homestudio question

[mono]

im planning to convert one of the rooms of our shared appartment into a semi-professional recording studio.
im saying semi-professional, because the focus will be on realizing an acceptable quality of vocal recordings and mixes of beats for further processing/mastering in a professional studio (if needed).

id be grateful for tips, especially regarding sound proofing materials. as far as my experience with production goes, there are always ways to get good results with simple means. the other way round i came to know, theres no point in implementing top notch components, when everything else is low budget.

im still pondering whether we should build a booth (a friend of mine built a pretty nice booth for more or less 200$) or spend the money on overall sound proofing, since the rest of the room has to be included anyway.
the room is about 10x13 ft.

any help or tips would be appreciated. but please only if you have actually participated in such a project before or if you have experienced benefits and/or shortcommings of certain techniques.

peace

 

[StressWon]

I say go for the booth first. It's essential. If you are worried about mixing your music, you can always use monitor headphones for the time being. Once you have the booth, you will be able to record sessions, hence the money for the rest of your set up.

 

[LDB]

Whoa! It's actually not a "home studio" it's an apt. studio...you'll be very limited as to what you can do. I'm sure you can't modify the "apartment" room too much. You may need to think more along the lines of sectioning the room off instead of building a both. Add a good mic ( gated of course ) and you'll get good enough vox, etc. to pass along to the interested people. If you sell a song of course you can always go into a more equip'd studio to lay it down.

Proper speaker positioning and a few bass traps here and there should give you something to work with, along with sectioning a part of the room off for vox.

I wouldn't do much more than that unless you own the apartment!

p.s. How r the neighbors going to respond to the noise....that may get you evicted! You'll definitely want to go with the monitor headphones!!

 

[mono]

it is a single room behind the kitchen. very solid old building, thick walls and ceiling. only young/alternative people living here, and they are kind of "sturdy".
just dividing the room is not an option, since i have a very sensitive condenser/tube mic and i can hear people breath on the other side of town. i used to live in a smaller flat, where my room was rather a booth than a room. now i have a nice spacious one, but its a catastrophe recordingwise

 

[LDB]

it is a single room behind the kitchen. very solid old building, thick walls and ceiling. only young/alternative people living here, and they are kind of "sturdy".
just dividing the room is not an option, since i have a very sensitive condenser/tube mic and i can hear people breath on the other side of town. i used to live in a smaller flat, where my room was rather a booth than a room. now i have a nice spacious one, but its a catastrophe recordingwise

If you throw a gate on the mic channel you should be able to cut out a lot of the surrounding noise elements. That and turn the volume down coming thru the headphones when recording.

If you really think you need a both I'm sure you'll come up with something that will work in your environment.


The ideal booth that you want may be out of your price range and not doable in an apartment. Let us know what you did if you get things worked out.

 

[Ash Holmz]

get that reflextion thing from studio projects ...

 

[Relic]

I have suggestions..

https://www.illmuzik.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22017&highlight=booth


the small boxy thing filled with foam has actually worked so far.

I use diffusors and foam spaced around the walls as well, you will find trying to get a good mixing environment in new surroundings can be difficult.

realtraps.com has alot of great advice on how to set up your new lab. http://www.realtraps.com/articles.htm

bass traps are very important, I still need some.

 

[mono]

thanks! i think ill go with the booth, since i got the best results recording at my friends one. not returning home until mid august, but i will let you know what i did and document the process.

 

[5th Sequence]

mono, i recommend going with the booth. I just rebuilt mine not even 2 weeks after moving into my new apartment. my buddy that works construction helped me rebuild it and it works wonders. Not to mention it just looks dope and pretty much speaks for itself when you tell people you charge for recording.

i haven't taken a picture of the new booth yet i don't have batteries for my camera. i'll see if i cant get some tonight to show you what mines about as a starting point. It cost around $200 to build, not including the studio foam that I bought off ebay that was probably another $100 give or take $20. If you go with the booth, the main thing i stress is that you need to build it to be portable. don't use nails, use screws and door hinges for the corners so you can just pop out the pin thats in the hinge when you need to relocate.

i'll see about those batteries...