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Planning Your Ideal Recording Space

Feb 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Larry the O

Relocating is a major physical, emotional, and financial undertaking that every person faces at some point. If part of your world is a recording studio, you have more to consider when moving than most people do. Relocating your studio isn't a big deal if you have little more than a portable digital audio workstation (DAW) and a pair of small speakers (that's why many musicians on the road carry such systems). For anyone with more gear than that, though, it is a very big deal.

Everything changes: the old studio you knew goes away, and a new one rises up. Between those two points lies a crucial transition process, the success of which could have a powerful effect on your musical and audio experiences for years. Relocating your studio correctly is worth the added time and effort.

This article comes out of many studio moves and redesigns that I've done myself or that I've participated in. I learned a lot of lessons the hard way and saved myself trouble many times, too. Perhaps I can save you some now.

LOOK AT THE MAP

When moving your studio, you must address many considerations. Most are the same as when you're building a studio from scratch, but hopefully to a lesser degree: they consist of logistics, acoustics, electricity, ergonomics, and so forth. That's a lot of ground to cover, but what distinguishes relocating a studio from building one is legacy.

The most significant legacies are your existing hardware and software, and another is the physical layout of your old facility. You will transport some legacies to your new studio unaltered, while others will change anywhere from slightly to radically. The downtime you experience while you're moving could be a rare opportunity for you to make significant changes.

The most effective way to move a studio is to establish what studio design and building technique you will use, determine what legacies exist and how you will handle them, and practice good packing and moving skills.

The first principle is that a smooth move depends on careful planning. It's impossible to overstate the importance of planning for a studio transition, and you can't plan your relocation in too much detail (see the sidebar “The Yellow Brick Road”). Planning for a studio move or redesign is incredibly time-consuming. You have no choice but to put in the hours, either before your move or afterward, when you're troubleshooting in the middle of sessions. Most of your transition from a working old studio to a working new one will involve labor for your analytical left brain, though right-brain leaps will certainly come in handy at times.

LOOK FORWARD

Any studio-design process should be application-driven, but circumstances often define contextual ground rules that you must factor in to your planning. Ask yourself key questions such as, how quickly does your new studio need to be up and running? Will you own the building or otherwise have the ability to make major modifications, or is it a rented space where serious alterations are out of the question? How long do you expect to be in the space? Will you be doing the same kind of audio work or taking on new directions?

How soon your studio needs to be operating after the move can determine how much change can be tolerated in the process of building your new studio. And if you are planning to do another kind of work — moving into sound design, for example, when you previously did only music — your functional needs may change, and your task may be closer to a complete redesign than just moving your old setup.

If you will be moving near the start of or during a project, your most effective strategy for getting back online quickly will be to transport your studio as is — lock, stock, and patch bay — to the new location and set it up exactly as it was. If it worked where it was originally, you know that any problems showing up in the new place are due to something that was changed in the move rather than being fundamental to the studio's functional design.

With thorough planning and orchestration of the process, you can make radical changes in your studio, but only if you can afford some downtime. Are you moving soon? Now is the time to take a long, hard look at what continues to serve you in your present studio and what is no longer of use.

Many personal-studio owners are moving production entirely into their computers (see Fig. 1). Perhaps it's time to sell off a bunch of outboard synths, signal processors, and even your mixer, and beef up your DAW to handle everything. Such a change could make your move much easier by reducing the amount of hardware you'll have to set up, but it will involve more software configuration and troubleshooting, which might take as much time if not more. On the other hand, adding surround production to your new studio means having to deal with significant hardware issues — not only speaker placement (though that's enough), but additional acoustical issues, monitor control, and cable runs.

Deciding well before the move what equipment changes you want is crucial to effectively planning the new studio. Failure to make such decisions almost guarantees a kludge when you have to find a place for gear you hadn't factored into your new layout. It's not enough to know what equipment you'll be adding or changing; you must also know how it will be housed, what the furniture will look like, and what cable and AC power needs will be introduced. Without complete information, you won't properly understand your studio's footprint when you get into the new space.

If you can make real modifications to the building or space, you can consider a whole raft of solutions that you would need to finesse in a typical rental situation. Adding or removing walls, cutting holes for cable runs or ventilation, or even mounting diffusers or bass traps aren't considerations for most apartment dwellers. For them, lesser solutions and resourcefulness will be the way. Whereas a home owner could install solid-wood quadratic diffusers, for instance, renters should probably stick to lightweight plastic or foam models.

