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[trock]

Hi

I decided to post here and hopefully enlist some help from the very begining stages of my home studio build project. in that, its not even built yet. i do however have some of the dimensions so i thought starting from scratch would be a good idea. i will be readin ghtis forum, ethan's site etc and hopefully not asking alot of dumb questions

first some info

this will be built on the second story of a garage, detached from my house, in a rural area (no real neighbors, shared driveway with the n laws). the room will be 28 feet by 24 feet. the walls will be standard 8 feet or so and i would like to keep the cathedral ceiling on a 4/12 pitch roof (if i can)

that being said, i will have steps up the outside to a door leadin in and i can place that entryway anywhere at thsi point

most of the time i just record me, one input only. however i would like to have a control room, an iso room for vocals and then a main room i could set up a drum set or group of singers etc, and a storage room.

that being said, i won't have an unlimited budget and i do not think rooms inside rooms will be an option, menaing i will have to build the rooms off the main exterior walls due to cost. i can hardwood the floors and walls or go the route of drywall on the walls. i can build rooms that are not square if that is suggested. there will be only one window at the end of the main room, no other windows.

so if this makes sense iw ould like to start from square on one this, lay out the entryway, a vocal booth, a storage room and a main room off of 28x24.

i do not have a ton of outboard gear and basically have an audio desk i work off of and one rack for gear. i will record myself in the control room.

all wiring will be done by me, walls and floors by me, and i probaby will not be able to run a seperate frunace and ac unit for this but will have to have wall mounts or something? we will see on that.

it will not be rented out or used commercially, i may record some friends

if more info is needed please let me know, if anyone has a desing that fits these room needs and dimensions that would be a great place for me to start

thanks for any help on this, i would be building in the spring, giving me a few months to plan it out and budget

thanks again

tim

[trock]

i was thinking of starting with something like this?


thanks

[Ethan Winer]

Hi Tim,

Quote:

hopefully not asking alot of dumb questions ... if more info is needed please let me know

I didn't see any real questions in there, but I can offer some basic advice. I won't presume to speak for Fran, but generally forums like this are for asking specific questions. Versus hoping for a large amount of hand-holding and someone to give you a complete design.

My main comment about your plan is the control room is not symmetrical, and symmetry is key. Have a look at this article I wrote with Wes Lachot:

http://www.realtraps.com/art_studio.htm

Also, look at the various finished rooms Fran and Wes and others have designed and put on their web sites. That will give you some ideas for your own room. I think you'll see that control rooms, anyway, are always symmetrical left and right, and also have more distance from the mix position to the rear wall behind.

--Ethan

[trock]

thanks Ethan

i will check all of that out, and as i finalize a picture i will just post specific questions. i wasn't sure if that was to broad to drop here so thats cool you told me

i am off to check those designs out and go from there

thanks!

[franman]

gotta agree w Ethan... on the symmetry issue... when you have some specifics, let us all know..

[trock]

i have been reading up and looking at some designs. i modified this drawing and my main question is, with the closet should it not be in the main room at all, but if it is, is having an angled wall preferable to a squared off one?

i will do ALOT of tracking right in the control room for the most part so i would like it to be roomy like this.

this may be about the best i can do in terms of buildout, i doubt floating floors or double walls will be in the budget. so i will probably need alot of sound proofing.

thanks for the other help ethan on my room now, this is the studio that is replacing the worst room of all time and i will get back to your guy tonight on that room. thanks for the help

[gullfo]

thats a more symmetrical layout. one consideration - if you can turn the CR to take advantage of the angled roof to create the overhead space - that would be desirable. with the roof line to the side, you'd probably want to limit yourself somewhat to around the 8-9' mark to create a symmetrical ceiling (ie think in 3D..)

[trock]

wow, thats a cool pic. thanks for the tip, at this point i can do whatever needs to be done. are the rooms in your drawing also what i should be thinking? or is that another layout? meaning can i keep what i have laid out but just turn the control room like you suggest or should i be thinking room layout like in your pic?

thanks again

[gullfo]

the layout in mine was just a slight variation on yours... i think i'd probably lay things out a bit different to get a proper symmetry/workflow/visibility for the space. cr being aligned with the front-back slopes - meaning you're looking out of the cr sideways into the liveroom - and possible the vox booth in front of the cr or in the live room.

[trock]

got it

thanks for that, i am checking it out and modifying it. you have the roof correct, thats exactly how the roof will be.

thanks again

[tom eaton]

If you're mostly working alone... and will only occasionally be using the bigger room... I would vote to make your control room bigger.  It's the inevitable hangout, the default direct tracking space, where you'll want a nice sofa, where you'll want all your gear easily accessible (and you WILL have more gear as time goes by).  Where your moitors go and where you sit will be particularly important to figure out before you get too far.  A machine room is pretty essential in my book, and of course the closer it is to the control room the easier it is to cable.  IF you have the option to drop fan laden power supplies and the like downstairs under the associated gear, that would work nicely.

A kitchenette, bathroom, etc. are also pretty useful.

t

[trock]

Hey Tom

good ideas there, yes the control room will be the most used room, since its mostly me and a lone friend here or there. i would eventually like to have a drum set in the Main room, but that wil rarely be used or recorded, well mostly i will bang away on it for fun.

would love to do the BR, but where the spetic is would mean pumpin it uphill and the cost of all of that would be out of my league, especially when i can walk over to the house pretty easily.

i actually wonder how this would be as just one room? total nightmare for sound??

[gullfo]

you could make it all one room except for  single booth capable of drums and vox. with the right treatments it should sound fine. you might even be able to leave the bulk of the space open all the way up to the roof (if your monitoring isn't too loud) and use the booth for when you need really quiet or really loud...

[trock]

WOW, thanks so much for that sketch. it really opens it up and reduces my building costs. are those walls then actually stud/drywall/permanent walls? if so what angles are those? or are they more "traps" that i set up?? (except for the ISO room which i know would be permanent)

and you are saying that having the celing as a cathedral ceiling would be ok?? i hope so because i like that look and it opens it up alot. 8 and a half foot walls up to a 4/12 pitch roof isn't to to high anyway.

if the floors were hardwood, would you do the walls and ceiling also in hardwood? i have seen some pics of studios that have the angled hardwood up the walls and stuff and it looks fantastic. or drywall the walls and ceiling and treat accordingly??

ah to many questions so i will leqave it there.

i am actually getting bids for the garage this week! so having this in my mind is good.

thanks again

what software are you using for those drawings?

[gullfo]

the "control room" side walls are 15 degrees each... but before you run off and build it, this design would need a proper work up as there's not been much in the way of real calculations done here other than to suggest a concept.

that said, other than the booth, the extra walls are treatment walls - slat resonators, hanging broadband traps, diffusers, etc. to shape the room acoustics. you'd probably add a few more treatments around to break up any remaining parallel surfaces and treat trouble spots.

if the cathedral ceiling works for you then sure, it should be fine acoustically - you'll probably add some hanging absorbers along the ridge to trap bass as you get a slight concentration there but it can look nice as well as functional.

as far as finish, its a matter of budget and taste for the most part. drywall may be a better choice for isolation because of its mass but it depends on your isolation needs.

the tool is called Sketchup Pro (sketchup.google.com) and there is a free version which has many of the same features.