HOME STUDIO Acoustic Treatment w/ Music City Acoustics

so I recently moved Studios into this 1300 ft  basement and this is the first time I've worked   with somebody else to get the acoustic treatment  done let me tell you how it went a little bit   of context here I've worked in both commercial  project and home Studios over the last 15 years   now holy cow most of the home studio and project  Studios I have been responsible for the acoustic   treatment which meant watching a lot of DIY  acoustic panel videos and just stretching together   some Joann's Fabric over some in installation on  some cheap Pinewood from Home Depot and just kind   of winging it the last home studio that I was  in was the first time where I used a different   type of acoustic treatment for my bonus room setup  at my house and that was the fabric wall stretch   system and that was an interesting and cool  experience to go through it's almost invisible   treatment however because of the shape of that  room and because there was a stairwell and the   treatment was all just maybe 2 in thick just step  on the walls it was definitely not perfect in the   high mids and in the low frequencies so in this  move the main space where we're listening is a lot   bigger and it is also not a perfect perfect room  you know it's a basement so this is essentially   like a living room space it has a fireplace  there's like a stairwell back there a little   cavity there's a hallway over there so I needed  to get creative with how we were going to go   about treating this as well as there's a separate  room for tracking recording drums and other live   instruments and we wanted to treat that room as  well now this is where the company Music City   Acoustics comes in now if you've watched my other  channel it's just called Andrew Masters there's   hundreds of these epic home studio tours on them  and a lot of these Studios were all treated by   this company Music City Acoustics so I reached  out to Graham who owns that company and learned   a little bit about what the process would be like  to work with them I got to share it with you it's   pretty amazing so spoiler alert they treated  this whole studio we work worked out a deal for   this YouTube channel and for these videos I still  want to share with you how that went and what the   results are like in the beginning what Graham  does is dependent upon two things whether you   are local and they are coming to you or whether  you live somewhere else and you're going to be   working remotely together in our case we're local  actually like 4 minutes away so Graham came over   here actually took measurements of the whole room  created a rendering of the space of each room that   we were going to be treating and then built out  how we would lay out the floor plan of the room   and then different ways that we could approach  treating it now there was a couple things that I   wanted for this room one there's a nice big window  here and I wanted my desk to be centered on the   window which essentially creates this extra little  space over here which is kind of like a hallway to   be an open path and I wanted the listening spot  to almost feel like its own separate space and   because of the stairway and because of that  little cavity back there and just the uneven   walls and things I wanted to go with something  that could be a little more stand alone so Graham   recommended we go with some freestanding Goos now  I think this is one of the greatest parts of what   makes this control room sound great so we have two  different freestanding Goos on each side of the   listening station above us are two large clouds  and a couple cool things about these Goos is on   one side it's absorptive and on the other side it  is not reflective but more of like a diffusion it   has pegboard white peg board that allows the air  to go through and get kind of Trapped in there if   you want to use it for tracking you can flip it  around and have that diffusion reflection surface   or if you want to use it as a Bas trap how we're  using it you can use the fabric side couple things   about these traps is they are absolutely beautiful  they're pretty big again there's two different   sizes the one closest to the wall is a bit  narrower and then the one after it is wider I want   to say that's probably 3T and this one's probably  4 feet wide I would imagine they're both 6 feet   but they are on these cool feet with casters so  you can actually wield them around or lock them   in place this has proven to be incredibly useful  for this kind of setup where things are kind of   changing sometimes we got to get back somewhere  and you need to move it and you can put it back   it's really really functional now now behind this  immediate area on the ceiling we have eight more   traditional absorption panels we have these 2x4 by  2 in thick panels that are attached to the ceiling   and then in front of them we have these 2x two  panels and these are scattered and placed in just   a way where it's kind of breaking up the ceiling  drywall and it but it's not too much now the thing   that I didn't love about my previous home studio  is the fabric wall actually felt like too much   of absortion like you could turn your speakers so  loud and it didn't really feel that loud like it   was absorbing so much of the volume of the room  that it just didn't feel super balanced and full   where when we set up speakers in this room I could  not believe how much more I could hear it feels   like a cliche to say that wow I've never heard  this part of a song before I never heard this   this element of the mix that was happening left  and right every single person that we brought   through to sit and listen was stunned I have not  done a room measurement which I would really love   to do but one of my sort of hack ways of testing  is using the subs synth and just going from like   a middle C all the way down and just listening  for volume dips in the mix position now obviously   this is not a non-scientific way but I noticed  there was certainly dips in my last room where   some notes were a lot quieter than other notes  and here it just sounds amazing the lowend is   extremely tight and the mixes just all sound huge  it sounds full doesn't sound loud it doesn't sound   ref reflective they did an absolutely great job  they also came and installed all of these panels   so they built everything back at their Factory  and if you live