Home Recording Studio: Build It Like the Pros

Once again, Rod Gervais as created one of the essential tools for designing and building your home recording studio. This book contains the critically important details needed to be successful with your recording studio project. Rod provides the background information and links to more detail and so focuses on the design and construction in a pragmatic way. The information on design, site selection, framing, HVAC, electrical, acoustic treatment, and more provides the details needed to do it yourself, or have or contractor do it, correctly to obtain the best possible isolation, acoustics, and safety (often overlooked in many other books on this topic). In this edition, Rod introduces us to new (but tried-and-true) options for drastically increasing isolation using floating walls, floors, and ceilings to enable studios to be built in very challenging spaces where isolation is crucial and success for the studio requires staying in budget and building it in a timely fashion.

I may be building from the ground up and I will refer to this to design all aspects. Other good reads are "Studio Builders Handbook" by Owsinski (I recommend as a 1st read it is very easy to go through) and "Handbook of Sound Studio Construction" Rooms for Recording and Listening" by Pohlmann ( I like Pohlmann's approach, cut to the chase then more details in later chapters if you need to go there). Rod Gervais is VERY knowledgeable and has credentials and real life experience out the wazoo. He can get utterly technical at times but you can just skip to what you really care about as needed. This book is like the total source you can whittle down to what you need. TOTALLY RECOMMEND!

This really is a superlative tool for making the most out of your recording studio. Ultimately the greatest investment you can make in a studio is in the space - and this book helps you make clear, informed decisions on how to do so. The author does not bury you in information but rather presents a nice balance of acoustic theory with practicality for construction. Moreover, if you are interested in exploring the physics of acoustics in a more exhaustive manner, he points you to resources to be able to do so. Honestly, if there is one thing that you buy to help you in obtaining a better sound for your recordings it is this book; not a piece of outboard gear or a microphone. Bravo to the author.

The book does an excellent job of covering all aspects of building a home studio in a variety of settings. It has in-depth coverage of construction techniques for sound isolation, HVAC, electrical, and acoustics. It gets into enough depth to be thorough, but still at a very accessible and understandable level. I found it very helpful in designing some of the features of my home music room. It will be most helpful if you have some construction/handyman experience - might be a bit daunting if not. Note - this book is about construction of the room, nothing about the equipment in the room.

I enjoyed many things about this book. First and foremost, the tone behind the words was great. You can somewhat tell Rod isn't a language major, but you can certainly tell he is an expert on the matter. Provided advantages and disadvantages for most situations. Everything is described in great detail, and the diagrams throughout the book are exceptionally helpful. The book seems to focus a bit on isolation (it is a pretty heavy topic) and actual construction. I was hoping for a bit more information than was included specifically for acoustic treatment, though I suppose considering the great amount that has been written about room acoustics in contrast to isolation, it makes more sense to take less of a focused approach in that regard. The information contained about treatment is still helpful, just not as in-depth as I'd like. Overall a great read - I recommend it to everyone I know in the audio world interested in how everything around you contributes to your recordings.

Hugely amazing book, by incredibly smart acoustician / builder / engineer / writer / blogger / general smart guy. Don't even think about DIY recording studio project without getting this book, it's the gold standard. The chapter on Electrical connections blew me away. While he advises he's not going into too much detail, but instead giving a general overview, there's so much detail, it's clear he knows his stuff. I needed only a few chapters to complete my project, which is a basic drum room, soundproofed. Easier said than done, but this book will help you avoid mistakes if you follow the advice closely and don't cut corners.

I am a newb with building recording studios and began construction this spring. This book has been a tremendous help and is a must have for anyone who is serious about doing things the correct way. Read it slowly and take notes. This is not a quick read then your done. Rod has years of knowledge and experience that is packed into this book so take your time! This book works well with a recording studio community forum to help verify that you are doing things correctly. If Rod put every single detail in the book it would resemble one of those huge Old king James Bibles that every family seems to have. Never just guess when building a recording/isolation studio. There are many communities out there that have experts to help give advice (John Sayers, gearstulz). If I were you I'd get this book immediately and read it a few times just so you can understand things.

