home studio...1 room vs. separate tracking/control rooms

[colonel kurtz]

so check it out...there's this house that the wife and i are trying to buy right now, and it has an existing building behind it that's 16x28, with a sloped ceiling that's probably 16-18 ft. at its highest point. of course i popped wood and thought "STUDIO!!!" as soon as i saw it, even though it would take a lot of work to turn it into a functional space

now...the biggest problem i'm running into(assuming i buy the place) is trying to decide whether i should split the structure into separate rooms for tracking and mixing, or keep it as one large room with a small vocal/iso booth built into a corner or something. of course there's pros and cons to each...namely the fact that a single-room construction would cost a lot less and probably provide a better environment for drum tracking, but would leave me with no isolation between the instruments and monitors/DAW

what's your guys' take on this? it almost seems a little early to be thinking about how i'm going to build this place, but i might take out a few g's extra on the mortgage beyond the cost of the house to put towards "renovations"heh and need to have some idea of how it's going to play out...

 

[KeithTidd]

there's benefits to having your tracking room "in" the control room. I say, if it feels too small for a a control room and a live room, and you plan on tracking drums, do it all in one room. If you're just gonna track vocals and guitar, build a small iso. I would say most people at the amateur level are used to tracking withough a dedicated live room.

 

[smy1]

Hmm ... I'd go with two rooms. Make the recording room stuffed with fiberglass everywhere and use convolution ambience for the drum recordings. Then the size won't matter. I hate recording instruments in the same control room (except vocals) - gets too fatiguing.

 

[Machinated]

I do most of my work all in one room, and I'd hate to have the drum room small. Its a bit of an inconvenience to only be able to monitor stuff by recording it, and then playing back afterwards.

That said its really useful with everyone being in the same room, with 2 rooms you lost that personal touch.

 

[wishtheend]

I'm going to go and say two rooms. I think from a production standpoint there is a greater benefit getting the DAW and monitors isolated in their own space. Trying to monitor and check mic placements in the same room sucks.

As mentioned though, if the two rooms makes it really small and tight for drums - then you have verb you can fall back on. If the room is big to begin with and you want it to sound tighter/deader - there's not much you do to remove the ambience. Guess it just depends on what your going after.

 

[Soundlurker]

I agree on the fatigue part, as well as communication issues.

Best scenario for me is to have the amps and everyone but the drummer with me while the cabinets and drums are in the other room.

 

[PhilR]

I'd say go with one room and pay very close attention to acoustics. That way you'll be striking a balance between the live/dead factor. Small rooms are not good for mixing in general. I'd say try to create a space with a killer vibe rather than try to turn it into something it's simply too small to be.

Somewhere like this would be infinitly cooler to work in than somewhere carved up into two inadequate isolated rooms.

 

[Joematthews]

2 rooms for monitoring purposes although only when its done properly, with a clear line of vision and good isolation. If those can't be achieved it better to go with one room IMHO.

Joe

 

[006]

 

[-Noodles-]

If theres space to build a small ISO booth, and it's a little short of space for two rooms.. then the one room is the best idea.

The ISO booth can be used for guitars, and vocals - so that's the two biggest other challenges aside from drums covered.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

That's a great looking room

From a Tom Jansen interview

I’ve read about a few studios who doesn’t have the control room separate from the recording room, and I’m not talking about home studios here. What are the advantages and the disadvantages of this approach?

I really, really like that approach! But again the question is what task is the room for? If you record an orchestra for a film score, you need the separation of a control room. You want to sit down, focus on the sound, twist the knobs on your console and let the conductor and his musicians do their magic in the recording room. If you are a producer working with a band, constantly switching between, writing in the studio, recording takes, overdubbing, editing and judging songs on the fly all you can do is push the talk back-button or ask the band to come over to the control room….this get´s annoying VERY fast and is an absolute workflow killer imho. So by setting everything up in 1 room basically the only thing you loose is separation, meaning you can´t judge the sound coming out of your speakers, while they are playing/recording. You´ve got to record, stop, listen back, adjust ….repeat, instead.

What you gain though is instant feedback from the musicians (though that can be a drag, too!) and a very much improved communication! I find it to feel much more natural to work this way and it can be very positive for the songwriting/recording process. Some like it more, others don´t…..as always in music & recording, it´s very personal and all subjective!

---
Theres some good non technical stuff on acoustics and studio design in that article.

I'm on the fence regarding 1 or 2 rooms.

 

[Metaltastic]

Dude, are you freakin' kidding me!? Why the hell would someone set up his/her desk RIGHT next to the drums, good lord! And that chair is all kinds of tacky Otherwise pretty nice, though

 

[Zombietakeover]

yah no shit after being blasted by the drums , how can you even hear to check the sounds ?

I can barely even stand in a drum room.

but a very nice room none the less.

 

[PhilR]

yah no shit after being blasted by the drums , how can you even hear to check the sounds ?

I can barely even stand in a drum room.

but a very nice room none the less.

The guy in question is the drummer. This is his personal recording setup. Chill out.

 

[Zombietakeover]

Chill out??? Did i write in caps or put one of those faggy emotion icon beside my words? I'm chilled believe me .....I was just pointing out that it most be hard to have fresh ears to listen to the goods with the drums that close to the listening area.

The guy in question is the drummer. This is his personal recording setup. Chill out.

 

[Metaltastic]

Seriously, that was a plenty restrained response.

 

[006]

Yeah I didn't think about the desk placement. I would personally have it on the other side of the room, as far away from the drums as possible, but a single room (if large enough) would make me happy But, the poster said it's the drummer's setup so I'm assuming it's that close so he can hit record, get behind the set and do a take, run back to the chair and check it out, etc. Otherwise that positioning would suck after the first few seconds of tracking lol.

~006

 

[colonel kurtz]

thanks for the all the replies...after doing some thinking today, i think i'm going to do a sort of hybrid setup where i'll really have one big room, but with a wide door frame separating the tracking and mixing areas.

then i think i'll build some sliding gobos that i can pull shut to separate the rooms from each other - it won't provide isolation between them, but i can use them to control the ambience in the space...i was thinking of making the side facing the tracking area into some sort of diffuser, while the side facing the mixing space can be covered in fiberglass panels. i think this, coupled with a well-built iso booth in the far corner for vox and guitars, will provide the best workflow while keeping the construction costs down, which will also free up $$ for acoustical treatment.

 

[Deaf Ear]

If you're buying the property, let me ask you this. Is there room in the future to build an addition to that space? You could do one room now (which I personally love to work in), and focus on making that room outstanding and intimate. Take advantage of the space to make the best room possible. Then later on, when you've made some money, reinvest into an additional control room if you decide that you want one. The only time I wish I had a dedicated control room is when sweeping a cab. Other than that, I don't miss the space I used to work out of. We had a really nice control room, and it always got in the way for a lot of things.

 

[egan.]

There are some styles where one room works fine but my preference is always two. I've done plenty of one room/rehearsal space jobs and IME I never really know what the hell I have until later on.
I think that the quote posted above about the benefits of a single room to a writing/arranging producer are valid but that sort of interaction is one I've only had in demo or pre-production stages.
The bottom line is I don't want to be in the same room with a drum kit or a half stack for 12 hour days.