Building a studio... Help?

[Feanor IV]

Hello,

My brother's band and my own band are interested in building a studio. We are looking to buy a room ~25 square meters and are interested in working there. We are also interested in building a two-room studio (if we can find the money) with a control room. I was wondering how much this could cost, provided we have the place. I mean, what's going to be the cost of the amps, mics, mixers etc.

Let me highlight the fact that we're interested in doing a very good work and we are going to invest, so we're not looking for the cheapest solution. We don't want to give any amazing sums of money, but we're going to do the best we can. I'm interested in a professional (as much as possible) sound. I am going to start with postgraduate studies on sound engineering and stuff, so I'm not looking only for a rehearsal room.

Thanks in advance

Menelaos

 

[joe4324]

Heya!

Well since I havent built my studio yet I'm far from being the best source of information. But I have done alot of research.

Firstly I think your room size is OK, maybe a tad small but it should be useable. you can never have enough space... 270sqft isnt a bad start. But if you could get say 400.... you'd be styling! You really cant have enough space... I'd say you'd really need at least 400 if you want to have a control room. And I'd definately want a control room!

Aside from that you have the cost of equipment. Just like with any hobby Ive gotten into its never smart to try to go cheap in the begin'ing. And this IS a VERY, (VERY) expensive hobby (unless of course you can actually get a little revenue out of it)

These prices are just educated guesses. And remember this is AFTER your room is "completed".

DAW (digital audio workstation) - $1400 (I build them so I'm a bit cheap here)
Audio Interface hardware - $800-1500 (depends on what you go with. these are Begineer prices)
Mixer - $800-2000) (assuming you need one with the interface card)
High quality mics - $2000-4000 (You will need a army of mics, Both condensor and dynamic)
RackMounted Compressors,Patch bays, EQ, Outboard Effects - $1500-3000
Misc, Cables, Adapters, etc - $500-800 (buy high quality!)
Studio Monitors - $500-2000 (dont go cheap here)

I think we have alot of the bases covered here. Prices vary greatly though! It looks like on the "cheaper" side you could be looking at spending around $7500... Easily going over the $10-12k mark on the better end. This still doesnt put you close to a real professional studio but if you know what your doing most people wouldnt be able to tell.

There are other ways to go about it. Much cheap ways too but for the REAL DEAL you will have to fork out some serious $

what I have right now is a DAW, a Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 interface 3 nice pairs of headphones and 4 decent quality mics. (can borrow some more) This setup costed me under $2000 and I can do some decent recordings. But my limitations are HUGE and my quality is somewhat limited. You can check out some mp3's I made on this system here, www.dysperium.com this is my band. If I were to do this again I could get a higher quality with the same equipment. how much? I dont know but you learn alot every time you record!

 

[FrostGiant]

Also don't forget about the actual room. That costs money. I really can't give a price but the treatment for the room alone will run you a good chunk of change.

I've just got a bare bones set up. Cheap 8 track, cheaper monitors, 1 mic & mic pre, bass and guitar pods and drum machine (oh yeah, I've still got cheap cables, cheap cables suck). Enough to record some songs and it ran me almost $3000. This is no where near professional.

 

[joe4324]

yep, good point frostgiant.


In all reality I would say knowing what your doing is as important as your equipment. That being said Dont go overboard with expensive toys right off the bat. It might be wise to "ease" into it a little. that way you can build from the bottom up and learn more about what you need the whole time. Instead of hooking up $5k in equipment and fumbling your way around.

To put it another way, a first class sound engineer could probably take my current setup and make it sound as good or better then if I used his professional studio. knowledge is key so dont let your lust for expensive toys get in the way (I have expensive toy lust hehe!)

 

[Niklas]

i think it's a bit of an unachievable dream why dont you just get a great sound guard on computer and insert and mix each element seperately and layer, it would be aboue 95% cheaper, and prety easy too

 

[FrostGiant]

There are many issues with computer recording as opposed to the standalone units that you would want to look into. It may work out better for you. As for me, since I'm in the same room I need to computer off when I'm recording to eliminate noise from the fan. Also the monitor really screws with the pick ups on my guitar. But some people don't have these problems. Also not too mention I would have saved only $200 or so on the whole setup, that's not counting the cost of the computer.