Planning Personal Studio

[Rod S]

Long time without posting. As the saying goes - Life is what happens when you"re making other plans⦠At least I"m now able to drive things to some normality and we are starting to plan our new house, even with the lingering Covid Situation here in Brazil.

 

Planning my 'retirement" studio. Still high-level concept.

 

Wanted to get some general feedback of the idea, things to watch for, etc.

 

I have a room that 5,8 x 4,3 (19ft x14ft) to build a studio. This is my personal space, not meant for professional recording or renting. Building the house from ground up so now is the time to make decisions.

 

What I want

- Room to work on composing (top side). Just need room for myself and another person.

- Jam area (bottom part) - Lounge. What I envision is some powered speakers (shown at bottom corners), being fed by mixer (vocals, electronic drum set), and some amps around the room. I'm assuming as long as the microphone is not directed at the speakers I shouldn't have feedback issues.

 

Both areas will not be used at the same time (hence no physical separation).

 

Room characteristics

- Overall to be determined, I have some local consultants which I"ve contacted. I want to make sure the room is reasonably isolated to minimize noise propagation to the rest of the house. Masonry walls. For internal acoustics, I want to make sure I have some 'decent" room acoustics, but I"m still doing research on the what the minimum I need. Right now I"m tending to eliminate parallelisms during construction and some acoustic foam / panels and not much more.

- I want to have some panels on the walls to hide cables, but I haven"t found a concept I like

- Flooring â I have looked at some vinyl flooring that imitates wood. Looks good and much better acoustically than wood. Hate carpeting.

- Ceiling height â 3m (9.8ft)

- There"s a door on the upper right side (wooden, solid door)

- Large Sliding door on the bottom side (glass), which faces the yard.

 

 

[delete]

Wanted to get some general feedback of the idea, things to watch for, etc.

Now is the time to think about your electrical distribution and ensuring they all share the one circuit.using the "star" method.

You might want to invest a few extra pennies and invest in commercial grade receptacles as well.

Lighting is something else you will want to think about and the use of dimmers.

I think you have this given your other comments. I just built my studio last year and while it was a lot of work, the hours of planning and research paid off.

You are on the right track. Good luck with everything.

[KuruPrionz]

Ventilation, you don't want sound to leak in if you are recording but you do want air. Sometimes you don't want sound to leak out either.

 

I don't know anything else about it, just that it's something to think about.

[danstein]

I recently moved, but prior to that I was working in a studio I built myself. The control room was fairly similar dimensions to yours - mine was 13' X 17', so within a foot or two. The extra foot of width will serve you well - overall it's not a large room and it fills up quickly once you start putting gear in there. In my control room, two people working at the listening position side-by-side was very, very tight - the extra foot might help you there but you better get along well ;-) #-meter ceiling height is great!

 

One thing to watch out for space-wise, also - acoustic treatment can eat up a lot of space, more than you might expect. Wall panels are liable to be 4-6 inches thick - so you just lost almost foot of space if you have 4-inch panels on opposite walls.

 

One more thing - plan for air conditioning/ventilation! If your room has good acoustical isolation, that also means it is pretty much airtight, and a room that small, with even one person plus gear running, will turn into an airless sauna very quickly. Make sure you have adequate air handling, both for heat and fresh air sake.

 

Vinyl or laminate flooring is ok - I had Pergo (laminate) in my control room. It looked fine but made a clicky, plasticky sound anytime you dropped something on it, which I hated. Have you looked into bamboo? It can be very durable, and it should be a lot cheaper than hardwood. Although, in Brazil, I would think you should be able to get awesome hardwood flooring! I had a Jatoba floor in my live room - I loved it! I was tempted to rip the boards out and take them with me when I moved!

[Konnector]

I would leave some space to get behind your mixing desk for accessing the rat's nest of cables.

 

Also, the typical recommended listening / monitoring position in a room is around 35% of the total length of the room from the front wall. (the wall behind your mixing desk) That's another reason to leave some space behind your desk. Low frequencies build up in the corners so some floor to ceiling bass traps can never hurt. Setting your monitoring position/console, etc. too close to the wall will invite more acoustic challenges if you are shooting for reasonably accurate monitoring.

[MAJUSCULE]

That's awesome, congrats! Looks like it'll be a great space.

 

Both areas will not be used at the same time (hence no physical separation).

 

Gotta be honest, I'd be surprised if people who come in to jam won't eventually ask you to plug a few more cables in and record the jams... but if you're comfortable setting those boundaries and sticking to your guns, good on ya!

