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Studio 615 gets renovated for 2011!!!

kaputsport

kaputsport

Nov 14, 2007
2,652
27
45
Carlisle, PA
www.myspace.com
Disclosures
Atypical, not a typical...
#1
Ok, I know we are not a total pro studio, and we are not really anything special, but our studio is a lot of things to us. We write, rehearse, produce, record and play there. We hang out there, and play PS3 as a group. It is a home away from home.

We decided to renovate the studio to accomplish a few goals:

1: Better sound for recording/mixing
2: More comfortable atmosphere
3: More inspirational location to write
4: More useful space

EDIT: I found more of the original studio and gear...

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This should give you an idea of the color scheme we had going on. It was cool, but we did this 8 years ago, and wanted a change.

We started this project last thursday, and have been working on and off for the past week. As of right now we have done the following changes, in order, pics to follow:

-Removed all sound treatment
-Removed carpet
-Recovered walls with drywall filler and sanded the room
-Painted walls
-Floor treatment installation
-Trim installation
-Window treatment
-Started Ceiling sound treatment

On to the pics. I'll post comments on them, sum up the ideas we have for the room, and update as more work gets done.

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This is the owner, pondering what we are going to do to remove adhesive from the walls and ceiling after tearing it all down...

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A shot of the walls and floor, no treatment, no carpet and TONS of Liquid Nails to remove...

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Me standing next to over 200 sq. ft. of Auralex foam...

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Colors and floor... Walls are Matte finish.

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Dad slacking while painting.

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Room painted, hardwood being installed.

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Floor is done, walls are painted.

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Bamboo shades, act as deflectors and allow some light in. $5.99 at Ollie's... Fit like a glove inside the widow frame, so no hardware showing.

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Auralex finds a new home.

Our goals were atmosphere, and comfort. This is a 11x22 garage space we use for a rehearsal studio/man cave. We are limited to what we can do, but we are working further to improve the rooms performance. The following are things we are finishing/adding before we are done:

-2'x4' Owens Corning Acoustic treatments (16 panels)
-Ceiling will be covered in Auralex (except a small 8" surround) which will be used for recessed lighting
-Hardwiring snake/speaker cables and other cables for rehearsal
-Modular vocal booth built into a wall (you will have to trust me, this is going to be trick)
-Rewiring our console to allow up to 22 channels in "live" and sync all MIDI devices
-Track lighting installation (for accent wall, which will hold all instruments when not in use for display)
-Personal touches throughout.


I'll update as we can. Saturday we are looking to build the OC panels and hang them, and bring our gear back in. Should be lots of fun.

Our budget was only $700 for the renovation, and so far we are at $680. We have all parts/pieces needed, but might spend a little over for add ons.

BTW, one of the 4 walls is painted a darker color that the others. We did this as the display/accent wall to make the room look larger. Let me know what you think...
 
#6
It's looking good. I like the floors and wall paint scheme.

Is the floor crooked? It looks like it is in one of those pictures but it's probably just the lighting and angles playing a trick on me.

I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures once it's completed! :)
 
#7
So a long saturday has come to an end, and we couldn't be happier... Well, we would be if this was done, but we are getting close!!!!!

We will start with the small details first, and work our way up to the bigger things.

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First up was lighting/electrical wiring. We prepped our boxes and wire and made sure everything was working fine.

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Lots to connect and get right...

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Track lighting installed, working on the triple light we have for the drums and rear wall.

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New floor mat...

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Location of the junction box...

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Foam and floor complete... Notice the trim.

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Lights and wiring done.

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Shot from the floor with the beginning of the PA shelves...

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Closer look at the shelves in production.

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By installing these custom shelves, we save having to use floor monitors, or PA speaker poles to take up floor space.

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Frames for the sound material panels.

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Here is what is going in it. 47x23x3 panels.

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Panels being wrapped in cloth to accent the room.

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Here you can see some completed panels. There are 4 8x2 panels, and 12 4x2 panels. The long ones are going to be dual purpose. One will be a bass trap across the recording desk, one is going at the ceiling above the garage door (which is now framed and stationary) and the other two are going to hang on the garage door (they were made shorter to fit with the PA speakers on the shelves and look balanced). The second trick is the two shorter ones can be removed and used as surrounds on the wall for a vocal booth.

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More panels...

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Size comparison... The TV is a 32" Akai, and my brother is laying in front of a few, and he is 6' tall... You get the idea. Tins of acoustic treatment surface area...

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Stuffing the panels worked out quite nicely.

These make a hug difference in sound overall. Not only will your neighbors love you for it, your ears will too. Even the tiny little TV speakers sounded rich and full with a little treatment nearby.

