A Control Room AND Live Room Together?

Saudade · 12th September 2004

What are the good and bad points of locating a control room and a Live Room together in a "open concept" studio? We are getting a small iso-booth for vocals.

The booth is about 2.4m X 1.8m sitting in one side of the room itself which is about 4m X 6m approximately (irregular shaped) with a ceiling height higher than 3m.

My idea is to locate the control room equipment right in the middle of the room, while the rest of the band will be in the same room playing through DIs and Line in (keyboards, E. guitars and bass). Only the drumset will be miked up.

The reason for doing this is because this room is pretty much makeshift (for only a few years max, therefore the iso-booth is relocatable), and the shape of the room does not allow for any part of the it to be partitoned off as the control room while still allow the engineer to have eye contact with the whole band. And we want to keep the costs down by saving on anything that involves renovation of the existing structure.

How should this muti-purpose room be treated acoustically to make it suitable both for recording (make the drums sound big and live) and also monitoring during mixing stage (accurate sound).

Should I be getting diffusors or broadband absorbtion, or both? By the way, how do those Realtraps compare to the TruTraps offered by Auralex?

verystrange · 12th September 2004

One of our studios is one big open room. As an engineer I love it. Communication is amazing. We are able to record drums, bass, two guitars, and b3... all miked up no problem. Get some of those 12" thick blocks of foam to make huts and enclose the amps. The room is kinda dead and allows it to be a quieter recording enviroment.

I will say this that some engineers walk in and imediatly say it won't work... but for some it does. Clients ALWAYS end up loving it though.

Works for Nathaniel Kunkel and Daniel Lanois.

Ben

bobby_z · 12th September 2004

verystrange: that sounds very cool, got any pics of it?

verystrange · 12th September 2004

Studios website is www.humdepot.com .

Its a really cool place actually.

Ben

12th September 2004

diffusors can help you get a bigger room sound. they help get rid of early reflections(compared to a flat wall) and create a somewhat more diffuse space.

you shouldnt be too concerned to have everybody go di. you can get drums and guitar in the same room with a few gobos around the amp, but still enough level for people to hear, and there can be very little bleed into the drum mics.

my main concern with a room like that would be getting good mic placement. you cant really monitor your drums mics as you put them up to hear what they sound like. i would check out some of the isolation headphones available. the most attractive ones ive been able to find so far are these ones with 7506 drivers in them. check out this thread.

http://gearslutz.com/board/showthrea...5&pagenumber=4

12th September 2004	#1
Saudade Lives for gear Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Birthplace of the Soundblaster Posts: 631 Thread Starter	A Control Room AND Live Room Together? What are the good and bad points of locating a control room and a Live Room together in a "open concept" studio? We are getting a small iso-booth for vocals. The booth is about 2.4m X 1.8m sitting in one side of the room itself which is about 4m X 6m approximately (irregular shaped) with a ceiling height higher than 3m. My idea is to locate the control room equipment right in the middle of the room, while the rest of the band will be in the same room playing through DIs and Line in (keyboards, E. guitars and bass). Only the drumset will be miked up. The reason for doing this is because this room is pretty much makeshift (for only a few years max, therefore the iso-booth is relocatable), and the shape of the room does not allow for any part of the it to be partitoned off as the control room while still allow the engineer to have eye contact with the whole band. And we want to keep the costs down by saving on anything that involves renovation of the existing structure. How should this muti-purpose room be treated acoustically to make it suitable both for recording (make the drums sound big and live) and also monitoring during mixing stage (accurate sound). Should I be getting diffusors or broadband absorbtion, or both? By the way, how do those Realtraps compare to the TruTraps offered by Auralex?

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12th September 2004	#2
verystrange Gear nut Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Nashvegas Posts: 96	One of our studios is one big open room. As an engineer I love it. Communication is amazing. We are able to record drums, bass, two guitars, and b3... all miked up no problem. Get some of those 12" thick blocks of foam to make huts and enclose the amps. The room is kinda dead and allows it to be a quieter recording enviroment. I will say this that some engineers walk in and imediatly say it won't work... but for some it does. Clients ALWAYS end up loving it though. Works for Nathaniel Kunkel and Daniel Lanois. Ben

12th September 2004	#3
bobby_z Gear Head Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Stockholm Posts: 66	verystrange: that sounds very cool, got any pics of it?

12th September 2004	#5
chikkenguy Guest Posts: n/a	diffusors can help you get a bigger room sound. they help get rid of early reflections(compared to a flat wall) and create a somewhat more diffuse space. you shouldnt be too concerned to have everybody go di. you can get drums and guitar in the same room with a few gobos around the amp, but still enough level for people to hear, and there can be very little bleed into the drum mics. my main concern with a room like that would be getting good mic placement. you cant really monitor your drums mics as you put them up to hear what they sound like. i would check out some of the isolation headphones available. the most attractive ones ive been able to find so far are these ones with 7506 drivers in them. check out this thread. http://gearslutz.com/board/showthrea...5&pagenumber=4