We are about design a new house and we want to incorporate a studio into the design. We are going to be meeting with the architect in a few days and wanted to get some preliminary answers to a few questions I have. The studio will be used for recording and mixing of live bands as well as serving as a practice for our existing band. We will be taking on outside clients so a seperate enterance to the studio is essential.
The house is going to be build on 1/2 lot with a a walkout basement. The nearest house will be approximately 30 feet away so isolation is a main concern. Our initital thought was to excavate under the garage for the studio portion and the create a lobby, lounge, and main enterance in a portion of the walkout section.
The initial thought is to have a 3.5 extra deep garage. That would give an approximate area of 38-40 feet by 22-25 feet for the studio portion. Also since it would be underneath the garage, a natural sound buffer would occur between the garage itself and the upstairs of the house. Also the majority of the walls of the studio would be concrete foundation. I am trying to determine if this would be more cost effective or it would be better to build ground level off the main house instead. I am thinking excavating under the garage would be more efficient and more cost effective, but that is just a guess.
Here are some basic questions. Will this be enough square feet for the control and live rooms with isos? If so, do they have to be that large? The lounge and bathroom can be in another part of the basement so I am not concerned about that. Will this space allow a large enough tracking room for a nice drum sound? How do you determine the optimal ceiling height. A normal high pour in our area is 9'. We have talked to builder about going 10' for the whole basement. That would be not be a problem, it is just a matter of cost. We could also 12' under the excavated part of the garage and then have the rest of the basement either at a 9' or 10' pour to get more height in the studio section. I don't know where the acoustic tradeoff in height is at.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I wanted to get some ideas before we started anything serious with our architect. Doing my initial homework at this stage with a fresh canvas will be a lot better than trying to retrofit something later.
Thanks so much.
_________________
Joe Kasko
Perfect Sound Studios
Bolingbrook, IL 60490
www.perfectsnd.com