Menu
Category Navigation
#1 Believing In The Recording Studio Stereotype Myth
If you want to believe in voodoo, psychics, curing cancer with spoons, or holocaust denial, knock yourself out. I won't say a word. (Not here anyway.
) If you want to believe that there are "rules" to having a recording studio that extend past "a room where you make kick-ass records", you are about to blow a big wad of cash on a piece of junk that doesn't sound good. A recording studio IS NOT some ultra-architecture monument with 14 rooms. A recording studio doesn't have to have a vocal booth, a console, a giant room with 30' ceilings and a $4,500/month electric bill.
A recording studio is nothing more than a kick butt engineer's work environment. If the Prodigy guy can mix REAL records on airplanes on a laptop with a UAD card and a good pair of headphones, a 747 is now a recording studio.....more or less.
I wish someone would have kicked me in the head when I was 21 and said, "Hey idiot! Build whatever works best for the music and they will come." Most of the problems in this article stem from people doing what they are "supposed to do". (Not what seasoned audio pros say, but what their uncle is saying). It's the usual Nuremberg Defense. "Just following orders" won't cut it! Not here! You have a responsibility to crank out kick ass tunes, so even if your wife doesn't understand why you broke rank, she'll never understand why you built a crappy studio to work in and be in.
#2 Building Blind
It seems that everyone who hops into the home recording world has dreams of making their facility look like an ad for a recording school. The first step everyone takes is jumping right in and ordering the foam, making a trip to Lowes or Home Depot, and pulling out the power tools. I did this myself back in 2001. I had zero experience building anything serious, but that didn't stop me from investing months of time (that should have went into recording) into fixing up a little recording room.
The end result? The only thing I learned was that I had no idea what I really needed.
Guess what. When I build my "super studio" this year, I know EXACTLY how I like to work, what I need, what is important to me, and what is not. My years of experience of working around the confines of a home will allow me to build an ultra facility, not because it LOOKS like a studio, but because recording in it will sound better and be more efficient.
Quite a few people can build stuff that looks good, but if you've got a truckload of drywall or even a hammer in your hand without understanding what constructions techniques make rooms sound better or will improve the efficiency of making recordings, you are just building blind.
Most people can imagine "the drummer goes here" and "the guitar amps go there". That part is easy. Do you know how much lighting and at what angle is necessary to see your settings on your rack gear? Are you REALLY going to mount the headphone amp in your main rack(s)? Do you know how many amps you want to record at the same time so you can decide how many speaker cables you need to permanently run through the walls to your live room. What about combo amps? Have you planned your instrument cable runs? (Do you even want to run instrument cables that long/) These are all issues that you want done RIGHT when you settle down to build the studio you'll be using for a decade.
Of course, this assumes you know how to get the live room isolated from the control room in the first place and know what is needed to get the mud out of the room.
Another possibility is, with a stroke of luck, you've already got some great sounding rooms and the wife can't even hear you playing drums. Home run! You don't want to blow a bunch of cash and time if you've already got something awesome!
I recommend putting 5-10 records under your belt, documenting your problems, and brainstorming solutions along the way before you even think about building. You have a lot to learn before you tackle the technical hurdles of studio construction even if you are Bob Vila.
In the meantime, get a hold of a bunch of packing blankets and use them to tame any reflections that are out of control. A blanket on a mic stand is something you see all the time, even in bigger studio situations. (They often have purpose-built fancy versions that do the same damn thing.
) You will always find use for these blankets in studio land so this is an investment that won't go to waste. It'll hold you over while you figure out exactly what each of your rooms really need.Now that I think about, all of these mistakes are going to involve people not understanding how construction will improve the sound of the recordings or the efficiency of making recordings. So be it.
#3 The Use Of Studio Foam
Studio foam is the biggest load of crap in this side of the studio world. Believing the hype about studio foam is like believing what the news tells you about wars. It's all-agenda and all bs. Someone is profiting from the damn thing, but it just looks like everyone ends up unhappy.
