Time to 'clean' the studio. How often/thorough?

Aloha guys,

Summertime like the xmas holidays is a slow time for the studio here
so once a year I take the time to completely dismantle and do a major cleaning.

It takes me about two days to strip everything out (excluding wiring in the walls)
and about two weeks to re-install. (I’m old so I take my time)
I shampoo the rugs/drapes and clean (and some years paint) the walls and the ceiling
(the ceiling is a real pain to clean) and before bringing stuff back everything gets
a good scrub.

Acoustic tiles (bass traps etc) don’t get moved
but they too get a good vacuuming.

I don’t allow smoking etc in the studio and I do daily/weekly clean ups but
the yearly clean is the big one.

Just wondering how you guys handle this part of the job.

BTW
I won’t let anyone touch anything or help.
I do it all myself and even then I worry. :slight_smile:
And yes the acoustics change very slightly after a cleaning.
(everything seems a bit brighter)
Takes me about a week to get used to it.
But maybe it’s just me. :slight_smile:

TIA (thanks in advance)
{‘-’}

I clean often as client traffic tracks in dirt. I don’t dismantle my gear though. I keep my gear covered when not in use. I have all hardwood. The throws and area rugs are replaced once a year. When I see dust, I clean. I do re-organize once or twice a year.

I’m a home studio but I try to keep it as pro looking as possible since there is a fair amount of money involved. The room is about 16 x 30’ carpeted with painted sheetrock walls and sound treatments on all walls. I’d recently re-designed the layout and repainted the walls and bought new carpeting. The foam blocks on the walls are big dust collectors. The guitars get very dusty from hanging on the walls and the wire and cables seem to weave themselves into knots by themselves. That has always been a nightmare for me. Several floor effects are laid across walls and amps are lined along the walls with power strips and cords. The short wall has a 12 foot opening as a closet… Built a Formica desktop inside the closet 16 foot long and the sides of each desk is shelved to the ceiling the super long desktop has three 22" monitors side by side and a work desktop . My file drawers and rack mounted add ons support the Formica top below to desk height and the 12’ long bifold doors easily hide all of the computer equipment when closed. Dust is my biggest problem. Since it is me and very select group of a few players that come into the studio, it stays clean but can develop disarray . I try to move any friends that are there to another room across the hall for sitting with drinks and a few eats. No one smokes , in fact, I am one of those annoying anti smokers who comments when you are assaulted by smokers at the front entrance of a building or they flick a lit butt out the window, sorry.

I vacuum it weekly and windex the desk and monitors every 2 weeks or so. I am not pleased with the cabling and that becomes my greatest cleaning tear down inspiration. Essentially re routing wires… I always try to keep input numbers on the cables and power cords and power strips. I still thinks there has got to be a better way. There are a few pole lamps in corners and they can get dust covered as well. There are walls with acoustic and electric guitars hanging, banjos , mandolins and fiddles, a full 88 key Casio free standing piano, a 6 guitar rack in the middle of the floor. Nice to have the bigger space but the wiring can almost guarantee you locking something like a chair wheel or a shoe in the cluster. when I do tear it all down to go wild on cleaning, it is a two day event and then I’m still not happy …yet. I’ve seen some prettier subdued spaces used as studios …some smaller and some larger and they all just seem to be more practical , so I just haven’t found what works .

Pardon me, I was looking for the men’s room…guess I’ll have to keep looking.

:laughing:

If I detect the slightest hint of dust or dirt … I bring in more gear and cover the affected area. The way I figure it, if there’s room for dust/dirt, there’s room for more gear. I continue that process until gear is maximized and the dust/dirt minimized.

You’re killin’ me!

:laughing:

:laughing:

For cleaning my guitar head stocks, around the tuners and down by the bridge, my daughter gave me a gave me a soft makeup brush. Works very well. Dust on the guitars is a nuisance and builds up quickly

I’ll vaccuum once in a while, and use a minivac on the console and keyboards etc.
I have a Bionaire (an air filter with ionizer) running low 24/7 and this keeps the dust down to an absolute minimum. It’s fan is only turned off when tracking or critical listening.

I’ve only got a small homestudio and already I find it annoying to clean behind the desk where all the wires are. I vacuum the room at least once a month, and I have dustcovers on most of my gear when it’s not in use. But I don’t get clients walking in and out daily, the biggest source of dust is probably the bed :sunglasses:

I bet that kills the standing wave problems, too. :bulb:

Speaking of cleaning. I’ve got to clean mine. I’ve got two areas that need cleaning. Actually one area. The entire house. And we have no facepalm emote. What kind of forum is this?

Yes we do. Click the “More Emoticons” tab when you are posting. It’s right under the round circle with a dot.

There is no room for standing waves! They get chopped up by stacks-o-gear and fed to the gobo panels. If you cram enough gear into the space, you don’t need diffuser panels either. :wink:

I don’t use diffusers, I just fill the space with snare drums (snare springs loose, of course). :wink:

A natural spring-fed Helmholtz Resonator! Very clever. :mrgreen:

Nick, great idea for a new plugin, sample the effect of a signal passing through the space between yer ears. :mrgreen:

No, no, no … that has nothing to do with a Helmholtz Resonator … a sample of the space between my ears would yield an anechoic chamber plugin.

I know, but it’d be one hell of a reverb. :wink: