Multiple room studio setup.

[Senad]

Hi guys.
What would you have: More isolation options between instruments and a bit smaller main/live room or
less iso's and a big live room, for the purpose of general band recordings, string quartets etc...
I'm a fan of dryer drum recordings, so I'd think at least a vox booth, drum booth and a live room. Maybe an extra cab iso.
I look at some studio builds with huge live rooms, and they are still going for shorter RT60, of about 1 sec or so. Do you think there's much point in doing that? Although, the size of some of those rooms is probably dictated by the size of orchestras they would be tracking and not so much the RT.
So, what's the general opinion on this sort of stuff?

Cheers!!

[Chinagraf]

I'd rather have a bigger room and create smaller spaces with baffles if I need. You can cobble together a good space for vocals etc within a bigger room. I would consider maybe an iso closet or 2 for amps.

[Senad]

Understood Andy..
But for me, if you need isolation, gobos are not an ideal option. So what do you like the big room for, mainly? Drums?

Cheers

[Chinagraf]

For everything. The thing about small booths is you need to make them so dead to avoid resonances, particularly in the mids which can be problematic. Mind you I had a booth about 3 x 3 that was really dead and it was good for that really dry 70's drum sound. I still think a vocal booth made up of baffles in a bigger room sounds better than a small room. It really depends on the sort of work you do the most.
If you are tracking a band all in I'd prefer to have them all in the room and work on getting the bleed sounding good with things like choice of mics and off axis response / polar patterns rather than have everyone isolated if they all need to be in tiny spaces. That's where the depth comes from.
I also never find myself tracking and thinking "I wish this room was smaller". I do often wish the room was bigger though.

[Senad]

The thing about small booths is you need to make them so dead to avoid resonances, particularly in the mids which can be problematic.

100%!! That's why the booth size should always be the space left after the treatment.

Mind you I had a booth about 3 x 3 that was really dead and it was good for that really dry 70's drum sound.

Cool! In my mind, that is pretty small for a drum booth, and I'd certainly love to have something bigger, if I was to have one. But of course, sometimes you have to work with what you've got. Also, it's not all just in planning for sound. The players should feel pretty comfortable in there too.

I still think a vocal booth made up of baffles in a bigger room sounds better than a small room.

Ahaa..If I understand you correctly, you might like that dryer sound up front, followed by a bit of verb from the other part of the room...almost like the predelay for your verb..

It really depends on the sort of work you do the most.

It surely does. I'm currently looking at a space and trying a few floor plans around...And I'm wanting the space to be used by others, hopefully, not just myself, so I always like to listen to how other people approach things..

Good stuff Andy

[gigpiglet]

i know what you mean thinking about whats "best"
we (after a few rebuilds/ add ons) have ended up with one big/ main room
which gets used for almost everything

there is a small booth/ closet - which gets used everynow and then - and is the answer to "i need some isolation"

and a third space with a very different "live" feel
which gets used least (though is great for piano/ strings/ acoustic instruments you want some life in)

but the big main room is the one that used almost every day, for almost everything

you can always add a little room later (cut off a corner or whatever) but creating a bigger space will be harder

[Senad]

That's Exactly what I've been messing with, drawing a couple of plans up.
CR of about 21m2, vox booth of about 5-6m2 (dead) and a drum booth of about 15-16 (maybe just a short, short RT) and the rest (about 42m2) live room. Ceiling height is pretty good though..Could go up to 6m, but too hard to work on. Plenty of space for trapping, though.