Here's the deal. The #1 reason (other than humans) that home recordings aren't always pro recordings is the fact that the typical room has all kinds of low end bouncing around all over the place. This makes tracks recorded in these rooms sound bad. It makes mixing decisions made in these rooms even worse, which means the cd probably won't translate to your buddy's car.
Studio foam doesn't have the ability to absorb anything in the low end or even the low mids. It does, however, suck the high end and upper midrange reflections that often make a room sound exciting. So if you are using studio foam, it's safe to say that in 99% of all cases, you are making the situation worse. There are exceptions where ANYTHING is better than nothing, but these same problems could be handled via blankets or any other soft material for a fraction of the price.
Owens Corning 703 and Rockwool in the 4lb/cubic foot variety are what I recommend.
#4 Believing In the Basstrap Nuclear Suitcase Myth
In this modern era where there have been literally hundreds of thousands of terrorist attacks on the Western world in the past decade (9/11, 7/7......that's all I can think of), we've come to believe in this idea that a nuke in a suitcase could flush Chicago down to the bottom of Lake Michigan. That may be true.
Likewise, people seem to think that if they place a suitcase worth of Rockwool or Owens Corning 703 in their recording room, that all of their low end problems will go away. It doesn't work that way.
A better approach would be to imagine that you are skydiving and your chute doesn't open. Then you remember how much Roxul you tossed in your recording room. You should be able to land on your control room and live. That's how much bass trapping you need. (Note: Just wrapping Rockwool in fabric is NOT a bass trap....not even close.)
This is one area of physics where we haven't made much progress. Once sound is in the room, turning it into something besides noise, regardless sheer freakin' quantity. There's no way around it.
My super studio will easily have more than 2,000 pounds of Rockwool in it. I actually plan on building 16' ceilings to house a massive fortress of Rockwool sandwiches, and then building a false ceiling out of my red squares (see below) at the 8'-10' level where the top half of the room is literally 33% Rockwool. This is my ultra-ideal "dream studio" situation.
In a house with a wife, kids, and a budget this isn't exactly possible. Just remember that any treatment is better than none. 100 sheets are a whole lot better than 2. When in doubt, cram as much Roxul or 703 in a room as you can or look into bass trap designs that don't use much cubic volume. (They are out there. Tell Ethan Winer I sent you.)
#5 Expecting Too Much From Soundproofing
There are cases of people who nailed some stuff to the ceiling of their basement studio and it saved their marriage. There are also cases of people who've won the lottery more than once. (Who in the hell plays the lottery after already winning the lottery????)
It's beyond the scope of this quick and dirty article, but there are a bunch of good reasons why your soundproofing could be hit or miss.
To do it right, you need to start from scratch with a large room to put together your soundproofed room. It's extremely difficult to take an existing structure, tear it apart, and build it back up in a soundproofed fashion.
#6 Cramming People Into Closets
If you've got a walk-in closet, you don't count on this one. For those of us who have closets that resemble coffins, I think I've already made my point. Lock a 16-year-old girl (or even a grown man) in a coffin and ask them to sing their guts out. Good luck.
Everyone seems to forget how hot a closet can get. Humans are 100 watt heaters. Seriously. It doesn't take long to get the room uncomfortable and singing is one of those things where you sweat even when you are doing it in the snow.
Not only are closet sentences a punishment for shoplifting in some countries, they sound terrible. I can't think of one time ever in my recording career where a client has asked for the "in the closet" sound. Okay, maybe I know why.
Either way, closets sound bad. I won't bore you with the technical details, but you'll need an outrageous amount of absorption to tame this acoustical nightmare.#7 Worshiping Vocal Booths
I'm not sure what it is, but everyone wants a vocal booth. I suspect Dr. Dre had something to do with it, but I need more evidence before I publish my paper on it.
