New music space - or 'A long list of compromises'

[McCreed]

Hi McCreed, that's an interesting question and probably depends a bit on how good a job I've done.

I only asked, because it seems you'vs gone to significant extremes with the treatment for the typical "home recording" scenario.

btw - just an observation, not a judgement

[blinddrew]

There's a fairly standard theory that the order of importance for recording is:
Material
Performance
Room
Mic position
Mic choice
esoteric gubbins like pre-amps etc...

Now material and performance are all in my hands, I can't afford any expensive mics or pre-amps, so this should give me a decent chance to test line 3 three of the theory.

Basically all the treatment and additional work has cost a few hundred pounds. Not to be sniffed at for sure, but compared to a 'decent' mic or two, or even a few premium plug-ins, it's in the same ballpark.
So in a few weeks we'll find out how it all works together.

[McCreed]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That all makes sense.

I might add that I'm also very jealous!

However, my level of sound engineering skills would fall way short of such a flash facility.
I've always been better on the input end of any microphone.

[blinddrew]

I am fully expecting that the first I will learn from the room is how poor my previous recording and mixing efforts were.

[Simon Barden]

Or else how good they were and how much money you could have saved...

[Marcel]

Bit late to the party, just read the whole thread, and wow, what a project... kudos in getting it done

I had great interest in your baffles, bass traps and room construction and I think they will serve you well. It all adds up to classic LEDE room treatment (Live End Dead End) that is so typical of so many audio studios....

The one huge surprise to me is your choice of facing the dead end, which is the reverse to much of my experience. In most LEDE control room/studios there is a huge piece of glass between the main monitors which effectively forces that end of the room to be the live end which forces all the acoustic treatment to be behind the mixing listening position. The theory I was taught back in the mid '80's at audio engineering school was the glass helps define the stereo image and there are nil reflections arriving at the engineers ears from behind, Your studio has no glass yet still effectively has a live end and dead end, so with you facing backwards to the way I was taught it will be interesting how you find using this setup and how your mixes sound outside the room.

[Simon Barden]

The early reflections from the mirror points are the most important ones, which by the positioning of the absorbing panels to reduce those, means that you do pretty much face into the 'dead' end.

Also, the space is relatively small and there is no glass panel through to the recording area or the space for soffit mounting speakers.

This type of setup certainly works, and is endorsed by many of the studio acoustic experts and studio owners that hang around the Sound on Sound forums.

[blinddrew]

What Simon said. I did a fair bit of research on this before setting out and I believe the principles are sound. I'll get some measurements in due course and confirm/cryintomybeer accordingly.
It's worth pointing out of course that the big window into the live room isn't primarily there as an acoustic feature but a relationship one - a lot of studios now do without and replace it with a camera and screen at each side, allowing you to put it in a sensible place (acoustically) and removing the need to compensate for the audio bridge between the rooms (or even the need for the rooms to be adjacent).

[DarkMark]

How’s the surrounding garden looking?

[blinddrew]

Covered in sawdust and shavings at the moment but in time it will be a nice little courtyard.