I'm just starting out with my recording projects, which are going to be just me playing with mostly acoustic instruments, and done in a very lo-fi and intentionally amateurish way. Really.
My "studio" consists of a freestanding recording booth that I've just finished building in one corner of my art studio. It's a trapezoid that's 6' wide in the front, 4' wide in the back and 4' deep, and 7' tall. The walls are (from the outside-in) 5/8" birch ply, 1/2" sheetrock, a 1-1/2" void (which is stuffed with fiberglass batting) for the 2"x2" framing, then 1/2" soundboard and 3/8" hardboard. The framing is isolated from the two adjoining surfaces with neoprene strips and the layers of different materials are bonded together with liquid nails. The floor is a sandwich of 3/4" plywood and 3/4" MDF with neoprene bonded between. The inside surfaces are mostly covered with acoustical foam of different densities and thicknesses, behind fabric-covered frames. The window in the door is 5 layers of plex of 2 different staggered thicknesses, each of which is at a slightly different angle. I live on a very busy, noisy street in SF, with sirens going by all day and night. I know very little about acoustical engineering, but I'm pleased to find that inside the booth, it's utterly silent.
The box on the floor is both a seat and an air exchange box, which mates to two holes in the back wall. In each hole is a computer case fan; one sucking fresh air in, and the other blowing stale air out. This box is divided and each side has a baffle the air has to pass around; it's entirely lined with acoustical foam (the photo shows it before it was completed). I've tested it with myself sitting in there with a tube amp going, with the door closed for a half-hour, and the air stayed totally fresh and the temperature never got uncomfortably warm.
The booth is just big enough to hold (all but one of) my largest gear -- an old electric piano, my acoustic bass, my homemade tympani or my vibes (not at the same time!) The pics don't show my recording gear, but there's a shelf on the right that holds my LCD monitor, control surface and mouse, and I've added a second shelf just below it that holds the wireless keyboard when it's not in use. Facing the seat from the far corners of the front wall are my monitors. My computer tower and outboard gear are all mounted in a custom rolling cabinet that sits outside and communicates with the monitor, control surface, etc., through a stuff-box in one wall.
The gear that isn't shown here --
Recording gear:
Pentium D, dual core, 3ghz desktop w/ 2gb RAM, 250gb HDD, basic sound card (and obviously, a monitor and other peripherals), on which I'm installing XP Pro and Reaper
Behringer BCF-2000 control surface
Presonus FireBox A/D converter
Presonus TubePre
Rane MS1 solid state mic pre
Nady CL-5000 2-channel compressor/gate
LT Sound Microplate Reverb
Event TR5 monitors
mics: Oktava MK-319, 1960s AKG D310, 1960s Reslo ribbon mic, about a dozen dynamic, condensor and crystal mics from the '30s through '60s (Neuman, Western Electric, Telefunken, Grundig, EV, Shure, AKG, etc.)
Noisemakers:
the guitars and amps listed in my sig, below, plus
Olympia acoustic bass guitar
1950s baritone ukulele
1970s Eko electric piano
1940s Hammond Solovox
1960s Rheem Kee Bass
1960s Hohner combo organ
1960s Schoenhut toy piano
1970s Mattel Magical Musical Thing
1960s reed organ
1950s Schulmerich ChimeATron
other weird/junky old keyboards
vibes
marimba
homemade tympani (3 large RotoToms with spun stainless bowls under them)
bongos
1960s rhythm machine
Mattel Synsonics drums
old traps set
alto horn
full range of recorders -- bass to sopranino
huge modular synth made up of tube-powered bench/laboratory gear (sine/square generators, random noise generators, etc.)
etc., etc., etc.
