Building A Home Studio

[kimball492]

Home Studio Build
Part 1 Vision Is Everything
http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...-is-everything

Part 2 Planning And Regulations
http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...ng-regulations

Part 3 DIY Or Builder
http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...diy-or-builder

Part 4 Glass
http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...d-part-4-glass

Part 5 Internal Construction
http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...l-construction

Part 6 Electrics And Cabling
http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...cs-and-cabling

Part 7 Acoustics
http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...eid=1b1c3a3ed0

Latest Updates

Part 8 Fixtures And Fittings
http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...art-8-fittings

Part 9 Professionals Give Their Verdict
http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...-their-verdict

[wokkaboy]

Hey KB I think part zero (before parts 1-5) is to win lotto then you can build a uber cool home studio !

how you going big fella ?

[kimball492]

Hey Wokka, how you doing what you been up to buddy. Hope everything's good in the luthiers lair.
Thanks
Kimball

Hey Dedman, Pleasure hope you enjoyed it. More info to follow.

[DrNomis_44]

You don't necessarily have to win lotto to be able to afford to build a home Studio, Reaper is a good alternative to ProTools, and the makers of Reaper are Ex-ProTools personnel, they offer a $60.00 non-commercial/small business use License, and best of all, once you have paid the $60.00 licensing fee, you get all subsequent software updates, free for life.

[dave.king1]

You don't necessarily have to win lotto to be able to afford to build a home Studio, Reaper is a good alternative to ProTools, and the makers of Reaper are Ex-ProTools personnel, they offer a $60.00 non-commercial/small business use License, and best of all, once you have paid the $60.00 licensing fee, you get all subsequent software updates, free for life.

Not quite true Doc, you get the incremental updates within the release free but you now pay a further $60US for each major update.

I went from 3.x to 4.x for free probably because I joined the game on the cusp or R4 release but had to pay to go to 5.x which as of a couple of days ago is up to 5.2.8

I decided to try Reaper because I was sick of fighting with Cubase and have no intention of going Mac, I'm getting surprisingly good results from a very basic DAW setup.

I have the current release of Reaper on a cheap Vista laptop that I take to rehearsal and then add tracks and polish on the very grunty Win 10 machine in my office.

The mixer is a small USB Peavey and I use Senheiser & Shure mics, generally DI guitar and bass although I do rarely stick a mic in front of an amp for a different dynamic.

Certainly not a professional setup but I am getting good feedback and an album will come out of it in the next 6 months, would be quicker but the three of us have domestic responsibilities that mean we get about 4 hours together each week to collaborate.

I then spend about an hour a day multi tracking guitars and balancing tracks before going back to add the vocals with the other guys

[DrNomis_44]

Not quite true Doc, you get the incremental updates within the release free but you now pay a further $60US for each major update.

I went from 3.x to 4.x for free probably because I joined the game on the cusp or R4 release but had to pay to go to 5.x which as of a couple of days ago is up to 5.2.8




I decided to try Reaper because I was sick of fighting with Cubase and have no intention of going Mac, I'm getting surprisingly good results from a very basic DAW setup.

I have the current release of Reaper on a cheap Vista laptop that I take to rehearsal and then add tracks and polish on the very grunty Win 10 machine in my office.

The mixer is a small USB Peavey and I use Senheiser & Shure mics, generally DI guitar and bass although I do rarely stick a mic in front of an amp for a different dynamic.

Certainly not a professional setup but I am getting good feedback and an album will come out of it in the next 6 months, would be quicker but the three of us have domestic responsibilities that mean we get about 4 hours together each week to collaborate.

I then spend about an hour a day multi tracking guitars and balancing tracks before going back to add the vocals with the other guys

They must have changed things with the upgrades, cause I didn't have to pay anything to upgrade from Reaper 4 to Reaper 5, maybe my situation was similar to yours, or maybe I just forgot.

[dave.king1]

You don't necessarily have to win lotto to be able to afford to build a home Studio, Reaper is a good alternative to ProTools, and the makers of Reaper are Ex-ProTools personnel, they offer a $60.00 non-commercial/small business use License, and best of all, once you have paid the $60.00 licensing fee, you get all subsequent software updates, free for life.

After a bit of reading it would appear that we a both sort of right about the cost of Reaper.

For your $60US you get the release you buy up to x.99 and then the following release from x.01 - x.99 but then have to stunk up for the next two releases and so on.

So in my case I purchased at 3.xx and got 4.xx with the full series of updates included and then had to pay to go to R5.xx

Should now be fully funded until R7.x comes out unless they change the business model.

I'm currently getting some pretty good results with Reaper and my very basic setup



The Squier Thinline, STA-1 & Yamaha bass are the main weapons of choice


In the band room I'm using the same little Peavey mixer & Senheiser mic with a laptop

[DrNomis_44]

After a bit of reading it would appear that we a both sort of right about the cost of Reaper.

For your $60US you get the release you buy up to x.99 and then the following release from x.01 - x.99 but then have to stunk up for the next two releases and so on.

So in my case I purchased at 3.xx and got 4.xx with the full series of updates included and then had to pay to go to R5.xx

Should now be fully funded until R7.x comes out unless they change the business model.

I'm currently getting some pretty good results with Reaper and my very basic setup



The Squier Thinline, STA-1 & Yamaha bass are the main weapons of choice


In the band room I'm using the same little Peavey mixer & Senheiser mic with a laptop

My experience has been a bit different, basically, I'd go to launch the Reaper software, then I'd get a notice saying that a new version is available, so I download it and then go through the installation process, and then I register it using my existing registration file, so far I haven't had to pay an additional $60.00, maybe I haven't updated to a version that does require paying an extra $60.00, I don't know, to be honest, I haven't done much with Reaper yet, because of the learning-curve, I've mostly used FL Studio or Ableton Live 9 Standard.

I just did the upgrade from version 5.21.1, to version 5.28, and I didn't have to purchase a new $60.00 license, probably because I purchased one when I installed version 4.xx, the new installation says it is licensed for personal/small business in my name.

[Dedman]

thanks KB.

[Simon Barden]

Not the greatest home build 'studio' I've seen, he's making some fundamental acoustic errors. What I would like to see is a frequency response of the finished room, as I can't see how it's going to be particularly smooth. It would look to have insufficient bass trapping (there appears to be nothing in the corners at all) and his ceiling 'cloud' seems to be in the wrong place; it's not at the mirror reflection point from his speakers and should be positioned a lot neared the desk (or made a lot bigger). The rockwool panels on the rear wall could easily have been moved away further from the walls in order to make them more efficient.

As a mixing-only environment, his soundproofing measures are rudimentary but sufficient for the purpose. Had he decided to make it a tracking room as well for drums and electric instruments, he would have a lot of issues.

Ventilation is also an issue in spaces like these, and you really do need forced ventilation running through heavily silenced ducts. In Australia, some form of near-silent air-con would also be a real requirement as well.

There seems to be someone who knows about acoustics commenting on those blogs, but he is being told that it isn't really a studio but a 'creative environment'. That is fine, but it really isn't a blog that tells you how to build a good home studio, just a nice room to work in and should be treated as such. But that does seem a bit of a poor excuse. It could have been made a lot better with not a lot more effort or expenditure.