How to Build a Recording Studio
Studio Considerations
The magic of the recording studio has often mystified even the most seasoned professionals. With all the knobs, switches and buttons on discrete gear and large format consoles, no wonder confusion sets in to most non-techies. Many people, especially artists, composers, producers, and engineers, will end up putting together their own studio for writing and pre-production, with some at last deciding to take the plunge and originate a full-fledged recording involved that is capable of recording major albums. This record will try to shed some light on the considerations to take into inventory when production a studio, be it a small home studio or a pro recording studio.
Is size important? Some may say it is so but this is not always the case. The dimensions of the studio are very important. A room too large may become over-reverberant or full of unwanted echoes. A room too small may sound tight and unnatural. It is important that the room size and room sound is relevant to the type of music you are recording. You don't want to go into a very small tight room to record Big rock drums. Although, big room sounds can be achieved by adding external reverb effects to simulate rooms at a later time when necessary.
It is best to find the room that suits the sound you are trying to achieve from the beginning of the recording process. The smaller the room, the smaller and tighter the sound will be; this is not necessarily a bad thing. Small tight rooms can be good for vocals, guitars and percussion if you are going for a tight clean sound. Larger rooms have more air for the sound to voyage in, so it will be in fact a bigger more open sound. The sound has a longer voyage time for the sound wave to move, therefore the reflection from the walls will take longer to bounce back creating a bigger more spacious sound. The decision of size and sound has to be made early on before the recording starts. One advantage that a larger room will have is the ability to be scaled down by windup up the room using modular baffles or gobos (go betweens). Gobos are structures that are partitions, that help to block sound by placing them in in the middle of the musicians, instruments, and microphones. Placing the gobos around the microphone at a close length will help a large room with too much ambiance sound smaller. This will eliminate the reflections coming off of the walls that are further away.
Small rooms can yield big heavy tight sounds with the absence of the decay from the reverb that is caused from big rooms. Sometimes a large room can sound like it's washed out, or far away. With a good engineer any room can sound phenomenal with a dinky adjusting. A poor sounding room can be manipulated to sound good, although it requires much more work and time. deciding on the permissible room size for your needs is considerable to the sounds that get re-produced. This will highly dictate the type of sound the microphones will pick up.
Clapping your hands in a room can give a good representation of what a room will sound like. The reflection coming off the walls will be picked up by a uncomplicated hand clap. The true test is to try out some instruments or vocals and position them in discrete sections of the room until reaching the optimum sound quality. If one side of the room sounds bad try a separate spot or move around into a angle until the sound is improved.
Experimenting with separate sections of the room also keeps the sound fresh when recording many instruments. If the acoustic guitars are recorded in the center of the room, when the time comes to record the galvanic guitars you may try recording them in a angle of the room for a separate room sound. This gives clarity on the final mix creating disjunction and providing more dissimilarity on discrete sounds.
If you are beginning your own studio, remember that the bigger the studio the higher whole the bills will be. The advantage is that larger studios can charge more for their studio rates.
Getting the Necessities
If you happen to reach that elite 2% and become that million dollar, hit selling, renowned producer or artist (or if you just win the lotto), then you might at last think about buying serious studio gear and setting up your own producer paradise.
Acquiring the permissible tool and labor is key to a great studio and victorious recordings. Studio gear is high-priced and the knowledge of those who use the gear does not come cheap. Hiring the right habitancy can save money and time in the long run. Studio designers also are specialty breeds that can make or break your studio. Your buddy Joe the carpenter may be able to help build it for less, yet if the studio is not properly isolated for sound it is a great waste of time, power and finances.
The studio engineer is also the focal point of the sound that is created. Having an experienced engineer involved in the process will make your sound have a character of its own. He is the extra set of ears that gives another size to your productions. He is also a considerable consulting partner when construction or choosing to rent a studio. Let the experts help you with advice, it will originate less of a sick in the long run. The experienced engineer can fill you in on all the tool needed for recording the music that is relevant to your world. He can also give some guidelines on how the studio should be setup before having to consult a designer. There is no room for guessing or assumption on these issues.
