combined rehearsal/recording room layout questions

Hello all, I'm a keyboard player living in Thailand and the boss in the club where I play is putting in a room for practice/recording. He's doing the soundproofing atm, and has asked me how I would suggest it be set out so he can have power cables etc run to suit... the room is 7.7M x 3.7M: how would you guys lay it out? Currently there is a door in the middle of one end; and at the other end in the corner is the door to a rest room/shower. In particular, how would you lay out the keys/mixer/computer/monitors? And then, where would you have drums, gtrs etc? Currently I have an old Soundcraft analog desk [about 1.3M x .8M], a couple of keyboards, and a rack of modules etc. Then there's the computer, and [hopefully] 2 x 17"LCD monitors, and a pair of HR824s for me, and a pair of JBL Control24's with subs for general rehearsal spkrs. My idea is to have everyone on headphones and be able to mix themselves ["more me"]; all keys direct, bass DI'd, and gtr to DIs straight off the fx board. We have a Roland Vdrum kit too. So it should be easy to get a starting point with everyone direct, then if we really decide we need amps, or acoustic drums etc they can be overdubbed later. One thing I've been wondering about: with a space this size, is it worth trying to put a separate control room in? Or a vocal booth? What would you guys do? Thanks a lot in advance for any advice...

Hi guys [anyone reading this;)] I hope you don't mind me doing a little "bump" on this topic, but it's been over two weeks and 116 views now and not one response... Is this something no-one has any thoughts on, or has it been beaten to death? Should I have phrased my question differently? Or is there another place I should post it? btw I downloaded a program to work out the best dimensions within the space I have - I found a set that were only a little inside the current walls. Great, I thought, and drew up a basic plan and tried to explain to the boss how I'd worked it out. But he said he would just do the wall where they are, and then see how soundproof it is [not at all...] and then put up more later if needed... sigh. TIT - - "This Is Thailand"

Is this something no-one has any thoughts on, or has it been beaten to death?

well yes Merlin - it's just another rectangular room that needs treatment - covered many times - have you been to the SAE site?? http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html do you want a separate control room - you did say recording?? what is the band lineup? how loud are they? etc. you're post is rather vague. cheers john

John Sayers wrote:

Is this something no-one has any thoughts on, or has it been beaten to death?

well yes Merlin - it's just another rectangular room that needs treatment - covered many times

It's not the treatment I was asking about - it's the layout: "In particular, how would you lay out the keys/mixer/computer/monitors? And then, where would you have drums, gtrs etc?" The type of thing I had in mind when asking that is: up one end, or in the middle of the room? Against a wall? The long walls or the short walls? Where to put the speakers and chairs so that it sounds good for me when mixing and also for others in the room listening. When you sit would you have the mixer in front of you, or the keyboards? What about the computer keyboard/vdu? I did a search on this site using the word "layout" and got many pages of results, but well, at least in the first couple of pages of posts anyway, I didn't see anything that addressed what I'm asking here. I'm on dialup here; is there a specific topic I may have missed that you could point me to, perhaps?

- have you been to the SAE site?? http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

That looks like a good site - I'll do some further reading on there later tonight. Those plans don't have dimensions, but they all look way bigger than the space I have here. Even the "garage Studio" plans - they have them divided into 2 or 3 rooms; probably enough garage for 3 or 4 cars, I'd guess. The space I have here would probably fit 6 small motorbikes, or one car...

do you want a separate control room - you did say recording?? what is the band lineup? how loud are they? etc.

I did ask about that in the original post - with the amount of space I have, is it possible to put a control room or vocal booth in? Would it be worth it? What would you do? I'm asking for opinions from people who have actually done it - for me, it's always just been a dream, something I wanted to do one day. Well now I may get my chance, and I'd like to do it right, or as right as I can... As for the band lineup, it's pretty standard - drums, bass, gtr, 2 keyboard players, and 3 frontline singers. The backline sings too, so that's a total of 8 vocals. [Although, come to think of it, probably not more than 3 or 4 at one time on any one song.] How loud? not loud at all. As I said in the OP, everyone on headphones, electronic drums, gtr, bass, keys: all DI'd stright into the desk. Maybe some amp'd gtr or acoustic drums overdubs later. Maybe. As far as soundproofing goes, I'm more concerned with sound coming in from outside than stopping sound getting out.

you're post is rather vague.

sorry about that. Please, if there's any more specific details I can give, let me know...

Thanks for that – so what if you built something like this – the singers listen to your speakers, the rest headphones or additional speakers at the left end of the room – you can then be able to record and mix in your area – even live drums later on. Cheers john