If you've never gone to a real deal, big boy studio, let me enlighten you. Your typical vocal booth in a big boy studio is about 10'x12'x16'. This is actually bigger than my drum room by a hefty amount when you factor in the ceiling height. They do get smaller, but not by much. Many of these rooms don't look that big as most of them are jam-packed with a few hundred pounds of Owens Corning 703 or Rockwool. Then they put a cover over all that ugly stuff (see my non-communist red square idea below), sometimes they even place a few wooden panels here and there to liven the room up acoustically. You rarely know how high the ceiling is because there is usually a red square covering even more absorption there, too.
When you factor in that all kinds of singers hate vocal booths and many big names prefer just to sing in the control room (Bono comes to mind, and I read that Alicia Keys did a record this way), there's no reason to get too excited by them. They are a luxury that's reasonable only when you have the real estate.
#8 Splitting Up Small Rooms Into Tiny Rooms
I never understood why people don't just take a chainsaw and cut their car in half to make two cars. Two cars is better than one. If you have tried this OR you have taken a perfectly good 10'x20' room and cut it into two horrible sounding rooms, you know that neither approach works.
There is a critical mass when it comes to cubic volume of a room. If you nail it, you avoid all kinds of acoustical problems. (This gets tricky because some rooms sound great for that bathroom guitar sound but terrible for vocals, etc.) For any room that needs to sound good on pretty much all instruments, you want as much space as possible. If you bust up a room that is adequate, you have big problems. Rooms that are too small sound terrible, are impossible to make mixing decisions in, are cramped to work in, and offer no place for bands who bring in huge amounts of gear or people.
The one-room studio doesn't seem as sexy, and doesn't cater to the stereotypical view of what a recording studio is, but it is dramatically more effective at actually being a recording studio when space is at a premium.
#9 Pink Stuff Insulation
See Studio Foam.
#10 Using Expensive Aesthetics
Recording studios, as a rule, play by different rules when it comes to creating a comfortable place to work/create/whatever. It's totally acceptable to see a 8'x8' red square with a wooden frame around it. No one knows what is behind the red fabrick square and most people will think it looks cool since this isn't the kind of thing you see in a doctor's office or an architecture magazine.
I built all my own racks. I used the cheapest 2x4's they had at Lowes, didn't care if they had major flaws, stained them, and covered them with a zillion coats of polyurethane. I get compliments all the time. I know any serious woodworker would tell me not to quit my day job. The clients like it.
#11 Not Getting Creative With Lighting
I don't care what anyone says, Christmas Lights are THE answer to studio aesthetics. I can't think of one time where killing the main lights and just using the soft lighting of the LED Christmas lights didn't immediately get the singer more comfortable (and less bitchy). Do it! (Don't use dimmers, they make noise.)
You aren't limited to Christmas lights, obviously. Little colored glowing things are your friend. You don't need anything elaborate and the cheaper, the better (both in terms of costs and effectiveness). The more small lights you have, the better. A room that just kinda glows is ideal. The blinding light of one 100,000 watt bulb sucks. By using multiple lamps and such you can custom tailor the lighting to the situation by simply only turning on two of them. This will make sense when a singer wants mood but also needs to read her lyrics.
I highly recommend some creative lighting around your racks so you can work in near-darkness. Some singers want nothing on but your computer monitor. Changing a hardware compression ratio is tough in the dark. Plan ahead.
Conclusion
Don't jump in face first. Do some homework and record a few bands. Don't skimp on bass trapping. Avoid the studio foam and avoid the pink stuff (unless you don't need low end absorption....YEAH RIGHT!!). Don't waste cash on aesthetics when recording studios are one of the cheapest rooms to make cool, but it's worth putting a little effort into making your room fun to be in.
One last thing. The more you research, the more you realize that the typical home studio is entirely inadequate for music production in technical terms. However, take a look around RecordingReview. That hasn't stopped us! You can DEFINITELY crank out exciting as hell music even if not-so-ideal environments and if you have the skill, overcoming your facility is doable.
If you have any questions, ALWAYS feel free to post your questions on the forum. We have a specific forum just for this sort of thing: Acoustics and Studio Construction
docgoose and RAREstudios like this.
Latests Articles
Latest Blogs
Lastest Forum Threads
vBulletin Message