Advice on monitoring and mains supply?

[w_ll]

Hi. This is my first post after a bit of lurking, so I hope this is in the appropriate place.

I recently struck a deal with the owner of my bands practice space to do some recording there. There are a couple of issues that i'd like some advice on.

Firstly, I'm not sure whether to monitor in the room with the band or in the small control room. The control room is approximately 4ft back to front and 7ft wide and about 12ft high, but it does not provide complete isolation from the rehearsal/live space. I'm wondering whether I should monitor in the control room with either my monitors or headphones, or if i should just go ahead and monitor in the live space with headphones. Given the pretty tight dimensions of the control room, i'm also worried about being able to get my monitors set up for the best sound.

The other issue is that the live space is on one mains supply, and i'm worried about hum. Major alterations to the mains supply are out. Can anyone offer any solutions?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated. Thank you.

Will.
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[Gregg Juke]

Well, I was kind of waiting for our more electrically and acoustically-graced folks to give it up here, but I'll take a swing (no degree in electrical engineering, journeyman electrician's license, or certificate in acoustical design, so this is all based on experience, and ymmv):

First, a few questions. If the studio isn't really a studio yet, why are you calling the smaller room a "control room?" If you're not sure wheteher you're going to monitor in there, isn't it just "a room?" Please explain a little more in-depth (any chance of photos?) the layout, and how the "control room" is not "completely isolated" (just trying to get a visual). Also, how big is the practice space/"tracking room?" Also, even though you can't do wiring alterations (shouldn't really be a problem), what about other modifications? Can you put-up any walls or dividers? Can you treat the rooms acoustically with panels or acoustic foam?

What you might want to consider, depending on dimensions, layout, and the answers to the above questions, is using office dividers (or gobos that you could build) to create a larger control room area by splitting the band space (maybe a third of it or something?), and use the small room as an isolation booth...

As to monitoring in the band space, it can be done (we've done it in small garage-type spaces, and many folks here work that way), but if you can get a separate control room area with enough isolation to keep the drum bleed out, that would be better.

As to the electrical situation, if you wind-up with ground-loop hum, you'll have to employ some standard techniques (like painstakingly tracing lines, once they're in place) to find the offending units or cables. If trouble-shooting and ground-lifting doesn't take care of it, there are devices like "hum-x" and other wall plugs that eliminate hum, and there are conditioned power supplies and that sort of thing (Furman makes a bunch, and Monster does too, I believe). There are some great resources on this site and others that you can look into when and if you have any problems in that area. I wouldn't worry about crossing the electrical bridge until you get there.

Our studio has three rooms that are almost the same size, so figuring this stuff out was initially a problem. The trick is to not have your monitors too close to the wall, and watch the corners and parallel walls (proper bass trapping and treatment) wherever you decide to mix/monitor/have your control room.

Hope some of that helps,

GJ

[radiationroom]