Check List: Part 1
When purchasing studio gear it is wise to research only what is unmistakably considerable for your style of music. If you're not recording live drums in your studio, there is no need to buy a plethora of microphones for them. By being patient and shopping around for the best prices, a mass whole of money can be saved in the end. When you save to 0 bucks on each piece of gear it unmistakably adds up in the end, and there is a ton of gear needed to put a permissible studio together.
Below is a basic studio checklist that will be discussed in further detail in later articles. These are the essentials of modern day recordings and the tools that are most generally used in the best studios around the world.
The Studio Gear Checklist:
Recording / Mixing Console
The engineer or producer operates the console that controls all of the levels for recording, playback and mixing.
This is the big board that has all the buttons, switches, knobs, faders which operate the levels and signal routing for each instrument. This could be referred to as a board, console or mixer. The most base consoles in major studios are Ssl (Solid State Logic) or Neve. The console is the most important piece of gear in the studio. It controls the wide operations of signal flow and sound manipulation. The console allows for each instrument to be on its own channel on the board. Each channel may then have effects inserted into its signal path to enhance the sound. A signal may also be routed to external gear for further manipulation. Anyone that can be imagined, can be done. There are no rules for experimenting with sound. A signal can be sent to reverbs, delays, compressors, guitar amps, speakers in hallways for re-recording
Each channel strip on a decent console will contain: Faders, Preamps, Panning, Equalization, Filters, a Routing Matrix, Aux Sends and Returns, Dynamics, Muting, & Solo.
Other Features Of The Console: Inserts, Outputs, Monitoring, Automation, Fader Grouping, Bussing, Splitting...
Patchbay
Allows the studio to incorporate interconnectivity with all the tool by using patch cables. The patchbay can be configured for each studio's specific tool requirements. All of the outboard gear, console and recording devices inputs and outputs are hard wired to the patchbay. The Patchbays can be be analog or digital. The most base is the bantam Tt cable configurations.
Check List Part 2:
Microphones Microphones pickup the preliminary sound source. The mic is the first source in the recording process receiving and converting the sound wave into electrical power to be amplified, transmitted and recorded.
Preamps Amplifies the former signal coming from the mic or instrument. Gives preliminary operate of the recording levels. Preamps are settled on the console or as external outboard gear.
Di Boxes The Direct box is used in general for instruments such as keys and bass to be compatible with mic inputs. The Di box transforms line levels of instruments to mic level for console and preamp inputs.
Compressors Helps to further operate levels and dynamics coming from the preamp or console. Regularly comes in rack mounted outboard gear or software plugins for Daws. Compressors keep levels from peaking into distortion levels and help to bring lower levels louder.
Fx Processors For extra effects like adding space, dimension, pitch and time delays on signals and recorded tracks. Regularly comes in rack mounted outboard gear or software plugins for Daws. Multi-Fx processors may have reverb, delay, flangers, Eq, compression and more all in one unit.
Fx Pedals Small floor foot pedals originally designed for guitar Fx processing. These pedals are created for distortion and extra effects, which add space, dimension, pitch and time on guitars mainly, but are an uncostly alternative used as outboard gear for other instruments.
Daw The Digital Audio Workstation is like an entire studio inside of a computer. Protools, Logic and Nuendo are just a few Daws that contribute a digital multi-track recorder, a virtual console, a wide variety of effects, editing, and sequencing(musical programming) possibilities. The Daw uses software, hardware and computers in blend to operate.
Check List: Part 3
Control Surface The operate face acts as a console that controls a Daw or external machine. The operate face Regularly has faders, knobs and buttons that are controlled by the computer associated to a Daw. This makes operating the Daw similar to analog operations by being able to put your hands on faders instead of clicking a mouse. Some operate surfaces have all the same features as a console. The most base operate surfaces are made by Digidesign.
Clocking Digital recorders use separate clocking formats to operate properly. Digital units sample the sound to be replicated. Clocking refers to the whole of time in in the middle of samples taken for reproduction. If the digital clocking is off it will sound jittery or add noise to the sound in the analog to digital conversion. A ability clock will enhance the sound. Some base digital clock sources can be found in products made by Prism, Rosendahl, Dcs, and Aardsync to name a few. Some clocks have sync generators built in to lock up with other machines.
Sync Generator Generates tones to allow transportation in the middle of machines so that any recording devices can be synchronized together and operate at the same speed. Clocking works with synchronization (sync) when analog and digital tool is combined. Sync uses Smpte, Mtc (midi time code), Midi Clock, Mmc (midi machine control) to allow recording on any Daws and tape machines to be associated up together.
