Recording - October 2013 - 46

A Veteran Makes It Look Easy

By Jess Repanshek

2

1

In the September 2013 issue of Recording I told the
tale of a shed on a musician’s property that was converted into a functional studio to serve the needs of the
musician/owner, Patrick Hogg, and his band Asimov.
At the other end of the spectrum, industry veteran Jeff Thomas, a professional audio engineer,
also recently completed his project studio in his
house. His years of knowledge and experience led
him to take a somewhat different approach. What
Jeff had in mind was creating a studio with a frequency response as flat as possible, a comfortable
room for mixing, mastering, and maybe a little bit
of recording.
With the advantage of a just-built house, he was
able to configure a few things ahead of time to save
a lot of hassle, things like putting up spray foam insulation in the walls and ceiling (see Figures 1 and 2),
larger-than-standard air ducts, and—of course—the
necessary power runs. The room wasn’t destined to
be perfect, but to be completely usable without bothering the neighbors and, most importantly, his wife!
Solar or grid power?
Electrical power is of prime importance in any studio. Jeff’s house is designed to run primarily off of
solar power, and there were some concerns regarding the transition from solar to grid to solar, depending on the time of day and weather. Jeff chose to
purchase two Monster PowerPro 3500 power conditioners. These conditioners offer programmed
power-up and power-down. The digital gear is the
first to get power, then the monitors are booted six
seconds after that. The units are programmed to do
the same in reverse for shutdown.
Similar to Patrick’s studio described in my
September 2013 article, Jeff had unique power
runs installed, a set of 20 amp lines to the studio,
and another to the room where he planned to have
the guitar amps. He also made sure to run the lighting on a separate line, apart from the audio gear.
46

RECORDING October 2013

3a

3b

Know thy room
Before moving gear into the studio, Jeff shot the room to check out the frequency response and low-end resonances. He used a Native Instruments
Komplete 6 interface and an inexpensive Behringer ECM 8000 microphone
to do the measurements; free software (from realtraps.com) allowed him to do
waterfall measurements to check for room nodes and standing waves. See
Figures 3a and 3b for “before” and “after” plots.
Fix thy room
Jeff’s budget for the build-out was roughly $2500; he cut down on a lot of
the cost by doing nearly everything himself. He saved a lot of time and hassle
by picking up a compressed-air nail-gun/stapler and a jig, from a company

4



http://www.realtraps.com

Recording - October 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - October 2013

Recording - October 2013
Fade In.
Contents
Talkback.
Fast Forward.
AEA R88 mk2 Stereo Ribbon Microphone.
Live In The Studio.
The Mixing Workshop: Spectral Balancing.
Apogee Symphony I/O 8x8 + 8 MP and Symphony 64 | ThunderBridge.
Radial Engineering Gold Digger and Cherry Picker.
Echo Digital Audio Echo2.
Gear Shootouts—A Home-Brewed Personal Guide.
Twenty Questions On Mics And Miking: A Chat With Shure’s John Born.
ADAM Audio A77X Powered Monitors.
Plug-In Outlet: Slate Digital Virtual Buss Compressors.
From Room To Studio.
iOS Music Tools: iMusicAlbum Audio Mastering Studio.
Talking Acoustics With Peter D’Antonio.
Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 22: Compression—Part 1.
How To Edit.
Readers’ Tapes.
Advertiser Index.
Fade Out.
Recording - October 2013 - Recording - October 2013
Recording - October 2013 - Cover2
Recording - October 2013 - 1
Recording - October 2013 - 2
Recording - October 2013 - 3
Recording - October 2013 - Fade In.
Recording - October 2013 - 5
Recording - October 2013 - Contents
Recording - October 2013 - 7
Recording - October 2013 - Talkback.
Recording - October 2013 - 9
Recording - October 2013 - Fast Forward.
Recording - October 2013 - 11
Recording - October 2013 - 12
Recording - October 2013 - 13
Recording - October 2013 - AEA R88 mk2 Stereo Ribbon Microphone.
Recording - October 2013 - 15
Recording - October 2013 - Live In The Studio.
Recording - October 2013 - 17
Recording - October 2013 - 18
Recording - October 2013 - 19
Recording - October 2013 - 20
Recording - October 2013 - 21
Recording - October 2013 - The Mixing Workshop: Spectral Balancing.
Recording - October 2013 - 23
Recording - October 2013 - 24
Recording - October 2013 - 25
Recording - October 2013 - Apogee Symphony I/O 8x8 + 8 MP and Symphony 64 | ThunderBridge.
Recording - October 2013 - 27
Recording - October 2013 - 28
Recording - October 2013 - 29
Recording - October 2013 - Radial Engineering Gold Digger and Cherry Picker.
Recording - October 2013 - 31
Recording - October 2013 - Echo Digital Audio Echo2.
Recording - October 2013 - 33
Recording - October 2013 - Gear Shootouts—A Home-Brewed Personal Guide.
Recording - October 2013 - 35
Recording - October 2013 - 36
Recording - October 2013 - 37
Recording - October 2013 - 38
Recording - October 2013 - 39
Recording - October 2013 - Twenty Questions On Mics And Miking: A Chat With Shure’s John Born.
Recording - October 2013 - 41
Recording - October 2013 - ADAM Audio A77X Powered Monitors.
Recording - October 2013 - 43
Recording - October 2013 - Plug-In Outlet: Slate Digital Virtual Buss Compressors.
Recording - October 2013 - 45
Recording - October 2013 - From Room To Studio.
Recording - October 2013 - 47
Recording - October 2013 - iOS Music Tools: iMusicAlbum Audio Mastering Studio.
Recording - October 2013 - 49
Recording - October 2013 - Talking Acoustics With Peter D’Antonio.
Recording - October 2013 - 51
Recording - October 2013 - 52
Recording - October 2013 - 53
Recording - October 2013 - 54
Recording - October 2013 - 55
Recording - October 2013 - 56
Recording - October 2013 - 57
Recording - October 2013 - 58
Recording - October 2013 - 59
Recording - October 2013 - 60
Recording - October 2013 - 61
Recording - October 2013 - 62
Recording - October 2013 - 63
Recording - October 2013 - Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 22: Compression—Part 1.
Recording - October 2013 - 65
Recording - October 2013 - 66
Recording - October 2013 - 67
Recording - October 2013 - How To Edit.
Recording - October 2013 - 69
Recording - October 2013 - 70
Recording - October 2013 - 71
Recording - October 2013 - Readers’ Tapes.
Recording - October 2013 - Advertiser Index.
Recording - October 2013 - 74
Recording - October 2013 - 75
Recording - October 2013 - 76
Recording - October 2013 - 77
Recording - October 2013 - 78
Recording - October 2013 - 79
Recording - October 2013 - Fade Out.
Recording - October 2013 - Cover3
Recording - October 2013 - Cover4
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