I Need Recording Studio Tips

I have a small cabin on my property that i am trying to turn into a recording studio. I'm having a friend build me a smaller one person booth to fit within the recording studio. One of my current issues with the cabin is climate. It seems to really heat up inside of it and i am afraid that this may damage equipment and also make it a very unpleasant recording environment. I don't want any noisy fans (for obvious reasons, and so i am stuck. Not sure what kind of cooling equipment i should get. I don't need anything to heavy duty as the cabin is not very big (see pix bellow).
Another issue is security for the studio, which i am also working on, but would love to hear what other people have done to keep their equipment safe.

Any other tips would be much appreciated. Here are some pix of the space I'm working with.
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You can get a portable AC unit for around $400 ~ $500.

Danny Danzi uses one of them in his studio. He posted about it the other day in a thread in the Song's forum. Shoot him a PM and I'm sure he'll tell you how he set it up.

I've been thinking of hooking one up in my music room. With all the PC components, amp's, powered monitors ... it get's to be 85 in here even with my house AC running.

Yeah that's the one thing you're going to have a problem with daeser....lack of ventilation. If you use a more modern pc, that baby will warm up that entire room in an instant. If you don't have central air or some sort of wall unit or floor unit, on a hot summer day, you'll reach 100 degrees or higher in an instant. It's not good for your pc(s) or the clients you may have in the room.

My suggestion would be to lose a little space in the room and corner a spot enough for a window unit or a floor unit. It would be great if you could run some duct work in your little building just so you could hook up a hose from the AC unit to feed air throughout the place. I have that set-up in my place currently and it's worked wonders. Cornering off a section of course will lose you some space, but it will also keep the motor hum out of your room. I have a closet that is completely sound proof where I have hoses connected to my floor unit that run up into my ducts. It doesn't look too nice, but no one sees it and let me tell you, I've saved an enormous amount of money by not using my central unit.

You could also go with ceiling fans to further circulate the air which would only need to be controlled when using mics in the vicinity so that the air doesn't come through them as a fffffffff type sound. In a room like what you have, the floor unit I have would blow the walls down.

This is the exact unit I'm using: http://www.edgestar.com/AP12000S-EdgeStar-Extreme-Cool-12000-BTU-Portable-Air-Conditioner/AP12000S,default,pd.html?cgid=Home_Air_Quality-Portable_Air_Conditioners

I fit a plate of aluminum secured to the air vent in the front where I drilled into the plastic and have a hose attached to the metal plate. This goes up into my return and is sealed off so that the air goes through and comes out my vents. Now most of the time, I only use this for my control room and shut down all other vents in my other rooms because it would not cool my entire studio. When clients are here, I have to use the central. But for your little building, that unit would make frost on your windows. It's an amazing piece. A bit loud, but that's why you close off that part of your room and make it sound proof. If you don't close off a section and just use that unit or a window unit, the noise will be unbearable when using mics. So, worst case scenario....you make the room super cold and just shut it down when you need to record and allow the ceiling fans to circulate the air. It's a tough call in a little building like that really...but it can be done. I can't say enough about that little unit I have though. It keeps my control room a solid 71 degrees which in my opinion, is a perfect temp for comfort.

Whatever you do though, in this situation your pc just may run a little hotter so you want to have proper cooling for the pc. My nastiest pc idles at about 114 degrees without a load on it with my room temp at 71. With a full load on it, I'll go up to 120 degrees. With a video load, 130 degrees. That's definitely going to make a room hotter...add in the summer heat and man, major melt-down. LOL! I have several pc's in my studio so it's even worse for me. So definitely look into better cooling methods for your pc or send Jim Roseberry a message. He knows everthing and can probably assist you with the right cooling for your pc as well as what to do with your room. He's consultation prices are more than fair. Best of luck. 

Oh yeah, forgot about the security thing. Steel door, dead bolt and bars on all the lower level windows in my place as well as an alarm system with 24 hour monitoring. I'd definitely invest in the steel door with deadbolt as well as the bars on the windows at least because it's way too easy to break a window and lose your stuff. I think it would be a bit more difficult for someone to rip your wall down and steal your stuff. But you got quite a bit of glass on that place...so definitely "iron" up the windows and if you can afford an alarm, don't procrastinate.

Having lost about 30k in gear throughout out my life, security is something I no longer mess with. Musical instrument/gear insurance is a great investment and is really cheap these days. For roughly $1000 a year, you can insure 250k-500k worth of gear depending where you live. So imagine what it would cost to insure 10k to 20k worth which is what most home recordists or serious hobby guys have these days. It's saved my butt 2 times so far. :)

-Danny

Guitarhacker


Security..... Do you have a big dog that will at least bark?  Might be a good thing to consider. they are excellent early warning systems and they also have the ability to act on your behalf. Sharp teeth make for good deterrents. 

