Buying a house...

[-]

Well, thanks in no small part to being inspired by the helpful folks on this board, I've decided it's getting near the time to actually buy a house to satisfy my recording/music habit.

 

I've been doing the apartment thing for the last 10 years and, being a good tenant, I keep the volume level at a very moderate (usually extremely quiet) level. I've grown tired of that and now I want to be able to occasionally *feel* the bass, play my drums without mutes, and wail on the accordion... Ooops, I think I said too much http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/eek.gif

 

What I'm getting at is that I want to buy a house where I can have a nice little project studio. Most likely, it will be a converted basement. The studio will be for personal use only (I will not be operating a business out of my home). I will not need to have separate control/tracking rooms (I'm playing 99% of the instruments, so I'll always need access to my DAW), although an isolation booth might be a possibility. I would like to have enough room to have a drum kit always set up and ready to record... More importantly, I would like to have a fairly decent-sounding acoustic space to track and mix in.

 

If I happen to buy a house which is close to my neighbors, I would like to do some sort of soundproofing as not to annoy them should the volume level get loud in the middle of the night. (Arrrgh -- I still have that "good tenant" thing I can't shake!)

 

If anyone has any suggestions on what to look for in a house, photos of your own home studio, web links, soundproofing ideas, etc. regarding setting up a project studio in your house, please post them to this thread!

 

Thanks in advance...

[F7sound -]

I did the same thing a few years ago. I had been running my studio from my apartment, but it just got to be too small. Now my studio is in my house. It takes up a tiny room (15' x 7'), but I do have the options of using other rooms as needed. I don't do the live stuff here (like Marshall stacks and big drum kits), but acoustic and VO work very well. Plus for editing and sound design, this place is perfect. That said here's a few things to consider....

 

Flight paths - do planes fly over the house or is it near an airport.

Highways - anything close by can make a difference.

Schools - kids are distracting.

Power - older homes can have problems with good, clean electricity.

Neighbors - if the home is close to others, their noise becomes your problem.

Power lines - emit EMI which can get into your recordings if you are real close....

 

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

 

 

Michael Oster

F7 Sound and Vision

http://www.f7sound.com

[masternfool]

Great list Michael, I just want to add;

1.Heating /AC Noise...

2.Water conditioners/pumps

3.Easy access to drag marshalls in/out

 

Good luck with your search..Harry

[F7sound -]

Thanks Harry,

 

I forgot "Pets"; not that it is exclusive to a house, but I didn't have any when I was alone in my apartment. Now I have a house and I'm married, AND my wife has 2 cats (OK, we have 2 cats). Well, the cats have to stay out of my studio because they get into everything! They make a mess of cables, and crawl into every available space (rack included). Not pretty. They mean well and can't help it, but cats and gear don't mix. Would imagine the same goes for gear and puppies!

 

 

Michael Oster

F7 Sound and Vision

http://www.f7sound.com

[Laurie Z.]

Originally posted by f7sound@gte.net:

Thanks Harry,

 

I forgot "Pets"; not that it is exclusive to a house, but I didn't have any when I was alone in my apartment. Now I have a house and I'm married, AND my wife has 2 cats (OK, we have 2 cats). Well, the cats have to stay out of my studio because they get into everything! They make a mess of cables, and crawl into every available space (rack included). Not pretty. They mean well and can't help it, but cats and gear don't mix. Would imagine the same goes for gear and puppies!

 

 

Michael Oster

F7 Sound and Vision

http://www.f7sound.com

 

Just lost my sustain pedal to the puppy, but I'm training her to be a studio pup, so...it's part of the process, I guess. I give her hell when she goes near the back of the rack, though!

 

We have 2 cats and 2 dogs (yikes!), and our solution is a baby gate. Keeps the cats out of this room and allows the pup to go where I want her to.

 

At least it's easier than birds!!! (I'm *still* finding bird feathers hiding with my old cables)

 

Good luck!

 

lz

http://www.mp3.com/lauriez

(and you might want to make sure your potential neighbors like music - mine do!)

[F7sound -]

Originally posted by lauriez@lauriez.com:

Just lost my sustain pedal to the puppy, but I'm training her to be a studio pup, so...it's part of the process, I guess. I give her hell when she goes near the back of the rack, though!