Cd Recorder Records and plays back covenant discs. Gives the ability to record stereo mixes and playback these mixes on other Cd players. Cd standard for buyer playback is a sample rate of 16 bit and a sampling rate of 44.1kHz. Sony, Tascam, Alesis, and Yamaha all make good studio Cd recorders.
Tape Machines Recording machines that use analog or digital tape for recording and playback of music. Some purists in sound recording prefer the sound of analog tape. There are many digital tape machines used for recording both music and video.
Cabling unmistakably miles of discrete cabling could be needed for a singular studio. base cables in sound pregnancy are Xlr balanced mic cables and Unbalanced 1/4 inch instrument cables.
Monitors / Amps Speakers in the studio are referred to as Monitors. Marvelous clean amps are needed to run monitors. Many monitors are self powered, which means that they have built in amplifiers. Monitors Regularly consist of high frequency tweeters, low frequency woofers and cabinets that contain the speakers and components.
Headphones / Distribution By using a set of earphones this allows transportation in the middle of the operate room and the studio, also allows pre-recorded tracks to be heard while the overdubbing process. Headphones are also referred to as cans.
Instruments / Keyboards / Drums / Guitars These are more of the tools of the craft. You may have all the best studio gear in the world, but if the instruments sound bad you are beginning in the wrong place. Anyone could be carefully an instrument if it makes noise that could perhaps be recorded on a record.
Amplifiers This is often referred to as an amp. Amps growth the amplitude or volume of electrical signals from sound waves. These are used in powering speakers. Guitar and Bass amps can be used for many other applications such as running a vocal or snare drum through them.
Microphone Stands A wide variety of sizes and styles are needed for a permissible studio. The mic stand helps to get the microphone settled properly for the best sound ability possible.
Studio Furniture There are many types of racks and furniture designed to hold consoles and outboard gear. The interior embellishment of the studio wholly sets the vibe of the working environment.
Electricity
Nothing will work without electricity unless you're jamming at the local drum circles down on the beach. Electrical premise studio power is often overlooked. Studios will setup a "clean feed" that is a detach breaker from the rest of the general power that is being used for air conditioning, lighting and the basic necessities of the rest of the building. Have you ever plugged something in and heard that horrific buzzing sound coming from the speakers or guitar amp? This is Regularly due to bad electrical wiring, which causes ground noise. This is the first thing to listen for when going in to a studio session. A uncomplicated solution to the problem would be to use a uncomplicated ground lifter on the gear or lift the ground from a direct box which can also solve the problems. We will go into details later.
Isolated electrical circuits for each private room are a must in a recording studio. The permissible whole of amperage is also a must. Not enough amperage will unmistakably cause your breakers to blow. Consult with an Electrician who is familiar with studio setups to insure that wiring and voltage is regulated and conforming with local codes.
Unregulated Power Supplies (Ups) should also be in place just in case there is a power failure. This will insure that considerable tool will not blow up or cause a fire. If there is a case of a power outage the Ups will contribute enough time to backup important computer files and safely turn off your equipment. Some studios will have complete generator systems in place to keep the studio running for the remainder of the session.
Improper lighting can also cause buzzing ground issues, especially fluorescent bulbs. Avoid using these in any studio. Dimmers can also cause many problems. The average household dimmers will unmistakably put a damper into a clean sound. Make sure that pro grade dimmers are installed to avoid ground noise. always listen carefully to signals being recorded before committing to a final take. There are a countless whole of accounts that the engineer discovers electrical noise on takes while the mix process.
If you are serious about your studio, may I propose equilibrium power or a separated panel with neutral power conditioning. The evil problems of ground issues are a direct reflection of sources returning or seeing for a separate ground. Voltage inherent in the middle of neutral and ground will unmistakably convert your way of seeing at things... For example, .5 volts in the middle of neutral and ground is the maximum allowance by Ul code that electronics will operate optimally without inherent induction issues. I would propose having a meter installed to rate this. Logging this facts and having a good rapport with the local galvanic enterprise would not hurt at all.