[Rod S]

I would leave some space to get behind your mixing desk for accessing the rat's nest of cables.

 

Also, the typical recommended listening / monitoring position in a room is around 35% of the total length of the room from the front wall. (the wall behind your mixing desk) That's another reason to leave some space behind your desk. Low frequencies build up in the corners so some floor to ceiling bass traps can never hurt. Setting your monitoring position/console, etc. too close to the wall will invite more acoustic challenges if you are shooting for reasonably accurate monitoring.

Good Points. About the cables, I may make an opening from the other side to access cables, as I agree it could be a mess of cables. The other side is my office. Or just leaving walking room in behind, which would help with the acoustics. Probably 35% will be too much, but I'm going to sketch something out with maybe 80cm behind the desk.

 

Thanks.

[Rod S]

Gotta be honest, I'd be surprised if people who come in to jam won't eventually ask you to plug a few more cables in and record the jams... but if you're comfortable setting those boundaries and sticking to your guns, good on ya!

What I meant by my comment is that I don't intend to have physical separation between the control room and the recording area as in a professional studio (excessive for my ambitions and my skills, really). But yes, having a setup so that I can easily record the mics and other equipment certainly makes total sense, and I probably need to plan for that.

[Rod S]

I recently moved, but prior to that I was working in a studio I built myself. The control room was fairly similar dimensions to yours - mine was 13' X 17', so within a foot or two. The extra foot of width will serve you well - overall it's not a large room and it fills up quickly once you start putting gear in there. In my control room, two people working at the listening position side-by-side was very, very tight - the extra foot might help you there but you better get along well ;-) #-meter ceiling height is great!

I have to think through the space a little more. I had started drafting this out as something as my own personal space, but want this to be comfortable for collaboration projects.

One thing to watch out for space-wise, also - acoustic treatment can eat up a lot of space, more than you might expect. Wall panels are liable to be 4-6 inches thick - so you just lost almost foot of space if you have 4-inch panels on opposite walls.

Yes, I should already consider that in the layout. The dimensions I mentioned is considered just the masonry walls between the rooms.

One more thing - plan for air conditioning/ventilation! If your room has good acoustical isolation, that also means it is pretty much airtight, and a room that small, with even one person plus gear running, will turn into an airless sauna very quickly. Make sure you have adequate air handling, both for heat and fresh air sake.

What I plan is to have a ac split unit. Central HVACs are not popular in Brazil, mostly from an energy cost, and the fact we really only use heating in the bedrooms during part of the winter. So we have separate units in the smaller spaces (bedrooms and family rooms, typically). These units are pretty quiet once the room temperature is stable. I just need to figure out the best place, but probably in the right wall towards the middle.

Vinyl or laminate flooring is ok - I had Pergo (laminate) in my control room. It looked fine but made a clicky, plasticky sound anytime you dropped something on it, which I hated. Have you looked into bamboo? It can be very durable, and it should be a lot cheaper than hardwood. Although, in Brazil, I would think you should be able to get awesome hardwood flooring! I had a Jatoba floor in my live room - I loved it! I was tempted to rip the boards out and take them with me when I moved!

Yes, we have gorgeous hardwood flooring (what I have in my apartment now, actually), and that is typical installation. I'm looking for something more scratch resistant. I'll check for the noise you mentioned, there's a showroom near my house that has a wide space installed. How were the acoustics in your live room? Did the hardwood floor worked well?

 

Time to do some more detailed sketch. Too many decisions to make in the house and need to focus more on this.

[Rod S]

Wanted to get some general feedback of the idea, things to watch for, etc.

Now is the time to think about your electrical distribution and ensuring they all share the one circuit.using the "star" method.

Thanks. I had actually seen an article about this, saved and forgot about it.

You might want to invest a few extra pennies and invest in commercial grade receptacles as well.

I've seen this comment. The receptacles here in Brazil are different than in the US (implemented about 12 years ago), and already have a tight fit. But I think the choice of wiring gage and perhaps isolation needs some looking into.

Lighting is something else you will want to think about and the use of dimmers.

I think you have this given your other comments. I just built my studio last year and while it was a lot of work, the hours of planning and research paid off.

You are on the right track. Good luck with everything.

Have not put thought into the lighting. Need to do some research. i was just planning some overheads with potentially a lamp, as I like to work in lower light conditions (makes my wife nuts).

 

Certainly want to put the research. I am going live outside of the metropolitan area and don't intend to move in the future unless it's a move outside of the country (which is never out of the question the way we like to live on the edge here...)