 

We have 2 cats and 2 dogs (yikes!), and our solution is a baby gate. Keeps the cats out of this room and allows the pup to go where I want her to.

 

At least it's easier than birds!!! (I'm *still* finding bird feathers hiding with my old cables)

 

Good luck!

 

lz

http://www.mp3.com/lauriez

(and you might want to make sure your potential neighbors like music - mine do!)

 

 

I had a studio iguana years ago. Never chewed the gear, but every month or so, he'd shed his skin. Also, he liked to climb up my studio walls. I had (and still do) that "Pyramid" foam. After a while he got too heavy and started ripping the foam off the walls!

 

Michael Oster

F7 Sound and Vision

http://www.f7sound.com

[good morning]

Oh yes, choose your house wisely re: airport flight paths, roads, schools, etc.

 

I have a home with a back bed room downstairs that's practically 90% submerged underground. It's like a tomb except for one "little" thing: the heating/AC unit! It's behind a closet door in that little room, and it can wake the dead.

 

Acoustical treatment is expensive, so turning off is my only affordable solution.

[KenElevenShadows]

>> If I happen to buy a house which is close to my neighbors, I would like to do some sort of soundproofing as not to annoy them should the volume level get loud in the middle of the night. >>

 

A few suggestions off the top of my head, even before we get to soundproofing...

 

I record a lot of stuff in my house, including drums. Honestly, unless you completely soundproof your recording room, there's not a whole lot you can do about drums. With everything else, including bass and electric guitar and (gulp!) accordion, I've found that simply recording in a room that is in the middle of the house and placing a few things around the amp really cuts down on the sound to the degree that I've never had a complaint while recording fairly loud guitars, even feedback. Never had a problem with bass, either. With the walls, use things like big shelving units filled with books. This disperses the sound quite well, and has the added bonus of being actually functional with the wall space. This will not soundproof the room by any means, but it does help with the sound, especially internally. Remember, this is a middle room in the house, if you have one, so the sound going through double walls pretty much dies by the time it gets to the outside.

 

If recording in a room that is in the middle of the house doesn't work, try recording while using a closet as an iso booth. This also works shockingly well. Place a bunch of clothing around everywhere. It's definitely a dead sound environment, but it's better than nothing. This works quite well. This was done with R.E.M. in Mitch Easter's place with the guitars, and I've done it with metal guitars that were excruciatingly loud and contained the sound quite well.

 

If this doesn't work, you'll have to soundproof. Maybe the garage...this probably means double-walls with insulation on the inside, but in such a way that there is air space. My friend did this with his hardcore band in his garage, and it was done so effectively that although he was surrounded by apartments on every side, he never got any complaints at all, and in fact, some of the tenants never knew that a band rehearsed there three nights a week. You must place double-doors, double-walls, seal up any windows that exist, rubber seals on all the doors, use plywood for the walls possibly (this may not be necessary), and do everything possible to contain the sound all the way around -- and yes, this also means the ceiling must be insulated. You almost have to think of the sound as water -- where does the sound leak out?

 

The best thing to do is have a house far enough away from neighbors that it doesn't really matter...shouldn't we all be that lucky...

 

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Ken/Eleven Shadows/d i t h er/nectar

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music*travel photos*tibet*lots of stuff

"Sangsara" "Irian Jaya" & d i t h er CDs available!

http://www.elevenshadows.com

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[Rader Ranch]

you didn't mention where you live...here in S.Cal. basements are few and far between...but a basement sure provides some nice 'free' isolation for your neighbors benefit.

 

the perfect house, in my mind, is out in the country somewhere, so you have no neighbors. then you could track in your all wood, vaulted 30' ceiling great room to your heart's content with only your family to contend with (my sis and husband are building just such a house on 40 acres in CO....man would it be sweet for a studio). unfortunately we can't all do that...i opted for a 3 car garage that i could double frame etc...nobody parks in garages in CA...

 

 

Originally posted by popmusic:

More importantly, I would like to have a fairly decent-sounding acoustic space to track and mix in.

 

that is your biggest problem, because small rooms just generally don't sound so hot. i'm pretty happy with the dead as possible approach..soundboard on walls and ceiling, and carpet on the floor. that way i start with the most basic uncolored dry kit sound (i like the '70's' dry sound anyways) and can go in any direction later in the mix. some wood trim and paintings around and it looks fine.

