raggamuffin
Newbie
Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Posts: 4
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| Building a Commercial Studio from scratch |
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Me and two others are looking to get a loan in order to lease premises and build up a studio to be rented out by the hour to musicians in manchester. can anyone give me a run down on the amount of money i'm likely to need, given that ALL equipment is yet to be bought. if someone can give me a list of what's needed, both in terms of equipment and in terms of the business plan, i'd be very happy.....thanx |
Tue Jun 15, 2004 12:48 am |
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AUdIoCoUrSeS
Joined: 31 Oct 2002
Posts: 2014
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| Big Project |
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hmmmm
Fridge full of beer?
Seriously though, this sounds like a school project I've seen many do before.
The way forward is to do your homework and find out what studios are actually using. You need to focus though on your specific area like what niche market etc, typicaly a studio that is famous for rock bands would not be equipped the same as a studio for making hi-hop or garage.
Once you have focussed on your "niche" (which could be catch all) then search for what studios have in their equipment list then start to work out why they have it.
Big project which needs a lot of thought.
Does thet help?
_________________
It's all in the ears. - Learn the concepts not the software.
Audio Courses is a way into the music business for you
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Mon Jun 21, 2004 3:41 pm |
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ETB
Eager Beaver
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 16
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| Professional Studio from the Ground Up |
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I'm in a similar situation, working with a financial backer to develop a studio, I've done my research and the equipment I've chosen is as follows:
Mixing and recording:
Behringer Eurodesk MX9000
Alesis ADAT HD-24
Microphones:
Shure PG 6-Piece Drum Mic Kit
MXL 900/991 Recording Mic Package
Monitoring:
Kustom KSC10ML Stage Monitor
Behringer HA4700 Powerplay® Pro Headphone Amp
JVC HA-G55 Headphones
AKG K240DF Studio Headphones
Peavey PR-10 2-Way 10" Speaker Cab
Nady XA-900 Pro Stereo Power Amp (Not too keen on Nady but it seems to be a reasonable power amp for rehearsal foldback monitors)
(All equipment probably thru Musicians Friend...)
As an initial set up. the studio is also going to be used for a rehersal space for bands. we're looking at a design similar to the one found here:
http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/images/Studio%202N.gif
it needs to be big enough to house a 5 piece band for rehersals and we're planning on having a grand piano or baby grand in the studio as well as a drum kit set up permanently.
The only thing that I'm not certain about is the cabling routing, I still need to asses how many points we need in each studio room. Also I'm having to asses the options for a mastering console and CD recorder to put the final mix onto. Any suggestions would be apprectiated. |
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Thu Oct 28, 2004 10:27 am |
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AUdIoCoUrSeS
Joined: 31 Oct 2002
Posts: 2014
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| Wiring |
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Hey sounds like a wonderful project that!
The wiring is essential for sure, and you would want to forward think this carefully. The last thing you need is to be drilling holes a year down the road and spoiling your sound-proofing.
When you mention wiring are you talking about mains, or signal distribution for audio feeds and headphone looms etc?
_________________
It's all in the ears. - Learn the concepts not the software.
Audio Courses is a way into the music business for you
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Thu Oct 28, 2004 4:17 pm |
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ETB
Eager Beaver
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 16
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Wiring wise it's pretty much the whole setup, I'm working at the moment on designing a patchbay for the control room... the more I get into it the more I realize I have to research more! I've added to the equipment for the Control Room; Compressors, Effects units etc. and am trying to sort out the exact requirements there.
I'm thinking that 3 Phase power will be the best option, allowing me to isolate the seperate phases to minimize interference.
On the input side of things I'm needing to figure out a wiring plan for the mic and instrument inputs from each room to the control room.
monitor wise I have to figure on a standard stage monitor setup in the main studio for rehearsals, as well as headphone looms for recording monitoring. the headphone loom will need to run to the secondary studio and the vocal booth as well.
pretty dang big project the more I dig into it!
thanks heaps
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Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:03 pm |
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AUdIoCoUrSeS
Joined: 31 Oct 2002
Posts: 2014
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| Thoughts |
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Yes it is interesting!
quote:
Wiring wise it's pretty much the whole setup, I'm working at the moment on designing a patchbay for the control room... the more I get into it the more I realize I have to research more! I've added to the equipment for the Control Room; Compressors, Effects units etc. and am trying to sort out the exact requirements there.
What are you going for here, how much space do you have for your patchbay, and are you working in balanced or unbalanced mode? In addition are you planning on having all of your studio inputs and outputs on the panel? - is useful!
quote:
I'm thinking that 3 Phase power will be the best option, allowing me to isolate the seperate phases to minimize interference.
Makes sense, but make sure it's impossible for a fault to occur between the phases, otherwise you got a big shock going on.
quote:
On the input side of things I'm needing to figure out a wiring plan for the mic and instrument inputs from each room to the control room.