I already built one recording studio in 1989 when I was 21. We converted my parent's 2-car garage and my brother and I were trying (hoping) we would be able to buy the place... but when my mom came down with dementia/Alzheimer's in 2013 - time just flew by, and in march of last year Dad decided to sell the house, it turned out to be WAY outside of anything we might be able to afford. What that meant is that, I - as a drummer - suddenly had no safe place (or any place for that matter) to practice and we lost our 16-track studio set up. So now, we're getting ready to buy a small house, completely gut it, and soundproof it. I made a few mistakes the first time around because I was predominantly worried about mass, and we hung carpet tiles (Samples 18"x24" Carpet Samples that a a local carpet place sold for $1 each as interior door mats.) on 1"x2" furring strips so that they overlapped and covered the entire inside room with them (Over top of a 3-layer 12" thick Wall.) We had enough product, just not layered in the right configuration for maximum isolation.In fact, the book reveals that I only had 50% of the isolation that I could have had! Hell, with the right set up I could have played drums at 3:00AM in the morning without disturbing anyone. This time around, instead of $2,500 the studio is going to cost me about $50K, so I'm making sure I am doing it right - and this book delivers! I want to throw a nod out to John Sayer's site as well for guiding me to this book.

The book delivered is an old book used by someone. Text and diagrams have been highlighted using a highlighter. I received the book on 23 Apr 25. As I tried to return the book it says, the return delivery window is closed.

Rod really breaks it down. This book is filled with schematics and DIY information (on building walls, windows, and doors). He also explains why it works. Some basic building know how is required, but after that you are good to go!

Incontournable pour comprendre les bases de l'acoustique d'un lieu, que ce soit pour son confort (chambre, salon), même si c'est plutôt orienté pour une pratique musicale. Les mythes sont démontés (ex: mettre la fameuse boîte à oeufs sur les murs est de la pure folie. C'est inefficace, super inflammable, et même ça aurait tendance à rajouter des problèmes acoustiques). Les principes sont clairement expliqués. Des exemples issus de l'expérience de 25-30 ans de l'auteur dans ce domaine, viennent compléter concrètement les explications. Chaque thème est abordé un après l'autre (conception du projet, principes de base sur les modes/isolation/acoustique, matériel utilisé, prise en compte de la ventilation, de l'électricité, des autorisations de construire, des traitements audio, prendre tous ces paramètres en compte pour élaborer le projet final en faisant des choix sur des compromis éventuels ou des optimisations, explications sur les fameux mythes de l'insonorisation, exemples de réalisations par l'auteur...) Les seuls défauts (mais qui ne justifient pas de retirer des étoiles): -c'est en anglais, ce qui pourrait rebuter certains, mais très bien écrit. -les unités sont quasi toujours impériales (pouces, pieds, livres...), donc j'ai annoté mon exemplaire avec les équivalents métriques quand c'était nécessaire. Bref, c'est ma bible pour l'acoustique du studio. On ne peut pas rajouter une sixième étoile ? :)

洋書につき英語版しかありません注意してください。 DIYでスタジオを作るならとりあえず持っていて間違いない一冊かなと思います。 防音・吸音だけでなくやはり重要なエアフローあたり詳しくかいてあります。 ただし、DIYとしての要素は簡略化してある(本の内容でもほかの本も合わせて参考にするようにとある)ので 例えば電源の線をどうやってスタジオの中を通すかとか、 ネジの締め方や木の組み立て方みたいなことは載っていません（当然ですが） スタジオを作るにあたって、実際に市販されている音響に関係しそうな部材(当然アメリカを主体としての販売物ですが) の例もところどころ記述されてます。そのあたりも読んでいて面白い。 私は音響的な数学は苦手ですが、専門的な解釈でなるほどとおもわせる箇所が随所にあります。 日本では使用しない音響的な単位や略語も出てきますが、Googleで検索すればわかると思います。ある意味そういうのも勉強になりますね。 日本の本ではここまで詳しくスタジオの作り方について説明した本は無いと思っていいでしょう。

Well written for the beginning of 90's. Indeed very interesting and maybe even revealing for someone who has no experience with building a recording/mixing room. Acoustics hasn't changed since the 90's but other things did - technology and complete transformation of music business -that also means a complete transformation of the ways we record and listen to music today. That's why I give only four stars.