[reader50]

Actually, you should be good with the current landlord as a reference. He may desperately need supporting statements from you guys, should the upstairs thing go to court, where it seems likely to go. He'd have to be terminally insane to undermine your credibility with a 3rd party.

I'd just speak with him first, before offering him as a reference.

[andi*pandi]

When interviewing future bandmates do a credit check also.

[reader50]

Is that worthwhile if their names are not on leases / financial agreements? Because it almost sounds like prospective employees must have money in order to be hired. If that were so, kids starting out will never get jobs. The poor will be guaranteed to stay poor.

Admittedly, I've never hired someone else. Perhaps a credit check reveals any criminal history?

[subego]

We can get someone with extensive and impeccable credit to co-sign, so I'm not sure why that hurdle can't be jumped.

I feel like there's bad communication going on.

[subego]

Originally Posted by reader50 

Actually, you should be good with the current landlord as a reference. He may desperately need supporting statements from you guys, should the upstairs thing go to court, where it seems likely to go. He'd have to be terminally insane to undermine your credibility with a 3rd party.

I'd just speak with him first, before offering him as a reference.

He actually had already asked us to do this...

We said no.

That's some of the "tetchy" I was talking about.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

When interviewing future bandmates do a credit check also.

Musicians? Credit?! They're worse than visual artists. I have a large number of gypsy artists and musicians in my extended family, my wife's... "people", and they're amazingly gifted in their craft (as well as grifting and picking pockets), but not a one of them has a credit score over 500.

[subego]

They started demoing the first floor, and didn't tarp off the stairs. Studio has plaster dust all over it... the kind which makes you feel sick after an hour of breathing it.

I'm getting some masks, and am going to survey the damage.

Either way, shop gets closed up tonight.

[subego]

Yeah, that's not a problem... in a recording studio.

[subego]

[reader50]

Ah, you finally caught the Secret Selfie Sneak who's been getting into the studio. Good one. Beat the crap out of him.

[subego]

Done and done.

[subego]

A more incriminating picture.



At least the landlord has apologized. Unfortunately, he's the type we'd need to sue to get a fair recompense for this. Not a whole lot has been actually destroyed, but there's going to be more than a few full time days of getting the dust off of everything.

Pretty sure I'm going to need enough canned air to destroy half the ozone layer.

[reader50]

Borrow a small air compressor + hose + blow nozzle.

But really, I'd use a vacuum and damp sponge / rags / mops as applicable. Blowing dust around in a confined space is a zero-sum game. Unless you can blow it back down the stairwell and time doesn't matter. In that case, use a leaf blower.

[subego]

That's the rub. There's no good place to do this except for outside.

Theoretically this is a nice enough neighborhood to leave stuff outside, but it isn't.

That means I can get one handful of stuff out, clean it, pack it in the van. Repeat. It would be much nicer if I could get a bunch of stuff outside at once, leave a compressor unattended, etc.

[subego]

This situation has been made even more irritating by becoming a perfect film location we can't use.

[subego]

Is there some attachment you can stick on a tire inflator to make it an air shooter?

[reader50]

I've seen some that came with inflators (usually for filling assorted beds or balls) that might work. But tire inflators usually have lame output volume.

Suggest a compressor with a tank. Leave it in the van. When the tank goes low, take the compressor in to charge back up.

Unless the studio is really small, you could clean one corner, then do wiping / blowing there before taking the stuff out.

[andi*pandi]

Find old cannister vacuum cleaner on ebay/craigslist. Electrolux. They had a compartment you could attach the hose to and it would blow air.

Vintage Electrolux Vacuum Cleaners

[subego]

The good news is all the rack mount gear is, well... rack mounted. I can wipe down the flight cases, take them home, and do the cleaning in my garage.

The bad news is it's just under the amount of gear for it to be worth it to get something big like an Electrolux. It's almost not enough to bother renting a compressor.

Of course, I've got several miles of cable, which I'm pretty resigned to washing all by hand.

[reader50]

Harbor Freight has cheap air compressors for as little as $60. Home Depot and Lowes can't be too much higher. Just buy one, you'll find other uses for it. Especially if you're setting up a new studio. Paint sprayers, nail or staple guns. Tire filling on trailers, out of reach of a 12v socket.

You should blow out electronics periodically anyway. I just did my Mac Pro. Destroyed a whole family of dust bunnies. Then did my office chair, and got the relatives.

[subego]

I usually go canned air with electronics, but if I got a compressor, apart from not needing as many cans, the furniture didn't occur to me.

Four of our chairs hadn't made it out yet, and the best I could come up with to get the plaster dust out of the upholstery was banging on them with my hand.

[andi*pandi]

Well, for upholstery, you could you know, use the VACUUM end of a regular vacuum....

[subego]

To the surprise of many, I'm nowhere near as stupid as I look, and had thought of that.

I'm definitely going to try it. For whatever reason, my instincts are telling me a vacuum won't work as well as you'd think. Not enough suction, and not a good enough seal.

OTOH, if the compressor has enough horses, it'll be basically pounding the chair.

[ghporter]

Damp cloths will do the job that the vacuum doesn't finish. A compressor will weaponize the nasty dust/stuff on the chair and give it a chance to try to kill you. Vacuum, then wipe.

[reader50]

I did my computer inside, since I didn't want to unplug everything. Followed by vacuuming. Dusk mask required.

The chair however, was blown out on the porch. Let the bunnies roam free outdoors.

[subego]

So... this is it on our old studio for real real. Demo on the basement starts tomorrow. Everything we're not trashing needs to be gone by then.

