music studio/office move

[onetracker]

not gear related however...

i'm moving my office/music room to the basement to give my wife a better workspace/studio upstairs

1. had to move so much crap outta there including a 275 gallon kerosene tank.

2. gutted the room - new insulated walls over block and open cell spray foam in the ceiling. i left the ceiling joists and conduit partially exposed for that oh-so-trendy industrial look. spray painted it dark and it looks great

3. ran 4 dedicated outlets on a 15 amp breaker to be used soley for guitar amps and pedals. the hope of course is to have them isolated from extraneous noise, realizing that i'm at the mercy of the power company as far as the quality of the juice they provide. i've read that cheep power conditioners are worthelss for filtering bulk power. any electrical engineers verify that?

4. found a great deal on ebay for pyramidal acoustic foam panels to cover any big open walls spaces

5. industrial/office carpeting on floor

6. learning about digital recording software. my analog stuff sounds great but its time to upgrade. i'm just looking for somthing simple to start with. any recommendations?

hope to be in there in a week. i've been working on it for 3 months!

if anyone has any tips on their setup of their home recording studio it would be greatly appreciated.

OT

[wbm]

I know nothing about all the construction stuff, but for simple home recording there really is only Garageband on the Mac. Anything else will require some learning. If you are willing to do that, I highly recommend you check out Presonus StudioOne. It comes for Mac and Windows, is very powerful and comparatively easy to use and understand. Also comes with a bunch of instruments, loops, effects (of course) and virtual guitar amps.

I would recommend you either start with the free version if you have already an audio interface, or, if you do not have an audio interface yet, look into this:
Cheapest way in:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AudioBoxUSB/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
this is USB 1

Better option:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AudioBox22/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
this is USB 2 and faster

You get the StudioOne Artist software with it, and if you choose to use a higher version later on, you can easily upgrade, which in most cases will give you a new code that unlocks features you already have installed.
Here you can compare the versions:
http://www.presonus.com/products/studio ... e-versions" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[sidvicious]

not gear related however...

i'm moving my office/music room to the basement to give my wife a better workspace/studio upstairs

1. had to move so much crap outta there including a 275 gallon kerosene tank.

2. gutted the room - new insulated walls over block and open cell spray foam in the ceiling. i left the ceiling joists and conduit partially exposed for that oh-so-trendy industrial look. spray painted it dark and it looks great

3. ran 4 dedicated outlets on a 15 amp breaker to be used soley for guitar amps and pedals. the hope of course is to have them isolated from extraneous noise, realizing that i'm at the mercy of the power company as far as the quality of the juice they provide. i've read that cheep power conditioners are worthelss for filtering bulk power. any electrical engineers verify that?

4. found a great deal on ebay for pyramidal acoustic foam panels to cover any big open walls spaces

5. industrial/office carpeting on floor

6. learning about digital recording software. my analog stuff sounds great but its time to upgrade. i'm just looking for somthing simple to start with. any recommendations?

hope to be in there in a week. i've been working on it for 3 months!

if anyone has any tips on their setup of their home recording studio it would be greatly appreciated.

OT

power. the best is a acdcac rig. not hard to rig cheaply if you know what you're doing. essentially you charge a battery bank that is inverted to ac power. you can buy units that do it. what it does is take ac current, and charges batteries [think RV's], that is hooked to a power inverter turning it back to ac power. hook the conditioner into that and you've got a dream setup. you'll get no spikes whatsoever. no drops, dips, surges, or anything at all but pristine power. you can buy these as a unit. computer backup power is similar.

daw. i have three that i use. presonus studio. gearhead reason. pro tools.

presonus is the best. it is the easiest, overall, to use for lots of reasons. it's a bit more steril in appearance at first. but i tell you, once you learn it, and its not hard, it is worth it. it is also the most stable daw out there. gain staging your mix is very easy. also, you record, mix, and master within the same program, including the rendering. tooooo easy.

mixing in presonus is so much easier than the other two its not funny. AND, it is also much more powerful outta the box. the stock effects are great. plugins are a breeze. its the new latest and greatest.

reason is good. its touted for analog similarities, and it is a good program. but, presonus is soooo much more with it. its hard to explain here. since you're analog you may be tempted. don't do it. go presonus.

pro tools. good, too. presonus is better. not as stable as reason or presonus.

show us some pics when you can. have fun and keep us posted.

[onetracker]

GREAT advice gents. gotta love this forum.

[MikeD]

1. no flourescent lights on the same outlets
2. buy a dehumidifier...one that regulates the humidity in the room so that your guitars don't act up. Even if you keep them in their case This room will be the main venue they are played in and they will react to the swells in humidity. It will also help to keep your heating costs down.
3. Sound isolation of the roof = Happy wife
4. paint the room in light colours...preferably white.....a basement room in dark colours no matter how appealing it sounds really drains all creativity.
5. place monitors and computer screen higher than usual or make them adjustable.....I find myself standing quite frequently and listening or playing