Choosing a room for a studio / air conditioner

[LiveMusic]

Considering making a music room/studio and actually trying to do it fairly well. My house is 140 ft from a highway (speed limit 35mph) running E-W. My house has a bedroom on the southeast corner and one just west of that adjoining it. There is also a bedroom on the northeast corner. I am wondering how much more road noise the rooms up front closest to the road would have. I am also wondering if windows need to be closed in or somehow covered.

Also, those of you who live in warm climates, how do you handle the a/c running? Central air/heat. I know an engineer who has a nice little studio and he put an outside a/c unit running up to his upstairs studio converted from a bedroom. I forget what it's called but I never hear it, it is a non-issue. But not cheap. But that is his living. TIA!

[keith.rogers]

I'll preface by saying that my space is small (converted kid's bedroom) and only used maybe once or twice/month for recording, and it's just singer/songwriter kind of stuff, if it's not just me trying out something. No professional recording, really. (It's original purpose was for mixing recordings done primarily at clubs and open mics.)

I only have a single window in that small room, so I have a heavy, "blocking" drape that's adequate for most noises; but a plane (small airport a couple miles a way), or lawn equipment, heavy trucks, etc. can still come through. Generally it's just a matter of waiting things out, or comping if something pops up right at the end of a take. For mixing, I just switch to headphones.

I've read that a second pane of thick plexiglass can really cut down on exterior noises, but I haven't done that. I did put insulation foam around the entry door and have a blanket/rug thing I put at the bottom of the door that keeps most other noises in the house from slipping in that way.

Heat & A/C is a different problem, and basically I just get the room where it's comfortable, and then shut it off and try to work fast! I don't do that much recording in the room, TBH, maybe once or twice/month. And, then, it's a matter of working in the spaces between the noises.

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by LiveMusic

My house is 140 ft from a highway (speed limit 35mph) running E-W....
how do you handle the a/c running?

I also live on a busy-ish street. I just record later at night, and as Keith says just wait until a quiet moment and hope nobody roars by on a motorcycle at just the wrong time. If you do window inserts, they need to be as heavy as possible and block the *entire* window tightly. I admit I haven't done that yet, though it would probably help. As for which room? Download a sound-level meter app for your phone and actually measure!

Appliances/AC can be shut off. I think Doug Young has said at times he's cut power to his entire house and was amazed at how much quieter it gets. That's really your only option, unless, as before, you just start recording when it shuts off and hope it doesn't kick on in the middle of your best take.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by LiveMusic

I am wondering how much more road noise the rooms up front closest to the road would have. I am also wondering if windows need to be closed in or somehow covered.

Maybe get a decibel meter and measure the difference. There's really no way for any of us to assess that remotely unless you're going to provide recordings done in both spaces to let us hear what gets captured on the microphones.

Originally Posted by LiveMusic

Also, those of you who live in warm climates, how do you handle the a/c running?

I don't live in very warm climate (Long Island in New York) but my central air runs all summer. It's not loud enough to be an issue for recording. But if yours is too loud, you might want to cap the duct at the source and install a window unit with a remote control. That way you can run a/c while you're not recording and simply hit a button on the remote for when you begin recording.

[LiveMusic]

Originally Posted by jim1960

Maybe get a decibel meter and measure the difference. There's really no way for any of us to assess that remotely unless you're going to provide recordings done in both spaces to let us hear what gets captured on the microphones.



I don't live in very warm climate (Long Island in New York) but my central air runs all summer. It's not loud enough to be an issue for recording. But if yours is too loud, you might want to cap the duct at the source and install a window unit with a remote control. That way you can run a/c while you're not recording and simply hit a button on the remote for when you begin recording.

The reason I asked is because I thought it might be a known thing that a room on the front of the house is probably x-amount louder with road noise vs. one that is 'behind' it, on the back side of the house. I assume that it is quieter but I have no idea how much. Or somebody might say, "It's not much of an issue, road noise is easy to remove from a recording." I don't have a lot of recording expertise. Again, I am assuming but I would think that road noise, say, a big truck going by 35-40 mph is bad, lol. No telling how many go by in a day. State highway.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by LiveMusic

The reason I asked is because I thought it might be a known thing that a room on the front of the house is probably x-amount louder with road noise vs. one that is 'behind' it, on the back side of the house. I assume that it is quieter but I have no idea how much. Or somebody might say, "It's not much of an issue, road noise is easy to remove from a recording." I don't have a lot of recording expertise. Again, I am assuming but I would think that road noise, say, a big truck going by 35-40 mph is bad, lol. No telling how many go by in a day. State highway.

