Prologue
Sigma Sound, our family owned and operated recording studio (home to the “Sound Of Philadelphia”), had issues. The client base for large, multi-room facilities in Philadelphia had been in decline for years. Essential equipment was becoming outmoded, overhead was exponentially higher, and a glut of studios were vying for the same business.
Add a dash of technological advances that make relatively high-quality/low cost recording equipment available to the masses, and the answer for Sigma was painful but simple: sell.
In the end, as I sat and pondered my situation, I was left with two viable options: rent a space and build a studio, or build a studio in my home that could accommodate mixing, vocals, and small overdubs. I could then rent out time in larger recording rooms for live tracking on an “as needed” basis. If I could mix and overdub vocals, keys, guitars, etc. right at home, rent when I had to, and let someone else eat the overhead for the large recording space – that seemed like it could be a winning situation.
Head Banging and Prep Work
An important reason why I want my own room is that I was used to the A+ quality of the recording experience integral to Sigma Sound. Part of what made Sigma extraordinary was that the studio space was built to demanding specifications.
We had a trolley line running right outside of the recording studios that operated in the heart of a bustling city. In spite of this, we could open a microphone up on a whispering vocalist and not have rumble from heavy vehicles, jet airplane noise, air conditioning hum, forced air whoosh, or bleed from control room monitors leaking into the recording area.
I had taken this too lightly when I started my independent career working in local studios, and the ramifications were immediately apparent. I found myself saying:
“Hey can we take that again? The studio monitors were too loud.”
“I’d like to do that again, I can hear a truck in the background.”
“I didn’t hear the hum because the air conditioner in the control room masked the noise. I had the monitor low to make sure they didn’t bleed into your mike…”
Then there was the issue of dealing with rooms that had you constantly guessing if your ears were messed up. Move my head here it sounds like this, turn a little or move an inch and it sounds totally different. Maybe if I put my head in a vise…
I wasn’t used to making excuses for poor room design. I knew that before a computer went in or a speaker was placed in my small project studio, I had to have a listening and recording structure that rivaled the high-quality facility that I took so much for granted during my 30-year tenure at Sigma.
Where to build
A small row home in a large city is not the ideal location for a studio, but that is my challenge. The home’s unfinished basement only has a 7-foot ceiling and narrow 26-inch wide steps leading down to it. It was out of the question, so I chose a location in the back of the 2nd floor as ground zero. Luckily there are many angles present in that room, but it is rather small, having a 14’ X 10’ main footprint.
Inside
space looking at door to steps and window of
outside wall
Common
wall with neighbor.
French
doors leading to bedroom.
Original
entrance to bedroom and wall against steps.
The ideal room in which to build a home studio is the one that’s the most isolated, needs the least treatment, and works in relative harmony with the rest of the house. This space was at the top of my steps, next to the bathroom, and shared only one common wall with neighbors. It could also accommodate a dedicated power supply.
By the way, “least treatment” means try to avoid square rooms, low ceilings, areas with high ambient noise, space that butts up against other’s property, and areas that constrict traffic to the rest of the house. Good space for setting up a home studio is one with rectangular or angled walls, good ceiling height, separate or restricted access to the rest of the home, isolation from neighbors, and away from noise such as street traffic.
Sound advice
I had known from the beginning that sound leakage would be a major issue. I didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg to float the whole studio space but I wanted to be able to work nights and weekends. The first thing I needed to do was too see how much leaked through the common and back walls. I went to Radio Shack and bought a cheap SPL meter and set up a simple experiment.
We brought a sound system into the unfinished space. I had already eliminated the idea of hanging speakers because the room was too small. Anything we’d use would essentially be a near field monitor, so we set the speakers on chairs close to where I figured they would be when the room became operational. I cranked up the bass on a graphic EQ and put on a low frequency heavy recording.
Then I knocked on my neighbor’s door and told him I like to play my music loud and didn’t want to annoy them. I asked if I could go into their bedroom and listen as my friend played music.
Getting my neighbors involved and showing concern for their happiness would be a benefit later down the line, I figured, and I did need to hear how much sound passed thru their walls. I went upstairs and called my friend. I told him to start playing the music at a level of 85 dB (the level of most accurate human hearing response and hence the best level for mixing).
I listened as he brought up the music in 5 dB increments. Not too bad, at 100 dB in the shell of the future studio, the leakage in my neighbors bedroom reminded me of a neighbor in my old apartment complex playing his TV too loud late in the evening, when there are no masking sounds. This wouldn’t be good past 10 pm, but nominally acceptable during the daytime. I thanked my neighbor and went back to ponder my next step.
I know the golden rule of any studio design, having been involved in a few major builds, and that is “get the structure right first.” A recording studio is only as good as the space it’s in, and changing a space after gear is in is a nightmare and waste of resources. At this point, I needed a game plan for construction and wanted the space to be the best it could be. So I called on Nick Colleran at Acoustics First. Nick owned a large studio, played in bands, and produced records, so he knows exactly what a person is looking for when they come to him with audio concerns.
Moving and grooving
The design Nick came up with is a classic Live End/Dead End setup. I was relieved by the fact that space issues I thought would be detrimental, such as the French doors, were now turned into beneficial tools for bass management.
When the fabric samples arrived this past week, I was impressed by the wide assortment of colors to choose from. Also, as a youth I had been in the hospital for 6 weeks with badly burned hands, so knowing that the materials Nick will be using are rated highly in that area really helped to put my mind – and my insurance company’s – at ease.
I am eagerly awaiting the first shipment of the wall treatments and have been playing phone tag with various builders. Joe Horner of Acoustics First is designing the placement of customized absorbers and diffusers and eventually the iso booth. My excitement and tension are palpable. Stay tuned… who knows what challenges we’ll confront!
Michael Tarsia is a two time Grammy recognized Engineer, with 19 Gold and Platinum album credits. He is also a director and instructor for the Sigma Soundz Recording Arts Program. Learn more at www.myspace.com/miketarsia or call 215-837-1002.
