Live Off the Floor in a Small Room

[digitaldrummer]

Actually the bass is a Lakland if I remember right.

[vvv]

Well, it looks like my F100:

Naturals by mike lake, on Flickr

[vvv]

BTW, blow up the bass pic, it's says "GL" on the bridge.

I'd call it like a L2000 or sompin', in V.
Here's a IV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5-VEr_M9I8

[digitaldrummer]

ok, then I remembered wrong.

[digitaldrummer]

did another band yesterday (live off the floor). This is a panoramic shot i took before they arrived. I'm standing by the entry door. Pano makes it look a little bigger than it really is, but to the left is a the "vocal booth" I made with 2 gobos and a "roof" of egg crate foam attached to a board. In the right corner is a gobo for the guitar amp (behind it is a "superchunk" bass trap in the corner). bass and keys went direct and drums... well you can see where they are. pretty decent isolation. there is bleed but it usually works in good way because the band was well-rehearsed and tight. How tight? they ran down 13 songs (2 takes of only 2 songs - for 15 takes total) in < 3 hours. Don't try this with a band that is not well-rehearsed...

studio_pano1.png (205.89 KiB) Viewed 2861 times

[vvv]

That is a pic of such an inspiring playground you got there, I think I'm gonna go record.

[trodden]

Rad.
In the process of designing/building a small studio in a 15x30 garage. Curious if you have any documentation of your build? I've been designing mine for over a year and keep changing things. I like how you kept your height and would like to do the same but I need as much iso as possible being under the flight path of an airport a couple miles away and my neighbors. The Sayer's forum just gives me a headache anymore.

[digitaldrummer]

Mine is 19x27 so not too much different in size. I have "superchunks" in all 4 corners and then other absorption in strategic places. The construction is an external brick veneer and 2x6 frame with 2 layers of sheetrock inside (overlapping seams, each caulked/sealed separately). I never thought I could make it completely sound proof, but it is on its own separate slab. it's quiet enough that I'm usually happy (unless a big truck, or train or lawnmower is nearby...) and the neighbors have not complained in 10 years. sounds like success. The weak spot for noise is the single entry door - should have done a double with airlock but it would have eaten up space that I wanted to use...

[trodden]

Mine is 19x27 so not too much different in size. I have "superchunks" in all 4 corners and then other absorption in strategic places. The construction is an external brick veneer and 2x6 frame with 2 layers of sheetrock inside (overlapping seams, each caulked/sealed separately). I never thought I could
make it completely sound proof, but it is on its own separate slab. it's quiet enough that I'm usually happy (unless a big truck, or train or lawnmower is nearby...) and the neighbors have not complained in 10 years. sounds like success. The weak spot for noise is the single entry door - should have done a double with airlock but it would have eaten up space that I wanted to use...

Ok. so just a single leaf then. If it works for you, then it works!

A.David.MacKinnon, interested in your construction/build as well.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Mine is similar but probably less sound proofed. It’s a big one car garage. Inside it’s a 12x20-something space. The building is cinderblock and I framed with 2x4. This is my second garage build, and after working hard to sound proof the first with limited success I made no heroic efforts this time. My main gigs here are writing, soundtrack work, mixing. When I track others it’s usually singer songwriter types or we’re finishing something that had the loud parts recorded elsewhere.
More important to me this time out was -
#1) Natural light. The garage door was replaced by a window the same size. It’s the best feature of the studio. I’ve worked in basements and bunkers for 20 years. Never again.
#2) Maintaining as much floor space and ceiling height as possible. With this in mind I didn’t bother with double wall construction.
#3) heat/cooling efficiency. I’m in Canada. Toronto winters can be cold and summer is hot and humid. I’m heating with electric rads. Not cheap so insulation against heat loss was a big deal . I had the whole place spray foamed. It’s very, very well sealed and retains heat/cool extraordinarily well. The other upside is that spray foam acts as it’s own vapour barrier. This meant that I could maintain the full ceiling height. The downside is that it’s pretty weak in terms of soundproofing. The cinder block does a lot though.

I’ve been working out here for a year and a half now. No complaints from the neighbours but I usually work school hours (9-3) when no-one’s around. Even with a drummer going full blast it’s not too loud. I would never try night time band sessions but otherwise it’s fine. I’m in downtown Toronto so the neighbour are 15 -20 feet away at most but the building is stand alone and on it’s own slab. So far so good.
Th only drag is that it’s not greatly insulated from outside noise. I’n not in a flight path but my neighbourhood (like all of Toronto) is in the midst of a housing boom and everyone around me is renovating at all times. On any given day someone is having a roof done or sawing or digging a foundation or whatever. It never ends but it usually isn’t an issue.

