I'm designing my new Studio!!!!

baimun

baimun

Funkasaurus Rex
For Christmas, my kids got me new flooring and paint to redo the downstairs bedroom into a music room/ studio. (my youngest daughter is a professional interior designer). I was shocked, but now as I'm clearing all the old junk out of that room I'm getting really really excited.

Features I'm sure of (based on the existing structure).

  • It's a 15x10 rectangular room and I've gutted the two closets that take up one end of the room. They used to be connected closets with two sliding doors but I removed all the doors, shelving, hardware etc, and now it's just two rectangular doorways into a 2.5' x 10' closet.

  • The right side will get a pair of clothes hanging bars (one above the other) and some storage cubes for clothes and such (the size so those little fabric cubes can slide in and out.)

  • The left side will get a full desk surface and then a short shelf and a tall shelf. The short shelf will allow the computer monitor (or 27" imac I plan on getting) to be well above the desk where I'll put my mixer console. The back side will have holes in it for patch in, but I plan on making a patch bay that will run from the closet to points along the wall so I can spread out mic ins all along the wall, where ever they're needed.

  • The 13' long wall (minus the two feet of closet) will have 7 or 8 hangers (depending on stud locations) for guitars to hang. The 10' wall opposite the desk and closet has a window and will have a movable art easel and a bin where I can keep cables, extra pedals, etc.

  • The other long wall has the door, some lighting, and I'll probably put some kind of sofa for chilling.

  • Then a cool rug in the middle of the room
My daughter has already picked out some blue greys and soft whites for different walls and the trim... but I'm not sure if I need to put diagonal traps in the corners of the rooms and/or foam on certain walls to make it neutral. I'm a little concerned with putting the monitoring speakers on the shelf inside that pocket desk area... I may have to mount them on little floating shelves outside of the desk area where I'll have to back up a little to listen. Not sure.

Any other ideas or gotchas I should be looking out for?

Another idea is to design the desk so it's out in the room and the closet area just allows a false wall to get behind and wire. :shrug:
 
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Dude - that sounds awesome!

No ideas from me - I'll be happy if I can manage to get my monitor speakers out of their boxes anytime soon. Just make sure you leave plenty of room for the musicians.
 
Couple of thoughts:

* I wish I'd put things on fewer perimeters when I did mine. At the end of the day, more open space is always better for me. You may find the same. The hangers opposite the desk may feel crowded?

* Re: baffles, etc. It's very 'wrong' of me, but I have come to a point where I am in doubt as to the necessity of this in a home studio environment.
- If you need that level of clarity in a listening environment, you're probably best scheduling a mixing session in a commercial studio. (Yes, this is personal bias)
- I have seen artists, some quite well known, record in home studios / home environments that have very little in terms of audio treatment of the space. Citations range from Rundgren's Something/Anything to Elliott Smith to Bon Iver to Black Moth Super Rainbow ... somehow these recordings are treasured by millions, but no traps were needed.
- As always, personal comfort leads to best takes, and I think 'simple, home-y' is what works.

I'm excited for you, this is great!
 
I figure I can always hang some paint canvases (with art on them) if I need to make the walls less reflective.
 
If possible try to eliminate one 90 degree corner with some kind of secondary angle...it would give you a good spot for isolated Mic placement without any weird reflections or standing waves...anything that cuts the corner off would work; an angled cabinet, round column, or just a wide piece of molding...

Make it comfortable and give yourself a number of lighting options...

Sounds cool, enjoy it!
 
Balloons painted on the wall. Trust me on this one...
studio.jpg


Seriously, I have not felt that I needed baffles, but I am rather low-tech.
 
Bass traps. Trust me. :)
A few well placed ones (corners in particular) does wonders. So effective it's ridiculous.
If you're a bit handy, you can make themselves very cheap.
 
Mark Wein said:
I think this is probably the best fix for such a small space.
Click to expand...

It really is. Once you hear the effect of it the first thing you think is "why the hell haven't I done this years ago?". :embarrassed:
And that goes for both regular band practice as well as recording situations.

Suddenly you have a much more even frequency response and can actually hear things properly.
 
Gary Blanchard said:
Balloons painted on the wall. Trust me on this one...
View attachment 38193

Seriously, I have not felt that I needed baffles, but I am rather low-tech.
Click to expand...
No offense Gary, especially to your wife, but those balloons would make me think Pennywise was going to leap out at me from any moment, or speak up to me from a heat register in the floor. Could result in writing overly dark music.



:wink:

As for @baimun , I have no good advice. The others seem to have it covered. Maybe a small bar fridge somewhere for tasty refreshment such as lemon seltzer water?
 
One thought for the guitar hangers.
Instead of limiting yourself to just the number of studs in the wall, get a nice clear piece of 2 x 6 and screw that to the studs. Then you’ve got a good solid piece of wood on which to screw your guitar hangers, and at any spacing you need/want.
 
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dodgechargerfan said:
One thought for the guitar hangers.
Instead of limiting yourself to just the number of studs in the wall, get a nice clear piece of 2 x 6 and screw that to the studs. Then you’ve got a good solid piece of wood on which to screw your guitar hangers, and at any spacing you need/want.
Click to expand...

That’s how they were hung before. I thin I’m going to switch to direct mounting for the aesthetics.
 
sunvalleylaw said:
No offense Gary, especially to your wife, but those balloons would make me think Pennywise was going to leap out at me from any moment, or speak up to me from a heat register in the floor. Could result in writing overly dark music. :wink:
Click to expand...
Well, my wife is planning on taking the clown training, so I can make no remarks against clowns. :embarrassed:
 
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