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My New Studio Build (perhaps overly detailed)
- Thread starter silky smoove
- Start date
I've never heard of a Norwegian IKEA...
I’m most of the way through prepping everything. Breaking for breakfast and will get it finished later today. If I can get everything cleaned up I’ll have photos to post by the end of the day.
I might do some videos in the space, but my wife who has a side hustle as a professional photographer, has all of that equipment already, so there’s no need for me to buy anything on that front.
Interesting note on your comment: My mom’s side of the family, last name Christenson, had always believed they were of Swedish descent (partially). I did some research last year and traced roots back to Norway, not Sweden. So in this case, a Norwegian thinking itself a Swede would be right in line with your comment. This thread is getting spooky.I've never heard of a Norwegian IKEA...
A while back, after a period of serious musical un-motivation I joined a new group. Sort of a modern white guys doing funky RnB thing. If you think Allan Stone, Vulfpeck, Eric Hutchinson, Joey Dosik, etc. you’ll be in the right ballpark. I’m 37 and everyone else is 24-28. We’re at different points in our lives, which is important to this story. We were rehearsing at the singer/rhythm guitarist’s house (rental) until a few weeks ago when he and his girlfriend moved out and into an apartment to save some coin each month. The choices at that point were to rent a monthly rehearsal space to the tune of about $800/mo, find a room share with folks that we trusted, or to use one Seattle’s various furnished hourly room rentals which run about $30-50/hr depending on the spot. I had been maintaining that I didn’t want my studio to turn into a rehearsal space, but in light of the logistic and cost implications of the above options, the fact that this project is inspiring musically which is something that had been sorely lacking in the wake of finishing the studio, and because I’m at a point in my life and career where I have the means to bring something more to the table... I installed a rehearsal PA in the studio.
It’s nothing amazing. I went with a pair of Harbinger (GC house brand) MLS900 PA “main and sub on a stick” powered speakers and a Harbinger L1402FX mixer. There’s no need to put drums or bass in the PA in my small space, so all that it has to handle are vocals, keys and occasionally acoustic guitar. This isn’t some amazing world class PA, but it sounds surprisingly good. The subs don’t put out much below the upper and mid bass, but that’s fine for these purposes. I would not use these for a live DJ set or to push a band into a large room, but they get the job done for my modest needs. The “stick” format also keeps room-acoustic interference to a minimum. They didn’t really affect the sound of the room at all to my ears.
Ultimately now I have the option to rehearse any of my projects here if I want. I was resistant to the idea initially, but I think it was a good move.
It’s nothing amazing. I went with a pair of Harbinger (GC house brand) MLS900 PA “main and sub on a stick” powered speakers and a Harbinger L1402FX mixer. There’s no need to put drums or bass in the PA in my small space, so all that it has to handle are vocals, keys and occasionally acoustic guitar. This isn’t some amazing world class PA, but it sounds surprisingly good. The subs don’t put out much below the upper and mid bass, but that’s fine for these purposes. I would not use these for a live DJ set or to push a band into a large room, but they get the job done for my modest needs. The “stick” format also keeps room-acoustic interference to a minimum. They didn’t really affect the sound of the room at all to my ears.
Ultimately now I have the option to rehearse any of my projects here if I want. I was resistant to the idea initially, but I think it was a good move.
Damn! I was guessing that you were opening a new coffee shop in your studio. Seven boxes containing a roaster, cappuccino machine,etc. Guess not.
And you were going to have an open house event so we all could come over.
Did you arrive at your monitor placement by experimentation? They seem further out then I'm used to (using and seeing).
- John
- John
Didn’t you get your invitation in the mail?And you were going to have an open house event so we all could come over.
Nothing recorded yet, and not much of an online presence without recorded material. I’ll remedy that soon.
Most monitors are placed too narrow because people try to squeeze them on their desk. There was a bit of experimentation, but this was the ideal placement from the starting point of an equilateral triangle, the convergence of which is located about 14” behind my head when in the listening position. That should be where everyone starts with monitor placement. From there you make small tweaks until the phantom center is at a perceived equal level of loudness to sources panned hard left and hard right when using appropriate pan law settings in your DAW.
The problem with my interfaces seems to have remedied itself, so I’m going to keep an eye on them and see how it goes. My sub is back at Sweetwater for repair round 2. Hopefully it will be back soon and I can get it in place to fill in the bottom end where my F7s drop off.
I just grabbed a tape measure. My forehead is 45" from the front wall. The side length of the equilateral triangle is roughly 100", which equates to a height (i.e. measure from any angle point to the opposite side's midpoint) of about 86". My head is roughly 12" deep (forehead to back of head). That puts the convergence 29" behind my head. That's 15" deeper than conventional wisdom says to use as a starting point, but I've compensated that by steepening the toe angle and adjusting pan law settings in my DAW to have an equal volume phantom center. I could hit the 14" convergence mark by bringing the monitors in 9" on each side, but then they would conflict with where I needed to place front wall acoustic treatments to deal with room reflections. It's all a compromise, as is the case in every studio, and the current placement has a very usable stereo image. It's not so wide that phantom center has a dip in volume, and it's not so narrow that it has a jump in volume.Ah. Your head is further from the wall then I'm used to, then.
- John
