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Studio


Blue Flux Studio

Hints, tips and tricks on studio design and equipment use by Tom of Blue Flux.

The Digital Studio
Guitar & Mikes
Synths & Sampler
Mastering & Monitors
Most Important
Groundhog Studio p1, p2



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.


Bigger Hog Studio Pic
Groundhog Studio
shortly after completion

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.

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.

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 Logo

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.
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
Fitting Rockwool on inside ...



... sandwiched by 12 mm MDF board

The finished article


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.

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
Floor and far wall carpeted

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 - 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


Click here for Groundhog Studio - Page 2:
Cables & Connectors, Patchbay, Equipment Placement, Final Verdict


The Digital Studio
Guitar & Mikes
Synths & Sampler
Mastering & Monitors
Most Important
Groundhog Studio p1, p2




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Copyright Enthalpy Publications 2009