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I generally practice and play in my livingroom a little ways behind where my furniture ends. We don’t have a large house and this is a comfortable place to do it. Turn the TV off and I am good to go. There is plenty of light to see the music and plenty of room for my cello or violin/viola, and arm movements.
A couple months ago I tried my kitchen. It is a little longer than the livingroom. I set up in the dining area. There is plenty of room there because we just have a little table for two that is placed in front of my slider door leading to the deck. Like eating outside looking over the surrounding farm land.
Anyway, I discovered that my instruments have more power and really sound great in the kitchen/dining area. There is no furniture in front of me. Mostly space to the other end, except where the little island is that my husband made this summer. Everything is wood or sheetrock, or metal appliances. Very different from the cushioned furniture in the livingroom. I know about acoustics. I was just a little surprised because neither room is set up acoustically for an instrument.
Unfortunately, we do not have centra A/C. We have window units. There is no place to put a window unit in my kitchen. When it heated up, I had to stop going into the kitchen because it was too hot to play in there, even with a fan bringing some of the cool air from the livingroom across the hall, and into the kitchen.
When it cools down again, I think I will go back to the kitchen/dining area. I think the wood is bouncing the sound back to me and I am hearing the actual sound of the instruments and not just what is right under my ears? The instruments all sound so much deeper and fuller with their natural tone. Their natural tone has not changed. Warm violin is warm, bright is bright, same for my cellos. They are just fuller sounding.
Last night I got the urge to play my Fiddlerman Concert Deluxe at 10:45pm. I went into the kitchen because it had cooled by then. Simply lovely. Luckily, it was too humid to have my windows open. My neighbors would not have thought it was lovely. If they were open, I would have closed them first.
Just an interesting observation for myself. Try playing in another room, if you can.
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Kitchens are our mini concert halls. Gotta love 'em!
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My home office, where I do most of my practice, is like that. The only soft, absorbing thing is my desk chair. Just about everything else has a hard surface.
Jim
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cid said
Unfortunately, we do not have centra A/C. We have window units. There is no place to put a window unit in my kitchen. When it heated up, I had to stop going into the kitchen because it was too hot to play in there, even with a fan bringing some of the cool air from the livingroom across the hall, and into the kitchen.
Are you familiar with the Ductless Mini-Split Heat Pump Systems?
Here is an example of what I'm referring to. Not this one in particular but any well rated unit. You can mount the handler anywhere high up in your kitchen without the need for it to be on an outside wall. You just need to be able to run the connection kit to the outside unit. I don't know what the maximum recommended length is but that's easy enough to find out and differs. You can purchase extension kits for longer copper pipes easily enough if necessary. If you don't have space directly above or in the ceiling you can cover it with some type of moldings.
These kind of units are spectacular and perfect in situations as the one you described in your kitchen.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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@Fiddlerman We are actually looking into getting that in the Spring 2020. We spent a lot of time trying to figure the best option earlier this Summer. Decided on ductless, not that brand, but another ductless. We figured out how to do it without using outside walls for any of the rooms.
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Great. I'm glad to hear it. Hate to think that you guys might have to suffer the heat.
And sometimes you only need one outside unit for up to 4 zones.
Also, I didn't mention it, but you can also install the handler in your ceiling if you have space above.
Mitsubishi is a great option from what I've looked at.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Again, funny you should mention it. I do believe Mitsubishi is what we were looking at seriously after checking them all. Luckily, there is a dealer/installer of the Mitsubishi in our area.
The issue is getting that fat tubing collection (not sure what it is really called) from one end of the house to the other. I think it can be done, but I believe when Jer checked on requirements, the distance of the tubing from the one end to the other was going to be too long a length, but I am not sure, exactly. It could have been something else that was an issue.
We would be happy to have anything installed so we can stop with the window units, already! I think the dealer will be able to help with that so we can maybe just have one outside unit. Would be a lot less expensive that way.
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I'll second what Fiddlerman said about those Mini-splits. They are a great solution for a lot of people. I'm a journeyman HVAC guy who crossed over into building automation.
In some cases it makes more sense to get a new one when the old one wears out. If you get 10 years out of it with minimal hassle it's a good deal. Most of the mini splits have the required refrigerant charge in them and a fairly knowledgeable home owner can do it if they have access to the tools you need. Lots of companies will void the warranty if you don't have it installed by an accredited installer. I bring this up because there are a lot of these available through mail order and they don't tell you that unless you read the fine print.
My warranties are all void because I put in my equipment myself. Hasn't been an issue for me in 10 years. I lost a fan motor last year.It would not have been under warranty anyhow. I'm adding a few rooms onto my house and my central system doesn't have the capacity to handle it, so I will be looking at one of these too. My area puts a pretty hefty demand on a heat pump, so in my case I'm adding radiant hydronic floor heat in the largest room.
I mostly installed and serviced commercial and larger residential systems however have put in several mini splits for others and have to say the ones I put in have held up surprisingly well. Initially it was scary for me because the manufacturing processes have changed. I went from seeing solid steel construction to plastics, Styrofoam and pot metal screws. You could break some of these things just trying to take them apart. Getting the parts is another matter. This is why I look at them more like a throw away item after say 10 years. 
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The warranty is a good point starise. I actually installed two brushless motor, DC Inverter driven compressor self-contained marine AC's on our cat this year. I was able to talk myself into the warranty by submitting photos of the installation and proving that I met all requirements. These units are the latest in AC technology and use less than half what traditional ac's use. I'm running 2 tons/24,000 BTU's of AC on max 18 amps plus 1 for each sea water cooling pump. 😁 That is unheard of.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Fiddlerman said
The warranty is a good point starise. I actually installed two brushless motor, DC Inverter driven compressor self-contained marine AC's on our cat this year. I was able to talk myself into the warranty by submitting photos of the installation and proving that I met all requirements. These units are the latest in AC technology and use less than half what traditional ac's use. I'm running 2 tons/24,000 BTU's of AC on max 18 amps plus 1 for each sea water cooling pump. 😁 That is unheard of.