Hehe...  Exactly what I was thinking!

Hi Daeser,
Judging from the size I would assume that you are not going to have much at all inside- outside of a DAW and maybe midi controllers, etc...  What area are you in - as far as weather?  I wouldnt get carried away with to much as far as cooling. Do what you can for insulating, build you booth for vocals, ...  use the rest of the space for electronics.  The size appears to be apprx 10 x 12 or 12 x 16 which would only take a small window (5-8k BTUs) unit to cool. You can get them in heat pumps if heat is needed as well.  What power do you have ran to the building, 110/220?  Regardless of what you go with, I would recommend it be shut down when recording do to the motors, compressor, etc creating problems with the DAW.  Curious to see what you come up with. 

Inside, I would consider a small security system that has a siren in the small attic. Looks like one door, and one motion should cover it well. Window protection would only be used (by me) if the windows can be opened. Alarm system warning signs might be helpful too....maybe yes, maybe no.... (from personal experience here)............ but I would use them anyway.

What is a good place/ site to go to, to look up security equipment? I already have cameras. Also, the cabin is only 70 feet away from my bedroom, so alarms are very helpful. It definitely isn't in a city area. In fact it's on 10 acres. It'd be great to have a motion sensor alarm within the studio. How about shatter detectors?

daeser1

Inside, I would consider a small security system that has a siren in the small attic. Looks like one door, and one motion should cover it well. Window protection would only be used (by me) if the windows can be opened. Alarm system warning signs might be helpful too....maybe yes, maybe no.... (from personal experience here)............ but I would use them anyway.

What is a good place/ site to go to, to look up security equipment? I already have cameras. Also, the cabin is only 70 feet away from my bedroom, so alarms are very helpful. It definitely isn't in a city area. In fact it's on 10 acres. It'd be great to have a motion sensor alarm within the studio. How about shatter detectors?

well... if I lived close I could stop by and make a few suggestions but I don't... SO... here are a few web sites that sell some gear that is inexpensive and might be what you are looking for.

http://www.supercircuits.com/cctv-products  this company sells pretty decent camera gear at low prices.  In camera gear the low cost stuff is generally not the best buy.... spend a bit to get the better stuff.  I have used this companies cameras and they are pretty decent.

http://www.x10.com/homepage.htm   this company is a techie's dream. They have all sorts of easy to set up alarms and automation stuff.  I personally use the X-10 light controllers to turn lights on & off at my house every day. I also use them on my holiday decorations and lights.... very easy stuff to set up and get working. And not very expensive either.

I also recommend the wireless driveway alerts. The system I have has 3 transmitters that are weatherproof and install outside easily. they will transmit 1000 feet.  So you shoot one across the back side, and two from a point in front to either side..... forming a triangle.

The receiver goes inside the house. Each transmitter has a distinct tone so you know which one tripped. Also, the receiver has a relay that trips on any activation. You can wire a burglar alarm X-10 interface to that and plug it in. It sends  a "lights  on"  signal and turns on all devices on that address. You can program chimes, sirens, lights, or whatever you can imagine to come on.  They also sell X-10 spotlights with motion detector.... do the same thing...and all this stuff is low priced and it WORKS!

One thing to think about as far as a window unit, you can secure the window down once you have the unit installed.  Point being, with all the windows if they want in, they are getting in.  Just make sure you have everything secured when vacant and insured so if it does occur, the police report will reflect that they had to break in.

I ended up getting this one: 

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&productId=202562960&R=202562960

It was cheap, not very powerful, but definitely close to what I was hoping to spend. As for the hose that is attached, I may release the hot air out of the big vent on the top if the cabin. The cabin also has a strange fire place (mini stove) and I may be able to just shove the hose up that. Sorry if I wasted anyone's time. I just thought I'd get other people's opinion on this. As for noisiness, I'm going to cool the cabin prior to recording and then shut it off only during vocal recording.  
I came to this conclusion because: 
1) I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars simply on an AC.
2) It really doesn't get super hot where I live (mainly 70°s), as I live only a few miles away from the beach (on the west coast). 
3) The cabin I am recording in is quite small and I don't record any live instruments nor do I have more than 2 or 3 people in the studio at a time. 
4) Time was of the essence as my equipment is currently in my studio apartment which also contains 2 cats and a somewhat destructive dog. So obtaining the air conditioner ASAP was definitely in my best interest so I could move my equipment to a safer location. 

With all of that said, if I had the money I would have definitely gone for one of the split systems. 
Thank you again for your help! :D 

ended up getting this one: 

Probably smart as HD is good about returns.