Building a small studio

[SpecOp9 0]

Alright, so I started ripping down the basement to my house. Walls, floors, celing, everything is gone. Soon I am to put in some Insulation, rebuild the walls, have wall to wall carpeting and a nice new celing. Right now I'm debating on what I should have inside the basement object wise.

Right now, I need some advise on getting some good quality and trustful electronics to buy and put in down there...and advise on the stuff a studio would have.

I need:

1. Music Keyboard that can record all notes onto some type of floppy disk, copy onto a CD, upload to my comp, ETC.

2. Video editing driver so I can put video cassette footage onto my computers hard drive to edit it, and then put it back onto cassette.

3. A mini fridge, so when I get hungry :-P

4. Surround Sound..(does dobly make speakers?)

If there is anything else I have'nt listed that could be useful post it please.

All items I listed, if you have one that works really well for you, post it up or suggest something...

I'm on a low budget, so I cant really buy super fantastic electronics. Just need stuff that works.

[Acecombat 0]

Hate to be a wise guy here but its Dolby not dobly  

[Balschoiw 0]

Go for a midi keyboard and buy a decent used comp for arranging. Check out the software "Sonar". Go for JBL monitoring speakers. Buy a small 20 channel mixer at Ebay, Effects can be done on Comp, but a little used basic reverb rack wouldn´t hurt.

Try to get hold of some of these egg palettes...without eggs of course. They reduce reverb in the room from bare walls. Just place them all over the walls and paint them to your likes.

Basic but effective.

Buy a firewire interface card for the comp to connect video cam to it for video editing. A video board would be great, but most likely too expensive. Get hold of Adobe premiere or Combustion for video editing.

That´s it basically.

[ran 0]

Ahahahahahahah ... egg palettes ... souvenirs souvenirs ....

I helped quite a few friends of mine to install those on their walls back in the French punk revival era 15 years ago

As Bals said, they're the most cost efficient solution to reduce reverberation.

[Placebo 29]

Don't they also form a cheap method of soundproofing? Or was that a fancy way of saying the same thing?

[ran 0]

Don't they also form a cheap method of soundproofing? Or was that a fancy way of saying the same thing?

Nah, reverberation prevention and soundproofing aren't the same thing. Reverberation is ... well, for exemple, you're in a church, try to shout to see what happens .... (I'm not talking about the part were a man with funny clothes will gently ask you to leave ).

For the sound proofing, we'd generally cover the walls with foam.

[Placebo 29]

Reverb=echo?

[ran 0]

Reverb=echo?

you've got it

[Placebo 29]

I is so smart

[Balschoiw 0]

...I wonder if there are more former or active amateur musicians here...

I know that some are playing in bands or do some singing.

Those were the days....first chicks....first open air´s....motivated like a rocket scientist and with the attitude of a new-born rockstar.

Funny times...

*dives into the tape-box to search for some live tapes*

[ran 0]

here's a little drawing for you to understand :

son incident : the original sound

son réfléchi : reflected sound (reverberation)

son traversant/oscillatio, : that's the sound which goes through the wall or at least the vibrations the original sound causes

transmis par le mur : transmitted by the wall

the green and yellow are the sound proofing materials (foam)

The 1rst picture represents a non-soundproof structure, the second is "soundproof".

Add to the second the egg palettes, glued onto the isolating material and the "reverb" (son réfléchis, echo) will be diminished.

[ran 0]

...I wonder if there are more former or active amateur musicians here...

I know that some are playing in bands or do some singing.

Those were the days....first chicks....first open air´s....motivated like a rocket scientist and with the attitude of a new-born rockstar.

Funny times...

*dives into the tape-box to search for some live tapes*

MWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH !!!!!!!

You too

I did some singing ... not being a singer at all

Ahhhhhhh the mid-80's ..... hopefully no records survived ....

