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Help me arrange my jam space / home studio


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Sorry for the crappy drawing. The room will be mainly for jamming but may get into recording a bit so I'm trying to incorporate a few things in the plan.

 

like the little space foe a mini control room, and the utility closet/amp isolation space across from it. I know I want a buncha outlets. Insulating the interior wall.

 

My gear is guitars and basses, a keyboard, 3-4 guitar amps and a couple of bass amps. I want to leave a space for a future drum kit.

 

i have a Peavey 12ch mixer and 2 Active Mackie 450s. A few mics and stands, and a basic home stereo setup with a large album and cd collection I'd like to make room for.

 

the only recording gear I own right now is an old Tascam 4trk cassette, lol. I've tried some computer recording without much luck. No dedicated computer, latency never overcome satisfactorily to overdub.

 

i must be a computer dummy cause other people seem to pull it off. Anyways I'd appreciate any tips you might have.

 

Like locations for speakers, any tips on bass traps or other room treatments.

 

 

 

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First things first...set up your desk and speakers in front of the wall on the left, with the speakers pointing into the long side of the room. I always bring my desk a few feet away from the wall so a) the speaker backs aren't right up against the wall, b) I can put some sound absorbing material behind them, and c) I have access to jacks, cables, etc. on the back of gear like control surfaces, speakers, interfaces, etc.

 

Next, a 100 Hz waveform has a period of about 10'. So the 24' length means you room that if a 40 Hz wave bounces off the back wall, it will tend to cancel. You'll need to put bass traps into the opposite corners for sure, and some diffusion/absorption against that back wall will help. You can also put diffusors on the outside of the doors, and open them up a bit while mixing to diffuse the sound more.

 

Put a couple clouds above where you're mixing, and you'll be off to a good start, acoustically speaking.

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If the 5 x 7 room is your control room andnot the 18 x 24 foot room, forget what Craig said except for the part about aiming the speakers to fire into the long dimension of the room. Small rooms are always a problem. You'll barely have room for your speakers (you'll want to put them on stands) and mixing console. You'll want to put a lot of absorption on what will be the back wall of the control room, and extend it for a couple of feet forward (toward the speakers) on the side walls.

 

If that's a ceiling fan, make sure it's turned off when you're working. With the Doppler effect, it make a pretty good/annoying vibrato out of everything.

 

Get yourself a used snake cheap from eBay. Mount the stage box on the wall of the room where the musicians will be playing (I assume that will be the the 18 x 24 room). Get a snake with plenty of returns (which are most often on 1/4" TRS jacks. You can use those for headphone feeds.

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Thanks for the input everyone.

 

That space is planned to be a small bedroom, closet, and bath. The building is going to be a combination music room for me and pool house/spare bedroom. You can see where I tried to erase a wall of the. 5x7 to make it just a nook off the bedroom. I have to fit a closet somewhere so that's the back wall of that space. I could easily elimanate that space altogether and just make it part of a really big closet, or reduce it to 5x5 and let it just be a voc booth space.

 

My OP was more concerned about sound quality in the big room for band practice, jamming, maybe some live recording. Like the best place for the speaker stands so I don't install a door in the way, that kinda thing. I wasnt really thinking too much about mixing at this point. Heck right now I don't even own any rec equipment except for an old 4 trek cassette. In the future I don't really plan on this b

 

 

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My OP was more concerned about sound quality in the big room for band practice, jamming, maybe some live recording. Like the best place for the speaker stands so I don't install a door in the way, that kinda thing. I wasnt really thinking too much about mixing at this point. Heck right now I don't even own any rec equipment except for an old 4 trek cassette. In the future I don't really plan on this b

 

Oh, I see. The speakers aren't for the control room, they're for PA when jamming or practicing. Still, as Craig initially suggested, having them fire along the long dimension of the room is probably smartest. Essentially they'll be acting as monitors (you could of course put them on the floor in front of you like you'd use monitors on stage). Before cutting any walls for closets, you might try setting them up in the corners of the 18' wall and set up your band about half way back, then see if you can get enough level before feedback so that it's a usable setup.

 

 

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Havnt decided. I'd like to do none, but will prob put a couple of small 3x5s in somewhere.

 

Whatever wall you decide to put them on, they will work somewhat as part of the absorptive/diffusive treatment, if you use drapes and/or venetian blinds.

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If you haven't build the space yet' date=' make sure the walls aren't parallel. Angling just a tiny bit will help a lot with the acoustics.[/quote']

 

 

 

How about angling the interior wall(which is non load bearing) about 3" off square on one end?

 

That would give me 2 non parallel long walls, and a vaulted ceiling. It would be too tricky too non parallel the exterior walls as they are load bearing and belong to the entire structure.

 

 

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