As some of you might know, I am crazy happy with my return to performance music. Some might suggest I’ve gone a little over the top; they would be right. But we really lucked into the music studio. When the house was being built in 1999, the builder came to us and suggested we change what was to be a huge crawl space into a mother-in-law apartment. He gave us an astonishing good price on it. So after renting it to my daughter’s family for years, we finally had it to our own.
If I had known that it was to be a music studio, I would have made the green room much smaller. Here are the spec’s and setup for a space that was designed to support my three bands, a sax x-tet, a jazz x-tet, and a mini-big band. I ended up having a full sized big band with hundreds of charts for that format. Note, that if you take your time to pick out the accoutrement’s necessary for a working studio, you can save a *lot* of money.
As you approach the door you our greeted by the obligatory beat-up sax. It’s an old Buescher instrument that was used for parts before it found it’s way to my hands.
The first time we had the four-horn, eight piece jazz combo in the room, it was a bit loud. The room now has one wall covered with some cheapo muslin to help shape the sound. A high school director came up with that idea. The other three walls have Auralex Acoustics sound proofing to help with the bouncing sound or echo stuff. I got them during a music123.com 50% off sale. The windows have the pleated shades to keep sound from bouncing of of those surfaces. And the wet bar was a must have to. <smile>
Next came the equipment, all purchased at bargain basement prices. My intent was to make it easy for the musicians to just show up and play. We’ll talk about the sheet music library in another post. The drum set is a Pearl jazz set with special hydro-skin heads, and other stuff that two of my drummer friends spec’d for me. The cymbals are sweet Zildjian ones. The keyboard is the only really pricey splurge for me, a sweet Roland piano HP-206 with an 88-key stereo multi-sampled piano sound.
The bass was selected for me by a pro who uses the same setup. Brand new, with custom pickups, and resetting the bridges I have just under a $1000 in this fine instrument. I have paired it with a way too powerful Behringer 450 watt bass amp. With this kind of wattage, the soft bass sound is sooo sweet. I also picked up a Peavey Millennium bass axe at the local pawn show that looks like it’s never been use for $50.
As I have an instructor, remember that band teacher who spec’d the muslin, giving lessons every Wednesday, I added some benches for those waiting.
There is also a decent stereo, a super Boss Dr. Beat DB-90, a way accurate Peterson Strobe tuner, and … wait for it… a green room, complete with bathroom, beds, big closet, and a desk with the computer and TV.
The table under the stereo holds combo music. The rest of the music library is upstairs. My PAs include a Kustom Profile two 300 watt PA and a Fender Passport 250 watt. In closing I must say that my dawgly loves it down there, insisting upon following me down there whether I’m taking lessons, or practicing with my sax quartet, jazz combo, or big band.
The Bis Key Chronicles 
You forgot to mention the curtains and bench cushions.
Interesting. It does look familiar.
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