[danstein]

What I plan is to have a ac split unit. Central HVACs are not popular in Brazil, mostly from an energy cost, and the fact we really only use heating in the bedrooms during part of the winter. So we have separate units in the smaller spaces (bedrooms and family rooms, typically). These units are pretty quiet once the room temperature is stable. I just need to figure out the best place, but probably in the right wall towards the middle.

 

AC split is a good solution for cooling, but be aware that - unless it is a specialized unit - most split ductless AC units do NOT provide fresh air, they are essentially recycling the air in your room through a heat exchanger. So - if your room is really well-isolated, you will need some kind of fresh air intake/stale air exhaust in addition to the AC unit.

 

Although you say central HVACs are not popular in Brazil (makes sense!) I have to assume there are HVAC professionals for dealing with things like large office buildings, etc. It's probably worth trying to find someone to consult with to make sure your air handling is adequate for your room. The calculations of air flow, pressure, volume, etc. can get pretty esoteric. It would really suck to go to the trouble of building it and then only be able to use it for an hour at a time before passing out!

[elif]

Ventilation, you don't want sound to leak in if you are recording but you do want air. Sometimes you don't want sound to leak out either.

 

I don't know anything else about it, just that it's something to think about.

Also regarding ventilation - if you do plan on recording with microphones, design the ventilation system for the recording area to be free of any fan motor sounds, AC vent duct noise and the like. Othewise, you will be forced to disable these while recording. In Florida, a room with no ventilation heats up pretty quickly. I imagine it does so in Brazil as well.

[Konnector]

What about arranging things opposite to what you have so the side door is where your "lounge" area will be? Or is that a sliding patio door there on the south wall as opposed to a window?

 

The room I use in my basement is very similar to that. Mine's just a little longer except the entrance door is about halfway down the long wall.

[Rod S]

What I plan is to have a ac split unit. Central HVACs are not popular in Brazil, mostly from an energy cost, and the fact we really only use heating in the bedrooms during part of the winter. So we have separate units in the smaller spaces (bedrooms and family rooms, typically). These units are pretty quiet once the room temperature is stable. I just need to figure out the best place, but probably in the right wall towards the middle.

 

AC split is a good solution for cooling, but be aware that - unless it is a specialized unit - most split ductless AC units do NOT provide fresh air, they are essentially recycling the air in your room through a heat exchanger. So - if your room is really well-isolated, you will need some kind of fresh air intake/stale air exhaust in addition to the AC unit.

 

Although you say central HVACs are not popular in Brazil (makes sense!) I have to assume there are HVAC professionals for dealing with things like large office buildings, etc. It's probably worth trying to find someone to consult with to make sure your air handling is adequate for your room. The calculations of air flow, pressure, volume, etc. can get pretty esoteric. It would really suck to go to the trouble of building it and then only be able to use it for an hour at a time before passing out!

Yes, you are correct. The split unit does not provide fresh air. When I spoke about central air not being popular I meant households. Large office buildings do have central air and there's specific requirements on air renovation in these systems in our legislation (small ones don't which is horrible now that I think of it...). But if I'm thinking of this as a collaboration space than yes, I have to think differently. I do know a consultant (my day job involves industrial projects, and we ocassionally have office revamps, laboratories in our project portfolio) so excellent point.

[Rod S]

What about arranging things opposite to what you have so the side door is where your "lounge" area will be? Or is that a sliding patio door there on the south wall as opposed to a window?

 

The room I use in my basement is very similar to that. Mine's just a little longer except the entrance door is about halfway down the long wall.

 

Its a sliding door to the yard. This is the 3d of the project. The studio is the left door The idea is to have the lounge area closer to the yard. It would look weird have the main desk facing this sliding door, but the view would be great! Joking aside, I'm not convinced on any specific layout. This was the one that I thought made the most sense.

 

[Doerfler]

Beautiful crib.

[Redknife]

Mostly here to say- looks like it"s going to be cool!

Factor those absorptive and/or reflective wall panels as well as bass traps into your space. I

[The Real MC]

Not a big room, and you got doors to contend with so arrangements are limited.

 

You will never completely isolate sound from the rest of the house unless you go easy on low frequencies. Low frequencies radiate through fixed frame members, no way to avoid it except a separate structure.

 

Not a good place for your monitors with respect to your perspective at the mixer. I would place the monitors on opposite walls so you can hear them equally from mixer and keyboards. The drawback is reduced low end response. May need some experimentation.

 

Are the monitors near field?

 

If the drums are electronic, fitting that in the stereo field is a challenge for that room. You may need headphones or another set of monitors, probably a smaller set will work.