Air Conditioning/Hvac
This is another very important area that is often not considered. Studio gear gets very hot. The lack of enough cooling could effect in tool failure or damage. Blowing up tool is no fun and it gets very expensive. Some recording studios have a detach machine Room for computers, tape machines and power amps that is highly air-conditioned to keep all things cool. This also cuts down on the noise from the fans on such units, which can distract attentiveness from listening in detail in the operate room. Having too much air conditioning could also effect in moisture or condensation build-up that may also damage the gear. Water in general is bad for electronic gear.
The return air principles is used to pull heat out of needed areas and also provides an air intake for the Ac units. These are settled in key areas where there is a build-up of heat from the gear, for example near the console or in the machine room.
Separate Rooms: operate Room
Most studios have any isolated areas for recording, mixing, and production. Soundproofing is the main program when creating complicated rooms in a studio. To achieve this, the main objective is to make the rooms airtight. If air cannot leak in or out of a room, there will be less chance of sound leaking in or out as well.
Most pro studios have double doors that originate a sound lock to help forestall noise leakage. They also have very thick double walls with interior air gaps to also help trap unwanted sound. The floors in the studio should also be floated which means they are lifted from the ground to help further forestall extra vibrations and leakage.
The first focus would be the operate Room where the mixing console and outboard gear are contained. This is where all of the recording and mixing is controlled, hence operate room. The acoustics in this room should be designed for hearing the exact sound that is being recorded or mixed. The sound of the room should be as natural as inherent for precise representation of the former sound translated to the speakers in the room.
The first rule for an standard acoustically treated room is that there should be no parallel walls .If you were to clap your hands in a room with hard parallel walls you would here the sound bouncing back and forth, this is known as a flutter echo. This is neither good for recording or mixing. The trapping of unwanted bass is important for a room to sound great as well. Twenty five percent of the room should be assigned for bass traps for an enough mixing room.
Separate Rooms: Live Rooms
The next focus of equal significance would be the Live Room where the music is recorded. This is where the musicians and vocalists achieve on the microphones. Live rooms should have more versatility to be able to adapt to separate recording situations. Wood floors for example are great for reflection of sound, which creates a brighter tone. If a warmer tone is wanted, one could simply place a rug on the floor. Many live rooms also have a great deal of glass to see in the middle of rooms for communication. This is also very reflective. Many studios use curtains to operate the whole of reflections coming off glass or hard walls. Non-parallel walls are again needed to eliminate any flutter echoes.
Some studios also contain a vocal booth within the live room. This would be a smaller room designed for vocals. They may also be used for guitar amps and other instruments. There are no rules for what this can be used for; its main purpose is for further isolation while the recording process. Glass doors or windows are used for visibility of the artists and those working in the operate room.
Many justify studios may have complicated operate rooms and production suites. Lounges and permissible bathroom facilities are important in holding the creativity flowing. A dining area and kitchen are also a observation if budgets permit. Many hours are spent in the studio when working on projects. It is important to have all the comforts of home to keep every person happy.
A few permissible offices are considerable for the client to be able to have underground internet entrance and to deal with enterprise without any distractions. All studios are designed differently. Anyone can be imagined can be created. There are no rules, only guidelines.
Acoustics
Sound is a wave, much like the ripples on a still body of water when a rock is dropped into it. The larger the wave, the lower the tone. Lower tones, known as bass frequencies, voyage in wide long waves while higher tones known as treble frequencies voyage in a tighter, shorter wave. Frequencies heard by the human ear range from 20Hz to 20K. Just as an indication, a piano's range, probably the widest range of any instrument, is from 39Hz on the low note and 3Khz on the high note.
Sound is measured in decibels also represented as dB. An average concert is about 95-100 dB while a heavy rock concert or hip hop concert could reach levels of 130dB. This is above the threshold of pain; so don't forget to wear your earplugs which are designed to safe your hearing when in ultimate sound levels. Interestingly enough, whales can unmistakably yield levels of up to 180dB. It should be remembered that taking care of your ears is the most important thing you can do to forestall damage and have a sustained career. So don't hang out with any whales and put some security in your ears when exposed to loud volumes.
