Time to build a control room

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leftofthedial
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Time to build a control room

Post by leftofthedial » Wed Feb 03, 2016 1:47 pm

My Neotek is up and running and now I need to give it a home.

The building I have at my disposal is 38'X28'X8' cinderblock construction with concrete floor and drywall popcorn ceiling.

I'm thinking of a control room that is 8' high, 13 feet deep from front to back, and 21 feet wide sidewall to sidewall. The back wall will be cinderblock. The sidewalls beaded plywood. The frontwall some combination of drywall and glass.

Any opinions on the 8X13X21 dimensions, remembering that the 8' is not moving.

Thanks,

Rob
They mostly come at night..... Mostly.

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Feb 04, 2016 7:34 am

Ever since working with famous Brits who dislike control rooms, I have been a huge fan of NO control room.

I'd rather have a huge space, and just set up two areas, with almost no separation between them.

For recording, just turning off speakers, and using one from a choice of headphone systems available.

It makes for a more relaxed recording experience, less miscommunication, less time wasted on talkback systems as well.

Also, if you have one huge room, you can do more proper recordings with all the musicians playing at once. Which always, 100% of the time, makes for a better recording, hands down.

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JWL
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Post by JWL » Thu Feb 04, 2016 9:58 am

I agree with Nick, I'm partial to one-room studios these days (unless I regularly track, say, metal drummers or something that would destroy my ears being in the same room with them).

But apart from that, I like your plan. The dimensions are reasonable. BUT I would make the room longer than it is wide, ie, face a 13' wall not a 21' wall. If you want to face the longer wall it's not the end of the world, but the rear wall treatments become much more important. And, treating the room properly will be by far the most important thing anyway.

Details here:
http://realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm
http://realtraps.com/art_basics.htm

And if you want, check out our ModeCalc program to see where the modes will be in your room:
http://realtraps.com/modecalc.htm

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joninc
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Post by joninc » Thu Feb 04, 2016 1:29 pm

I am also a fan of no control room for many of the reasons listed above BUT i do like to have some iso booths.

My space is a long rectangular building and the "main space" (that I am set up in the middle of) houses all the recording gear, the drums (most of the time), the keyboards,organs, amp heads, pedals. There are windows with natural light in the main room.

There are Iso booths at either end of the space with large windows looking in.

ISO 1 is smaller but still decent sized - i use it a lot for vocals, acoustics, and amps.

ISO 2 is bigger with higher ceilings and it's for piano, acoustic instruments like strings or horns or upright bass - have recorded drums in there as well.

This set up allows for a lot of flexibility and various live configurations with good isolation but the majority of the time is spent in the "main" space - together with the artists - so I appreciate that I don't have to spend almost all my time in the smaller space.
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leftofthedial
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Post by leftofthedial » Fri Feb 05, 2016 6:13 am

Thanks for the replies. I think I may just try the one big room thing. Perhaps I will spend my efforts on trying to get the ceiling pitched up. If nothing else, I will pul down the drywall and leave the rafters open.

If I do that, the dimensions become 38X28X(8-12) feet. so basically 38X28X10. I'm sure these numbers are bad though.
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JWL
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Post by JWL » Fri Feb 05, 2016 12:37 pm

I personally would not spend more money to pitch the ceiling. I would just make it flat, and put that extra budget into treating the room properly.

Of course, a well-engineered pitched ceiling can be part of the treatment, in the sense of aiming high frequency reflections and creating another corner for bass, but you really have to know the ins and outs of this. Just make it flat and treat it is cheaper and simpler.

leftofthedial
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Post by leftofthedial » Fri Feb 05, 2016 7:32 pm

8' is so low though. My commercial studio had 12' ceilings and all my two home studios had 9'. It just hurts my brain.
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JWL
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Post by JWL » Fri Feb 05, 2016 10:58 pm

Sure, taller is better, all else being equal. If you have space for a 12' ceiling, then build a 12' ceiling, don't pitch it to be shorter in parts of the room.

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