Anyone ever built a Recording Studio?

[Philly Steve]

So recently my father decided it would be a good idea to use the money I have in a Fidelity account as a down payment on a house. This is money that he provides as a gift to me and all my other siblings annually to prevent us from having to pay taxes on the money that he has already paid income tax on when he eventually passes on (god forbid).
The houses I've been looking at are all 4-bedroom houses which would definitely mean one room would be converted into a recording studio.
The other 3 would be for me and my girlfriend's bedroom, an office/workroom, and a bedroom for my buddy dave who would live with us for a while.

I'm putting together a budget for new studio equipment. So far I've accounted for the following:

A work desk for a computer and rack-mounted equipment and space for a MIDI keyboard
Soundproofing foam panels and bass traps by Auralex and either TubeTak or FoamTak
Studio Monitor Speakers by Behringer
Studio Monitor Subwoofer by Behringer
Auralex MoPads and SubDude Isolation platforms
Rack-mounted dB meter and Antares Autotune
Stereo guitar amp by Marshall (2) 12" speakers 50w each

I'm planning on getting some cool couches and bean bags or something to absorb some sound too.
Anyone know what other cool stuff should go in a studio?
Even if someone has experience with soundproofing and room acoustics I'd be happy to get some feedback. I know it's a little out there on a car forum but hey it's off-topic lol...

[wtcii]

We have sound proofing in our theater room. Its like black foam covered in Fabric. I dont think it really does much, so I dont know if that would be worth it. It is really expensive believe it or not it accounted for about 25% of a 75k budget, I am sure a lot of that was labor though. Save that and invest in better equipment. These may be opposite ends of the spectrum but they have to be some what similar, I think. I dont really know what I am talking about that is just one of my personal experiences, believe me my bedroom is right across the hall it does very little. It may help a lot on the inside of the room though, i have just never heard it without it.  I know one of my friends Dad spent a lot on their recording studio, and it is AWESOME. He had cool furniture big Apple Monitors a wall of guitars, that would be cool, and he had a separate recording area. There were electric drums and TONS of speakers. I wish I had pictures for you. He had a few flat screens on the wall as well.

[Philly Steve]

That sounds like some expensive ass soundproofing. 25% of 75k is like 18750 I hope you didn't spend 19 grand on soundproofing lol.

I think soundproofing has to be done in a certain way in regards to the room for it to work effectively. The idea is to have a room free of echos and flutters. Not just for listening aesthetics like in a home theater, it is actually pretty important to the quality of a recording. I'm no acoustics expert or anything but especially when recording live drums or anything loud it is essential.

[b_beau_09]

^very true.  if at all possible, having a secondary room for vocals and another for drums would be wonderful.  however, since you're doing a single room, you may want to invest in those plexiglass separator's for recording drums.  as far as soundproofing, it really depends on the size/shape/material (wood, drywall, concrete.. etc.) of the room.  if you can afford it, hire a professional to do acoustics on the room, and help you with that (worth it).

have you decided on a platform yet?  protools, digital performer..?  on a mac or pc..?  or what kind of board you're going to use..?

there's definitely alot to think about..

hope that helped a little? good luck man, it's always been a dream of mine to have a studio!

[Philly Steve]

hope that helped a little? good luck man, it's always been a dream of mine to have a studio!

Thanks for the input dude, this has always been my dream as well and taking the first steps towards it happening feels good. I mean I've always had a makeshift studio but this one will have plenty of room and will be thought out before hand.

As for the platform i'm going to use, I'm going to use Pro Tools 8. I should have mentioned that in the OP. I have an Alesis 8-channel firewire mixing board that I'm going to use, but I might upgrade to something with XLR outputs and maybe a 12 channel. I like the Firewire interface though, so I'd find something similar. A good mixer is a big investment but I'd rather have a little more to work with than one day not have enough to work with. I usually make my music on PC but only because I use Sony Acid Pro right now and there is no Mac version. So I was thinking about getting an iMac or something to be able to work on both platforms as I please. I already have two MacBook Pros (one damaged) so I switch between the two pretty seamlessly already.

I live in Florida so the only house I'm interested in buying would be a concrete block house. Wood frame houses are a bad idea down here due to Hurricanes and whatnot.
Concrete unfortunately reflects a lot of sound but I'd imagine that there would be drywall and wood as well to absorb some sound. I'd imagine I would want to find the room with the least reflective walls and find the least echo-y one and start from there.

I have yet to find the house so I don't know, I might end up using a closet or something as a vocal booth if it is available. But the idea of getting a professional to analyze the room's acoustics is great. I'll definitely take that into consideration. Thanks Brian.  

[mnkyman]

one of my friend's fathers plays drums professionally and I remember when they moved into a larger house he wanted a sound booth. He went all out on the sound proofing. I think they started with stripping all the sheetrock, replacing the insulation (it was an interior room) with some special stuff meant for sound proofing. they then placed a sheetrock like material over that (also made for sound proofing applications) and then they had that egg crate looking stuff that you see in the movies all over the walls. Needless to say that this was more than a hobby, it was his career.

[Philly Steve]

That's pretty cool and definitely something I'd want to do some day in the future. I'm looking to buy a 2000+ square foot house while they're cheap and put a good chunk down so my mortgage payments aren't too high. So I'll have the room to do that eventually. I'm planning on one day hopefully being able to make a decent income on the side from music, whether it be selling my own or producing someone else's. So one day it'll be worth the investment.

[timot_one]

Invest in a good DAW like a pro tools rig.  I'd also consider different monitors and a good set of mic pre's.  After that, just continue to accrue mics and gear.

[Philly Steve]

What monitors were you thinking? The Behringer monitors were highly rated on musiciansfriend.com. Other comparable monitors were reported to over-exaggerate sound or make it sound too good. Though I guess monitors would be the most important part...

[timot_one]

It's been a while since I've looked at pro audio gear, but I am very happy with my Event VAS 20/20 v2's.  If you're looking to spend more money, I would also suggest looking at Mackie's or even some Genelec's if your budget can handle them.