I'm feeling kind of down about it, but the band leader is in the pit of despair. He spent 30 years there, and all the flesh has been ripped off the place. It's rickety, old bones now. Appropriate the weather today is dark and dreary. He'll be glad when the sun rises tomorrow and he never has to go back.

[subego]

Our former upstairs would be right at home in Fallout.

[subego]

Lights off.

[reader50]

Someday you'll treasure those pics.

Pictures from The Original Studio, where the magic began. Before the first platinum record, even before the first European tour, Candy Town spent the early years in this little-known rathole. Sadly this historic location no longer exists.

[subego]

That's a lovely thought.

Thankfully, our time without a space lasted a mere 10 hours. We were just approved on a (very tiny) coach house!

[subego]

Pretty sure the band leader will end up blocking the fridge during a full rehearsal.

[subego]

T-minus one day. We get to move in on April Fools'.

[subego]

And it begins again...

[reader50]

No sound foam or hangings on the walls? I'd expect a lot of echos in that room. The carpet will help some.

Sound abatement will also prevent you from meeting all the neighbors ...

[Spheric Harlot]

That looks like a preliminary rehearsal setup, not a recording session.

[ghporter]

I agree with reader50 - all of those hard surfaces will make the room really echoey and mess with the way it sounds, whether it's just for practice or for recording. Not just more throw rugs: you should add wall hangings, cover the sideboard with fabric, and then see how it sounds.

[subego]

Spheric nailed it. This is just a rough idea of how we may fit people in the room for rehearsals.

Ideally, I'm going to get some traps made. The ones from the old studio weren't recoverable.

A bigger audio problem is going to be feedback during rehearsal. There are songs in the new set where everybody sings, so there's no place to put a monitor where it isn't sitting right behind a mic.

[subego]

Speaking of the neighbors, looks like across the street from us is public grandma housing.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Looks like my apt in LA, only I had just the one room (and a small alcove to SSS).

[subego]

SSS?

If I was living there I'd be all over adopting Japanese space-optimization techniques. I guess I am anyway, but since our use case is odd, a lot of it won't apply.

For example, a future concern is when winter rolls back around, we'll need to deal with 7+ bulky jackets. Obvious answers like a coat tree take up space needed by musicians... or the garbage can. There's no good place to put one without messing up the room's feng shui. I'm going to try a slim one next to the window in the kitchen, but I'm not hopeful.

One could theoretically put one where the counter ends, but I was probably going to have a leg of the speaker there, and it's next to that big floor register. Seems like a bad spot for garbage.

This probably seems like I'm complaining, but I actually enjoy solving these types of problems.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

SSS = sh*t, shower, and shave

In that "bathroom" I could easily do all three at the same time. It was a tiled 4' wide alcove with a toilet, showerhead, hanging mirror, and a drain in the floor (no sink, tub, or cabinets). It didn't even have a door, just a curtain. At least cleaning the toilet was super easy, just turn the hot water on (when it was available) and let it do it's thing.

[subego]

Oooh... not sure the ladies in the band would like that setup.

This bathroom has a door, but it is pretty tiny. Like everything else there, no storage room (except for a tiny medicine cabinet).

I'm going over toilet shelving stat just for a place to stash a couple extra rolls of toilet paper.

While it's a perfectly fine bathroom, my goal is never to have to poop there.

[reader50]

What about that other room on the side? I'd taken it for the coachman's bedroom.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Since I was a single guy, I liked the setup. Bathroom clean-up was easy, as I mentioned earlier, also I could poop and/or shower and still see the TV.

[subego]

Originally Posted by reader50 

What about that other room on the side? I'd taken it for the coachman's bedroom.

It is!

That's where the computer is going to go, and where the single closet lives. I predict that closet to be the most hotly contested piece of real estate. I need to store tools in there, it's probably where the coats will go. We want to have an emergency costume department in there. Props. Other stuff I haven't thought of.

There's also room for storage downstairs but it's seriously damp and funky down there.


One crazy storage thought I had is since people will be rarely showering there, if ever, dump all the cleaning supplies in the tub, close the curtain. Consider it done.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

Since I was a single guy, I liked the setup. Bathroom clean-up was easy, as I mentioned earlier, also I could poop and/or shower and still see the TV.

Don't get me wrong, that'd totally work for me personally.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

There's a lot to be said for convenience. I was involved with a dancer for like 4 months, pretty much because my apt was across the street from her studio (and I lived under a coffee shop). That meant she could stay at my place through the week to avoid traffic (and she didn't have to make coffee in the mornings).

[reader50]

You could try a dehumidifier in the basement. Could work if it's only accumulated moisture with no outlet. If moisture is coming in somehow, the dehumidifier will run you up a tidy bill going 24/7.

That place is really cramped for a band. The abandoned factory is starting to look better. Even with the satanists on one side, and the goth sex orgies on the other. At least you'd have enough room to annoy the neighbors properly.

[subego]

Depending upon how much we want to store, dehumidifying and deskanking the basement may not be a bad idea, but I balk at the idea of doing the landlord's job for them.

There are numerous ways the space may not work for the full band, size being only one... we went into this knowing we may need to seek out an alternative for that one day a week.

It's ultimately worth it because there's enough other stuff going on throughout the week. We need an "office".

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by subego 

Ideally, I'm going to get some traps made. The ones from the old studio weren't recoverable.

Originally Posted by subego 

For example, a future concern is when winter rolls back around, we'll need to deal with 7+ bulky jackets.

Make everybody get thick wool coats, then hang them along the walls as sound absorption material. Boom, two birds.

A bigger audio problem is going to be feedback during rehearsal. There are songs in the new set where everybody sings, so there's no place to put a monitor where it isn't sitting right behind a mic.

In-ear monitors aren't an option?