Two more evenings and we will be done. Panels are going to get hung while tuning the room with an RTA. Once the rack is rebuilt and installed, I'll give a tour of the facility, and show off what we are working with.

More updates to follow on Tuesday and Wednesday.
 
#8
theory028 said:
It's looking good. I like the floors and wall paint scheme.

Is the floor crooked? It looks like it is in one of those pictures but it's probably just the lighting and angles playing a trick on me.

I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures once it's completed! :)
Click to expand...

Your eyes are playing slight tricks on you. The room is not 100% square, it is better for recording. While it is mostly even, there is a slight change after the old chimney in the room.

The room is much more relaxing, and better suited for this type of work. I'll be taking tons of pictures and I'll do a studio tour when we are done.

Still wel within the $1000 cap we placed on this renovation. We are $740 in and bought some rugs and some materials.

Should stay well under and finish on Wednesday.
 
#13
Tuesday night was an interesting evening. We made some progress which by every stretch was minimal, but it was the first real step towards completion. Again, start small and you know the drill...

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Dimmer switch installed

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High...

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Low...

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First panel installed. I know it looks kinda crooked, but I assure you it is level... My phone was not level, and the foam was corrected.

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Bass trap #1...

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Bass trap #2

We finished the main wall and assembled the desk, rack and computer with monitors. We need to polish up the wiring and connections and I'll show off the setup. We had a small listening session, and everything sounded incredible. Balance across the frequencies, tone was great. Pink Floyd's "The Wall" sounded incredible, as well as Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" and other artists we listened to.

Tonight, more panels, instruments and the finishing touches... Hopefully.

EDIT!!!!!! I found more photos of the original studio, so I'll update at the beginning.
 
#15
Paint was around $100 for everything.
Roxul was $44 a pack of 8 times 2
Fabric ran $60 or so.
Wood frames were $2.67 each 8' piece
Hardwood floor was $0.69 sq. ft (This is the money saver)
Track lighting (Free from 10 years ago)
Studio Foam was reused, so Free
Rugs (you'll see these later tonight) were $20 each
Hardware ran $100 give or take

It really wasn't that bad. We have done a Sunday, a saturday and a tuesday and tonight. Some things were don'e by the owner at his own time, little things completed like trim, or some wiring.

I'll update tonight with some high resolution pics of the completed room, or as far as we get. I'll also do a run down of some of the gear we use, and show off what we have going for us.
 
#18
So, we spent the better part of the last week in our free time finishing up the room. I'll start with more construction pictures, and work to the finished product...

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Here are a few panels up, and the desk assembled and we are listening to what they do to change the room...

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PA shelves completed...

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Modular vocal booth assembled. The outer panels are from the back wall (garage door)

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Surfing Talkbass while taking a break.

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32" TV shelf completed.

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TV installed. This works for everything from second monitor, to Directv and PS3.

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Here is a shot with Muse on TV.

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This is more of a rehearsal/writing studio, so rigs are a must...

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This was all the completed work from last Wednesday. Rigs, TV/monitor/Desk/Monitors/Rack/Carpet/Wiring completed.

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Drums added.

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Recording desk in action. Logic spread across a 21" iMac and 32" Akai TV.

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Bass rig complete with pedal board, cabs, head and rack gear and the Pedulla on the stand.

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Guitar rig assembled with pedal board, Home made amp, Peavey Classic 30 ($40 craigslist score) and Marshall Half stack (6100 series and 1960 cab)

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Drums and PA system and rack installed.

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Over head shot of the drums.

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Ernie Ball Axis in front of the combos.

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Guitarist Board (Freshly remodeled)

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PA with additional 8 channel preamp, Home built bass/guitar preamp and Mic drawer.

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Rick, my brother (the owner)

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Shot to show perspective on Drum placement and PA speaker placement in the room.

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My rack. (Marshall DBS 7400 en route to fill the gap)

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Vocal mic placed in front of Vocal booth center (10 points if you can ID the mic)

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My board (getting redone very soon, with new additions.)

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Recording rack (MOTU 828 MKII, and Behringer headphone amp, Behringer 8 channel preamp, Vocal preamp, power distribution, etc)

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Another shot...


All in all it went pretty smooth. We have just over $800 in the room renovation, and plenty more in the gear. Took a little over 5 days to complete from start to finish with 3 guys. We have done some sample listening and recording and it sounds incredible in there. The drums are so fresh sounding. We will update with a recorded song as soon as we get the chance to construct something, hopefully this wednesday.

Thanks for looking. If you need help with your studio, please let us know. We would be glad to lend a hand.
 

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