Yes your mic inputs are best being hard wired right into your desk, you can signal route from there, so I guess you need to think about a large panel in the main live room for all your mic inputs hard-wired to the desk. If you are having more than one live room you can have additional input boxes in each room terminating near your main live room input box, with tails, thus plugging them in when ya like. - an idea anyway.
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monitor wise I have to figure on a standard stage monitor setup in the main studio for rehearsals, as well as headphone looms for recording monitoring. the headphone loom will need to run to the secondary studio and the vocal booth as well.
Yes so you need an amp room. You would feed the amps from your auxiliaries on the desk and then have the amp outputs feed into the associated wedges for rehearsals, and/or headphones. This loom will carry large signals so it's a good idea to keep them away from mic lines.
Keep us posted on your thoughts.
_________________
It's all in the ears. - Learn the concepts not the software.
Audio Courses is a way into the music business for you
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Fri Oct 29, 2004 12:07 pm |
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ETB
Eager Beaver
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 16
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| Re: Thoughts |
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Thanks heaps AUdIoCoUrSeS, your input's helping a lot with the planning.
quote:
What are you going for here, how much space do you have for your patchbay, and are you working in balanced or unbalanced mode? In addition are you planning on having all of your studio inputs and outputs on the panel? - is useful!.
Are you able to view AutoCAD drawings? I'm working in AutoCAD at the moment to design the patchbay. I can email you the file if you'd like. Room for the patchbay isn't really an issue, we'll likely have enough room to put in 8 24-channel balanced patchbays initially and then expand in the future. I may need to put some unbalanced patchbays in also depending on the effects units etc.
The idea is to have all the inputs and outputs on the panel, it'll take quite a while to setup but it'll be a lot better in the long run
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Makes sense, but make sure it's impossible for a fault to occur between the phases, otherwise you got a big shock going on.
I'm planning on getting a professional electrician in for this part... not gonna even mess with 3-Phase!!
quote:
Yes your mic inputs are best being hard wired right into your desk, you can signal route from there, so I guess you need to think about a large panel in the main live room for all your mic inputs hard-wired to the desk. If you are having more than one live room you can have additional input boxes in each room terminating near your main live room input box, with tails, thus plugging them in when ya like. - an idea anyway.
I hadn't even thought of approaching it that way. I'll probably end up doing it exactly like that! I was on another tangent, thinking of a switchbay to switch from studio 1 or 2 or vocal booth for each input... Messy!! but that sounds like a much cleaner and easier solution
quote:
Yes so you need an amp room. You would feed the amps from your auxiliaries on the desk and then have the amp outputs feed into the associated wedges for rehearsals, and/or headphones. This loom will carry large signals so it's a good idea to keep them away from mic lines.
I'm planning on patching the aux sends from my board into the patch rack so that I can use them for effects etc. So I'll be able to simply patch them into the Amps for monitoring (the amp inputs'll be in the patchbay also)... does this sound workable or could you suggest a better way to do it?
Thanks again for your time!
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Fri Oct 29, 2004 12:36 pm |
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AUdIoCoUrSeS
Joined: 31 Oct 2002
Posts: 2014
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| Design |
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Ok I had a look at the design.
I knocked this diagram up real quick to give you an idea of how I might do this. This is based only on 24 tracks, 6 aux, 8 groups and the 2 track outputs (for your master).
I wasnt sure what you are to master onto so i mapped it as a computer hard drive, I figured you might go that way, considering the cheap and flexible mastering software around.
I also though you might get into computer MIDI and audio so a few ideas on that added too.
This is in no way meant to be how you do it, but to serve as fuel for conceptual thinking.
Notice there is lots of half normalling.
Half normalling means that the signal flows from the top socket to the bottom with nothing patched in. Very handy. You can also "borrow" a signal from the top row by plugging a lead in, patching where ya like, the signal still flows to the bottom. However, patching a lead into the bottom row breaks the connection between top and bottom.
I may be teaching you to suck eggs here so I'll leave it as this for now.
The 2 track outs, are just paralled, so you can master to various devices simultaneously.
_________________
It's all in the ears. - Learn the concepts not the software.
Audio Courses is a way into the music business for you
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Fri Oct 29, 2004 7:45 pm |
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ETB
Eager Beaver
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 16
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Thanks heaps AUdIoCoUrSeS!
that's given me some more to think about and consider. I've got experience with the recording side of things but the set up of a big studio like this is new to me. In the past I've been using other studios etc and the biggest scale of setup I've done was a few effects units and compressors hooked to a Yamaha MD-8 a couple of years back.
This sure is a great learning experience for me though and I appreaciate your advice!!
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Mon Nov 01, 2004 1:56 pm |
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