Building studio in Garage 7' x 12'(all suggestions welcome)

Good afternoon, I am planning to build a small studio in my garage to record vocals, guitar and piano. Everything is electronic with the occasional accoustic guitar that will may be mic'ed. I can also plug this in through my sound card as well, either way may happen. THe piano is a Yamaha Motif XS8. A few questions, is it necessary to build an isolation room? THis sort of cuts into my space quite a bit. Should I build 2 walls to eliminate as much sound as possible either way. I am in a condo but the garage is sort of half underground so the that I hear from the garage is minimal. BUt, on the other hand, it is on a main road and at times there is quite a bit of road noise not to mention the occasional fire truck. Should I build another wall next to the existing concrete block wall ? This is all preliminary design so it is very changable at this time. I have attached a view of what I am proposing. I notice that a lot of folks place a couch in this room. That would be nice to have in here as well if there might be room. I am open to any ideas. I would like to keep the construction cost under 1500 bucks if possible. I know that doors can get expensive but I have a hookup for some doors that I might be able to get for free. Thanks, Chris Southern ,CA

how big a space do you have to work with? do you need a separate vox booth? in a small space, a single room is typically your best bet to maximize the room volume. but it really depends on your needs and available space...

Hello Gullfo, I have a 2 car garage but I am trying to keep my space for this room down to 7' x 12'. I could probably get up to 14' in length and 8' in width. Typically I am going to be using the space by myself recording single tracks at a time. Record guitar, and then vocals. Drums will be via electronic so that is not an issue really. I guess I could just build a small closet to house the computers and electronic gear that creates noise. Is the only purpose of the ISO room is just to get it out of the control area so that the noise from that area does not affect the vocals ? Thanks for the response. Reading through here is very overwhelming at times when it comes to how to build this room. crooker

Here is a new floorplan that I have stretched out the length of the room a bit. A few more feet seems to help a great deal. I just hope that there is a bit of room to put a few comfy chairs to kick it in. WHat do you think about this layout. THe keyboard pullout is for the COMPUTER KEYBOARD. Where it says MONITORS, I mean "COMPUTER MONITORS" Just noticed when I previewed layout. Thanks Again.

sorry about the file size on last post. I had changed the size and selected wrong file when I posted. Not sure how to edit the post.

crooker, I would give another thought to a one-room design. I think it would be a more efficient use of space, and once you get into the workflow it can be quite nice. Additionally, the smaller the room, the harder it is to get it sounding good (all else being equal). The only real reason, imho, to build booths and separate rooms is if you need isolation while recording more than one performer at a time. And even then, good gobos/mic placement can go a long way.

JWL, Thanks for the input. More thought will be given to that. I will continue with another plan by with everything in one room. I probably really don't need all the isolation in any case. Thanks for the response. Chris