John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

i need some pointers on what type of lighting will not cause me interference or any type of grief for my live/control room (it's one space).

also wondering about iso booth - would a tile floor be a bad idea in a small room? i thought i could throw a carpet on it if i wanted something more dead... i don't necessarily always want super tight, dry vocals...

hardwood on to a concrete floor - do you have to build a wooden base/riser for it or can you glue it down?

and finally - i am thinking of treating one of my walls with cedar shakes (like for a roof) - does anyone have any experience with mounting these on a wall? we are contemplating glue as we don't really want to puncture our soundproofed walls!

lots of questions i know - thanks for any pointers you might have for a novice like me.

Lighting - I've looked sporadically for some time trying to find zero-noise, DIMMABLE lighting - the only thing that I find is either VERY expensive, as in Variac(auto-transformer) , or NON-dimmable. In my studio, I went with track lights and theatrical gel holders - I use relatively small bulbs and vary the gels to change mood/brightness. Then, for WORK lighting (wiring, etc) I have a completely SEPARATE lighting system consisting of flourescents mounted in back of racks, which are NEVER left on during operation. I am seeking (but haven't found) a DC system which should allow dimming without noise - NONE of the Triac or SCR units I've tried are usable at dim settings around ANY kind of guitar pickup, or even some mics.

Vocal booth - tile shouldn't be a problem for what you want to do - just make sure whoever's singing in there doesn't wear tap shoes or "clicky" high heels :=) And, yes, a heavy throw rug would tone it down when necessary.

Hardwood floor - you could glue it down, if the concrete is well-drained underneath and NEVER sweats, or if you used a bituminous mastic that would water-proof AND glue - you will get different sound if the hardwood is over an air gap though - that method would lessen the need for other bass trapping in the room, to a degree - depends on the depth of the air gap and what insulation is used in the gap.

Shakes on wall - never done this. You definitely DON'T want to nail them though - probably a heavy bead of construction adhesive near the bottom of each course, and just below the top. Layout would depend on whether they are tapered shakes, or hand-split. You mainly would want them not to rattle. If they are laid in over-lapping courses, you would have angles of reflection to consider. If done like a roof or outer wall, whatever sound hits them would be reflected back toward the ceiling and whatever acoustic treatment is there. Just keep in mind that absorption figures are normally spec'd at 90 degrees incidence. When you get the angle more toward GRAZING incidence, all bets are off. If left with small gaps (like roof construction) they should give you a degree of diffusion. Mounted low on the wall they would reflect right back to your ears - not good if the path from your ears to wall and back totals less than about 22-25 feet. (Early reflections, comb filtering)

You're right, that was a lot of questions in a single post - you're obviously NOT trying to inflate your post count (never could understand THAT game)

Anyway, I hope that helped some. Be sure to check out the SAE site and John's other sites if you haven't already - Just click on the John Sayers Productions logo top left... Steve