View Single Post
Old 12-06-2008, 06:52 PM   #51
yep
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,019
Default

One more post for the time being:

You need storage and furnishings for your studio. It should be stable and quiet. Things should neither be falling over nor rattling. This does not have to be expensive. Places like Ikea and office-supply stores sell sturdy computer desks that are just as good as dedicated-purpose "studio" desks.

You should play various loud bass tones and suss out your studio for rattles before you start recording. Do this periodically, since things loosen over time. Duct tape, wood glue, silicone caulk, and rags such as old T-shirts are useful for impromptu rattle-fixing.

I think the best studio desks in the long haul are probably just plain, sturdy tables. A big, open, versatile space tends to age better than a preciously-designed contraption with fixed racks and speaker stands and shelves and so on. It's easy to put those things either on top of or underneath a plain table, but it's hard to rearrange stuff that's permanently built in.

Avoid cheap chairs with lots of wheels and adjustments, they are apt to rattle and squeak. Plain wooden or even folding chairs are preferable. Herman Miller Aeron chairs are excellent studio chairs, kind of a de-facto standard, but they're expensive, and complicated knockoffs are sometimes worse than simple, silent hard chairs. Musicians often benefit from a simple bar-height stool without arms, for a half-sitting, half-standing position.

If you are on a tight budget and need racks, they are ridiculously easy to make. Just build a wooden box with sides 19" apart, and screw your gear into the sides. Road worthy? Probably not. But infinitely better than just having the stuff sitting in a pile that will inevitably get knocked over. You can even cut the front at an angle pretty easily if you are marginally competent. A quick sanding and coat of hardware-store varnish and it looks like actual furniture. Best part is you can build them to fit your spaces and put them wherever you want.

Keep your eyes peeled in discount stores for plastic toolboxes and drawer systems. The cheap soft-molded plastic stuff is a great place to store mics, cables, adapters, headphones, tuners, meters, CDs, and all that other stuff. Soft-molded plastic bins might be sticky and crooked to open, but they tend to rattle and resonate less than metal or wooden stuff, unless you are buying fairly expensive.

Unless you are going to forbid drinks in the studio, you should make space for them in places where people are likely to be. The floor is a bad place, but is vastly better than on top of keyboards, mixing consoles, or rack gear. I like little cocktail tables with felt floor sliders on the bottom. They are inexpensive and movable and having a few of them makes it easy to be a fascist about saying that drinks are not allowed on any other surface, ever.

Boom-type and/or gooseneck-type mic stands are a studio necessity, and are sadly expensive, for the stable ones. If you must use the cheap $30 tripod base, then understand that you are putting the life of your mic on the line every time you set it up. Budget accordingly. Do not put an expensive vintage mic on a cheap, flimsy stand. They all get knocked over, most sooner than later. The best deals are probably the heavy metal circular bases that are commonly used in schools and institutions. Plan on either putting them on a scrap of rug or on little sticky felt furniture sliders or something to deal with uneven floors, and to provide a modicum of decoupling.

Please own enough guitar stands to accommodate every guitar that will be in use in your studio. Guitars left leaning against anything other than a guitar stand invariably get knocked over, which screws up the tuning and endangers the instrument.

Bear with me, there is juicier stuff coming.
yep is offline   Reply With Quote