Unless you have a job that requires it, don't plan extensive physical modifications to a place you won't be staying in for long. Any modifications you do make should be easy to remove and have the least possible impact on the building. I once moved into a house I knew I would not be staying in more than a couple of years; I therefore devised my overhaul so that when I moved again, I could tear down the studio, transport it, and quickly set it up again in approximately the same configuration. And when I did move to a new house, I was up and working within days of starting setup.

LOOK BACK

When you relocate, improving your studio setup has a lot to do with how well you understand its present strengths, weaknesses, and idiosyncrasies. What systems work well? What things are a royal pain? What limitations are imposed by your needs and equipment? Sometimes space constraints or other circumstances prevent you from keeping something that works well. Recognizing what works and why will give you insight into how to replicate or improve it in your new location. Weak spots in a studio are usually quite obvious, so heed those and try to improve on them in the upcoming round of studio building.

Question everything in a left-brain, analytical way; don't overlook an important change because you're so used to your currently less-than-optimal system that you simply accept it. If you're a composer working primarily from your keyboard, examine whether the keyboard is placed where you can see your computer monitor readily, hear everything clearly, and easily access all the necessary controls. If your most important work is mixing, look for ways to improve access to your mixer or control surface and outboard gear, to make patching and routing easier, and to make your monitor setup more symmetrical.

Will you be recording with mics? Note what made the best recording spots in your old studio and why, how well sight lines worked out, and whether your headphone monitoring situation was adequate. Double-check all the basics for the kind of work you do and learn what you can from your history.

Every studio contains items that were placed in the only spot where they would fit. Sometimes that creates a situation that invites repetitive stress injuries or other ergonomic dysfunction. It is important to remedy such problems when you move.

Your new space will offer a fresh set of layout opportunities and limitations. If you analyze your present studio and identify serious problems its layout causes, you can make better equipment placement a high priority for the new studio.

LOOK AROUND

After you've determined in detail what your priorities will be for a new studio, look at the physical space you'll be using and take stock of the layout. First try to notice obvious characteristics that might have a large impact. Is the new room significantly larger or smaller than your current studio? What shape is the space? How high is the ceiling? (Is it all the same height?) How thick are the walls? Where are the windows?

Inspect the electrical service: note the number of outlets, their locations, and whether they are grounded outlets (or if — lucky you — they're hospital-type isolated-ground outlets). Determine the number and capacity of the circuits servicing the room. Finally, test each of the outlets. A standard outlet tester from the hardware store will tell you what need to know. It's amazing how many houses have improperly wired electrical service, which is dangerous to both equipment and people.

Look closely at ways in, out, and through the studio. Some equipment in my studio goes out for live performances or sessions in other studios. In one of my previous studios, one door led to the garage; not only did I have to always avoid blocking that door, but I also had to maintain sufficiently wide passage to move equipment in and out of it. I placed my drums, which were some of the largest items that went in and out, right next to the door.

What lies on the other side of each wall? How close are the neighbors and on which sides? If neighbors are close on one side but not on another, consider where your biggest noisemakers will go relative to the close side. In one studio, I faced the monitors away from the side closest to the neighbors, and the drums sat next to the garage, which acted as a sound buffer. When you look at doors and windows, also consider security. Should you put in an alarm system? If so, what doors or windows should trigger the alarm? Where might you want motion detectors?

I usually seal off windows and doors to reduce sound leakage in both directions. In one house, my studio had a sliding glass door to the outside. Because two other doors led into the studio, the glass door wasn't really needed and provided nothing but sound leakage and a security risk. Because I was renting the house, my solution couldn't be too extreme. A woodworker friend created a fairly heavy wooden box filled with foam. I attached it to the door frame using only four screws (though quite a few screws held the box together) and used weather stripping between the box and the frame to protect the paint around the glass and provide a seal. I also mounted diffusers inside the studio. Thus, isolation was much improved. When I moved out, I removed the entire affair in less than a minute; the four screw holes that remained were easily filled.

