ZazaSound... NEW MixCave!

ZazaCast

ZazaCast

Major Contributor
So, my living room has been filled with audio gear for about the last 8 year...and I wanted it back!

With a budget of $700.00 and plan to clean out the basement (or at least part of it), I decided to pull the trigger
and take on this project. I set a goal of building a MixCave in the month of August and break down and move the gear
in in September, this included all the wiring of a new patch bay and the link lines to the upstairs video edit station.
I also wanted to do this on a budget, so I got a friend to help me frame the walls (it took about 4 hours)...and the rest
was up to me.

To keep within the budget, I searched Craigslist daily for anything I might be able to check off my list. I found some great
doors that were free...check! I went with some pocket door hardware as I wanted a nice large opening for moving gear in & out.
(like barn doors) At 52", there's plenty of room. The carpet was $92.00 and I got the paint off the 'goof' shelves for $7.00, both at Home Depot.
The windows I used were from my neighbor, so those were free too.

The room is 9 1/2 feet wide & 19' 3" long.... I know, not the best measurements, but with the proper treatments and placement,
this room is tight! I needed the room for overdubs, VO's, etc. and this was the one area of the basement without any plumbing running
through it, so I made due with what I had to work with. The bulk of the money went to 2x4's, rock wool and sheetrock.

Gobos are easy & cheap to build, the cloth was a mix of fabric I got at JoAnn's (hint, check their web site...I found coupons for 60% off!)
and repurposed table banners from another life (I knew I was holding on to those for a reason). All my gobo's and corner traps are removable
so if I ever get tired of this stuff, out they come and I have a great storage room! I hung them using eye hooks and the spacing is all the same
so you can move them around and create nice iso area's. With all the extra room down there, I do plan on building a nice vocal iso booth just
outside the doors.

This room is linked to my office/edit suite up stairs and the shared drives, now I can edit in the light of the day & jam all night long!

Still have to install a video monitor, finish moving my keyboard rig and wire another patchbay for it...but everything is up & running now.
Time to get back to some filmmaking now.

Life has come full-circle, after all these years.... I'm back in the basement! :thumbsup:

...if you need me, I'll be in the basement... :smile:
-Zaza
 
Last edited:
Very nice... and thanks for making me feel like a shlubb for not finishing my mostly done audio cave...
 
But where is the video screen?, nice room though. One of the pluses moving off the West Coast is that houses out hear have real basements. In the Bay Area at least that is pretty rare. though probably not so rare more inland where you get freezing winters.?

My basement "man cave" is the brewery, the "studio" is on the second floor.
 
Noiz2 said:
But where is the video screen?, nice room though. One of the pluses moving off the West Coast is that houses out hear have real basements. In the Bay Area at least that is pretty rare. though probably not so rare more inland where you get freezing winters.?

My basement "man cave" is the brewery, the "studio" is on the second floor.
Click to expand...

That's too funny, my brewery is on the second floor! :beer:

The video monitor will be above and behind the console and computer monitors that sit between the near-fields on the console stand.
Like any studio, it's a work in progress. In the mean time, I just set one up off to the side.
 
I was a bit paranoid about having a big wet mess on an upper floor. That and I'm not sure my wife would let me have it on the second floor...

And out side in the winter, brrrrrrrrr. In SF no problem but Detroit gets nippy.

Now if I can get someone to buy our old boiler so I can get it OUT of the brewery I can finish it up.
 
Noiz2 said:
I was a bit paranoid about having a big wet mess on an upper floor. That and I'm not sure my wife would let me have it on the second floor...

And out side in the winter, brrrrrrrrr. In SF no problem but Detroit gets nippy.

Now if I can get someone to buy our old boiler so I can get it OUT of the brewery I can finish it up.
Click to expand...

You have a REAL brewery...my 'brewery' consists of a refrigerator & a 12-pack of my favorite craft beer. :thumbsup:
(so much easier)

I have a good friend 2 miles up the road that has a hop & barley farm...who brews hard cider & various beers: Helderberg Hop Farm
http://helderberghopfarm.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Helderberg-Hop-Farm/573467889341655
 
Yes, a home brewery. Not huge, just a 5 gallon system. Other than for my self I have brewed for a number of events. You can't sell homebrew, but (depending on the state you are in) you can donate to an event. MI follows the fed guideline so I can brew up to 200 gallons. The closest I've come was around 150 a couple of years ago.
This last summer since I had to set up out side for the events I made a "portable" bar.
Bar Front.JPG


not sure why that came out sideways and huge?

Anyway we usually have three or four on tap and some cider. In the photo there are four 5gal kegs and 150 lbs of ice in the re-proposed garbage can.
 
Noiz2 said:
But where is the video screen?, nice room though. One of the pluses moving off the West Coast is that houses out hear have real basements. In the Bay Area at least that is pretty rare. though probably not so rare more inland where you get freezing winters.?

My basement "man cave" is the brewery, the "studio" is on the second floor.
Click to expand...

Basements in my area of San Diego County are almost non existent, even for 70-80 year old houses and neighborhoods that lived in when I was young. When I did live in a more rural setting, we and some neighbors had cellars but those were part of a different building if there was a structure over the cellar at all.

In Utah there was something called a 'basement house' which basically was a starter home... build the basement, put a roof over it, and then as time and money was available build up the above ground house...

But most 'tract' housing does not have basements... too much work... why not put in a swimming pool instead... perhaps with the drought, some people will cover over their pools and make them in to cisterns or cellars.
 
Not enough pixel-peeping, tech talk or mention of the Odyssey 7Q in this thread. Basements? Breweries? What do you think this is, DVXuser circa 2008? What's next, is someone going to offer up their favorite grilling techniques?

Nice job, Joe. I loved the video breakdown.
 
Since building the "MixCave", I've been archiving select projects from the past 25 years. Most of you might be bored with this, but the audio guys might like it?
Next up is breaking out the old 2-track open reel deck, clean her up & capture a local radio show I used to do back in 1989... "Power Rock Underground"
Cheers!

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top