studio size.......Too small?

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VTgreen81

VTgreen81

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Without expanding my exisiting space I have about 252 sqft (18x14apprx.). I'd like to be able to have an isolated control room, a vox/amp booth and a live room. This is all in a basement room in a quiet rural neighborhood, I'm not worried about sound getting in and out of the live room, just the CR and VOX. It seems like enough space, but those 63db dbl walls are THICK and may eat up too much floor space.

Still just trying to decide if I can do this right within budget or just keep it all in one room.

Here's a goofy idea, My office is directly above the "room", how about more insulation and another leaf on the ceiling and running XLR and TRS jacks up thru the floor and using my office for the control room? Video cams for visual communication? How about another XLR jack up thru to the bathroom for VOX?

Obviously I'm clueless, but at least I've learned I've got a lot more to learn.
 
VT,

> Still just trying to decide if I can do this right within budget or just keep it all in one room. <

Just keep it all in one room. One good room beats two crappy rooms every day. (Crappy because they're too small to be acoustically viable.)

> how about ... using my office for the control room? <

Yes, that's good too. But you'll never get great isolation between upstairs and downstairs, so it may not be worth the bother.

--Ethan
 
Thank you Mr. Winer

Depending on the responses to this next Q, I may have space to build a VOX booth adjacent to the current room. What would be the minimum interior dimensions of a functional VOX booth, and would this also be large enough for mic'ing a small guitar amp?
 
Re: Thank you Mr. Winer

VT,

> What would be the minimum interior dimensions of a functional VOX booth, and would this also be large enough for mic'ing a small guitar amp? <

A vocal/guitar amp booth can be as small as you want as long as you make it completely dead by covering all the walls and ceiling with thick rigid fiberglass. If you don't add 100% absorption, reflections off those surfaces will reveal the small and boxy sound of the room. But with absorption the room sound will go away, and you can then add reverb and ambience electronically.

--Ethan
 
Thanks again.

Next Q, I've heard there is a mathmatical formula, based on the dimensions of a room, that will determine the necessary traps, diffusers and absorbers. Where can I find this formula (if it exists) and do I need more than basic algebra skills to implement it?
 
Re: Thanks again.

VT,

> I've heard there is a mathmatical formula, based on the dimensions of a room, that will determine the necessary traps, diffusers and absorbers. <

No, that's the old school method where you determine the room's natural resonances and custom build bass traps to absorb those frequencies. That can be useful in large rooms, but for the typical control rooms you see in homes these days, the best approach is broadband absorption that works down to 80 Hz or even lower. The lower in frequency you want to absorb, the more difficult / expensive.

Have a look the Acoustics FAQ, second in the list on my Articles page:

www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html

--Ethan
 
my room is about 13.5' wide by 20' long, with a slanted ceiling at one end of the 20' length. I put a vocal booth in the back, so the space you have is not too small. I wouldn't carve the room up into two or more rooms however, air is what makes the rooom sound good, so you want the rooms to be larger if you can.

having the console in the same room as you're recording is very doable, I've done it many times. Just record everything dry, use headphones, and watch your needles carefully as to get the leveling right. THen on the mix, where the musicians aren't play and its all from tape, thats when you add reverb, EQ, etc, and use the monitors.
 
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