LOOK WITHIN

One of the toughest issues to deal with in a studio is ventilation. If you're renting, chances are you're stuck with the existing situation. However, if you can modify your space, examine how the ventilation is situated and consider what would improve it. Often the studio's location within the building will tell you something about typical temperatures in the room. If the room is in a basement, for example, the temperature will be more stable than if it's a room with lots of windows facing the afternoon sun.

Regardless of location, though, project studios often end up being warm because the measures required to isolate for sound usually make it difficult for air to get in or out. Filled with equipment and people, a studio with no airflow can get very warm indeed. Commercial studios spend tremendous amounts of money on high-capacity, low-velocity air conditioning. Such a solution is beyond most personal-studio budgets, but you might devise your own methods to imitate professional tactics such as placing insulation where the ducting turns in labyrinthine ductwork, which reduces sound transmission through the ventilation.

It's safer and often cheaper to do your own ventilation than your own electrical work, but a professional will likely do a better job. It is reasonable, however, to do some research, plan your ventilation system, and then hire a professional to at least look at your plans and your space and offer feedback.

Another point of infrastructural analysis should be storage. Storage is often overlooked because space is limited. You will need space, though, for empty boxes, product literature, documentation, supplies, unused or broken equipment, and media archives. You can break down your storage needs into three areas: storage for things you need close at hand (manuals for the gear you use most often, headphones, and so on), storage for items to which you need fairly easy but not immediate access (such as blank project media, cables and adapters, and microphones), and “cold” storage for items you rarely need.

You've probably provided storage space in your existing studio for close-at-hand items to save time and annoyance having to hunt for them. However, your intermediate and cold-storage spaces might be very different when you relocate. Cold storage can sometimes be off-site, but beware of spaces in which the temperature or humidity may vary. If you're storing empty boxes, you'll probably have no problem, but sensitive items such as archival media must be stored in a controlled environment if you ever want to use them again.

PICTURE THIS

When you've made a thorough assessment of the new space's present state, your next step is to visualize it as an operational studio. I do this by actually standing in the (hopefully) empty room and visualizing my studio's major stations in the space before me. Although I later get more detailed with measurements and mock-ups, my initial visualization session usually leads to the basic plan I end up following.

Again, the room's physical features tend to push the layout in a certain direction (see Fig. 2). For example, a doorway that can't be blocked affects the placement of large objects. Unless the room is square, you must decide on the orientation of the studio and, most especially, your monitoring. I generally position a studio's contents lengthwise, with the most space behind me, for three reasons. First, it decreases audible reflection (slap) from the back wall. Second, it allows the most space for placement of surround speakers. And third, a lengthwise orientation places most of my equipment behind me and thus reduces many sources of asymmetrical lateral and front reflections.

FIG. 2: Visualize your new studio in operation, taking into account physical attributes such as the location of doors, windows, posts, closets, and electrical outlets, before you begin planning your equipment layout. (click graphic for bigger version)

 

IT'S ELECTRIC

Electrical service will always be a factor in setting up a studio. If all the outlets in the room are on two walls, you must place the equipment requiring the most outlets along those walls; otherwise, you'll need extension cords to carry the power to where it's needed. If the outlets are ungrounded (which they almost always have been in my project studios), you will want to at least run a ground wire from the outlets to a ground point such as the breaker box or a cold-water pipe. While you are visualizing, try to identify the path the ground wire must take. And be warned that cold-water pipes are not reliable grounds; they might be plastic or, even if they're metal, have poor electrical connections between lengths of pipe, because the solder used for plumbing is not the same as solder used for electrical wiring.

Without a doubt, it is always best to hire a licensed electrician to do your electrical work, even though it may seem like a lot of money simply to run one wire. You don't want to take chances with wires in the breaker box, and you don't want to violate building codes (see Fig. 3).

THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD You can break down the studio-transition process into the steps below, which I recommend doing in the following order whenever possible: Consider your schedule (including impending sessions) Understand your current studio Assess the new space Spec the new studio Generate a setup plan (including documentation and procedure) Generate a tear-down and packing plan for your old studio, based on your new studio setup Make new hardware acquisitions or changes Tear down your old studio Pack up your old studio Make infrastructural changes to the new studio Move the studio Set up the new studio Test the new studio Get back to work Even with good planning, your schedule might not work out in this exact order. Still, you can come pretty close to this sequence of events, which should simplify the move. Note that almost half of these steps involve advance planning, before the move even takes place.