 

also, while all in one rooms are more and more common (what i have), i would definately stress the importance of a machine closet (that gets air or at least very good ventilation). you just don't want all that drive/fan noise building up when tracking!

[-]

Originally posted by Ken/Eleven Shadows:

The best thing to do is have a house far enough away from neighbors that it doesn't really matter...shouldn't we all be that lucky...

 

Originally posted by Rader Ranch:

the perfect house, in my mind, is out in the country somewhere, so you have no neighbors.

 

Right now I'm leaning towards maybe something a little out in the country, so the neighbors will not be much of a factor (either with their noise bothering me or my noise bothering them).

 

I'm at the very beginning of my house searching, so I don't really have any preconcieved notions of what I want... other than more space and the freedom to be loud! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

 

These are all great suggestions! Keep 'em coming...

[murph]

Don't forget flooding!

If you're planning on doing a basement thing, Make sure your walls and the foundation are solid, and no windows are leaking. I would almost advise against new construction, because you never know what will happen in the basement. Any good home inspector can tell if an older home is prone to flooding. For that reason and others, make sure your homeowners insurance covers your gear as well... not all of them do!

[KenElevenShadows]

If you can get a house that's out in the country, you're in fine shape. Your attention can turn to more important matters, like making your space sound good. it's my opinion that given a decent sized space, you can turn just about anything into a good sounding room. Even the living rooms that I've recorded in so far have been pretty good, and that's without really doing anything with them!!!

 

And the post from Murph about making sure your basement doesn't flood....I'd tape that to your forehead if you end up putting your studio down there....!

 

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Ken/Eleven Shadows/d i t h er/nectar

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

music*travel photos*tibet*lots of stuff

"Sangsara" "Irian Jaya" & d i t h er CDs available!

http://www.elevenshadows.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Philip OKeefe]

Well, three years ago our landlord decided not to renew the studio's lease (he wanted to put in a Gold's Gym) so we decided to find a house with enough land and a back building that we could convert. Best thing we could have done! We're about 10 miles west of Riverside and about 60 miles east of LA in an unincorperated area of Riverside County CA. Our 1,600 sq. ft. house is on 1/3 acre and we have a 1,200 sq ft former barn that we converted. It's a seperate structure and a good 75 feet from the nearest neighbor's house. The structure is concrete filled cinderblock, so it had lots of mass in place even before I started framing the interior walls.

 

 

Mass is great for blocking sound. Any structure coupled (attached) to another is going to have problems being completely isolated, so I recommend you look for something with a strong and massive structure that is unattached from the main house. Dedicate that for your project studio.

 

Phil O'Keefe

Sound Sanctuary Recording

Riverside CA

http://members.aol.com/ssanctuary/index.html

pokeefe777@msn.com

[S_Gould]

What Phil said. When I took the plunge 3-1/2 years ago & bought a house, I made sure there was room for expansion. Last year I built a 2300 sq.ft. cinderblock building next to the house. It sure was nice to get my house back after 50+ musical instruments, 9 multitracks, 6 mixing boards, miles of cable & racks of outboard gear had their very own home. I can now let my friends bring their toddlers over without having a panic attack.

 

Scott

[Botch.]

Popmusic, I sure wish you'd been my next-door neighbor when I was an apartment dweller!

As far as pets, my two Welsh Corgis were nosin' around the band's equipment in my basement studio when one of them stepped on the drummer's hi-hat pedal. I don't think their feet even touched the steps on the way up!

[DC]

I built a recording room on to the back of our house. It's 24' X 24' on the outside and since I double walled it for soundproofing reasons it's 22' X 22' on the inside. I used plywood sheething and vinul siding on the outside and the really thick drywall on the inside wall (5/8" thick). The roof was made with scissor trusses so my ceiling is 8' at the sides and 10' in the middle. Drywall sounds horrible so I made a bunch of absorbers for the walls according to F. Alton Everest's designs. Just using drop ceiling tiles accomplished all my high mid and treble absorbtion so all my wall absorbers are low mid and bass absorbers. The floor is tile and pretty neutral sound wise. I'm set up facing into one corner so the walls behind me are not parallel. I do all my instuments and half the vocals so I didn't need a seperate studio-control room. This room sounds great! You're gonna have a lot of problems mixing in a room much smaller than this.

