"Studios"

I wish I was one of those people who could sit on a couch like a lethargic puddle of human existence.  I could pass my days away soaking in sitcoms, eating Bugles, and cleaning my belly button out at various points in the day.  But alas, I fall into the category of animal whose brain doesn't shut down, because every second must be injected with tedious work.  In a way, time has become my nemesis.  As soon as I wrap up a project, another much larger one looms in the distance.  More specifically, I have finally gathered the final pieces for my Guild S-100 project, and now I am left scratching my head on how to even approach my next assignment:  upgrading my "studio".

Before I get much into my project "studio", allow me to digress since studio related things have been the only thing on my mind as of late.  Since the innovation of computer recording, everyone thinks they are a "producer" or "audio engineer" these days.  When I worked music retail, I can't even begin to tell you the number of people who came in asking me how to "set up a studio so I can make beats with Fruity Loops".  Atrocious.  A woman I almost dated (during a time of extremely low self-esteem and chronic beer goggles), had once told me her ex had even owned a studio.  I soon discovered that this "studio" was merely a Behringer mixing board, hooked up to a couple of crappy computer speakers, with a computer patched into the board.  90% of these people who buy an MBox end up having it sit around because they are either too lazy, or much too dense to even try to learn to use it.  The other 10%, end up with shotty recordings and give it up.  Then there are the few, like myself, who wonder if we can actually try to make a decent recording.  Over the past 4-5 years I have become increasingly interested in building my own project "studio".  I use the term "studio" very lightly, because any real audio engineer would scoff at my over-glorified Mancave.  However, since I am not a neanderthal with a BR600, I am comfortable saying I have a project "studio".

I will say that I do not have any fantasies about becoming a world famous engineer/producer.  And I have no intention of expanding into a larger commercial outlet.  I mainly use my cave to get simple ideas down, track a few guitar/bass/piano sounds, and do a bit of arranging, do a demo for a friend.  But most importantly, progressively improve my sound. There are legitimate studios for more complex things (notice the " " is gone?).  Real studios have Telefunkens, Neumanns, UA compressors, and Neve consoles (whose recording prowess can only be attributed to the evil Ganondorf sealed away forever within the board).  If you're looking to record something serious, an album, single, soundtrack, or whatever, it's much smarter to invest your money somewhere where you can worry about the music, and they can worry about the sound.  I'm not trying to scare anybody, but it's much smarter to think about where you're investing a few thousand dollars before you do.  Yourself or a studio?  If you do build a studio, narrow it down to what you want to do with it. 

Anyhow.  The first and most important thing in a studio, even more so than gear and the engineer, is the room which you record and mix in.  Blows your mind doesn't it?  Blew mine at least.  The room is crucial because it's what reflects the sounds and noises that happen in the room.  Corners can suck up all of your bass, footsteps can bleed onto mics, and you can even get a false perception of a mix in a bad room.  So it's extremely important to "treat" your room.  And when I say "treat", I'm not talking about sound proofing the room so sound can't get out, I'm talking about controlling the frequencies within the room.  To be honest, I can give much advice here as of yet.  If you can afford it, have someone do it for you.  Due to my budget (or lack thereof), I can't afford to have someone plaster my walls in Auralex and pretty panels.  So, much of my "new" room will be very DIY.  I'll be taking photos and keeping you in the loop as I go about this process, and how to be a cheapass doing it.  Here is the room I will be working with:

The best thing to do is get someone's advice on where to start.  I've been poking around on a few forums and getting some ideas, but I ran across this.  You can send your room measurements to one of these big box online distributors and have them do all the planning for you.  Then instead of buying the expensive traps from them, I'll build the ones I can.  No, my room will not be perfect.  But I'm not recording drums or doing any epic live orchestration.  And if you look, concrete and plywood walls aren't that great either.  I'm just trying to make the best of what I have to work with.  I'll talk more about my game plan, gear, and provide a photo blog of the final S-100 project soon.

Cheers!

-  Stonewall