Home Recording Studio: Build It Like the Pros 2nd Edition

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.

Authoritative, thorough, useful. Author knows his stuff.

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.

This book plugs the hole between the academic descriptions of acoustics and sound insulation and the millions of YouTube videos giving dodgy advice. Just as recording equipment has become affordable, this book shows how good insulation can be achieved on a home recording budget. Some prior building experience is assumed, the diagrams are not always as easy to read as I’d like.

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.

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!

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.

This book is the ONE reference I have come back to time and time again in researching constructing a recording studio. I have 4 or 5 books on the subject, but this one is the most relevant and explanatory reference. There are some great cost saving advice given in this tome. He explains how to do it right. Do yourself a favor and get this book first if you are researching how to build a recording studio. You will not need any other references.Kudos to Rod on a great book and all the help he gives for aspiring music studio enthusiasts!Future home of the MAJ G Recording Studio