why people build studios

[casenpoint]

It's all about the music man! I don't need a reason other than the music. Doesn't matter what kind nor do I discriminate(well sometimes) other types.

If your going to make a studio it might as well accomodate recordings.

When my first guitar was given to me I couldn't play worth shit but knew I wanted to play music. So I joined the school band. Jr. High all the way through High school. Jazz concerts, SYMPHONIC orchestra, brass ensemble, marching band(half time shows), reunion parties, etc.

As far as I was concerned I didn't need a place to practice. I had the auditorium and band room to play as loud as I wanted. For recordings well I was to young to afford anything. And the school jazz band did record a few songs from the classics. Don't have copies but I wish I did.

Then, High School ended and stopped playin and started partyin. Bad choice! It got me nowhere.

12 years went by until I found a place I could start building.

Aprtments suck! Neighbors don't give a shit about your talents.
And they make so much fuckin noise you wish you were dead. Hell I've been known to go to jail on such matters.

Give them an inch and they'll take a yard!

 

[c7sus]

Then I guess I misunderstood.

"Studio" to me seems a pretty open-ended definition. There's rooms of every possible design, size, etc.

"Home Studio" is even more open to interpretation, IMHO.

Great recordings have been made in much less-than-desirable rooms though.

But not by me.

It's kinda like the search for the Grail. Anybody that is able to play well and engineer well at the same time gets big props from me. I haven't been able to figure out how to do both at the same time and get the really top-notch performance and recording I'm after. But I keep trying. Lately I've been playing around with electric guitar a bit. Just micing it to 2-track cassette.

It's about learning for me. A bunch of it has been reading a LOT of different stuff, from gear to acoustics to techniques and formulas. Now it's becoming more about integrating all the pieces together.

My playing is never gonna sell a single unit. I accept that. I didn't get into music to sell music. Guitar didn't come naturally to me at all. It still holds a lot of mystery for me. I wish I knew music theory. Maybe that's the next step to really getting closer to Point B. Not having to "think" so much and just let it flow, but always know where you are.

Another thing.............. recording got me to listen to records differently than most folks do. Today I know how to dial in the parts I want to hear of a recording. I've become a much better "listener" to recordings as a result of this hobby or whatever you wanna call it. It's taught me about how things are layered or panned or verbed to create space. How many folks hear a guitar tone on the radio and think "Oh, I could do that"............... most don't. But it's been fun as hell reading about all this stuff and trying some of it out. Besides, mics and nice pres are like high-end cameras or watches: the good stuff holds it's value, and is good at what it does. So it's at least a break-even investment in terms of use/value for somebody that's not using the stuff for profit.

I couldn't begin to play in a studio with the clock ticking away $$$. I would lock up like a something that really locks up in stress conditions. I think I'm much more likely to get better results over time in my own setting than by woodshedding and then going to somebody eles's to record. That's just me.

But I didn't realize this was aimed at guys with dedicated studios.

 

[Capt Dunsel]

Dobro, I'm like you...making do in my living room (and doing much better since Steve helped me out!).

For me, the investment in gear is to make a little money in the music biz, but not necessarily by recording other folks. Allow me to explain:

A few years ago, I was part of a local band that went to a conventional studio and recorded a CD (6 originals, 4 covers). It wasn't a hit CD by ANY stretch of the imagination, but it sold enough to repay the original investment three times over (it was a low budget effort) and got me to thinking that this may be a good way to make a few bucks.

So now I've hooked up with a songwriter that has some solid material (in my opinion), so I'm investing in this equipment in the hopes that I can at least make back the investment, and maybe a little more, with a side benefit of learning more about this end of the industry, and who knows....maybe someday I can even think of building a studio from scratch!

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

 

[cellardweller]

Where is "Nothing better to do" in your poll...?

Here is my story;

Had a Vestax 4 track sitting around for a year while i was jamming with 3 different bands. Never had time to play with it. Finally started to mess around with it, My house gets broken into, all is lost...

Fast forward 6 years. I've slowly rebuilt my "rig". Have a decent amp, 1 good guitar, drum machine, friends who have keyboards and do vocals. We sit around for a couple of weekends, no delusions of grandeur, just killin' time, when all of a sudden....WOW THAT SOUNDED GOOD!!! WE GOTTA RECORD IT!!!

Hit record on the crappy old tape deck running through my mackie, sounded like pure ass...

Theres gotta be a way to make this sound just a little better

The rest is a blur...

 

[VSpaceBoy]

I guess I'll add to the comments...

I started, like most, with a Tascam Portastudio 4 track and 2 crappy mics. At first I only cared about the music. I was making songs. I liked the songs. As I made more and more, each time I added more instruments, more overdubs, and just learned more things along the way. The more I learned to do in the recording process, the more I realized my limitations with the equipment I was using.

