Topic: Studio Status

[hans]

Well, there's beginning to be progress made on the studio. I have one of the corner units just about done, thankfully there's only one left. They look a lot easier to put together but it's taken me two days to get one done.

This is the current state of things. Quite a mess but it should prove for a good before/after.

http://aaronhanson.no-ip.com/images/studio/room.jpg
http://aaronhanson.no-ip.com/images/studio/rack.jpg
http://aaronhanson.no-ip.com/images/studio/mixer.jpg
http://aaronhanson.no-ip.com/images/studio/back.jpg

[ober]

Looking good... are you putting those "sounds pads" (not sure what their real name is) all around the room?

[Perspective]

Pretty cool, I'm sufficiently jealous. Is the control room a separate room or is your recording gear in the same room? A nice separation wall with a big sound proof window is always a nice touch

[[stealth]]

Have you decided on a name yet?

[hans]

No name yet but I've been thinking of some sort of winter theme since I live in Minnesota. Maybe Snowfall Recording Studios or something, something that I can create a cool looking logo for.
The studio is going to be a combination control/live room. I don't fell like doing permanent construction in the house right now. The design is going to be something close to this: http://aaronhanson.no-ip.com/images/StudioDesign.jpg
I figured one big room is better than two small rooms, plus being a solo act it's tough to run the recording gear and run into the other room to play.

[hans]

Well, I've been busy looking for a job but I finally got around to the studio again. I'm going to be working on a new recording desk tomorrow. I'm also going to try and look for some fabric to cover the treatments. I still have a few more absorbers to build and then install everything but it's already starting to sound different in the room. I haven't put a mic up yet but I'm hoping it's going to sound better than anything I've done before. I guess we'll see. They say people usually go through 3 or more designs before finding something they're happy with for a long term.

Here's the current look:
http://aaronhanson.no-ip.com/images/studio/studio2.jpg

[[stealth]]

Sweet, but you need some posters or something to brighten up the room..

[Jake]

looks cool tgm...I'm completely ignorant when it comes to this sort-of stuff: what are the boards for? for better sound or soemthing?

[hans]

They are actually fiberglass panels. All the acoustics are quite complicated (which I'm no expert) but the basic concept is they absorb frequencies thus making the room sound different (and hopefully better). The ones in the corner are designed to absorb low frequencies (they will have slats on the fron when I'm done) and the rectangle ones are wideband. They all reduce the reverb of the room so when you clap you don't hear echoing. The idea for that side of the room is to have an acoustically dead area so all you hear is what's coming from the speakers directly. The other half of the room that I haven't really started on will be where I record and will have less absorbers so it sounds more lively.
Most of my edumacation has come from hanging out here:
http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

[hans]

More progress!

 I finished constructing the treatments and my desk for the mixing side of the room and I've started to finish that side off. I'm going to be moving my PC down there in the left side of the desk and my BX8 monitors too. It should be pretty cool.
http://aaronhanson.no-ip.com/images/studio/studio3.jpg
http://aaronhanson.no-ip.com/images/studio/room3.jpg

I also got a sofa for the live/listening side of the room
http://aaronhanson.no-ip.com/images/studio/couch.jpg

[Rob]

Looking good tgm...

[Perspective]

Awesome, I can't even put into words how jealous I am  I hope I can do this one day, you know.. if i ever have the money, the time, and a house.

My only concern with your setup is the floor. Are you gonna put something over the concrete? Maybe some throw rugs or something?

[hans]

Acutally, no; at least not over all of it (I'll probably get one or two). I'm thinking of doing a laminate floor down there but that will be later (when I get a job again). You actually don't want carpet on the floor since it sucks up high frequencies. It's usually better to have a reflective surface (throw rugs aren't so bad since you can remove them to keep the room "live").

I did finally put a mic up this morning just to see how it's sounding so far and I was quite pleased. I still need to figure out how I'm going to build diffusors for my back wall, then I'll be "done". Now I just have to hook everything back up again and start doing some recordings.

[stealth]

So have you done some recordings?

[hans]

Yes and no. "Yes" as in I've been recording in there, "no" as in nothing really finished. I recorded my folks for a Xmas cd two years ago but that's about it. Mostly I've just been playing around in there trying to get things to sound right. I've also been trying to relearn how to sing.
Right now I'm working on redesigning it once again since I don't think I did it right before. Too much of the highs are getting sucked out and my recordings sound too muddy.
Oddly, I've been doing more practice recording using my Zoom H4 than I've been down in the studio.
I think mostly it's because it's not finished and I don't feel inspired down there.
I'm looking at ripping off some of the ideas out of this basement studio.