Any musicians about? Anyone done work on a recording studio?

[DIYNotIan]

Hi folks

I've recently moved into a house and will be converting a large room in an attached cowshed (it's part if the house) into a home recording studio. The cowshed is on its own consumer unit but will be needing a new one and a rewire. Has anyone got any experience in doing electrical work for recording studios? I know it's a good idea to have a separate ring main for the studio gear... But does anyone have any advice beyond that?

The cowshed will also have a utility room and shower room (electric shower), and the plan is to run the electrics for these from the same consumer units. Any problems with that? They could potentially be ran from the host consumer unit but that would be a real pain at the moment so I'd only want to do it if the gains were big.

Any thoughts or ideas most appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Notch7]

Hi folks

I've recently moved into a house and will be converting a large room in an attached cowshed (it's part if the house) into a home recording studio. The cowshed is on its own consumer unit but will be needing a new one and a rewire. Has anyone got any experience in doing electrical work for recording studios? I know it's a good idea to have a separate ring main for the studio gear... But does anyone have any advice beyond that?

The cowshed will also have a utility room and shower room (electric shower), and the plan is to run the electrics for these from the same consumer units. Any problems with that? They could potentially be ran from the host consumer unit but that would be a real pain at the moment so I'd only want to do it if the gains were big.

Any thoughts or ideas most appreciated.

Cheers

Ive supplied plenty of joinery for recording and radio studios as I used to supply a customer that did them. I was involved in the special doors, windows, acoustic treatment for walls. Unfortunately didnt do any ekectrics -I dont recall it being anything special though.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Lots of the hassle of earth loops have gone away thanks to double-insulated stuff, switch mode psus and digital signal paths
Would not advise having an electric shower on the same cu though, that much current switching on and off will be asking for trouble. But presumably the 'separate' cu is supplied from the house cutout anyway so as long as the link to the cowshed is suitably sized you should get away with it.
Power is really a sideshow. Signal wiring- ducts acoustically sealed and make sure there's room for the next bright idea, Def flood with Cat6, up to you whether you throw Belden between studio and mixer or just get some digi snakes.
You'll also need some serious acoustic separation between studio and outside world and between studio and mixer and anechoic cladding in the studio. None of this is cheap.

 

[DIYNotIan]

Thanks for the quick and helpful replies. Acoustic treatment, soundproofing, cabling etc is all in the radar and will be taken care of when the space has been renovated. Luckily we've no near neighbours. And the room will be separated from the house quite substantially (first a solid wall, then a 3.5m wide utility room, then an old solid wall that's a metre thick!) So no more turn it down complaints from the other half!

So back to the electrics....

- Shower. Sorry if it's a stupid question, but is the shower only an issue when in use? When not in use is it as good as not being there at all?

- Separate CU. Our meter box has two fuses.... Would it be possible to run one CU from one and the other from the other, so that they are separate rather than linked? Or is it not as simple as that?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Shower will only be a problem if it is in use, if not in use then no problem

2 fuses in your cutout- if you have a 3 phase supply then there are advantages in having your studio on one phase and house on another. There are disadvantages too- you need to maintain separation between phases (415v between phases).
Don't forget the roof- don't want the police helicopter on track 3 do you?

 

[winston1]

Shower will only be a problem if it is in use, if not in use then no problem

2 fuses in your cutout- if you have a 3 phase supply then there are advantages in having your studio on one phase and house on another. There are disadvantages too- you need to maintain separation between phases (415v between phases).
Don't forget the roof- don't want the police helicopter on track 3 do you?

Of course it may be one fuse and one neutral link!

 

[bernardgreen]

Some experience of an anechoic chamber with sensitive microphones where lighting was ELV ( 12 volt ) DC incandescent to prevent mains hum inside the chamber.

I would be concerned about radio frequency energy from Switch Mode Power Supplies ( SMPS ) breaking through into audio equipment. SMPSs are found in many types of equipment from lighting to clocks and some of these SMPSs do radiate significant levels of spurious radio frequency energy.

 

[Tigercubrider]

I have converted a mate's double detached garage and work with electrics/ pa and lighting.
Not an electrician though.
Common sense says to not use the shower and tumbledrier while recording

Most band type equipment is very low draw these days although you could get some mains filters if you wanted to. We wasted a lot of time running extra cables, a phone line etc which became outdated as soon as it was installed. Obviously a mobile will interfere with audio so a landline extension may be usefull

We built it. Originally for an 8 track, then sync' d to an Atari with cubase - then dumped the tape and stayed on cubase. Now it's all on a pc.

We did a fluorescent light as a working light with tungsten wall lights for normal lighting during use. A basic tube heater keeps the chill off but isn't used much as the insulation keeps it constant.

Loads of sockets to avoid trip risks of running mains all over the floor.

I won't go into the soundproofing but sealing all holes is really important. The whole internal structure sits on 1" neoprene strip so that it is completely isolated from the outside. Two types of rockwool with a gap and two layers of plasterboard, staggered and skimmed. Laminated glass to add to the windows, which were already doubleglazed but old. The floor floats on rockwool

 

[bernardgreen]

soundproofing but sealing all holes is really important

Tests in the anechoic chamber seldom required there to be a person in the chamber for prolonged periods so suffocation in an air tight box was unlikely. Even so no one was allowed in the chamber ( with the door shut ) without someone being outside. A recording studio would need sound-proof ventilation.

 

[DIYNotIan]

Some great stuff here to get my teeth into. Thanks for the replies. I'm away for the weekend but will get back to this next week.

Thanks again

 

[DIYNotIan]

I would be concerned about radio frequency energy from Switch Mode Power Supplies ( SMPS ) breaking through into audio equipment. SMPSs are found in many types of equipment from lighting to clocks and some of these SMPSs do radiate significant levels of spurious radio frequency energy.

Hi

Would you mind expanding on this a little please if it isn't too much trouble... Would a washing machine be problematic? Fridges and freezers? And for the kinds of things you mention, what can be done about it?

Many thanks

 

[bernardgreen]

A Switch Mode Power Supply ( SMPS ) controls the output voltage ( or in LED drivers the output current ) by high frequency switching of power inside the SMPS. This high speed switching of electrical power creates harmonics and other frequencies which can be radiated as electromagnetic energy or Radio Frequency Interference ( RFI ).

RFI can affect audio equipment resutling in unwanted audiable noise in the system and on recordings.

A well made SMPS will have filtering to reduce the the amount of RFI to an acceptable level. Only sensitive devices ( microphone amplifiers etc etc ) in close proximity to the SMPS and/or its wiring would be affected.

Many SMPS units do not have adequate filtering and some have no filtering at all. These SMPS can and do affect equipment that is not in close proximity to the SMPS

Fridges and freezers?

When a fridge motor starts and stops there can be an arc ( spark ) at the thermostat contacts and this arc can create RFI but it can also create electrical noise which is conducted along the mains wiring to other bits of equipment.

SMPS are often labelled as "electronic transformers" and these are very different from magnetic transformers which do not create any RFI

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Any electrical noise is going to be bad news near a recording setup.
You definitely don't want the washing machine going on and off.
In theory, all electrical/electronic items with a CE mark emit low levels of electromagnetic radiation....in theory!
Avoid the really cheap bargain ones from China, if you get problems with wall wart PSUs for signal processing gear then consider running them on a car battery (all my outboard toys are 12v).