Studio Design - Part 1: Room Layout

I've been asked a lot of questions about studio design lately, so I thought I'd break it down to a multi-part series, starting with the fundamentals every studio should have. First on the list is the actual layout of your studio.

You'll need at least three separate rooms to have a successful studio: a control room, a machine room, and a live room. The Control room is where you'll have your mixing board and monitors. The recording engineer and producer do all of their work in this room. The Machine room is where you have all your loud hardware: computers, preamps, and anything else that makes noise while it's running goes in here. Be sure to have a workbench of sorts for any repairs you'll have to make on your equipment. The live room is where the musicians actually perform. Setup a few mics, and they'll do the rest.

Any good studio will have a separate mic closet, and maybe a few other rooms for drums or vocals. And the really nice studios have a lounge outside of the work area with a refrigerator, couches, and anything else that your artists will need to relax between sessions. Don't forget about a bathroom!