Taking Over the Closets, Living Room, and Bedroom
Push the furniture out of the way. You’re going to need some space for this band.
Among instruments, the piano and acoustic drums will require the most room. Since you have three rooms to work with (living room, bedroom, and your chosen control room) and the drums can get pretty loud, I suggest you put the drums in the bedroom and the piano in the living room. The piano is much easier to control than an acoustic drum kit volume-wise. Along with the piano, I would put the acoustic guitar player and percussionist in the living room. The singer should be in the isolation booth, which can be in the control room or the living room, depending on the amount of space you have. You have two closets, one of which is in the living room and the other in the bedroom. Since the bass and drums are usually important to lock together, I would put the bass guitar setup in the bedroom closet and the guitar setup in the living room closet. The guitar player and bass player will probably want to perform with the other musicians in the living room.
Let’s take a moment to look at what we’ve just done. We’ve taken a seven-piece band that is used to playing together and separated them in three rooms. In theory, this makes sense because it’s the best way to get proper sound isolation. On the other hand, you have just “broken up the band.” If a band is new to the studio, this could totally throw their performance out of whack. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the sake of the performance, and in this case the sacrifice is sound control.
Also, sometimes visual cues are more important than a good headphone mix. The drummer may really need to be in the same room as the guitar player to get into the right groove. Also, the bass player may need to feel the bass from the bass cabinet to get the right groove. Every player and band has unique personalities and characteristics that contribute to the band’s sound. Working against those personality traits and characteristics is only going to make it harder for you to get a good take. Make sure that everyone in the band is comfortable with the setup. If they’re not, you should rework it.
Note
Visual cues are very important. If you are using several rooms, doors with large glass windows or walls with windows can be invaluable. If there is no way to install windows between the rooms, try adding a video monitor setup so that performers can see what’s happening in all the rooms as they play.
The worst thing you can do to a musician is make him or her feel unimportant: for instance, stuffing someone in a closet with no windows and then never talking to him or her during the session. No matter what the final compromise ends up being between the band and the studio, there is no such thing as a perfect setup. Sometimes it just takes time for the band to adjust to the environment by running though a few songs together.
See Figure 7.12 for a layout of our band and their locations throughout the home studio.
Figure 7.12. The band is scattered throughout the house.