Studio grounding is a complex subject that involves managing a challenging relationship between safety ground and signal ground. The ground wire I'm referring to is to provide safety ground, and it's clearly the more important of the two. Hum and AC noise don't matter much if you're in the hospital from a bad electric shock. Once again, if you can make significant modifications, you have the option of doing the studio AC power right by constructing separate circuits and isolated-ground outlets with a star-grounding scheme that leads to a proper spike sunk into the earth. For that, you should definitely hire a licensed electrician, and preferably one with experience wiring recording studios.

Don't overlook what might be the most fundamental consideration for electrical service: how much power you need. Do the math to figure out how much current your studio will require, and make sure the electrical service will accommodate it. If it won't, make sure that more service can be added. In one studio, I was so close to the bone on electrical service that I blew the breaker whenever I cranked up one seldom-used but power-hungry piece of equipment. Because adding capacity was not an option, I had to run an extension cord to another room whenever I wanted to use that device.

MEET ME AT THE STATION

Your next step is to consider what needs to fit in your new studio. I break down a studio's layout into functional stations. Some examples are stations for mixing, visual and audio monitoring, outboard processing, patching and routing, a keyboard controller, other instruments, and a computer. I have several modular analog synths in my studio, so it has a modular-synth station, too.

For each station, there are three major considerations: ergonomics, connectivity, and footprint. Take my modular synth station, for example. It is not the station I use most frequently, but it consumes a lot of space. So to accommodate its size and its connections, I prefer to place it against a back wall or somewhere that isn't a prime location but is still close enough for cabling to be practical. The last time I moved, I really wanted to keep the cabling from my previous studio. I used a mic snake (which I already had) and a handful of adapter cables to connect the modular synth's outputs to the snake's stage box. At the other end, I used adapters to plug the snake into patch bays. That was a simple, versatile, and robust solution, as a good mic snake is designed for heavy-use cable runs.

Note that cable-run paths and lengths are not the only aspects of connectivity to take into account; you must also consider how you will access the connections. Any station that has a substantial number of connections will require you to physically get in and deal with those connections at least occasionally and in some cases, regularly. Make sure your plans allow sufficient access.

In my studio, I need two or three feet of access behind my rack of patch bays and routers for the normal futzing around I have to do during projects. Because I never have studio spaces that allow me to leave the rack that far from the wall, though, I make sure I have enough service loop (extra cable) and clearance in front of the rack to roll it out when I need to (see Fig. 4).

If you have stations for acoustic instruments, such as a piano (I have a vibraphone in my personal studio), one very important consideration is finding the locations that are best for them acoustically. My vibes live in a space that's convenient for practicing, but for recording, I move them to a spot with better acoustics. If you have a piano in your studio, that approach might not be an option, and the piano's location might dictate your studio's layout.

After you've figured out what needs to fit, your next step is to measure existing stations and estimate the footprint of any new stations you plan to add. My approach is to go into a two-dimensional drawing program, draw a scale representation of the room, and make and label objects proportioned to represent the stations in the studio. Then the game becomes a cross between chess and a jigsaw puzzle as I shuffle the stations around onscreen, looking at each possible arrangement and evaluating its desirability in terms of ergonomics, connectivity, and footprint for each station (see Fig. 5). In general, the more you bring from your previous studio, the faster everything will fall into place, because many of the problems you'll encounter in the new space are the same as problems you faced and solved in previous rooms.

FIG. 5: This diagram shows the room in Fig. 2 with all the equipment arranged in functional stations. The locations of instruments such as keyboards or vibes will depend largely on how often they will be used. Note that the drums are away from windows and near the garage door. (click graphic for larger version)

 

WIRE YOU THAT WAY

My project studio, Toys in the Attic, has a lot of outboard processors that produce sounds I have yet to get from plug-ins and software tools. It also houses a digital mixer. Consequently, I have a lot of cabling, which is a primary consideration whenever I relocate.

Given what it would cost to replace some or all of the cabling, I prefer to keep what I have. Cable length, then, imposes obvious limits. I have my DAW interface in a rack that must sit within several feet of my computer's soundproof enclosure. Accepting my cable-length limitations severely restricts where I can place my mixer, my patch bay and routing rack, and my computer enclosure.

Because my studio has so much outboard gear, I spend a lot of time planning cable runs — their lengths, paths, labeling, bundling, and protection from foot traffic. Make sure your cable runs are identified and measured well in advance. I use a database to keep track of every cable and every connector on every device.

