Making a Space in Philly...(edited)

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:05 am

*edited*

jgest · Post by **jgest** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:13 am

If the dimensions will let you keep the whole kit and caboodle downstairs, I'd go for that. You would hate to have traffic all over your house, etc.....
This is the house in fishtown?

inhouseprod · Post by **inhouseprod** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:42 am

FWIW - I've been doing some planning on my own home studio and found this site that has a lot of good information:

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:50 am

I'm priced out of Fishtown. sucks. I'm looking in Port Richmond. Seen 51 houses since last August. Again, I'm losing my mind a bit. Need a place that'll work for audio, be under $150K, and be nice without having to gut the thing. Some of the places I've seen are horrible.

If I can't record drums at home, I have options. I also found this thing: http://www.grendelsound.com/deadroom.htm for guitars which is great, although my Fender Super Reverb is 2 ohms so I'll have to call them about that. My Mesa will work with it, though.

Anyway, I keep looking at houses with basements. Totally want to frame out a room in a room, try to keep everything down there. and those of you who read the "BIG" other thread about the move/girl should know that my girlfriend is telling me that I need a studio space and that should be my first consideration in a house. She's great.

However, I've been noticing lots of gray hairs lately.

Jeff

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:03 am

Trying to sound proof a finished space will require a lot of work and you'll end up with much less room than you think you have. What are the actual dimensions?

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:31 am

I'll measure tomorrow night when I take another look at it. I'm well aware that the space will shrink, but you're the expert since you just went through with this. Being able to record drums at home seems impossible but I'm giving it another go and continuing to look.

So... sound proof (mostly) and treated control room is a must, as is a vocal booth, which I can build. The "dead room" will cover guitars, and I always record bass direct, so...

Jeff

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:48 am

Based on the pictures---honestly in that space, I don't think you'll have many options. But, pictures can be deceiving.

HCMarkus · Post by **HCMarkus** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:02 pm

My guess: Drums in that room will need to be absolutely surrounded by thick absorbtion, then add the room back with Altiverb. I'm thinking BFD and triggers... The place looks cool though. My first house was about 700 SF. This is a lot nicer.

basstian · Post by **basstian** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:57 pm

what is the problem with drums and the room. There ist only one way to fingure is out. You will have to try it. Often trashy rooms give a real punch to drums.

If it sounds good and your neighbor doesn't try to kill you afterwards it is working.

last week i recorded drums in a "cavelike" cellar and gues what they sound brilliant.

my own recordingroom is really dry and it is nice that you can add a room you like, but it still lacks some life.

just give things a try. sometimes the vibe and creativity a room gives you is worth way more than what it actually sounds like.

sorry for my poor english
seb

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:16 am

Thanks for the encouragement.

Still looking at houses. I have another 10 that I am looking at on Saturday. I'm not buying anything that I can't record inside of. End of story.

Jeff

jon · Post by **jon** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:43 am

gearboy wrote:Thanks for the encouragement.

Still looking at houses. I have another 10 that I am looking at on Saturday. I'm not buying anything that I can't record inside of. End of story.

Jeff

Find a house with an attached or even better an unattached 2 car garage. Also a little space between your nearest neighbor is good too. Then you can frame the inside with sound board, insulation and a couple layers of drywall. That's what I did and it has worked out great. Also maybe switching to a set of V-Drums might help too.

-J

OldTimey · Post by **OldTimey** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:13 pm

whatever you do, jeff, just maximize the usefulness of the space. how often will you be recording drums in there? etc. perhaps you don't need a separate control room, but rather just a machine booth for all of the gear that makes noise (mac etc.). this way you can mix in the same room you record drums in. (in a small room, you want it dead for tracking, dead for mixing anyway). Then, build small booths for vocalists and guitarists. put the bass amp in a closet upstairs. Get a fantastic headphone monitoring system. get another pair of NS-10s, set them up in your living room on the first floor, and use those to monitor mic placement while working on the drums.

BFD is cool and all, but for indie rock (which i know you do some of) quantized anything is the enemy.

jmoore · Post by **jmoore** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 7:24 pm

You might want to look into doing something like this...

http://www.prosoundweb.com/news/0506/rbdg_scottie.php

The guy in this story is my bro-in-law, and the room that Russ designed for him is really quite amazing. I don't know all the exact dimensions, but for a small space it has a really big sound. To the best of my knowledge he hasn't actually done this, but in theory you could hang some drapes over the two acoustic chambers (the ones behind the space couplers) and really deaden the room...if it suited your needs. It certainly was not a cheap project, but I'll bet you could employ some of the same principles and build it yourself for much cheaper. Also, a lot of money was spent on the aesthetic side of things; if that doesn't matter to you, that could also help curb your cost.

Good luck! Can't wait to see what you come up with.

**edit**

After going back and looking at your pictures, I've got an additional thought for you. This would really save on space and give your friends and clients something to talk about. Two words: FIREMAN'S POLE. It looks like you've got outside access to the basement through the door, so getting gear in and out shouldn't be a problem. Why not ditch the staircase and add a nice built in ladder and pole. It would gain you a ton of space and it would just simply be cool! I know that I would be jealous.

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:52 pm

Hah! The ladder and pole were already thought of and yes, great ideas.

However, I found another house.

Doing a second walk-through tonight. It has enough space to build an iso space in the basement, and the 2nd bedroom (of three) is most likely going to be my mixing environment. House is the nicest one that I have seen out of 61 houses. Big, central air, decent basement (not cut in half by steps), etc. I think that the one side is double fire walled with an alley underneath it between the houses. 2nd bedroom borders that wall, so it should be pretty good already between houses. We'll see. Basement wall does not border the neighbor on one side due to the alley, and the steps for the basement for both houses are on the other wall. So if I build out with a path that separates the stairs path and just gap the other wall (alley), It'll be completely isolated from the neighbors. I'd say that the basement is 30' x 14', which is large enough for laundry as well. I'll have to see what I come up with. anyway, it's doable.

Thanks for that article... really awesome!

Jeff

sdemott · Post by **sdemott** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:48 pm

A smallish room doesn't have to be bad for recording.

My first "studio" was an old, small storefront. We treated the room by running 1x4s horizontally across the walls, starting at the wall/ceiling joint and leaving 2 ft of space between them until we hot the floor (think horizontal stripes). Then we filled the 2 ft. gap between each 1x4 with OC 703 insulation. We covered that, floor to ceiling, with treated burlap (treated to be flame resistant to meet fire code). Then we hit the Home Depot and bought a boat load of 1x1s, 1x2s and 1x3s. We cut them all to fit vertically (floor to ceiling), piled them in the middle of the room and randomly grabbed & spaced them on the walls.

The ceiling was treated similarly (though with less exposed wood). And we got some excellent recordings. Just invest in a good 'verb...you'll need it.

It's all possible, just remember basic physics: sound disperses each time it encounters a dissimilar material.

Good luck.