Thoughts on Making a Space...

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TapeOpLarry
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Thoughts on Making a Space...

Post by TapeOpLarry » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:51 pm

One of the things I keep noticing with the postings here is that the initial question is usually lacking in information. A long thread of questions that should have been answered in the initial post is no fun to read. Points to consider before posting:

Sound proofing and acoustic treatment are two different things
What are you doing in the specific space? Tracking, listening, mixing all?
What kind of music are you working on? loud, quiet?
What instruments will you be recording?
How much do you really plan to spend?
If it's picture dependant maybe you can post photos somewhere and provide a link?
Have you searched ethanwiner.com or johnlsayer.com? Great resources with more experts than we have, though Ethan posts here a lot!

There's many more points. Try reading your question as if it was new to you and you knew nothing about your situation! Thanks very much for reading this.
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Larry Crane, Editor/Founder Tape Op Magazine
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Ethan Winer
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Re: Before Posting

Post by Ethan Winer » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:42 pm

Larry,

> Points to consider before posting: <

All good points, and I'll add this:

If you're asking about acoustic treatment for your room, at least give us some clue about its size! :) We don't need details down to the millimeter, but knowing the approximate size really helps.

--Ethan

dither
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Post by dither » Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:19 pm

Some suggestions/questions:

1) Lots of people have digital cameras. If you have one, posting a picture through free file sharing sites like SENDSPACE.COM would make things go much smoother.

2) Does anyone know of a free diagram program where people could create a schema of their studios?

3) I often feel knowledge gets obfuscated from meaningful threads. It's painful having to read through several posts to find a good response. What if there was a TapeOp Wiki with an unwritten rule: if you ask a question and get a response that solves your problem through the message board, you have to create a wiki entry with your initial problem and solution thus creating a simple, two part entry for future newbies.

Hope this is of some interest

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Post by tilputt » Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:17 am

a Tape Op wiki is a great idea sounding idea to me

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JWL
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Post by JWL » Thu Dec 07, 2006 7:57 am

I thought I'd add some more specific resources here, since I've been seeing more of the same questions Larry talked about.

The one place to start in my opinion is Ethan Winer's Acoustics FAQ. This document is the single best introduction to room acoustics that I know.

For a more serious look at studio construction, Rod Gervais' book, Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros is indispensible, as is The Recording Studio Design Forum at JohnLSayers.com. In particular, the Reference Area on that forum contains more detail than you will have time to read.

Bob Golds has a site that lists all of the absorption coeffecients of the various sound absorbing materials (rockwool, fiberglass, acoustic cotton, etc). This is useful in seeing if that bargain brand of rockwool that you find in your corner store will really give you the performance you need in a studio. Be careful with this, however; many products only offer specs down to 125Hz or 100Hz... with bass traps much of the effectiveness happens below these frequencies. So keep this in mind.

For more on how absorption is measured, you can read Measuring Absorption And The Numbers Game on the Realtraps site.

Hope this helps....

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Post by TapeOpLarry » Mon Jun 29, 2009 9:43 am

More books. These are through Amazon.com but you can source them elsewhere:

Jeff Cooper's book gets mentioned all the time: http://www.amazon.com/Building-Recordin ... 0916899004

Philip Newell might have more opinions than you can believe - but he's also designed some classic rooms: http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Studio- ... pd_sim_b_2

F. Alton Everest's Master Handbook: http://www.amazon.com/Master-Handbook-A ... pd_sim_b_5
Larry Crane, Editor/Founder Tape Op Magazine
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(do not send private messages via this board!)
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