If you're moving into surround production, you face additional restrictions. Few things will limit your studio-layout options like adding surround monitoring, because it involves placing monitors all around the room in what ought to be a symmetrical configuration.

RIPPLE EFFECT

When relocating your studio, carefully think through the implications of any changes you plan to make. If you're buying a beefier new computer and adding a RAID array to lessen your reliance on outboard hardware, for example, you will eliminate and shrink some stations, but you'll need to isolate fan noise and provide sufficient ventilation for the equipment. You might also need a changed configuration of AC outlets or more power treatment, such as a voltage regulator or uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

If you will be making significant structural modifications such as adding layers of drywall, be aware of how that will affect the dimensions of the room (see Fig. 6). With thicker walls, narrow passages could become impassably tight.

So far I've focused on the control room, but you might want to put other available rooms into service as recording rooms. Before locking in your studio design, identify those spaces and what you'll need to make them functional (see Fig. 7). You will always need at least two lines running from such a space to the control room, for example — usually a microphone cable and a headphone feed. Plan for additional lines in case you ever want to use more than one microphone or you want send headphone mixes to two musicians. Consider whether you will simply run cables as they're needed or if you should route cabling through the walls to a connection panel in one or more rooms.

After you've identified your needs, surveyed the new space, and devised a layout that factors in changes you want to make, it's a good idea to double-check your design by imagining a typical session in detail, step by step, to make sure you've considered all the normal activities and built in enough flexibility to meet unusual needs.

You may ask, for example, what you will do if your new studio doesn't have enough space to keep seldom-used equipment in the control room. If such equipment will be set up on demand, you might want to anticipate where you'll set it up and lay appropriate cables for connecting it. The cables can remain attached at the destination end (often a patch bay), with the source end properly labeled and coiled near where the equipment will be placed. You might take it one step further and install a box with various connectors for quickly hooking up the equipment you know about as well as other carry-in devices.

You should also anticipate ways you might expand your studio and how those changes will be accommodated. If you have a business plan that defines a growth path, knowing how you'll handle new additions is especially important. If you know what to expect, it is foolish not to plan for it now.

ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

If you own your studio location and feel entirely confident of your plans, now is a good time to begin making serious modifications to the space. You may need to obtain permits, learn about building codes, consult contractors, and purchase materials. Starting the process as soon as possible can greatly reduce the time it takes to get the studio up and running after you've moved. However, be cautious, because making modifications prematurely can be disastrous if your plans change significantly.

Common improvements are installing acoustical isolation (more drywall, for example), interior acoustical treatment (bass trapping, absorption, and diffusion), ventilation, and AC power. You might also want to seal windows and doors, add a view window between the control room and the recording room, run cable through the walls, hang speakers, or mount video monitors.

Structural modifications can be involved and expensive, but they can also yield great rewards. If you just bought a house, you might hire an electrician to run a dedicated ground for the studio, install isolated-ground (hospital) outlets, add circuits sufficient in number and capacity for the studio, and balance the AC power load. Those efforts can go a very long way in making your studio quieter and cleaner than might be possible if you were to use existing household wiring that's shared with a refrigerator and washing machine.

Whatever your circumstances, it is important to time modifications thoughtfully. Some must happen before you move anything in, others can be done as soon as you arrive, and some are best done after everything is set up. You'll probably want to take measures that affect acoustical isolation before moving in (see Fig. 8). Even if you do, you might need to adjust it after everything is in place.

Beyond making modifications, you should map out the setup procedure in detail, in terms of setup order, dependencies, and functional priorities (what needs to be working first). Those are additional planning tasks you need to document in detail and visualize in steps, and I will discuss those topics in more detail in the section on executing that setup.

BACK AT THE RANCH

Tearing down and packing your existing studio requires organization. Again, make plans by sitting in the studio and visualizing as you take notes. Plan the entire teardown and packing process, including scheduling, before you begin moving anything.

Two factors to consider are dependencies in the teardown (you can't pack A until you deal with B) and the setup order. Also consider schedule dependencies: which pieces you'll likely need right up until the move, and which pieces need to be immediately functional in the new studio (they're usually the same components). If you have recording sessions planned, you may have to work your teardown and setup schedules around them and the equipment they'll require (see Fig. 9).

