Visual contact

I've been collecting info about studio design and construction for some years now to be prepared when the day arrives when i can get my bedroom back:) Anyway, i've noticed that a lot of even major studios have no visual contact between differnt iso/vocal/liverooms. I've come up with a design where all 4 different recording spaces have visual contact between each other. How important is visual contact? I'm sure there's a lot of muscicians hangingaround here that can give input on this issue. As it's a major costfactor in building so many rooms/isos and that i've come to realise that bleed and oneroom recording is not so bad but even great in some instances. If you could only build 2 small recording spaces what would you build? one dead vocalbooth and a geddes halfdead main recording room or would you have different areas dead, live or variable? Any input appriciated! Sorry for my Swedish style english. /Toby

How important is visual contact? I'm sure there's a lot of musicians hangingaround here that can give input on this issue.

It depends on the acceptance of the musicians of other forms, mostly television systems. 15 years ago about no musician would accept that. It is becoming more and more accepted. Are you referring to between the musicians or the musicians and the control room? Different aspects.

If you could only build 2 small recording spaces what would you build? one dead vocalbooth and a geddes halfdead main recording room or would you have different areas dead, live or variable?

Your question is too vague. What style of music? What is large or small? Are you recording an event (the performance) or getting parts that you can play with to make the final product? And what is geddes? If I had the money and the limitation was space, I would definitely go for variable acoustics. Andre

So much happens in the control room these days, that the barrier of the glass between artist and engineer and or producer is gone... heck, many people just do some modest isolation when even doing vocals and the vocalist is the control room... probably not the norm... but, every thing I read these days has the guitarist standing in front of the mains in the control room with the dial at 11 tracking to his rig in the live room, a bathroom or something or maybe its just amplitube'ed direct... Other instances to look up are articles with Daniel Lanois or Peter Gabriel, Real World, his main room there is really all about live playing and capturing the performance, screw isolation, do some, but get people to really feel each other, and with no separation with the engineer... I think the barriers need to come down - like every other barrier in this world... but lets not get too political.... Plus, its semi-complicated too build these glass partitions properly... I say use 2x sliding glass doors and have the option of opening up the space and minimizing the barrier... David

In most instances, the musicians prefer to see one another if they can. A lot of it has to do with visual ques, or just the vibe. As a lot of musicians tend to play off each other and need to see each other. However, as the cost of putting in camera's and tv monitors come down, it's getting more affordable to do this. Especially in a project studio or home studio where you don't always have the luxury of building from the ground up, and you have to deal w/ existing structure.

Thanks a lot, a lot of food for thought here. I can only agree that if you seperate people to much something happens to to the vibe and a lot of my alltime favourites have been cut in tiny rooms with the musicians standing almost on top of each other, hey we're group animals;) I would like a vocal booth close to the control room thought, as so much time is spend in that room. A geddes room is named after som acoustic's guru and is a way to make small rooms sound better buy putting one wall not only left to right/Angle but floor to roof as well, in a way to scatter all nodes, non paralell walls and all that..Not that i know all about it but i would like to know how to build a small room with minimal walls that don't sound like a box! Thanks again for your time & input! Toby