Two ideas

It's been a while since I've even been to this site and last time I was here I had way too much on my plate to even think about what I'm planning now. But these days things have slowed down so now I have time to actually look into having my own studio. Right now I'm using the upstairs in my house basically as a small project studio. There are two rooms upstairs, a bedroom and a living room, as well as a bathroom. The bedroom has been turned into my control/mix room, it is 11'8"x13'6" and the living room has turned into my live room/drum room with 14'x14'8", both rooms have 9' ceilings. Both are carpeted and, as I said, upstairs. Typical residential construction, I'm guessing at least 1/2" drywall on 24" OC wall framing. I have already built several acoustic panels that are 2'x2' and made of fiberboard backing and OC703 on top, then wrapped in fabric and mounted to the walls in the mix room mainly on the left and right of my speakers, on the ceiling above the mix position and also on the wall opposite my desk. Those panels have helped tremendously and really showed me how much a little acoustic treatment can affect the environment and mix. The drum room has a stairway attached to it. The next step will be to make some bass traps for both room, and more acoustic panels for the drum room because it's too live for my tastes. I would like it to be very dry since the room isn't the best to begin with. Here is a quick sketch of my layout upstairs, it's essentially a copy of the building plans for my house, but the plans were too big to fit on my scanner so I just drew it myself, sorry if it's crappy looking. I was hesitant to record drums in the room upstairs because I figured it would be awful but I've tracked three bands there so far and I'm really happy with the results of the drums. A lot better than I expected and very usable sounds. Something else has come up though. There is a big possibility that I may have a few people interested in investing in a business that a couple of my friends and myself have been talking about. Basically a studio, booking agency (tours, etc.), band management and merchandise "firm" or "label"...the appeal is that everything is in-house and taken care of with the least overhead, etc. and each service is run by a person with experience doing it. For example, I have a lot of experience professionally recording bands, one of my friends has booked several tours for local acts and handled one leg of a national act, another friend has managed several local acts and gotten them endorsements from a few big companies (Jackson and DW Drums to name a couple). Anyway, in the plan we have a quote from a local builder for a 34'x36' building. The building is basically a detached garage, just a foundation and the exterior walls that are framed and put up, also with an upstairs. There is no metal door for cars, but just a front and a back entrance door, and a door at the top of the stairs outside. The building is quoted at $13k finished and painted, which is not bad IMO. I have all of the equipment necessary to operate the studio. The idea is to have a blank palette so that I can construct the walls as I want them instead of working with existing walls like in a house. For this size of a space I'm thinking of going with this design: A plus in this situation is that my brother and I have carpentry and construction experience so wall construction and most furniture needs will only cost us materials since we would be doing the labor. The idea is to have a floating floor in all the rooms. Extensive wiring will be done as well. I mean, everything will be from the ground up if the investment goes through so we all want it to be the best it can be. There really isn't a budget planned because so far all we have in the business plan is the building, and $3-4k extra for odds 'n ends, furniture, etc. I won't know how much more to include until I have an idea of building costs for the studio. If you're going to get wet, might as well swim, as they say. Now for the questions: 1. Other than things I've already mentioned (panels, bass traps), are there any other helpful hints to improve the rooms in the first layout? Thinking about it now I'm sure it would be nice to see where the desk/mix position is in order to give suggestions...doh! 2. As far as the business venture is concerned, how much would it cost to build something on the level that I am talking about? Floating wood floors, really good sound isolation between each room, sliding glass doors connecting each room, a nice (and big) window between the mix and the drum room, HVAC for the whole thing...realistically what are we looking at cost-wise? The idea here is that the budget should stay within the $10k range if possible, so that we're only asking for $25k altogether - which from extensive research we have learned is the most commonly accepted investment amount. Meaning, the closer to $25k we stay, the higher the chances of investment we have. If more is needed then it's still a possibility, but $10k is preferred. ~006 Also - I am (as well as the proposed building) located in San Antonio, Texas, USA.

193 views and 0 replies in like 28 days. Not even someone telling me that I'm not following post guidelines. Thanks guys.

I think you may be underestimating the costs involved. generally speaking if you take the high end house per sq ft cost in your area and apply that. so if you're high end home costs about $100/sq ft, then expecting your new facility to be $125K isn't un-realistic. on the existing space - the usual rules apply - trapping across the corners, broadband absorption on key reflection points - front, side, ceiling, and back walls. for the live room - corner trapping and some scattered absorption to make the space diffusive without making it dead. in the CR i'd have the desk face the outside wall.