"Studio" coming together

[clintj]

Finally cleared out some space in the basement for the loud instruments. Moved the amps and the rest of the electrics into one room, installed some more hangers, and otherwise consolidated stuff. I'm still trying various locations to balance out the amp sound, but maybe now I can set up a real workstation to record something that sounds good. The previous room was really boomy and bassy sounding when the volume was turned up.

[terrapin]

I wanna live there......

[muscmp]

certainly have things covered with the major types of guitars and amps!

play music!

[Bobby1note]

What,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, no beer fridge?

That's a great project ClintJ. I've been working on a similar project myself, for my retirement years. A fully equipped music-room, where we (visiting musicians) can have impromptu jams at the drop of a hat. All the musicians need, is to bring themselves, because the gear's all here. Guitars, basses, amps, full PA with sub-woofers and LED stage-lighting, 6-piece acoustic drum-kit, Latin-percussion station, and keyboard. We get as many as a dozen people playing, and have a ball doing it. We haven't gotten into any serious recording yet, but the gear for that is already in place. The tough part is, getting everyone on the same page, when deciding what we're going to play or record.

Some may think that full LED stage-lighting is overkill, but you'd be surprised at the impact it has on room-atmosphere. When the house lights go down, and the stage-lights come up, the joint is really rockin'. You'd swear you're doing a club gig. Volume is at club-level, but we've never had a single complaint from neighbors. In fact, we even get cars passing by, who'll come and park in front of the house, to watch us play through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Enjoy your project;;; you're off to a great start.

[Clydeslide]

I can see you replacing those old amps with a couple of speaker cabs and then a few new home builds in the future

Looks good.

[clintj]

Originally Posted by Clydeslide

I can see you replacing those old amps with a couple of speaker cabs and then a few new home builds in the future

Looks good.

Thanks. I can see a couple of more amps at some point in the future, maybe a blackface Fender or an early Marshall. After thinking about the room some more, I may set up part of the PA gear for band rehearsals. I already have the drum kit set up down there, eating up a large part of the room. Add a DI for the bass (it's only a Squier Affinity, but it plays the right notes), maybe a couple of pieces of acoustic treatment, some new paint for the walls....

[Dru Edwards]

What a great place, Clint!!! Is the amp on the right the 5e3 build?

[Bobby1note]

Originally Posted by clintj

Thanks. I can see a couple of more amps at some point in the future, maybe a blackface Fender or an early Marshall. After thinking about the room some more, I may set up part of the PA gear for band rehearsals. I already have the drum kit set up down there, eating up a large part of the room. Add a DI for the bass (it's only a Squier Affinity, but it plays the right notes), maybe a couple of pieces of acoustic treatment, some new paint for the walls....

Have you got an equalizer? You will need one if you're playing loud. (keeping up with the acoustic drum-kit). You'll also want a few super-cardioid vocal mics.

We're playing in a 36'x32' L-shaped room, and we're not holding the drummer back whatsoever. We're even mic'ing kick, snare, and rack toms. A decent GEQ (dbx 1231 in our case) solved a lot of issues. We also had to do some pretty radical channel-EQ cuts at the console (A&H MixWiz3 16;2), in order to get the room volume at club-level, without feedback.

The biggest issue will come when you're trying to control the backline volume (guitar amps). We had one guitarist in particular, who cranked his amp to the point of ruining the mix. It sounded fine from where he was standing,,,, but to the rest of the room, it sounded awful. (ice-pick highs). I bought a few tilt-back amp-stands, and aimed the amp at his head,,, and believe me,,,, he turned that amp down pretty darned quick. It sounds great now.

[clintj]

Yeah, that's the Deluxe. I had it in the corner first - bad idea with an open back combo like that. It set up huge booming reflections all over the room. Where it is now, it reflects back off the door and gets a nice diffusion around the room. The others are mostly solid state modeling and practice amps.

The PA rack has a dual 15 channel eq, and I've hardly ever had to touch it for the monitors. Careful placement of monitors and keeping stage volume down is more effective, IME. The room is not huge by any stretch. It's a spare bedroom, but everything fits pretty well.

[moon]

Originally Posted by clintj

The previous room was really boomy and bassy sounding when the volume was turned up.

Small-ish, square-shaped rooms are plagued by standing waves (and other acoustic problems). Bass traps should be easy to make though.