[Rod S]

Realized my layout was pretty crappy to tried to explain. I created one in visio which hopefully is more clear. Rotate the room to fit a little better on the screen.

Not a big room, and you got doors to contend with so arrangements are limited.

 

You will never completely isolate sound from the rest of the house unless you go easy on low frequencies. Low frequencies radiate through fixed frame members, no way to avoid it except a separate structure.

 

Not a good place for your monitors with respect to your perspective at the mixer. I would place the monitors on opposite walls so you can hear them equally from mixer and keyboards. The drawback is reduced low end response. May need some experimentation.

 

Are the monitors near field?

 

If the drums are electronic, fitting that in the stereo field is a challenge for that room. You may need headphones or another set of monitors, probably a smaller set will work.

I plan to have near field monitors (in blue) in the studio desk. I plan to have a set of speakers (orange) for 'jamming' (left side) . they wouldn't be used at the same time.

 

Drums are electronic. I intend to run them through headphones or the speakers, but not the monitors for listening I know the speaker positions are awkward from the drummer's perspective.

 

I put in 80 cm (31 in) between the studio desk and the wall.

 

The light green boxes are placeholders for shelving, storage areas for cables, things like that. Want to make this a fun place with music related memorabilia and others. Would love to score an old gramophone.

 

I can alter anything in the layout at this point, but the position of the patio door and the inside door I can't.

[Rod S]

Thanks everyone for the comments. This has helped me A LOT to think through this.

[Rod S]

This is an alternate layout I've been considering.

 

[Konnector]

Your revised layout with the desk away from the wall would probably be the best option. If you could stack all your keyboards in one "pile" against the wall it would provide more space overall.

 

You'll want to orient your space so that your monitors are aimed at the longest dimension of the room so I wouldn't go with the "alternate" layout above. (Although it does provide some more open floor space.)

[David R]

Rod, I'm not sure if you know the guys in BIxiga 70/Estúdio Traquitana but they have quite a nice open layout space with no separation for the control room. You may want to talk to Cris or Mauricio and ask them about any issues they ran into in setting up a studio like that.

[Theo Verelst]

Since the 80s a "home studio" has become something of the unicorn of music fantasies for a lot of people I think, understandable, but the main studio function originally I think was recording and mixing music (and other audio) with, which with a lot of keyboard setups (liek I have too) isn't the same as "the mixing desk" and the vocal booth or instrument small hall or what have you. To me, the quality of sound comes first when thinking about his, with the proposed untreated walls and strange speaker setup, that's going to be hard. Think about it when you play back a recorded piece of music that you've recorded with a microphone, when you're playing it back in the same space you've recorded the acoustics from, the sound will become very hollow and hard to mix for general use (probably a main function for a sounds studio).

 

I had fun trying my huge monitoring system I built myself out in a slightly optimized space, from concrete with some partially damped doors and windows (about 4 x 6 meter) and more than 50% damped walls, and floor with carpet and a damping layer under that. It's hard to get a "neutral" sound, so you can put on a mike, feed back a delayed sound from the monitoring system, and listen how the "feed around" changes through the monitoring...

 

For "mixing" mainly electronic and digital musical instruments you have to ask yourself what you want to do with the sound, except from simply adding the various instruments together in a certain ratio, which luckily cam be done nowadays for not so much money. The extra quality of your studio usually will be in that field, just like being able to create acceptable digital sound, somehow!

 

T.

[PianoMan51]

Those with more experience than me can pile on, but what about putting your mixing desk (including the nearfield monitors) on heavy duty rubber casters? Now you can position the desk for best sound when mixing and move it against the wall for recording and playing with friends.

[Rod S]

Those with more experience than me can pile on, but what about putting your mixing desk (including the nearfield monitors) on heavy duty rubber casters? Now you can position the desk for best sound when mixing and move it against the wall for recording and playing with friends.

Certainly a good option. Will check how that could work. Thanks.

[Rod S]

Rod, I'm not sure if you know the guys in BIxiga 70/Estúdio Traquitana but they have quite a nice open layout space with no separation for the control room. You may want to talk to Cris or Mauricio and ask them about any issues they ran into in setting up a studio like that.

Dave, thanks. Do not know them, checked out their space, very nice. Will get in touch with them.

[Al Quinn]

A couple of things I've learned that might help:

- make sure the split until is not blowing directly toward the mix station

- curtains for the back door are a good option for absorbing sound rather than having it reflect off the large glass door. I hear a noticeable improvement in the sound of the room when I pull the curtains across my back door and large window but only do this when recording with acoustic instruments.