How many of you have ever built a studio?

How many of you have ever fantasized about building a studio?

If you're like the rest of us that dream is one that eats away at the back of your mind for years and years. Then, you take the big plunge. You've saved up money, planned for what you think it's going to take, and made rough sketches of what it will look like when you are done. You eagerly await the start date so you can get your dream studio built.

Now in the midst of building your studio, you realize that you have grossly underestimated everything! From the amount of cable you thought you needed, the amount of time you need, the amount of money you need. It all piles up and starts to snowball. You can safely assume that whatever you had planned for will double. I'm being realistic here. I have taken part in the building of many studios, from private home facilities to large A Main rooms. No matter how good your planning is, there will always be something that comes up that nobody foresaw.

The building, wiring and installation of a studio is a very complicated adventure. It should not be taken too lightly. It's really easy to look at one singular piece of gear and see the signal flow. It's another thing to analyze the signal flow structure of an entire facility full of equipment. First off, you have to consider how everything is going to be wired. The ideal situation is to use a patch bay. Well, that means several days of wiring and organization. Now, you have to make sure all the wiring is correct, that means another day of signal testing.

Once that is gone through, it's time to fire up all the equipment that will be flowing audio signal through that glorious patch bay. Time to start passing signal through the devices to make sure they are working correctly. Mind you, this has to be documented to make sure you're not fooling yourself with signal flow. You find that when you turn on the speakers there is an audible hum coming form the speakers. Holy smokes, that's not good! Now, it's time to track down that problem. Are the speakers ok, on their own, is it the cables, is it the amps, is it the wiring?

All these questions need to be answered.

There are so many variables to take into account. It can easily turn into a month long ordeal before you get things figured out. My advice, plan as much as possible in advance. Do as much research into the equipment you plan on buying in advance. There is a wealth of knowledge on the internet about everything. Try to do as much testing before hand as possible. Most important of all, have a flexible time frame.

Plan on there being some bumps in the road and include that into your overall strategy. There is no such thing as a perfect installation, but, you can at least minimize your stress levels.