So then I upgraded to more tracks.
Then higher fidelity.<digital>
Then to the PC.
THEN all of a sudden I started buying better mics and preamps.

THEN I was like "WHOA what the hell, since when did I start recording in a bathroom". I never even noticed how much the room affected the recordings until I got to that point in my "hobby" and got better gear.
So then, not knowing what to do, I started searching around and found this site. Then learned how to make a simple gobo and how much that helped. Now I have realized that if I plan to keep upgrading my equipment, I must upgrade the environment that it’s used in to even make it worth the effort.
i.e.: If I want to hear the great sounding Mic I bought from the music store, I have to make a room that sounds as good as the one at the music store. <or a version anyway>

So after realizing all of this, I now find myself addicted to learning everything <or some anyway> that ppl like Steve, John, Ethan, and so forth, donate on the subject. Also reading and learning what others have done that have and haven’t worked in their set ups.

I guess no one REALLY wants to spend the time, and certainly not the money, on something like a studio. I mean some part of me feels, I don’t know, proud of spending $3000 on a guitar I guess. But I know that could never come from spending 20k on my home studio. Buy I'm ramping up to get started on it anyway.

Why - is the question.

the Answer: in a guitar player’s world.
For someone new to guitar, it would be idiotic to spend the money for a PRS next to a Squire since they both look "cool". One would never notice the sound difference. Wouldn't care.
Ten years later, the same person shopping for a guitar wouldn't think twice about even spending a dime on a Squire and would beeline straight to the PRS! Because it is only then, at that point, he would realize what he didn't know at first. All the little things that make the difference.

One could never realize how necessary a real studio would be for recording, until he spent the time... and graduated past the 10 by 10 bedroom.

Sorry my post got a little long.

Ron

 

[dobro]

Craig, sorry, I probably wasn't clear enough in my first post. When I wrote that and put up the poll, I was thinking of people who build a studio pretty much from scratch, or from the shell of a garage and add floors and walls and the whole caboodle. When I see pictures of rockwool going in between the two by fours and the installation of comprehensive electrics, I'm thinking 'now we are talking *major* carpentry here. Is this about the music, or is it about the carpentry?'

The room's so important. Like VSpaceboy, I started hearing the room when I started buying better gear. So I started to treat the room in ways that improved the sound, and I'm continuing to do that and this forum is very, very valuable. But there's a huge distance between what I'm doing and what a lot of people here are doing. I just wanna sing and play my guitar and get it recorded basically - for me, it's about the music. I don't want that to get sidetracked or hijacked by a one-year Home Carpentry 305 project. But like I said earlier, people's responses in this thread make a lot of sense to me, so now I'm not exactly writing massive studio construction off out of hand. I'm wondering how much I could do without forgetting how to play guitar...

 

[knightfly]

Time sliced multiplexing, and no power tools when you're really tired... Steve

 

[dobro]

The poll continues to get voted on, but that last post of yours has stopped people in their tracks, Steve lol.

What's time-sliced multiplexing?

 

[knightfly]

Wondered how long it would take til somebody asked... it's a fancy term for what earlier computers were REALLY doing when you thought they were multi-tasking - they were really just doing one thing for a while, then another thing, and another, then back to the first, so each task got done "simultaneously", but slower than if only one thing was being done -

In the case of hoo-mans, it goes something like this - pour concrete til you're too tired to do that, then play with lumber (lighter than concrete) til you need a break, then play your guitar while on "break", then once you're rested up a bit go play with lumber, etc...

OK, now everybody can stop wondering and continue the thread - (Wow, the power of it all)

 

[Son of Mixerman]

I couldn't do the poll. My reasons are not there?

I built a studio because I worked in a couple commerical studios. I was a guitarist who landed an internship, moved to assistant. Did some recordings in 2 commercial studios. Im a guitarist first and foremost. But I have also had a history of being able to record just about anything and enjoy recording people. I had several people telling me to open a commercial facility but I wanted something convenient for my own musings and sadistic creations. I took my writing space and invaded the garage. I compromised alot of things because its 1/2 way between home, and commercial in the project territory. I figured out my needs and the designed it to meet specific requirements. No total isolation because I only needed to attenuate a particular Db level. Im not done yet but I can handle just up to around 7 piece band, no Orchestras Its working out quite nice and I used my studio a few times so I can make some changes before I get too far into it. I also have minimal gear, I don't need alot of flavors because I use the mic as my primary eq, having a analog console with decent pre's helps cut down on stuff. I do need a few more peices but nothing expensive. I tend to break things into categories and justifications. I look at my weakest link and tried to keep everything around that. If I feel I need to move up then I save to increase the chain in one shot. I want to stay pretty much around the gear level I have now because I've been at the commercial level and I don't need all the associated problems of spiraling costs. If I add lots of expensive gear then the costs have to go up, then the people who need my help can't afford it. Im like a cheap and honest lawyer My hardest frustration is the slow tweaking of the room and monitors to sound like what Im used to hearing.
Sorry.. long and painful huh?

