Having been using his latest studio for long enough for him to have really got to know it, in this article James Ivey shares five things he has learned from building his studio which he might have done differently…
As I have said many times before in both articles and on video, I started designing my next studio (the one I am in as I type this article) about 10 minutes after finishing moving into my last studio, which was a log cabin style shed at the bottom of my garden. The one where Russ and I made countless videos back in the “old days”.
Jivey studio (Location Recordings) 3.0 has, on so many levels raised the bar. However, with the raising of the bar came many pitfalls, hurdles, and trip hazards. Here are five things I wish I had done differently when building and installing my latest home studio.
If you want to check out the build and design story of my most recent studio check it out here.
Have A Plan That Is Written Down (Not Just In Your Head)
Studio mark 1 and 2 were both designed and build from the ground up by me, with a great deal of help, love, affection, encouragement, and cold drinks from my wife. However, this new studio was a MUCH (I can’t emphasize this enough) bigger and grander undertaking, and I knew right from the outset that I was not going to able to do this one all on my own. However, the plan for the studio remained clear in my head. I knew what I wanted, and my vision never changed. However, I might not have always been the best at communicating this vision to my so called ‘Project Manager’ (yes well fell well and truly out before the end of the project) and in the turn the build and construction team.
My “production” drawings were done by me on some A3 paper. On some level they were to scale but they were, at best a reasonable sketch. If you are building from the ground up get proper drawings done by someone who knows what they are doing when it comes to building regulations for things like wall build-up, roof joist span tables and other technical building stuff. I’m not just talking about the big stuff like how big the windows should be and where the doors should go but how the door reveal will look. How the internal walls will be made up, how the lighting system will be mounted and so on.
Also remember that in most cases you are not building a dwelling. People will not be living or sleeping in your studio/man-cave (woman caves are also available but it is used here a term from pop culture). If it’s not a dwelling, then many of the more stringent building regulations do not apply (at least in the UK). Make sure that all concerned including the planning department, building control and your builders know what you are building and that is it NOT FOR SLEEPING IN. This will save you time, money and masses of red tape.
My Project Manager was very much of the opinion that we would cross bridges as we came to them, which as it turned out would be a very expensive and time-consuming approach.
My advice would be to get every detail nailed down at the planning stage. There is nothing wrong with plans that develop and change over time but all these tweaks, changes are alterations will have a knock-on effect, either in time, finish or cost. Normally all three.
Don’t Ignore Problems That Don’t Meet Your Vision (Do Sweat The Small Stuff)
At every stage of the build no matter how big or small make sure you know what is going on and how your money is being spent. It might sound daft but if you don’t understand why a particular process or procedure is being done, ask. It’s your baby so find out what is going on and if something does not look right, ask again. This happened many times on my build. I saw something happening I didn’t understand or like and had to step in to fix potential issues just because the guys doing the build did not understand studios. This included where the studio door was at what they thought was an odd angle and the height of the window. Basic stuff I know. By the end of the project I ended up project managing and was on-site grafting every day. It was me who stayed up till 2am screwing over 3000 100mm dry-wall fixings into the ceiling to try to get us back on schedule.
Cables – You Can’t Have Too Many
The bane of my studio life is cables and cabling. So, when designing the new studio I wanted to do my very best to hide as much of the cabling as possible either as part of the build process or in some from of cable trunking or ducting. Believe it or not, I do like a tidy studio. Now it’s never going to be possible to hide everything out of sight but when working out your cable runs it’s always worth adding one or two, or ten extra lines for upgrades and expansion. And remember, you can never have enough power outlets. I started with 10, upped it to 30 and still wish I added more.
Two Little Wins
I designed cable runs to go around the edge of the studio made from the same material as the floor. These would hold the mic lines, multi-cores and wherever possible, cables that would be a permanent part of the studio fixtures. I have stage boxes that pop out of the walls at pertinent places to receive drum mics for example which will be a permanent fixture but long USB lines, network cables HDMI and SDI (video) lines also run through these ducts. However, behind the console and the two side racks is a total rat’s nest of cables, power supplies and other extras that there is no real hiding place for. I totally underestimated how much space the cables would take up and how much of a pain in the a%$ it would be to get big chunky 8 channel balanced multi-core cables with 25 pin D-Sub ends through the very fancy looking brush plates. It works but I could have put in twice as many and made the ducting twice as big and still only just had enough space. My original idea to put in a floor channel was something I was talked out of by, yes you guessed it, my ‘Project Manager”.