here then you can go through the   same process where you work with graham to design  the layout of your studio and then pick out which   panels you're going to want where you're going to  want them you can obviously pick out the fabric   color and again if you're not local then they  will build them all in their shop and then ship   them to you and the prices are very reasonable  from the beginning Graham said he wanted to build   build a company that can make acoustic treatment  attainable and affordable for people and I think   he did a really excellent job this is not like  you know some of the studio designers who've   been doing it for 30 years who charge 30 grand  for a design Graham works with you in the front   end completely for free so if your remote you can  actually send pictures you can send measurements   and you can work with him to actually come up with  a design for your and pick the correct treatment   and so on so that's the front the ceiling and then  now the back of the Listening Room we have three   more panels there's one main base trap in the  center of the rear of the room above the couch   it's looks like 6 ft by 4T just about the same  size of this cloud and it is actually mounted away   from the wall there's like a good 10 in probably  between the wall and that bass trap and then the   bass traps in the back are all 6 in deep so this  is really the first home studio or project Studio   setup I've been in that's had the closest thing  to real bass trapping and clearly it has a huge   effect so there's that main 6x4 base trap panel  mounted off of the wall in the back and then we   went with two more freestanding Bas trap or Goos  if you will these are actually 2T by 6t they're   freestanding but they have little legs that  don't have casters so these are just meant to   sit in place and not be moved around I mean you  can move them around they're not that heavy but   they're sturdy so that they don't fall on the feet  it was awesome watching them put all the stuff   together and if I didn't have them install it I  would imagine it wouldn't be that complicated to   install myself certainly prefer to have them do it  because this is what they do they're professionals   at it and they've got the system down for doing a  great install and making sure everything is level   I mean that's a big part of when you start to add  a lot of clouds and treatment on the ceiling and   on the walls it's all got to be level it's  all got to be straight and it's all got to   work together with the room which if I were to do  it things would look a little more crooked I mean   I'm not good at right angles and things like that  so okay so now let's talk about the tracking room   so the tracking room I wanted to create almost  a different feeling of a space like you're out   here there's a feeling to being in this room it's  the walls are all light we have some of these LEDs   that are give little pops of color there's space  you know it feels really good there's an accent   wall on the back but there's not too much Darkness  we went with some darker colors I got black on the   clouds here the Goos are a graphite color that's  what that's the name of it's it looks pretty dark   but it really depends on the lighting in the room  because they actually looked kind of green when   we were in the Factory because the lights are more  of a daylight colored lights and these are more of   a Tungsten warmer in this room against the white  wall they all look pretty dark but I wanted this   room to feel open and I wanted the tracking room  to feel more of like a special space that you're   in and you're performing and you're not distracted  and it also doesn't necessarily feel like a like   a model home in there so we went with the same  color I used on the aent wall which is the very   Navy it's a bare paint we did all the walls it is  very Navy in there and then we the graphite color   on the panels in that room so on the walls all the  panels are the same graphite color which keeps it   kind of dark and Moody but what I love is Graham  had them put on these diffusion faces over every   other absorption panel in there so it really  breaks it up then on the ceiling we just went   with more of these lighter panels these are the  shadow color Fabric and we just covered as much   of the ceiling as we could um without covering the  lights in the room room so there's still plenty of   light in the room there's a couple windows so even  though the walls are dark it feels feels really   nice and really comfortable in there and then the  extra layer which I did not expect that I think   is a game changer for the town is on the ceiling  they built and mounted this scatter face diffuser   now I don't know that much about diffusers I've  never really cared I've always been more of like   a tracking engineer engineer just like get it up  get the mic on it we'll get the sound we'll figure   it out so I stay out of the forums of people  who's dedicated their lives to this kind of stuff   but they put the scatter diffuser up there and  first off I'm a visual person looks unbelievable   the whole room aesthetically feels so comfortable  and so inviting for whoever's performing in there   it's a really special place to actually record and  perform in now the sound of it I'm a drummer and I   base the sound of the room off of playing drums  it is such a priority for me and as a recording   engineer and producer like one of the things that  I think makes a special drum recording is the   sound of the space that you're in the room that  you're in obviously everything else comes into   play but the room contributes a lot to the drum  sound and it can contribute in a positive way or   a negative way now because we put so many panels  on the wall and on the ceiling in this tracking   room I was pretty sure that it was going to sound  pretty dead cuz we also have a couple rugs in   there right so we got a couple rugs absorption  panels in the ceilings absorption panels all   the way around the walls I thought it was going to  be pretty dead sounding but when I first hit that   kick drum it sounded it sounded huge it didn't  sound like a drywalled bedroom it didn't sound   like a big open tracking room but it sounded big  which is crazy part of the idea with the tracking   room at least with recording drums was to be able  to leave that door cracked put some mics in the   hallway and be able to record the close