There's no universal constant for that. Every house is different, every road is different, what's around the house that might absorb or redirect noise is different ...too many variables to give you anything even remotely useful unless we can hear it.

Another variable is what you're recording. A car passing by while you're doing vocals might very well be noticeable but the same car going by while you're recording some heavy strumming may not be ...like I said, too many variables.

[KevWind]

To add to what Jim said you can get free iOS and Android DB meters apps.. for a smart phones

[Glennwillow]

I bought this sound pressure meter from Sweetwater and have really appreciated its usefulness. And it's not terribly expensive and I use it a lot, even to help me know what kind of levels I am using during mixdown and mastering.

I think a meter like this could help you ahead of choosing your studio room to see what kind of noise is showing up in each space. I would expect a room off the back of your house, farthest from the street, would be the quietest, but there may be something behind your house that reflects traffic noise back at the house.

My studio room is about 140' from a 25 mph country road, at the end of a dead-end road, and yet I hear noises from any trucks or tractors when I am recording. I also hear overhead airplanes, including both commercial and military jets. Oh yes, and lots of helicopter noise because I am surrounded by all sorts of commercial forestland. For me, I just stop recording when these noises are present. When my one neighbor breaks out his lawn tractor (my wife and I call it the "B-17"), I just have to shut down all my recording, quit, and wait for him to finish. He has the loudest stupid lawn tractor ever invented.

Regarding HVAC noise from heating, cooling or ventilation, I get the room up (or down) to temperature and then shut everything off because the noise all gets picked up very obviously on a recording. I live in the Pacific Northwest near the ocean so it usually doesn't get very warm here, but it's plenty cool (or cold), so for me it's usually heating noise. I don't even have any AC in my studio, which is a room above my garage, separate from the house, but I do have some fans for cooling.

And speaking of being separate from the house, I have found that is helpful, too. Noise of any kind that is not meant to be on the recording is a problem.

I hope some of this is helpful.

- Glenn

[Rudy4]

If you're recording in a less than purpose-built space then you have to work around the problematic aspects or accept them as eccentricities of the process in your particular situation.

A couple of things to remember:

1. If YOU can hear it, so can a microphone.

2. Nearly sub-sonic rumble from air handlers in your HVAC system can play havoc with your recordings even if they aren't obvious noise polluters. It's best to shut off HVAC during actual recording. The low rumble of HVAC fans moves quire easily through ductwork runs, so distance doesn't cure the problem. Systems such as "mini-splits" to satisfy heating and cooling needs can be fairly quiet, with the noisiest part of the system located outside and away from where you are working.

3. If you are practiced up then the actual recording or tracking time can be minimal and editing or mixing can be done at the same time as running your noisy HVAC without too much difficulty.

I always feel like it's much better to work around a less than ideal environment then to postpone creativity until you get a better workspace.

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

1. If YOU can hear it, so can a microphone.

And if you can't hear it, your microphone might.

Your brain does a pretty good job of filtering out extraneous noise--mics do not. You'd be surprised at what the mic is picking up if you put headphones on. I was once doing some recording for a friend in a pretty nice little studio, using a Tascam portable. We got set up, starting checking levels, and I put headphones on to monitor... tick... tick.. tick. "Where's that clock?" "What clock?", everyone asked. It was painfully obvious in the phones, but nobody in the room had heard it. We found the clock and pulled the batteries out. :-)

That said, you can get away with some background noise depending on the material you're recording, like Glenn said. Find the quietest spot you can, do what you can to minimize background noise, but don't let it stop you from recording!

[Sasquatchian]

Even though I have a makeshift isolation room that already had soundproofing under the drywall but also 703 panels on the walls, I run the AC usually for 45 minutes to an hour up until the time I hit the R key. The rumble of the 5 tons of AC on the roof absolutely will be picked up by the mics. And then about every twenty minutes we have an L.A. Metro train whooshing by or the ambulances that run all day long up and down La Brea Ave. Those show up if I'm recording myself but not if I'm recording her in the makeshift iso booth.

Another thing you have to worry about that's bitten us a couple of times is that she like the click to be super loud in her cans and the first thing I always have to check is to make sure none of that is being recorded. If that does happen, it's usually so far down that it's not a problem but I'll re-record because I do not want to deliver files with the click in them no matter how quiet. And then there's iZotope RX, which can remove a multitude of sins in a miraculous way, if needed.