 

Building isn't hard, I just read some books on it. I sub contracted my footer and block, but mostly built the rest. You're gonna have to get friends over to help raise the walls and put up the trusses, but doing most all the labor myself, the room just cost around 12 grand. I can finally have all my stuff set up and grab whatever I need to record quickly. Got a drum kit set up at all times as well as guitars, bass, keys and even sax, mandolin and recorders are in easy reach. It's a groovy thang.

 

davecharles@musician.net

[CraigLeyhFrameBand.com]

Just bought a small house with a nice dry unfinished basement. Am

in the middle of setting up things and designing how I want it to

be. A hell of alot of fun!

 

------------------

Thank you,

Craig S. Leyh

CraigLeyh@FrameBand.com

Keep It Low!

[seclusion]

Guys.. I'd be somewhat hesitant about moving to the country..

I had lived approximatly 40-50 min from Toronto.. Canada's largest city.. In a big old farm house.. It was mint for recording etc. with little investment in sound proofing

In the summer I was booked solid but come the fall clients only had a couple hours to burn so they booked elsewhere..

I have since moved to the city core and am slowly building a new room on the 3rd floor of a semi.. Because I am now so aware of possible noise problems I am trying my best to figure accoustic treatment as well as soundproofing as I build to try and solve these 2 issues with the same material..

Being so close to a subway now clients are booking before I'm even done..

I won't record a drum kit though.. I'd rather program those new Giga studio drum kits... Damn they sound fine..

Brian

[Hippie]

popmusic wrote:

I've been doing the apartment thing for the last 10 years and, being a good tenant, I keep the volume level at a very moderate (usually extremely quiet) level. I've grown tired of that and now I want to be able to occasionally *feel* the bass, play my drums without mutes, and wail on the accordion... Ooops, I think I said too much

 

Yo dude,

doesen't in say in the book of cool somewhere that, "accordian & wail" should never be used in the same sentance! hahaha! I'm killin' me!

-Hippie

[Philip OKeefe]

Seclusion:

 

your comments about getting too far out for client's to get there easily is well noted! Fortunately I was able to find a fairly rural area less than an hour from LA, and with probably 2 million people within 30 minutes drive time from here.

 

Phil O'Keefe

Sound Sanctuary Recording

Riverside CA

http://members.aol.com/ssanctuary/index.html

email: pokeefe777@msn.com

[Nika]

1. Trains.

 

2. If the studio is in the basement, do you have water pipes above your head? Leaky water pipes can be hazardous to equipment, as can exploding ones.

 

3. Security. My studio is in a floated room in the basement. In order to get there you have to find your way down a very steep staircase into what at first appears to be a basement akin to the one in Silence of the Lambs. While it is not easy to get Marshalls down there, it is also not easy to get my equipment out. If someone either accidentally stumbled across my studio while breaking in, or knew what they were after, they'd probably find it not worth their effort to try to haul out the equipment. Before that my studio was up a spiral staircase - same issues.

 

4. How close is the outside traffic, and where is the driveway in relationship to the studio? You don't always have control of who's going to drive up the driveway when you're recording.

 

5. A space for a machine closet.

 

Just a few thoughts that I don't think that others have touched on. I hope this is helpful.

 

Thanx!

Nika.

[Anderton]

If you end up in the basement, get a dehumidifier. If you don't do that, at least get some Damp Rid and keep it in a corner. Very important!

 

One good thing about basements is you tend to avoid temperature extremes.

[-]

Originally posted by Anderton:

If you end up in the basement, get a dehumidifier. If you don't do that, at least get some Damp Rid and keep it in a corner. Very important!

 

One good thing about basements is you tend to avoid temperature extremes.

 

I'm really torn between using either the basement or an additional bedroom for the studio.

 

On one hand, a bedroom would require less work to get things up and running (I'm working out of a spare bedroom right now). There's no potential water/dampness problems. There's probably less overall noise in a bedroom. (I won't be hearing footsteps above me.)

 

On the other hand... There's less space (I won't be able to fit a full drum kit). The temperature can get rather hot in the summer with the windows closed and the air conditioning off...

 

I dunno... I'm leaning towards the bedroom solution, at least in the beginning. I can't imagine going through all of the hassle and stress of buying a house and then immediately jump into a remodeling project http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/eek.gif

 

Thanks everybody for your comments! I'm definitely going to keep the location tips in mind when I start shopping.