Project Studio Build

[jipchen]

So, here's another thread about a studio build.
Mine is smaller, more of a project studio ( ), and the building allready exists, but it's a lot of work anyway. I'll post the progress and some pics from time to time. It's not as interesting as a big studio build, but perhaps someone likes to read my shit and look at the pics. The thing is, I will live there as well, not only work.. So it's a bit difficult to plan, especially because there is not that much room
Overview:

Liveroom:

Controlroom:

The live room is 24 squaremeters, the controlroom 11.
There's a studio designer / acoustician who helps me to design and plan everything, I'll post his proposals and plans soon.
Right now I'm in the very early stages.. The house was full of crap - a LOT of crap - and it took my a few weeks to dispose of the old furniture and so on.
Today, we took out the carpeted floor (I'm tired as fuck right now), I also ordered the new floor for both rooms so it should arrive in about 8-10 days. maple ftw.
In the meantime, I will most probably paint all the walls, perhaps buy a new kitchen, lay-up the new kitchen floor etc. There's always work to be done.

I'm so fucking excited. And I hope everything will go as planned..

 

[jipchen]

Okay, some pics. Some of the furniture (basically everything besides the black desk and the chairs) is not my stuff (same goes for a lot of other stuff) and will be thrown away. Especially the horrible lights in every room
Oh and that's not me in the pictures.

 

[barricade]

fuckin' nice! Keep us posted!!!

 

[AHChris]

Wow looks great! I´ll follow this fo sho!

 

[gabriel g.]

exactly a place I have been looking for about 2 years now.
hamburg doesnt have one and is fucking expensive

 

[jipchen]

Thanks for the interest
@gabriel: Hope you'll find a good place soon! If you can, perhaps you should think about moving somehwere else?
I had to move 100km.

By the way, as you can see the bigger house on the left (first post): That's a real problem. They will move out sometime (my grandparents own the big house) but live there for about 7 years. And it's 5 meters away from the live room - so the needed soundproofing will be enormous.

 

[jipchen]

So.. Yesterday I re-painted the kitchen-and-dining-room, looks 100times better than before. Also I filled about 100 small holes in the walls (that came from pictures / other things that were mounted to the wall)

But it seems like there is a change of plans: Because the small room is TOO small to actually be comfortable and acoustically real good treated at the same time, we're no planning to make the big room the controlroom. So there will be a big controlroom, and all the reamping / vocals and other instruments are recorded in the small room. Except for the drums, which will be placed and recorded inside the controlroom. I think this is a more comfortable and better solution.. I'd hate to be all crammed up in the small room with 4 or 5 other guys. Also the sweet spot would be tiny tiny tiny in the small room - the big room can be treated a lot better and easier.
I think the workflow well also be easier with the drums in the same room as me: You don't have to walk into the other room every 10 seconds to set the mics up, you can communicate with the drummer a lot easier (i know that talkback exists) .. and I'd save a lot of cablework On the other hand, it's a bit annoying (though with good closed headphones, it's bareable. And theres still custom-in-ears with like 100db isolation The second point against the new concept is that judging the sound will be a bit more difficult in the beginning, because I'm used to do it on monitors. But then again, I could just record a few seconds and listen on the monitors.
Nothing final yet, the plans are yet to be made.

What do you guys think of the new "plan"?

 

[AboutBlank]

Check http://www.m-t-i.de/index.php for Multicores and Stageboxes.
GOOD prices and good quality.

Viel Erfolg sieht gut aus!

 

[JeffTD]

I would, if at all possible, really really really try to get the drums in a different room, even if it means knocking down some walls and enlarging another room, or tracking drums in a relatively small but well treated "drum booth." I find that I can't make as good decisions about mic placement and even performances sometimes when I'm in the same room as the drummer.

 

[AdamWathan]

I would, if at all possible, really really really try to get the drums in a different room, even if it means knocking down some walls and enlarging another room, or tracking drums in a relatively small but well treated "drum booth." I find that I can't make as good decisions about mic placement and even performances sometimes when I'm in the same room as the drummer.

+1, I had a "one room studio" for about a year and after tracking drums in a separate room, I could NEVER go back to the old way. It is so hard to judge the performances when everything is that loud.

You can record drums in a pretty small room and get away with it, just stick up traps everywhere. It's not going to be a great listening room, but it will work fine for tracking.

 

[jipchen]

Hehe okay, not what I wanted to hear
The studio designer thinks the room is too small and too low for drums to sound good in.. I'm not shure wether I should compromise the sound (small room for drums) or the comfort (drums in controlroom).
Don't you think the small room is too small for a drumset (not from the sound aspect but the actual physical size aspect)?
The room is 365 cm x 295 cm (143 x 116 inches).
Fuck, the planning and all these hard decisions are making my head explode -.-

 

[AboutBlank]

Your had will explode when you track drums

 

[JeffTD]

I'm not sure you could get treatment to be right in the room with that dimensions and still have room for the kit + stands if you get a guy with a relatively big kit.

Is there no way you could knock down some walls or use the very top room as you drum room, and the current 'drum room' as your bedroom?

 

[jipchen]

Nah, unfortunately the walls can't be removed.
The very top room is a garage and only 2 meters (6.6') high.. errm ..low. Too low. I'd love to have a seperate bedroom, though
Guess I'll just wait for the acoustician's plans and then think about it again.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Damn. If you could knock down walls, I'd remove this one and make the resulting space into the control room:

 

[jipchen]

Damn. If you could knock down walls, I'd remove this one and make the resulting space into the control room:

Yeah, that's what the studio planner actually wanted to do. But
Also if the fucking garage were 2,40 or higher. The roomsize would be awesome. Sigh.

Hmm, looks like it actually would fit in, even with the sofa

 

[JeffTD]

Remove the sofa, superchunk the fuck out of the corners, make the walls virtually non-reflective, and it'd definitely work. You'd have to use impulses/room verbs for ambience, or open the door and stick mics in the halls, but I think it'd definitely work.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Yeah dude, why would you need a couch in the drum room? Something tells me that's not gonna be the most desirable hangout for the other band members

Looking cool though overall, good luck and keep us posted!

 

[raisedfist]

Remove the sofa, superchunk the fuck out of the corners, make the walls virtually non-reflective, and it'd definitely work. You'd have to use impulses/room verbs for ambience, or open the door and stick mics in the halls, but I think it'd definitely work.

A guy down my way has a one room studio which is large enough to have control room and small live room and he has always said there is no need.........
There is sooo much of a need for this as his drums just sound terrible, not sound wise always on some of the more vintage rock stuff, but 100% take wise. You can't monitor drums in the same room period. Your recordings are compromised straight off as you can't really hear the take in the room and ear fatigue is gonna be knocking on your door early in the session.

Jeff said about the door open for a ambient mic etc etc, its the only way dude.
Good sounding room/ambient mics are an added extra not a necessity imo for project setups.

Good fucking work so far though dude. Amazing stuff!

 

[jipchen]

Ok thanks a lot guys, I think you saved me from eternal regret
The couch was just for fun, because I'm not yet shure where to put it (theres a couch in the controlroom allready, this one is actually my bed ). There's room for a second couch in the CR I guess. Or I'll build my bedroom inside the garage if there is some money left.
Hope I can post the plans soon