Opinions on two-story studios

[Matt C.]

For those of you with this type of setup, I'm wondering what you like and dislike about having a studio where the control room is on a different level than the live room. I'm accustomed to them being right next to each other, so having stairs in between seems like a hassle, but I'm trying to get a feel for whether it really is a huge hassle, or no big deal. Opinions? Effects on productivity and workflow?

[kevin206]

I've got one big room, but when I've tracked at home and used different rooms I occasionally used different floors. Will the live room be for everything, or just initial tracking? Will the control room be large enough to house the band for mix playback and overdubs? The biggest problems I've had...after cabling issues...has been visual contact. It may help to have two-way video along with talkback mics. And setting up sounds could be a hassle.

On a positive, if the live room is limited to drums, live basics, or housing guitar cabs during overdubs, you may be able to save some dough on heating/cooling if you can separate the two rooms.

[Studiodawg]

I have a two-story studio. I track downstairs in "the pit" and mix/edit/master & broadcast/transmit an FCC licensed low power FM radio station upstairs.

[norton]

It worked for trident and emi (abbey road ).
Can't be all bad

[Ric Vaughan]

one thing that is nice about the upstairs down stairs set up is the acoustic spaces are completely different, and sitting on different floors.
often in one room situations or even rooms next to each other, you monitors are in the same room or same size space as your mics so you are hearing that space twice. that can really confuse your brain.
also stairs are really good for the engineering types due to the fact we dont get out much.. a little stair climbing is good for you..
install some vid monitors and your all good.

[drumsound]

It worked for trident and emi (abbey road ).
Can't be all bad

And Electrical Studio B