Product Description

* 12 proven designs for building inexpensive, yet effective, audio studios
* Covers basic acoustic theory, construction materials, and applied design
* New chapters on blueprint reading and electrical wiring and grounding methods, expanded coverage of materials and construction methods

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #216592 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
MIKE SHEA has been involved with professional audio since the 1960s when he opened his own recording studio in Massachusetts. He relocated to New York in the 1970s and began a successful independent contracting career building rehearsal and recording studios. Throughout his career he has taught graduate courses at the Institute of Audio Research, served as the technical editor of RECORDING WORLD magazine, and written extensively about all aspects of professional audio.

Customer Reviews

Not helpful at all.
For example, the only help this book give you as far as treating the acoustic of a project studio is to tell you to buy a certain particular brand, RPG, and get 4 of their bass traps, 4 of their absorbant panels and 2 diffusors, and where to place them. No different option is discussed, no alternative....

And when you find out that this option amounts to around $3,000.00, and the author concludes: "this option represents the very minimum defense against the effects of early reflections, the minimum of bass absorption and the minimum of rear-wall diffusion. Much potential improvements remains."....you start wondering about the "budget" he's talking about in the title.

I wish he'd mention the fact that a couch or a love seat make for a great bass trap, that pannels of 703 or 705 fiberglass covered in burlap fabric make much greater absorbants than foam for much cheaper, and that a cluttered shelve makes for a great diffusor....

The rest of the book is filled with mathematical equations and tables and graphs that lack some clear explanations. The book is discouraging at best, boring and not reflective of it's title.

Not very helpful
This book was a big disappointment. I was hoping for detailed instructions for the construction of a studio, and what I got was a refresher course in Acoustics 101. The book has a lot of theory which could be helpful to someone that doesn't already know about diffusion, absorbtion and reflection of sound waves. What it doesn't have is room dimensions, angles of walls, or decent illustrations. The illustration for a garage multi-track studio was literally a line drawing of a square with a bisecting line across the corner signifying what would be a disfunctional control room. If you're not ready to build a studio and want some good information on room modes and acoustics, this is a good enough book. If you want to apply these principles and actually build a studio, there are better instructions on several free websites.

Thank you for your help
I used this book as a reference to build a private studio where I record the CDs for my label. It sounds great, reverberation is under control and low, over the whole spectrum. And it cost me HALF of what I'd expect. I used two regular doors instead of a professional grade studio door (I got this money saving idea in this book), I designed my air condinioning using his ideas (it is quiet and has no sound leakage), the cables go into the recording booth using ideas that I found here. The studio has been in operation for four years and everybody loves the sound. I can't praise it enough. My label's web site is outrosdiscos.com.br in case you want to know what was recorded here.