Thank you, Leedtex. I'll look at Studio and compare it with M-Audio and see which would work the best for us. I'm not the musician, though- my Quebecois friend is. Talking about building is more my cup of tea, and so the rest of your answer really gets me interested. I've seen your profile and know you're an architect, among many other talents. I also studied architecture, at KU, studying with and later working for Dan Rockhill. http://www.rockhillandassociates.com/

Your design for a home studio sounds like something the construction-prone musician could make without much trouble, but I wonder if the air supply is necessary. You know better than me- does all that equipment produce a lot of heat? On the other hand, you could be thinking about designing for the cold, and I imagine that trying to play with stiff cold fingers is not an optimum plan. Your idea of using those foam mattress pads with the egg-crate surface is ingenious. That's something that a lot of people could rig up easily in any home studio location to help control noise when they're recording. It also has me wondering about using it as a retro-fit for an air return chase that's too close to the air handler.