The second win was the lighting truss. Most people thought I was mad when I said I wanted a “rock and roll” style lighting rig in the studio. However, the 100mm Global Truss solution has been one of the biggest successes of the build. The truss not only holds the lighting (spot lights, LED filming lights and LED par cans for colour interest) but it also has 8 mic lines, 4 SDI lines for video, 6 ethernet Cat6 lines for future development and 4 return lines from the interface for when I finally get around to putting an Dolby Atmos rig in. Oh and there is power up there for the all lights and cameras.
However, I did forget one cable. There is no dedicated DMX (the lighting version of MIDI) to allow me to control the coloured LED par cans. I know I can get wireless DMX kits and all that stuff, but if I had given it a little more thought I would have put at least two DMX lines in. Not a major failure but still.
The take-away here is always allow for more connectivity than you need right now. Because “wow I’ve got so much spare for cable” is something no studio owner has ever said.
Test As You Install
In a previous life, when I used to sell Mac based computer systems for studios, I once had a client who said (and I quote) “I’m picking the system up on Friday as I have a session with a new client on Saturday”. Oh how I laughed. Putting any new rig together is going to take time and take a lot of testing and sure as eggs is eggs, it’s not all going to work first time.
Heed this warning. Test as you go. The first item of kit I installed in the studio was the desk. Then the sofa. I then spent a good two weeks moving the sofa around the room while I ran in all the cables that would eventually hide in the ducts behind said sofa. The complete install took 5 times longer than it needed to because I got all the kit in and roughly in place and then started running cables. If you can, bring in one piece of kit or rack at a time, get it connected, tested and then hide the cables neatly. This way you trace and solve any issues as you go and don’t find yourself wading through piles of cable looking for the one dodgy connection.
Price & Contingency
I’ve used this line in articles before, but I’ve watched enough episodes of Grand Designs (check it out on Channel 4 if you are not aware of this show) to know that all builds, big or small run over budget. I was under no illusion that the new studio would be expensive, dream projects very rarely aren’t, but I started the build just as prices for materials went through the roof. Both concrete and timber prices jumped 40% overnight. The normal rule for any building project is allow 20% for contingencies. Well, I ran over that and then some. We had issues in digging out the area for the concrete raft foundation. We had issues with getting the correct amount of steel work for the base. We had issues with the required amounts and type of concrete. Sadly most of these issue were caused by my over ambitious Project Manager and were not spotted by me until it was too late.
I also said goodbye to well over £2000 by having materials on-site far too far in advance, which in turn were damaged by the elements. The first studio door became rain damaged from being outside for 2 months and other timber became un-usable again due to water damage. Get the stuff you need delivered to site when you need it. Again, a good project manager could save you money here.
To date I have still not added up the final build costs for the new studio, I think I’m too scared to, and, technically the studio is still not finished as I need to put the final finish cladding on the outside to meet the WAP (Wife Approval Factor).
I believe a lot of the overrun could have been avoided by better planning on my part. Better management of materials, again on my part and by the “Project Manager” actually being good at his job and managing the project and not adding $$$ to his fee. Has it come across that he and I fell out in a big way? Thought so.
The Final Outcome
Am I pleased with the way the studio has turned out? I’m ecstatically over the moon about my studio. It is everything I could have imagined. The layout is exactly what I wanted, the drums sound amazing in here and best of all my neighbours have no idea what I get up to in here as the sound transmission from inside to outside is next to nothing. Hey, I’m sure it’s a measurable amount but it should be enough to say, I can play drums at 3am in here and not a soul can hear me from the nearest house…. Which happens to be mine and the kids just keep on sleeping.
Would I change things, yes. I would never have employed an incompetent project manager for a start. I would have taken full control of the project earlier and maybe been able to save some money on the final total but I am beyond happy with how the studio has turned out.
Now ask me if I’m still paying for it…… No comment.