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]You too

Well..yes

I did it all for sex and money

...though some of the things were really not thaaaat bad. We played in Clubs, Discos and at Open Air´s and got actually paid for it.

[ran 0]

lucky you I've never been paid

I did it for ... sex, alcohol, drugs, food and sex

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]I did it for ... sex, alcohol, drugs, food and sex

Haha ! Then you must have been one of those

Back on track...try to get hold of some AKG or Sennheiser Microphones. They are pretty good. I still use one AKG for recording sounds for missions.

[killagee 0]

Spec Op:

I am a professional Sound Engineer, mostly concerts, but I have worked in and helped build a few studios in my time. Outline what you want to acheive with this studio a little more, and I will help you out mate

[Bademeister 0]

Quote[/b] ]4. Surround Sound..(does dobly make speakers?)

A surround sound system should not be the first choice if  video/sound editing is what you want to do. For this task 2 quality speakers, hooked up to a quality stereo amp, are certainly the better and more cost effective option.

Before buying rather expensive hifi equipment, arrange a proof hearing at your dealer for a desired combo. If it's a good dealer he will even ship the equipment to your door and let you try it out at home.

To get you started, KEF Q1, Acoustic Research Helios B15 Executive, B&W DM303, Tannoy mX2 and Monitor Audio Bronze 2 are some good entry level speakers to try out for example. NAD C320BEE, Rotel RA-02, and  Yamaha AX-396 are some entry level stereo amps.

[R. Gerschwarzenge 0]

...I wonder if there are more former or active amateur musicians here...

One active amateur musician here.

[Balschoiw 0]

Maybe we should collect some music or at least provide some links in an extra thread to share them for mission designers ?

Could serve the community and save Mission designers from using copyrighted tracks. And it would be very interesting to hear what others have made

[-33ker 0]

lol this egg plates stuff really works? I always thought it's just a hoax...

Well, I'm not a recording pro, just play a little bass...

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]lol this egg plates stuff really works?

Yup, expecially if you have non-structured walls it does wonders....of course foam coating is better but those things are really expensive

[SpecOp9 0]

Spec Op:

I am a professional Sound Engineer, mostly concerts, but I have worked in and helped build a few studios in my time. Outline what you want to acheive with this studio a little more, and I will help you out mate

Basically I'm aiming for an "All Media Studio".

Right now I'm still in the process of cleaning and cleansing the downstairs, getting rid of dust, spider webs, wood chips, things like that just so when I put stuff over ontop it's clean and neat. Still a few things I need to take down, but it's minor.

The egg carton thing is a good idea. I think I'll test out that and see what it does for me. The thing is echo should'nt be a problem for me, knowing that most stuff I'll be doing will involve a headset.

Not only is it a studio, but it will also be my bedroom from now on. It's a large wide open space and it should work nicely. (thats why I am going to put in the stereo surround sound) if I can afford it.

Basically the studio is just for electronics, I'm not sure there is much more that would need to be done, but then again I'm not sure, so any suggestions or tips like the egg carton thing would be cool.

[-33ker 0]

Some of my friends has a studio in his basement, but the only things he has on the walls are wood and helluva expensive vintage guitars.

[ran 0]

Quote[/b] ]lol this egg plates stuff really works?

Yup, expecially if you have non-structured walls it does wonders....of course foam coating is better but those things are really expensive

well, I remember we would just go to a squatt and see if there are still isolating material in the walls .... if there was still some foam or glass wool and the likes. Now, this wasn't all that legit .. but hell ...

[ran 0]

Maybe we should collect some music or at least provide some links in an extra thread to share them for mission designers ?

Could serve the community and save Mission designers from using copyrighted tracks. And it would be very interesting to hear what others have made

When it comes to thethings i've done in the past with my old friends :

I seriously doubt that the mindless rants about the system formulated 20years ago by a bunch of drunk late teenagers with a mohawk on their head will attract the interest of anybody

But yeah, it's a great idea.