Thank-you social isolation! I have finally had enough time to begin the re-design of the #recording studio. Whilst I have tried many high tech methods in the past, using design software and 3D modelling, this time I have gone for a low tech and tactile approach using a scale model and up-cycling some of the cardboard that has acumulated of the last few weeks.

The result so far is shown here.

The blue bottom right is the glass door into the studio and the large black square is the mandatory black leather chair. The model is a 10:1 ratio which represents the 6m x 4m studio space. I haven’t yet planned the acoustic panels.

The Thon Racks hold various rack mounted equipment including power conditioning and patch bays. See my previous article about patch bays here.

The large Thon Studio rack with the Roland TR-808 on top includes two power conditioning units and a patch bay which includes control voltage (CV) jacks to supply the analogue synthesizers on that side of the studio.

Currently I’m working on the power supply layout coming from the four power conditioners and backup power supply. After that I’ll check that the audio and digital signal flow (the path an audio signal must travel through your gear, from beginning to end) is feasible with the various cable looms that I have.

Signal flow between sound cards and Mackie Big Knob

Signal flow between Allen & Heath 168 mixer and (mainly) analogue equipment

In the future I will cover

Structural and acoustic design
1. I have tried to get as close to ‘The Golden Ratio’ as possible which is nicely explained here https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/golden-ratio.html
  The golden ratio (symbol is the Greek letter "phi" shown at left) is a special number approximately equal to 1.618. We find the golden ratio when we divide a line into two parts so that:
  the whole length divided by the long part
  is also equal to
  the long part divided by the short part
  e.g. Studio size of 6000 x 3710 is good (=1.618)
Construction and fit
Air conditioning design - how it integrates with acoustic and interior designs