SoMm

 

[cellardweller]

Time sliced multiplexing, and no power tools when you're really tired... Steve

I didn't want to be the one to ask...
Very appropriate term though.

NO power tools is a little much, don't you think? Eddie Van halen made good use of a drill/guitar.

 

[knightfly]

I didn't say "no power tools", hell I LOVE power tools - just NOT when you're over-tired and "under-thunk"... :=)

 

[frederic]

Seems as though Steve is an old mainframe guy - selling time slices heh-heh.

Remember those days well.

Anyhoo... to answer the question at hand, I'm building a home studio mostly for my own projects, with the intention of occasionally recording other people to finance the purchasing of more gear. Also, to avoid my wife's "HoneyDoNow" list. Hiding in a home studio is a good tactic, especially if the doors lock

Plus my gear has to go somewhere... and TrackRat is not the only gear slut here. Just the most self-proclaimed

 

[Timbecile]

I blame my brother. I was surrounded by music all the time when I was growing up. (my dad played in a country band that was the house band at a local bar). My brother started getting serious with a band he was in in High School and bought a 12 channel mixer and a Tascam portastudio. When he wasn't around, I'd sneak into the room where he had it set up and play with it until all hours of the night.

...the first time I heard a mixed down recording of a song I had written I was hooked! I still wish I could recapture the joy I felt that day of saying "wow! That's a recording of MY song. I wrote it! I performed all the parts!". I musta played that tape until it broke.

That was 17 years ago. Still hasn't got old.

 

[ronsmith]

I did a few amature recordings back in the 70's at a local bar. I play guitar and have always wanted to record myself and friends so the old bug from the bar recording days bit me and I built my home studio...I've never regretted it!

 

[gatorhaus]

Back about 15 years ago, I was in a band and we cut a 5 song demo at a studio in Charleston. It was magical putting on those headphones and recording and ever since then that was what I wanted to do. Now 15 years later, a divorce and a lot of spare time I have my own garage converted to a project studio. And it is awesome to record and let others experience the magic.

larry

 

[Todzilla]

1. 'cause I'm a gearhead

2. I have the most awesome spousal doghouse ever known to husbandkind

3. So I can make obnoxious music that has no relevance to market value and not give a rat's testicle about it

4. 'cause I need hobby that's close to home

5. So I have a cool place to rehearse with my buds

6. So I can cus, smash my fingers, throw out my back, cus some more, and borrow my brother-in-law's pickup truck

7. Because when I buy that one last rack-mounted thang, I'll be done

8. 'cause it hurts more to not do it than it does to do it

9. 'cause both my next-door neighbors have bitchin' studios and my last name's Jones, so I must set the standard with which others must keep up (actually, this is all true!)

10. 'cause I hate golf

11. it's the only way I can drown out the demon voices in my head

 

[lpdeluxe]

Todzilla, you speak for ALL of us!

 

[Track Rat]

1. 'cause I'm a gearhead

2. I have the most awesome spousal doghouse ever known to husbandkind

3. So I can make obnoxious music that has no relevance to market value and not give a rat's testicle about it

4. 'cause I need hobby that's close to home

5. So I have a cool place to rehearse with my buds

6. So I can cus, smash my fingers, throw out my back, cus some more, and borrow my brother-in-law's pickup truck

7. Because when I buy that one last rack-mounted thang, I'll be done

8. 'cause it hurts more to not do it than it does to do it

9. 'cause both my next-door neighbors have bitchin' studios and my last name's Jones, so I must set the standard with which others must keep up (actually, this is all true!)

10. 'cause I hate golf

11. it's the only way I can drown out the demon voices in my head

Well spoken. Well said.

 

[frederic]

1. 'cause I'm a gearhead

Aren't we all? Oh, we're talking recording gear ;-)

4. 'cause I need hobby that's close to home

I have three. Cars/trucks, recording, honeydo list. My wife insists the latter is a hobby, and my hobby.

7. Because when I buy that one last rack-mounted thang, I'll be done

I said that about 70U ago.

9. 'cause both my next-door neighbors have bitchin' studios and my last name's Jones, so I must set the standard with which others must keep up (actually, this is all true!)

I compete with my neighbors in other ways. I'm the only neighbor with a 600cid stroker motor running on a stand

10. 'cause I hate golf

Golf is not a sport. Any game, where you can keep your own score, and there is no continual threat of serious injury, is not a sport. Boxing, therefore, is a sport.