Advice for new room

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Re: Advice for new room

Post by Wurlitzer »

blinddrew wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:34 amUnless you want the desk to be looking into the room? Which is possible but you will probably need to experiment with position a fair bit.

Actually that would be helpful; it's how I work now so that I can play a keyboard (facing others) and also operate recording equipment. I was thinking in terms of separating these two functions and thus positions, but it would be useful not to have to.

How would I best go about that?
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Re: Advice for new room

Post by Drew Stephenson »

Hmmm. There are almost certainly better people than me to advise on this, but fortunately it's something you can experiment with.
The basics about bass trapping in corners and broadband absorbers at mirror points still stand. I'd probably put the desk facing into the room so that the speakers were at about a quarter of the total end to end room length. You can then bring it to and from the window a bit at a time and see what works best by either using mobile absorbers (if you're planning on making any) or duvets over mic-stands.
What you will definitely need to do is something about the reflections coming back from the window, and that means you're going to lose a lot of natural light. It might be worth thinking about making a portable absorber here so that you can move it out of the way when you don't need it.
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Re: Advice for new room

Post by Funkyflash5 »

I'd be more inclined to set up your "mix position" facing the window, and have some basic recording control from a keyboard station facing the room, since I'd imagine you'd be using headphones to monitor when tracking while playing, but then your acoustics for mix monitoring could be optimized. I know that there are some tablet or phone based apps that allow for controlling certain daws remotely, and in a more basic manner I take my basic wireless keyboard with me to the piano across the room when tracking myself where I've got the tracks armed, and all I do is hit spacebar to start/stop transport.
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Re: Advice for new room

Post by RichardT »

Funkyflash5 wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 8:01 pm I'd be more inclined to set up your "mix position" facing the window, and have some basic recording control from a keyboard station facing the room, since I'd imagine you'd be using headphones to monitor when tracking while playing, but then your acoustics for mix monitoring could be optimized. I know that there are some tablet or phone based apps that allow for controlling certain daws remotely, and in a more basic manner I take my basic wireless keyboard with me to the piano across the room when tracking myself where I've got the tracks armed, and all I do is hit spacebar to start/stop transport.

Yes, I agree. Don’t compromise the monitoring. It’s not too difficult to manage recording with the desk behind you, as Funkyflash says.
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Re: Advice for new room

Post by Sam Spoons »

Same here, plenty of options for remote transport control. And I prefer not to have the distraction of a screen when playing. You'll also lose a fair bit of usable space if you set the rig up facing into the room. That said it's not that difficult to experiment.
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Re: Advice for new room

Post by Wurlitzer »

Thanks all.

So I'm looking at monitors either side of the bay window, maybe a little way into the room, with mixing station facing towards the window forming an equilateral triangle with them. As I do everything in the box and "mixing station" basically consists of monitor, keyboard and mouse, I could even have that on a desk with wheels that could be moved out of the way when I want the space more open for playing in. And a separate monitor (cloning the display) mounted with my keyboard that will be wherever is most convenient for playing, rather than mixing, so I can perform basic recording functions from there. Piano most likely towards the right hand end, with less treatment around.

What if I wanted to work with my back to one of the long sides of the room (as I do now) instead? If I were somewhere around the middle of the length, would the imperfect symmetry make a big difference, and could it be mitigated by adjustments to or treatment of the room? Revised plans mean I may be getting rid of the little boxy bit on the right if that helps, and replacing it with a flat wall with bi-fold doors.
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Re: Advice for new room

Post by Sam Spoons »

Received wisdom is that it's always better to fire the monitors down the long dimension so placing them against a long wall will almost certainly compromise you mix environment. As, quite likely, will putting a flat wall where the odd shaped box is currently (though probably less of an impact). An iPad or other tablet will work as a controller for a DAW or as a remote monitor so there is no really good reason to compromise to allow more convenience when recording/playing.
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