@Fiddlerman
Wow, your CAT must have a bad case of hot flashes from MENOPAWS!
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I'm glad to hear you were able to get the warranty on those Fiddlerman. The company I purchased my heat pump from had to have proof an HVAC business installed it. I have all of the accreditation but I'm not a business. No great loss for me since I service things for less than most. Not so much for an average home owner though. Lots of these companies are now rating value based on age ( I'm glad that doesn't apply to us lol ). A part is valued at 500.00 but since it failed at year 3 they subtract 300.00 off of the value only reimbursing for 200.00. That kind of thing. Many want the old part sent back as proof it failed. Sometimes it just makes more sense to fix it and forget the warranty if you wait 6 months on a check from the manufacturer. This is probably what they hope we will do.
The tendency now is to oversize because the units can throttle back. In the old days you would put in a 24,000 btu in typical residential house. Now they put in a 36,000 btu that can throttle back using inverter compressors and variable speed motors. That way on those extreme days it can go to more capacity if needed. This is the trend on larger systems. Not sure about the mini splits. The other benefit is they can go to less than 24,000 btu if not needed. I put in one mini split over 10 years ago and it's still going strong! It's a Huang Dong. Korean. When I put it in I didn't expect it to last that long due to the flimsy look it had. That tech is somewhat adopted from the space program where they needed lightweight materials. Manufacturers like it because it cuts costs down. Seems to be fine most of the time. If they ever fail though chances are the parts aren't on a shelf locally. The specific parts are needed.Just had a Samsung multi ceiling cassette unit circuit board failure in the main unit. This is a 50,000 dollar install serving a large office area. No A/C for three weeks waiting on a part and you need specific training to work on it. This is the only down side to some high tech A/C equipment. In the old days you could go to a local supplier and buy the part the same day.
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Exactly. Each unit cycles down to 4000 BTU when the requirement is minimal. Way better than conventional units.
We have the Compact 16 VSD
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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You'll get a great natural reverb in the shower
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Hilary Hahn actually does practice in her bathroom. The acoustics are awesome!
- Pete -
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I recommend practicing in the bathroom if you ever need a confidence boost. Between the size of the room and the hard surfaces, it's just about perfect for solo violin.
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I'll 3rd the bathroom. AND..its so much fun to wait for my wife to get in the shower first. So much fun..its.. 
and then... 
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Fiddlerman you are a man of many talents! Those sea water exchange units look interesting. I'm guessing they have titanium exchangers similar to pool heat pumps.
Bathroom practice? Lots of great vocal takes were recorded in tiled bathrooms. I guess the violin is no different. Great reflections off of the tile. Can be a smelly subject though.
For similar effect I use Waves Abbey Road chambers if I want that sound.
https://www.waves.com/plugins/.....d-chambers
I seldom use it though and most often opt for Valhalla (usually shimmer) because the reverbs are more effective on my material.
https://valhalladsp.com/shop/r.....a-shimmer/
I'm sort of a geek for this stuff though..
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starise said
Fiddlerman you are a man of many talents! Those sea water exchange units look interesting. I'm guessing they have titanium exchangers similar to pool heat pumps.
Bathroom practice? Lots of great vocal takes were recorded in tiled bathrooms. I guess the violin is no different. Great reflections off of the tile. Can be a smelly subject though.
For similar effect I use Waves Abbey Road chambers if I want that sound.
https://www.waves.com/plugins/.....d-chambers
I seldom use it though and most often opt for Valhalla (usually shimmer) because the reverbs are more effective on my material.
https://valhalladsp.com/shop/r.....a-shimmer/
I'm sort of a geek for this stuff though..
Downloaded the demo of the Abbey Road chambers @starise SAHWeet! Thanks for the heads up. On sale now as well for a couple of days. Ive been using the built in presonus AIR I think its called which has a huge array of presets and isn't too bad for stock. The chambers plugin is a nice addition. Might have to do another cheesey video demo. 
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GregW, I hope I'm not feeding your GAS (Gear Aquisition Syndrome). I like Waves plug ins. Be advised some say the Abbey Road chambers makes big hit on the cpu. I haven't noticed it on my 5820K i7. I LOVE Abbey Road TG Mastering chain. Right up there with Ozone IMHO.
You probably shouldn't know about the big IK Multimedia sale going on until the end of August. Buy 1 and get 6 or 7 plugins free. Oh....now it's 8 plugins free.
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/pickandmix/
I let the cat out of the bag 
. I'm really trying to deal with my GAS problem.
The plugs in Presonus are probably about as good as many of the plugs IK offers.A couple of the IK ones are killer though. I finally picked up the stealth limiter last year. ARC 2.5 I highly recommend.
I would love to see another video from you. They aren't cheesy.
What I would like to know is how do you find the time to compose/mix AND learn the violin??? No time.
You want cheesey? Here's a tune I played and mixed awhile back. The mix in it is pretty complex. Lots of stuff going on. I've sort of changed my style since then.
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@starise thats a catchy fun tune! Sounds great. Thanks allot..stuck in my head now!
Yes you did feed the gas but the sale softens it a little. About all I'm doing with the DAW is recording tunes that we are learning..I can't say I am or will ever be able to compose anything. Just trying to play what Im able and use those tracks to experiment within presonus when I can. My problem is always garbage in= garbage out. It's a learning process on several levels and something that's interesting.
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