mics in  the room and then have some microphones out in   the hallway to get some other room effect mics  which those also sounded fantastic we moved them   around we did some testing with that but I'm not  going to get into that the acoustic treatment in   the room allowed for the drums to actually sound  sound open and big but at the same time controlled   really really impressed and really really happy  with how it turned out and how it sounds in there   and it feels good looks good they did an excellent  job okay so let's jump back to the process the   process is you basically go to the website reach  out to the company tell them about the space if   you're local you can have them come work with you  build out a design of it if you're not local you   can do it over the internet via email go back and  forth on the design and get prices for all of the   things they will work with you on getting at least  the studio started and getting treatment into your   hands this whole setup is such an Overkill crazy  setup because this again is a 1300t basement we   went all out there's a lot of treatment here this  is probably far more than most people would ever   get in their home studio and the whole thing with  the installation price came out to $111,000 the   installation price is pretty significant I mean  there's three guys here they were here all day   installing this of course those guys are all  getting paid but they put a lot of work and a   lot of care into it so let's go through the costs  here the costs of supplies alone so buying these   completely finished built panels which includes  in this room eight of these ceiling mounted clouds   two of the 6x4 clouds four of the giant Goos two  of them 6x4 two of them 3x4 the rear walls the   Bas traps on the back this extra panel over here  all of that material completely finished with no   installation comes out to 5,172 bucks for this  whole control room now if you've built some of   these on your own you might be thinking I could do  it for less but when you've done it before and you   go to buy this stuff especially the insulation  you got to get it from like a bulk manufacturer   Fabric's not Cheap Building the frames and you  got to have all the tools and then all the time   it's not going to come out to much less than that  I do a lot of consultations with people who are   building studios I've built several Studios on my  own that's a remarkably good price so again all of   the treatment for the entire control room a little  over I'll say 5200 I'll round up and then the   tracking room all of the treatment in the tracking  room which there's a lot all the ceiling treatment   all the wall panels the diffuser faces that hang  on the panels and that giant scatter diffuser   on the ceiling all come out to a total of just  under $33,000 2936 is which on the quote so the   full treatment for the entire tracking room under  $33,000 the full treatment for the entire control   room under $200 then the installation if you're  like me and you would just rather professionals   come in and do it the installation of all the  treatment in the control room 1300 bucks and   then the tracking room came out to a little over  1,00 bucks so they knocked this whole thing out in   one day this is there is a lot of stuff again  this is kind of like a really intense project   Studio home studio setup so most people probably  aren't going to want or need this much stuff in   their space if you think about that and the cost  of whatever yours setting up is probably going   to be much much lower and the fact that they  work with you on the design for free building   and planning this whole thing out for you no one  else does that that that is I actually told gram   you should charge for this like this is a great  deal you're doing for people so yeah again the   whole total of everything came out to just over  $1,000 with installation all the panels all the   supplies everything done for me just over $111,000  which is a big number but again if you've done any   work in professional audio or professional Studios  or you've ever had a conversation with a studio   designer that is a not even half the price of what  a design would cost with no materials no labor no   insulation nothing so absolutely fantastic work  from Music City Acoustics I was really impressed   thoroughly convinced that this is the best studio  they've done I mean this this room sounds both   rooms tracking room and this control room but it  is such a pleasure to work on music and listen   to music and here it feels so good sounds amazing  really really happy with it so I'm going to put a   link to them down in the description and if you're  planning a studio build or a project Studio or a   home studio or I mean there's like you can do  anything nowadays reach out to Graham at Music   City Acoustics like I said earlier we worked at a  partnership to make this whole thing happen and I   wanted to go through the experience of seeing what  it's like to work with them seeing the finished   results and and I I was really really impressed  really shocked so hopefully that's helpful for you   feel free to reach out to them they're really  good people over there I'll put their website   Graham you'll get his email on there they also  have a YouTube channel where they share how they   build different panels and they I think their  goal is to just help people understand how to   treat their space better so I'll put links to all  of that stuff down in the description go check it   out let me know if you have any questions down  in the comments hit the like button subscribe   to the channel we just passed 10,000 subscribers  on the Channel I can't believe it it's been just   a few months and I'm really really grateful  for you guys watching these videos and I hope   you're having fun in your Studios working on  some fun music it's uh it's a gift to be able   to do this every day so thank you guys for  watching and we'll see you in the next video

Channel: STUDIO TIME

Views: 15,136

Keywords: recording studio, recording session, andrew masters, studio setup, how to record, audio engineering, nashville recording, epic studio, barefoot speakers, mixing, hybrid mixing, console, home studio, solid state logic, ssl, ssl bus plus, analog eq, antelope audio, galaxy 32, audio interface, hardware inserts, hybrid mix, studio build

Id: 1XNtsRcBj5E

Length: 17min 20sec (1040 seconds)

Published: Thu May 02 2024