Start with low-hanging fruit: things you can tear down and pack with the least effort and impact. When I move, my modular synths get packed first because they have few wired-in connections, they sit in the back of the room, they are large, and they're least likely to be needed up to the studio's last functional minute.

As you consider each item, make note of what you will need to properly pack it. If movers will be handling your equipment, you'll need to pack it differently than if you are handling everything yourself. And packing to go across the country is not the same as packing to move across town. A long-distance move requires more care in packing and in choosing your packing materials.

You can learn something by looking at factory packing materials and how they protect devices. Lighter items may simply have plastic or foam corners inside a standard cardboard box. Heavier items may have an additional inner box with standoffs of some sort to absorb shocks.

Using more materials does not always translate to more secure packing, but don't underestimate the treatment your equipment might endure on a long move. If you have equipment mounted in a good rack built for the road, for instance, you might still want to use foam blocks wedged between each piece of equipment for rear support if it will be hauled cross-country.

As you plan, identify and note anything that you just can't trust to anyone else. You'll then know what you will need movers to deal with, which will be necessary for them to give an estimate. Knowing exactly what you need to move yourself will also tell you how many friends you should draft into bringing vehicles and strong backs to help with items you don't want movers to touch.

CALL THE CABLE COMPANY

After I've set basic teardown and setup dates and priorities and I've identified the low-hanging fruit, I dive into what, in my studio, is the heart of the beast: cabling. Once again, I survey, visualize, and document like a demon to organize tearing down and packing cables.

Identify all cables whose purpose will be the same in the new studio as in the old. Ensure that they're labeled (at both ends) and documented. Then consider how much of the cabling setup it's practical to move intact. Because my studio was designed around the idea of moving it, I was able to pack most of my cable bundles and snakes as they were. After all my planning was done, I knew which bundles I had to separate from other bundles, which could stay as they were, and which to break down into separate cables for packing.

My patch bay and routing rack has so many connections that it could have taken weeks to tear it down and rewire (see Fig. 10). I coiled and cable-tied most of the many bundles feeding it, placed the coiled bundles in an open box, and carefully transported the rack with the accompanying box of still-attached cables. Moving it was quite awkward and required four people, but the approach saved me a tremendous amount of time.

When you're finished scoping out teardown and setup, one task remains: figuring out the timing. Do not underestimate the importance of this step. Because of the demands of my day job and the amount of outboard components and cabling in my studio, it took two full weeks to completely tear it down and pack it. If you don't anticipate how long the process will take, you may find yourself in a panic as time runs out to vacate your old space. Similarly, you should calculate how long it should take you to reach minimum functionality in your new space, and how long after that to reach full core functionality. (Worry about advanced functionality later.)

PACK YOUR BAGS

Your plan is complete, and now all that remains is to carry it out. In general, I recommend tearing down and packing each item as a single gesture. If you try to tear everything down and then pack it all, you'll quickly have no room to move, much less pack. Whenever you have kept factory packaging, it's best to use that unless the device being packed requires extreme disassembly or some other major inconvenience.

Pack so that as many items as possible can be lifted and moved by one person. It is easy to pack so many items into a large box that it requires more than one person or a hand truck to move it, which means considerably more hassle at both ends. Some items will necessarily be heavy, but avoid unmanageably large loads when you can.

As you pack, mark each container and document its contents. I create general classifications (keyboards, computer, speakers, signal processing, and so on) and then assign a sequential number for each item within each classification. I also sequentially number each item independent of the classifications. For instance, I'll have items (23) Keyboards 1, (24) Keyboards 2, and (25) Signal Processing 1. It is also helpful to indicate on the item the room it's intended for.

I document everything in a spreadsheet that lists each box's number, contents, classification, and number within the classification. I also write Immediate on the boxes that contain high priority items for setup, and I indicate their importance in the spreadsheet with a note or by using a bold font. Describing the contents in great detail will really help when you're trying to find something specific in the mess of boxes you'll have after you've moved.

Be sure that your equipment is adequately protected. I moved several of my racks intact, but wrapped each entirely in a layer of packing blankets and a layer of bubble wrap. Secure cables that are being transported without being disconnected. I like to label fragile items with at least two levels of emphasis: Fragile and EXTREMELY FRAGILE!! The movers won't handle most items so labeled. Be paranoid: the equipment you're saving is your own.

