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Blue
Flux Studio
Hints, tips and tricks on studio design and equipment use by Tom of
Blue Flux.
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Groundhog
Studio -
Page 1
Most recording studios
go through a continuous process of improvement, updating, and
obsolescence.
My studio is no different, and has been through a considerable amount
of
evolution. When moving house I had to face the
ultimate
challenge of re-building my recording facility from scratch. The first
part of these ever-growing pages
thus deals with the lessons, surprises, and frustrations I experienced
in the process of installing my new Groundhog Studio.
In the same spirit of change Groundhog Studio has more recently been
upgraded to feature DAW-based audio and Midi recording. The results of
this can be seen on the The
Digital Studio page.
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Groundhog Studio
shortly after completion
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| Anybody following
Blue Flux's developments, most likely on these pages, will remember
that
after leaving our home of many years in South Wales, UK, we relocated
to
Cologne in Germany in 2000. Though both Jill and I benefited
greatly
from the change of scenery, the downside was that our flat in
Cologne did not lend itself to the construction of a proper studio. The
interim solution became what was fondly known as Piglet Studio,
one half of a smallish bedroom, accommodating hard disc recorder, some
outboard gear, and a microphone.
This uncomplicated set-up was the cradle
for the Blue Flux album "Sugarbeat",
a guitar-only effort I am very fond of, because simplicity, as always,
is beautiful. However, for someone used to a fully-fledged
studio and production set-up, I knew that this state of affairs could
only
ever be a temporary solution.
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Piglet Studio (2001) - which fails to impress,
other than by its
sheer functionality. Here all of "Sugarbeat" was recorded in 2000 &
2001.
Monitoring was carried out through Logitech active
PC speakers plus
subwoofer - useful, but way too coloured for final mastering. Hence
the
use of the AKG HEARO
888 headphones.
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On the Move Again
We eventually decided to trade up from flat to house in 2002. I'm not
saying that studio space was the main reason. But it certainly came a
very close second.
Now it must be said that apart
from being more spacious
than their British counterparts, most German houses have another thing
going for
them
- a decent cellar. Unlike the handful of British cellars I've ever
seen,
which were damp, earthen-walled and a wee bit limited by their 5 foot
high ceiling, the ones
they build here could be mistaken for a British living room, only
bigger.
A prospective studio owners paradise ...
Groundhog Studio
<>The cellar room I earmarked for our new
recording facility, aptly called Groundhog Studio, is 4.20 by 6.0
meters,
with a 2.25 meter high ceiling. At some stage it must have been some
kind
of cellar bar (Germans are known to be keen on these), hence the
brick-faced wall with a wooden bar top on the left. The floor is tiled
in 70s
orange and brown ceramic tiles - noice.
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Left side of Groundhog Studio to be, still with clobber
of previous
occupant. Note the "bar feature" with disco mirror ball above, and sink
far right. |
First Draft
The draft
below shows
the classic single room layout, with HD recorder and mixing desk
against the wall, and the keyboard rack at right angles. The recording
area for guitar and vocals is on the left, and my original intention
was
to leave this uncarpeted, to promote a brighter, more jangley guitar
sound.
However, I soon ditched that idea, since the browny orangey tiles just
looked too awful against the blue carpet. Anyway, the brick faced left
wall should help to brighten up the sound, and, if needed, a pro-temp
piece of MDF board could always be placed on the floor.
Having been blessed with a sizeable room
also meant I could opt for a utility area (on right) to stash away
guitars,
cables, and stands. Despite being a cellar room, daylight has not been
banished completely. Sloping soil elevations outside facilitate a
double
window big enough to defuse jokes about studio tans and the warped
body-clock of
recording
musicians.
| Doors & Windows
Both windows in the
room are double glazed, and provide a fair amount of attenuation.
However,
they hark back to 1975, and my impression is that today's double
glazing
is more adept at containing sound. Hence I added a third pane of glass,
which fitted snugly into a handy
recess in the inner frames, to leave an air gap between panes of about
20
mm. The glass was secured with builder's silicon (the non-smelly type)
and wooden strips on the frame faces. Certainly cheaper
than fitting new windows, and the extra soundproofing is very noticable
indeed.
The door leading up to the garden was a bit
more of a problem. Being an outside facing door, it was built solidly
enough,
but had 4 thinnish panes of glass fitted to admit daylight. A noise
leak
if ever I saw one! The option was to either fit a new door - hassle,
expense
- or to upgrade soundproofing of the existing door. Clearly the latter
was the correct course of action for any self-respecting studio owner
with
an eye on future equipment purchases ...
Original door
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Fitting Rockwool on inside ...
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... sandwiched by 12 mm MDF
board
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The finished article
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The pictures above show the upgrading of
the door. MDF really is quite a good soundproofing material, and
together
with the Rockwool fitted behind the glass panels and some new rubber
seals
between door and frame I'm pleased to say that sound leakage through
the
door has been substantially reduced.
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| Floor, Ceiling, and
Walls
The
original floor
was tiled, so the decision to lay carpet was an obvious one. Not quite
so obvious might have been my decision to also carpet the far wall.
This
is the wall where the speakers are mounted, and opinions differ whether
to acoustically
treat this wall, or the opposite one. Experience with my previous
studio has shown that at least one of these two walls needs to be
treated
in some way.
Carpeting the speaker wall means not only
breaking up standing waves (at least their mid-to-high frequency
content,
since carpet is not dense enough for the low frequency content), but
also
absorbing some of the off-axis reflections from the speaker
cabinets.
Since the room is fairly deep, reflections off the opposite,
non-treated
wall have not proved to be a problem thus far. In case they should,
some
additional absorption material could be fitted there later.
Those lovely tiles
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Floor and far wall carpeted
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The question sometimes arises as to why
not to just carpet (or otherwise treat) all walls and ceiling, to
minimize
any spurious reflections etc. I guess one reason not to is that
monitoring
and mixing in a semi-anechoic chamber would lead to artificially
compensating
for the absence of natural reflections by adding excessive reverb and
EQ.
After all, there has to be some relation to the acoustic environment
the
average punter will find himself in when listening to your music.
That's
my theory, anyway, but I'm prepared to stand corrected if anyone has a
scientifically superior explanation.
The ceiling is made from solid re-inforced
concrete, and really quite thick and hence soundproof. Good luck, then
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no additional work required here. On the downside: try drilling holes
into it! This incidentally goes for most walls and ceilings in
German
houses - concrete rules OK! My advice to anyone moving here from timber
frame or breeze block land - buy an industrial strength hammer drill,
and
start arm wrestling.
... Continued on page 2
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 Click
here for Groundhog Studio - Page 2:
Cables & Connectors,
Patchbay, Equipment Placement, Final Verdict
Copyright Enthalpy Publications 2009
         
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