[trodden]

Mine is similar but probably less sound proofed. It’s a big one car garage. Inside it’s a 12x20-something space. The building is cinderblock and I framed with 2x4. This is my second garage build, and after working hard to sound proof the first with limited success I made no heroic efforts this time. My main gigs here are writing, soundtrack work, mixing. When I track others it’s usually singer songwriter types or we’re finishing something that had the loud parts recorded elsewhere.
More important to me this time out was -
#1) Natural light. The garage door was replaced by a window the same size. It’s the best feature of the studio. I’ve worked in basements and bunkers for 20 years. Never again.
#2) Maintaining as much floor space and ceiling height as possible. With this in mind I didn’t bother with double wall construction.
#3) heat/cooling efficiency. I’m in Canada. Toronto winters can be cold and summer is hot and humid. I’m heating with electric rads. Not cheap so insulation against heat loss was a big deal . I had the whole place spray foamed. It’s very, very well sealed and retains heat/cool extraordinarily well. The other upside is that spray foam acts as it’s own vapour barrier. This meant that I could maintain the full ceiling height. The downside is that it’s pretty weak in terms of soundproofing. The cinder block does a lot though.

I’ve been working out here for a year and a half now. No complaints from the neighbours but I usually work school hours (9-3) when no-one’s around. Even with a drummer going full blast it’s not too loud. I would never try night time band sessions but otherwise it’s fine. I’m in downtown Toronto so the neighbour are 15 -20 feet away at most but the building is stand alone and on it’s own slab. So far so good.
Th only drag is that it’s not greatly insulated from outside noise. I’n not in a flight path but my neighbourhood (like all of Toronto) is in the midst of a housing boom and everyone around me is renovating at all times. On any given day someone is having a roof done or sawing or digging a foundation or whatever. It never ends but it usually isn’t an issue.

Ahhh.. all makes sense. and the cinderblock outer shell is some decent mass to start. Unfortunately I'm still playing in and recording bands that are ridiculously fucking loud. While this will be studio build number four for me, this one will be the first one where I don't have a landlord or have to worry about a lease like the last four and hope its the LAST build and just want to make it right. As long as I keep making my mortgage payments at least. Each studio has gotten smaller in size but better in build... this one going to be the smallest one yet. Open room/control room-less design with an iso booth, again like the last one, but it is going to be tight with a band that has more than three people. So ideally tracking will take place in other studios I've tracked in before, but I'll also be using this as a rehearsal space because paying $500 a month rent for a 10x11 rehearsal room is fucking ridiculous and that's what I'm doing temporarily while mixing/recording in my house. We've rehearsed and tracked drums in the unfinished garage a few times over the last two years and it seems the garage resonance almost AMPLIFIES the drums when your standing outside of it, ahhahaha.

Thanks all. Looks like I'm sticking with the two leaf system and losing some height as planned.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Build diary here - viewtopic.php?t=89354

[trodden]

Build diary here - viewtopic.php?t=89354

Hey, thanks! Always inspiring to see builds here done by people who don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on a build unlike those "other" websites. I paid a structural engineer to draw me up some plans so I could lose the current ceiling rafters and in place use beefed up collar ties. So that gives me another foot of space above. Also looking into the spray foam idea as well, for my outer leaf so I don't have do deal with a three leaf system in the roof and ceiling aspect.

Thanks again.

[drumsound]

I did a live tracking/rehearsal on Friday that turned out pretty well. I wanted to just get some things down, and have demos of the newer songs before we get into production. 9 tracks of drums, Acoustic DI, Wurly DI and lead vocal all hitting a box PA AND PT. Electric gtr with AXFX I took a DI and miced his small powered speaker, Bass DI and mic and one backing vocal. I put a gobo behind the singer, to minimize reflections into her mic. With some pretty simple low pass filtering the vocal is pretty clean. The guitar speaker was about 19" form the drums and its still fairly isolated. Bleed for amps and the PA into the drums is minimal.

One song has a good enough performance that we may release it as a single. The singer wants to re-cut her vocal, and then I'll really dive into a mix.