If you are hiring movers, screen them carefully to ensure that they are conscientious and reasonably sensitive. Warn them that they'll be moving electronics and delicate items, and be sure they see all of it. My last time move was within the San Francisco Bay Area; I chose Cummings Movers (from Burlingame, California). They were excellent: punctual, fast, nice, and best of all, careful in their handling of everything.

THE PROMISED LAND

Unbelievably, moving day arrives, though for me, it has always been several days. Moving my studio typically involves one day of help from the Friends Armada, a day of movers, and numerous solo trips in my car over the course of a week or so.

Moving tends to be chaotic, but to the degree possible, manage the placement of your studio gear when it arrives at its destination so that you have some idea of where things are. You can also ensure that things end up in or near the right room, that nothing gets stacked in ways it shouldn't, and that it's possible to navigate through the rooms and stacks. To give myself room to move within the studio, I usually place some of the smaller and lighter items in a separate room such as the garage.

As boxes are being brought in or immediately thereafter, turn them so you can see the identifying marks. Move key components near where they will be needed. Place large items such as racks and furniture at their respective stations while people are still there to help with anything that will be difficult for you to move by yourself.

Once everything is moved in, it's time to start setup. Find the pieces that need to be set up first, and then find the second round of items, including cabling. Clear the studio area as much as possible and then start unboxing and setting up.

IT ALL CONNECTS

I begin setup by connecting AC power, one station at a time. Then I go through the stations in order of priority, doing the rest of the cabling one type at a time. After AC, I tackle analog audio. Although running audio cables so early can make it harder to maintain the necessary separation between cable runs, analog is usually the most problematic cable setup, so I prefer to do it when the least number of other cabling factors are in place. I connect each station's analog audio and then check for noise and hum problems. I might then proceed to the analog audio for another station, or I might continue with other cabling for the same station, depending on my setup priorities.

For several reasons, monitoring is the most important system to get up and running first. Once it's working, you can play music to make things more pleasant, but more importantly, this is the best way to catch grounding or noise problems in your new studio. Set up your monitors, turn them on, and listen. Do you hear noise? Hum? No? Beautiful! That is a vital first step.

If you have a mixing console, that's the next station to set up, for much the same reason. With the console set up and connected to the monitors, power up and listen again for problems. For me, the problems usually start showing up when I begin connecting other equipment to the basic console and monitoring system.

The next thing to connect and check is your recording medium; you might have a DAW interface that requires a computer to be set up, too. If you use a standalone system or an analog tape recorder, you will be spared setting up the computer. After you connect your monitors, mixer, and primary signal sources, the rest of the setup order can be flexible according to your needs.

Shoot for audio functionality first. For devices such as sound modules, though, you might need to install MIDI or make other connections before you can test the audio. (Don't forget that many sound modules have demo sequences that come in very handy for testing their audio outputs.)

After you've installed each station's analog audio and rectified any problems, you can run digital audio cables, followed by networking, and digital control and interface cables, including MIDI. The goal in this procedure is to follow good guidelines for cable runs, maintain organization according to your documentation, and find as many problems as possible during setup. When properly executed, you can happily live with the job you've done for a long time. If you don't do it correctly now, you will need downtime later to redo the cabling.

If the verbiage I've already devoted to cabling has failed to make an impression, let me state explicitly that cabling is tremendously important, and you should be as immaculate as possible in every detail related to your studio's cabling. You will almost inevitably encounter problems. The more effort you put into keeping your cabling neat, however, the easier it will be to manage and troubleshoot over time.

You'll want to install as much of your existing equipment as possible before adding new equipment, but your individual circumstances may dictate that you incorporate some new items near the beginning of setup. If you're upgrading your DAW hardware, for instance, you will probably need to do that early because of the DAW's primacy in most modern project studios.

DOWN THE RUNWAY

Once you have cabled your equipment, you will need to check every connection in a methodical way. Do not expect this to proceed smoothly; you will encounter problems of varying severity and may need to make purchases to fix some of them. Testing every connection is extremely time-consuming, though in the long run, it takes less time (and is less trouble) than troubleshooting in the middle of a session. I have had to spread the complete test sequence over as much as two weeks because I had to jump right into sessions in a new studio. Before starting, however, I tested everything I thought I'd need for the sessions, and a little more.

