere else, you will want to carry on and carry on - I record quite a bit in my office studio and being honest, when I load the tracks up in the decent sounding treated space, I hear things I did not hear when I recorded it, and then I have to fix it. This is the kind of process that would drive my good friend with Aspergers round the bend. He finds it very difficult to stop without finishing, so I suspect your aim to not do mixing will go out the window very quickly once you get into the process deeply. So, no, you don't need perfect acoustics for track laying and composing, but you need better for balancing and tweaking, and poor soundproofing and boxy sounding spaces won't do your head any good at all.
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Maybe... There used to be a pretty famous guy that lived near me and posted here sometimes that was about as deaf as a post. When he mixed, he had it so loud no one else could be around.

I used to hang out here 20 years ago under the handle 64Firebird. But I forgot my old password and email.
 
When I said "mixing" Rubbers' I was not meaning the sound track to the next 'Game of Thrones'! No, just that from your posts it seems you will end up with a bunch of tracks, half a dozen say, that need to be reduced to a musically valid stereo pair.

Also, since you seek help and 'I don't know what you don't know' record those tracks at around -20dBFS (24 bits 44.1kHz).

Dave.
 
IMO you can definitely make it work but its kind of a small space. Yup, you can record direct but unless you treat the space you will have issues with recording vocals and acoustic guitars. You will also have issues with mixing and monitoring in general. Yeah you can use headphones for all that but headphone mixes don't translate well to other systems in my experience.
 
Initially, I also wanted to turn our garden room into a recording studio. However, later I decided it would be too expensive, and the sound quality would still not be that good. Now there’s just a lounge room for anyone in the family to spend time in and relax a bit.
I like the idea of such a garden office. It allows you to work in a comfortable place and still be a little in the nature. Sometimes I work in my lounge room, too, and it feels great. I just need to make sure I’m alone, and then the working process goes very well. Sometimes moving out of your usual environment is really helpful.
 
I just wish I had somewhere that I wouldn't need to clear away my toys after playing with them.
I have one room in the garage, full of drums, and another in my dining room full of stage piano and guitars,
but still occasionally set up other keyboards and stuff in my living room, and that has to be cleared away each time.
I dream about building a big brick room at the end of the garden, and moving all my music stuff there.
A shed will not cut it, because they have little noise insulation.
 
I now can do audio in three places. My home studio (sounds like a treated room), my video studio (sounds dead) and my office - which sounds like it has no bass. I still move buildings to use the home studio for anything to do with EQ and subtle effects. I can record anywhere, and rough mix in the video studio, but I need the acoustics of the home studio to finish properly.
 
Since I started this, I've talked with some people and done some research. I can use Rockwool insulation between the studs and cover everything with cloth (I'm thinking moving blankets) then it'll be a big isolation booth. Yes, it's still small. But it's just me, my guitar and a few gadgets.
 
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