ABSTRACT
Much has been written in the preceding chapters about the studio rooms being, first and foremost, rooms for musicians to play in. Obviously, all the individual tastes of every musician cannot be accommodated by any one studio design, so the ‘ultimate’ environment cannot be produced. Nonetheless there are a few general points which are worthy of consideration. Light colours, for example, make spaces feel larger than they would do if finished in dark colours. In general, they tend to create less oppressive atmospheres in which to spend long periods of time. Daylight is also now being recognised as growing in popularity.
9.1.1 Daylight Traditionally, it has been the out of town studios which have been more inclined towards allowing daylight into the recording areas. Initially it was probably easier to do this in the relative tranquillity of rural life, as the sound isolation problems of inner city locations were not so great. The knowledge of the changes from day to night, and more unpleasantly after very late sessions from night to day, along with an awareness of the changing seasons, are all instrumental in helping a person’s well-being. This fact is perhaps more medically recognised now than it was only a few years ago. Once it had been established that the sound isolation in studios with outside windows was adequate, daylight soon became widely accepted as a desirable asset for studios.
9.1.2 Artificial light The use of imaginative lighting to create moods can be highly beneficial to the general ambience of a studio. Fluorescent lighting, apart from the ‘hardness’ of its light, is generally taboo in recording studios because of the problems of mechanically and electrically radiated noises. The mechanical noise problem can sometimes be overcome by the remote mounting of the ballast chokes (inductors), which prevent the tubes from drawing excess current once they