When you've established that your existing equipment is functioning properly, you can start introducing new pieces, hardware first, then software. Hardware problems are usually easier to isolate. After all, you can usually unplug hardware and know that it no longer has an impact, whereas software can be trickier to disable with the same degree of confidence. In fact, installing new software can easily be the most vexing part of the whole setup procedure.

Once the entire studio is set up, turn your attention to smaller (but no less important) concerns such as unpacking supplies. Locate items such as adapters and mic clips. Find a permanent home for everything, and put any boxes you want to keep in cold storage.

In the end, setup and testing can be as application-driven as planning. Here's an example: my first project after one move was an album mix. I had little need for MIDI at the beginning of the mix, so I focused more on enabling audio and especially outboard processing, and I added MIDI when I was closer to needing it. I tested all of my DAW and mixer I/O and made sure I was getting signal into and out of my outboard processing, and later concerned myself with samplers and other gear that I wouldn't need for that particular mix.

As you bring the studio online and run the first few sessions, document the problems you encounter, whether they involve equipment that is not yet functioning correctly, something that needs to be added, or a system that needs to be worked out. Your efforts will result in a checklist that you can work your way through as time permits and circumstances demand. By the time you've begun diagnosing minor problems, you can consider your new studio functional and your move complete.

EVERYTHING MUST GO

Moving is difficult and traumatic. The smaller and simpler your studio, the less this article concerns you (you lucky dog). Moving my studio has always been far more work than moving all my other possessions. Having done it a number of times now, I know that planning makes the difference between facing a challenging task and facing the seventh circle of hell.

Without adequate planning, a move will be chaos, and frustration will be the least of your worries. With good planning, tremendous effort is still required, but it is directed and purposeful. The result will be a relatively smooth, largely predictable transition that will get you from Studio A to Studio B with the least amount of tribulation.

TEN TIPS TO HELP YOU HAVE A SUCCESSFUL MOVE Don't underestimate the importance of planning and the time it will require. Everything rides on it. The time you budget for planning should be directly proportionate to the physical complexity of your studio and the degree of modification you intend to make. Plan to get help. If the job is big, help could make a significant difference. If you're drafting volunteers from among your friends, it will be most efficient to organize the move for them beforehand. Minimize the amount of labor that will be required by documenting everything, by physically grouping all the items associated with a task, and especially by noting tasks that must be done in sequence. Also consider your friends' abilities; identify a number of light items for anyone with a bad back, for example. Don't skimp on packing materials. In my last move, I went through five boxes of bubble wrap, ten packets of plastic sheeting, ten packing blankets, and five rolls of duct tape. I had no breakage at all. Take special care with small, important items. Computer cables and adapters, and even your mouse, are critical to functionality. Pack such items together and make particular note in your packing list of their locations. Take measurements. You'll feel frustrated if you try to set up and discover that a cable is too short, but you'll feel like a complete idiot if moving day comes and some objects won't fit through a door, up or down stairs, or in the locations you had planned for them. Don't skimp on the fudge factor. Remember Murphy's Law and add extra slack to everything you can. Expect the first few sessions in your new studio to be bumpy ones that will likely involve some troubleshooting and maybe even additional setup. Be thorough in your visualization. Virtual walk-throughs are extremely valuable for anticipating problems, but only if you do them in fine detail. It is tempting to make them quick and high-level, but the devil is in the details. Take charge. When you have movers or friends working for you, your most valuable role is not schlepping, but managing the process. Dedicate yourself to that role, because you're the only one who knows how and where everything is supposed to go. Don't feel guilty; you'll surely do your share of physical labor before all is said and done. Make to-do lists before, during, and after your move. Many tasks will arise in the course of your planning and moving — so many that you're likely to forget half as soon as you've thought of them — so write everything down as it comes to mind. (As I write this, I'm looking at nine outlines dealing with things to do for my last studio move.) Make contingency plans. No matter how organized you are, things can go awry. Recognize your absolute highest priorities, such as items you can move only with help, in case time runs short. Expect that not every friend who promises to help you will actually show up. Don't go crazy making contingency plans, but always identify the tasks that absolutely must get done and devise a backup plan in case something goes amiss.

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Larry the O has operated Toys in the Attic for 23 years in over half a dozen locations, providing professional music and sound-design services.