Absorption is the act of a sound wave being soaked up by a singular material. This is measured by co-efficient ratings. The higher the sound absorption co-efficient rating, the more sound that is being eliminated from troubled spots in your room. separate section of the room may require separate co-efficient ratings. Remember that studios start off as an empty shell. Hard surfaces and walls need rehabilitation to contribute for a great sounding room. For example, 20 gauge theater curtains are generally used in studios. They consist of a thick velvet material, which is excellent for entertaining high-end frequencies. The thinner materials soak up higher frequencies.
The thicker materials soak up lower frequencies. This is why thick bass traps are very large and contain ports or holes to trap low-end frequencies. The larger the port, the lower the frequency absorption.
There are endless amounts of products and designs that are used in the industry. Wall panels are also generally used to discharge sound. These are made from a fiberglass stock wrapped in a cloth material. discrete sizes and thickness are used for problem frequencies. Again the thin materials eliminate high end and thicker materials discharge low end.
Reflection is the opposite of absorption. Think of the sound as a wave hitting a mirror and bouncing back. This can be used as an advantage for a brighter tone. If a room has too much absorption causing the room to sound too dead, hard surfaces such as wood panels can be settled in strategic locations to add a more live sound to the room.
Some studios have reversible hanging panels that can be flipped in the middle of reflective and absorptive to convert the room sound at will. For vocals the room may need a more dead sounding absorptive room. Drums may require a more live sounding room. John Bonham, from Led Zeppelin had an amazingly huge live reflective drum sound. This became the goal for the big Rock drum sound.
Prince is underestimated as a drummer. He has a great tight drum sound on his first record where he played all of the instruments as well as the drums. The drums have just the opposite effect using absorption in a small tight room creating a very in your face heavy Pop drum sound.
These are not rules, only guidelines. Using your ears is always the key to getting the best sound.
Designing a studio is quite an undertaking to do professionally. Each room is wholly separated and isolated from one another. The most base recipe is to unmistakably build a room inside of a room. The inner walls do not touch the outer walls, which creates an air gap that traps sound. Each wall can be many feet thick and complicated layers of thick glass and doors divide the rooms.
The floors in each room are floated from the ground with spacers that also originate an air space to lower vibrations and help to trap unwanted sound leakage. All floors have separate characteristics in the way sound waves bounce off from their surfaces. While wood floors have a warm tone, concrete and tile have a brighter tone. This also holds true for walls.
A solid plan is needed to run cabling in the middle of rooms so that each room can be interconnected with each other for microphone signal lines and headphone transportation systems. Practice made cable troughs or Pvc tubing is used to send groups of microphone cables from a panel to the operate room. From the operate room the Headphone lines would be run through the walls for transportation in the middle of all of the rooms.
Materials and Tools
Drywall is needed for walls. The more layers of drywall added will growth the thickness of the studio walls. By using varying thicknesses of drywall stacked and shifted, alternating at the seams will help minimize sound transmission in the middle of rooms. Many drywall screws and a good galvanic drill will definitely come in handy if you are construction a studio.
Fabric is used for production wall panels and ceiling clouds that operate the absorption in the studio. There are specific fabrics that are designed for separate frequency absorption. Each thickness and texture has varying co-efficient ratings at complicated frequency bands.
Ac Duct Board and other fiberglass products are wrapped in fabric with spray glue to originate entertaining panels called Wall Boxes and Bass Traps. Thermal Fiber or Fiberglass Insulation is inserted in in the middle of two sets of walls and ceiling to originate an further thickness providing an alternate texture, containing fiberglass, which is superb for capturing sound.
Sand is also an excellent alternative selection for filling walls to forestall sound wave transmission. Wood provides the skeleton for frames that hold the panels and boxes. Larger Bass Traps with large ports could be made from wood or fiberglass. Rpg panels are a series of wooden slats mathematically designed to discharge and refract, or soak up and scatter sound inside a room. Wood can also be used to originate Practice racks to hold the outboard gear, console and patchbay. Practice studios can be designed for any situation and style.
Doors, Walls and Windows
Doors and walls are the singular most important item where recording studio sound bleed is concerned. A small 1/4inch air gap at the lowest threshold of a door will publish 30% of the sound. Creating airtight rooms are the first step in sealing all the gaps for optimum sound proofing. The transitions in the middle of where the rooms are associated have more possibilities for sound leakage. All corners, gaps and frames for door and window cutaways must be sealed with a silicon or caulking material. Keep in mind that if air can escape through any tube then sound will unmistakably go through as well.
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