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I am in the early stages of rebuilding my large garage into a recording studio, and I'm curious whether anyone has suggestions about what special considerations I should present to my electrician at the early portion of a studio buildout.

I recognize a lot of things are specific to the building itself, but I'm more thinking of best practices or focal points specific to recording studios that are worth prioritizing and discussing with my electrician. (Isolated grounds or that sort of thing.)

One of the walls is newly-framed so I'm intending to have him install several outlets there, along with a proper grounding rod outside the building. But beyond that I'm mostly hoping to avoid mistakes that I might be walking into at this stage of construction that could save myself trouble down the line once all of the electrical work is finished and the studio continues to evolve.

Many thanks in advance for any tips!

If they can put the lights and any utilities on the opposite leg as your outlets, that's a better practice. That is if the studio is getting it's own panel.

Making sure you have a solid/proper ground is essential, but any electrician worth hiring should ensure that anyway.

If you're running any audio cable through the studs keep them away from your electrical cable. Cross at a 90 degree angle if/when necessary.

If you want to cut labor costs wiring outlets yourself is easy, safe (if done properly) and simple to verify that it was done properly/troubleshoot. Sitting around twisting wires is nice when you realize you're not paying someone $80/hr to do it. The electrician is key for setting up reasonable circuits and getting them wired to the panel. Lights and outlets are childs play. I say this as someone who can barely solder guitar pickups and wouldn't dare service his own amp.

I would suggest individual runs for specific outlets, rather than paralleling a bunch of outlets off one run of romex. It will cost more, but you'll essentially be star-grounding your power. Using the orange hospital-grade outlets for this to designate them would be beneficial. Plug your guitar amps or microphone power supplies into these when you're recording. All your rack gear, interfaces, computer, etc. should be on the same circuit with a dedicated run back to the panel as well.

No dimmer switches
No fluorescent lights (rare these days)

Not electrical, but while you are in your walls, you might as well run a bunch of shielded Cat5 all over the place. It's been a pretty good way to send 4 ch audio signals (mic or line) across distance. If I was wiring a studio from scratch today, I'd be doing it with a ton of shielded Cat cable instead of xlr snake for sure.

biscuitdough wrote: Sat Jan 21, 2023 1:08 am No dimmer switches
No fluorescent lights (rare these days)

This this this this.

I worked in a studio that spent half a million dollars building out and then we had 60 cycle hum on all the guitar amps if the lights were on. Insanity.

Nate Dort wrote: Thu Jan 19, 2023 6:54 am I would suggest individual runs for specific outlets, rather than paralleling a bunch of outlets off one run of romex. It will cost more, but you'll essentially be star-grounding your power. Using the orange hospital-grade outlets for this to designate them would be beneficial. Plug your guitar amps or microphone power supplies into these when you're recording. All your rack gear, interfaces, computer, etc. should be on the same circuit with a dedicated run back to the panel as well.

That would be awesome. It would require a really big panel if you want a fuse for each. Sparkys are always going to think the application specific requests are weird but for how much they're paid they should listen.

There are some helpful diagrams in Home Studio Build It Like the Pros by Rod Gervais. A handy book. I could probably share the diagrams if you want.

Thanks so much for all the great advice! The building actually has a bunch of fluorescent lights at the moment because it was previously used as a car garage, but I'm definitely intending on replacing those before doing any recording. The space has its own dedicated circuit panel, so I think I can follow your suggestion of putting lights/utilities on a separate leg from the studio's outlets.

I'm definitely going to think more about running Cat5 cable. Thanks for that idea. It's hard to imagine what I'll want or need 5-10 years down the line, but I could see it being worth it to run some wiring like that just to preserve my options as the studio grows.

worriednote wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2023 12:34 pm The building actually has a bunch of fluorescent lights at the moment because it was previously used as a car garage, but I'm definitely intending on replacing those before doing any recording.

I dont know the answer to this, just throwing it out there. But it seems like nowadays you can get drop in replacement LED bulbs that fit the old flourescent tube form factor and I dont think would be hum inducing.

LEDs sometimes are and sometimes aren't hum inducing. Depends on how they're implementing the circuit. DC or PWM, switching frequency, series/parallel combination of LED, etc.

Basically, stick to better, well-known brands of drop-in LEDs if you go that route, or at least buy them from somewhere that has a generous return policy if they don't work.