Garage studio- Final layout and thoughts.....

Hello everyone. Just trying to finish up the plans for my 20'x20' garage conversion. Thanks to John's great site and some very informative users for the ideas and the layout! My builder (friend) will be stopping by this week and I will be showing him my plans for the garage. I thought it would be a good idea to throw this layout out to you professionals just to get some other opinions and last minute suggestions. Please forgive the VERY sloppy sketchup. I just downloaded it this morning so I would have something to show. I know my walls will not be 1" thick, this is just a rough general idea. Also, the wall work (absorbtion) is just for quick decoration, NOT how it will be done. Some quick info about the room..... It is a new home with a finished garage. Sheetrock walls and ceiling (8' 4"), concrete slab floor. I will be doubling up all the existing walls with greenglue & double sheetrock. New walls will most likely be single walls with greenglue/double sheetrock/OC703. It's not ideal but I have limited space. There is a hot water heater in the southwest corner. I also have an attic entrance next to my kitchen door on the west side. The attic entrance begins about 9' from the southwest corner and faces east. The north end is currently still a full garage door but will be converted into a finished wall with single door. The north end door is moveable if you have some better ideas. I would like to keep it somewhere on that end though. Best access from the driveway. I would like to have a decent sized control room, a large booth (room) for drums and one isolation booth. Also a small room for small storage, coffee, dead cases, things like this. It could also double as another iso room if needed. Being that I am located in Nashville I will be recording a lot of country as well as rock type music. This is what I have in mind for now. If you have any suggestions or ideas please let me know what you think. Please let me know if I am missing anything to meet the "READ THIS BEFORE...." requirements. Thanks!! Clint

Oh and to clarify.....the drums are in the northwest end, control room is southeast end. Thoughts? Thanks!!!

looks like a decent design - i'd probably just put in a door between the vox booth and control room so its easy to get in and out of it - maybe a door with glass for visibility...

So I met with my builder yesterday. These were his suggestions. What do you think about these changes?? (Getting a little better at sketchup)

RC is not symmetrical, vox booth is square and close to machine room as it looks. I Liked the prev better.. how 'bout some dimensions added to your drawings?

Yeah, I agree. I'm going back toward my original layout. Here is an updated version. And thanks for the opinions! Keep them coming!!! -Clint

I like the latest. Things are getting better, not that the was bad. Andre

Another update. The wife likes the idea of having an isolated entrance to the house. Thoughts anyone????

the bass traps in the vox booth can be much smaller and open up that room.

Oh sorry, actually that corner wall is hiding a hotwater heater. You can see it in the older sketches. Any other suggestions or recommendations? Thanks!

have yo0u thought about replacing the water heater with one of the new more efficient and much smaller tankless sytems? They are just a small box you hang on the wall which would allow you to not have so much of the room wasted opening up your vocal booth? They don't need to store and heat all the water for 24/7 so they are much better on utilities as well and they are supposed to be amazing as they never run out of hot water. Just a thought.

textone...i am looking to do something very similar (probably not as many individual rooms) in the next couple yrs...has you friend given you an idea on cost...i have an idea as to what it will cost, but am curious to hear it from a contractor...

Smaller rooms are always fun. The only Issue I see with your last design is access to the CR being confined to you HAVING to pass through the live room.

Hi everyone! So I'm still working on the design for my garage studio. Refresher: Located near Nashville, TN. 20'x20' room, concrete slab floor. Existing walls/ceiling are already sheetrocked & painted. One corner of the room has a water heater I have to deal with. The driveway is labeled and I will be leaving the 2 car garage door in place. I will cover the entire wall with mineral wool then build a new wall in front of it. Walls and ceiling are double rocked. Oh and I HAVE to have the ovesized storage closet near the water heater. This can also be used as an amp closet. Laminate floors.

Just a quick question, do you plan to apply some kind of insulation/spring material between your existing walls and the frames for your inner walls? If not, I could see (possibly) sound vibrating the frame in the LIVE room (which would shake the outter walls) which would then be possibly felt in the control room. From your design, it seems that your frame of your control room is connected to the frame of the live room. I believe those should be separated using the mass air mass system (or for best results). http://www.greengluecompany.com/underst ... gWorks.php http://www.greengluecompany.com/wallTypes.php ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is prolly the best example of what most of us NEED. (not everyone has room to do)

Outer walls will have the gypsum removed then filled with rockwool. Then the new walls will be filled will rockwool and covered with two layers of 5/8 gypsum w/GG. The wall between the live room and control IS a single wall due to the confined space but it will be 2x6 plates with staggered studs. I wasn't sure how to show that using the wall builder in sketchup. Then 2 layers of 5/8 gypsum with GG on each side. Control dimensions: small, I know :( height: 8' 4" (flat) small end: 8' 8" bigger end: 10' 9" Length: 11' 10" If my math is correct (wouldn't bet on it) that puts my control room ratio at about 1:1.16:1.42 How does this room ratio sound to you guys? In Rod's book one ratio listed for a small room is LW Sepmeyer's 1:1.14:1.39. Would my ratio be close enough to be pleasing/usable?

Just a thought on the wall between the live room and the control room. If you are completely stuck and really need to keep it to a single wall to conserve space, I would recommend putting some resilient channel (RC) on one side of the wall, you only lose 1/2" of space, and it gains you some additional isolation between the rooms by keeping the two rooms decoupled. Combine that with everything you just mentioned, and your wall should be pretty good for a single wall construction. Bryan

Would this do the trick? http://www.auralex.com/sound_isolation_ ... on_rc8.asp http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0261266377

I think you should do a lot more research, planning, and modeling in sketchup before you proceed. Your builders suggestions for the layout are terrible - they violate the basic rules of acoustic design. Your layouts need much more development before you should begin construction. There are so many design and construction issues you haven't addressed. I'm building a similar space in my detached garage. Check it out: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11769&start=0 There are many reference links in the thread to commercial studio designs; you should check them out too for ideas.

Hello, Thanks for the reply Sandersd. I agree, those suggestions made by my ex-builder were unusable. All of those older sketchups and designs were from last year...about 10 months ago. Now it has me thinking I should have started a new post for the latest design. How do I delete the old posts? I can repost all the necessary info that is in them. Sandersd....what are your thoughts about the LATEST layout and description of the build? 2x6 base/top plates and staggered studs with double sheetrock with greenglue and resilient channel. What is your take on my control room ratio? Thanks!!

TexTone wrote:

Sandersd....what are your thoughts about the LATEST layout and description of the build? 2x6 base/top plates and staggered studs with double sheetrock with greenglue and resilient channel. What is your take on my control room ratio? Thanks!!

I think you're asking a lot from a 20'x20' space. Step back and look at your overall goals: what exactly do you want to do in the room? You have to be specific and realistic. First, define the concept: It's obviously too small for a commercial studio; You might be able to make it work as a "project studio" or songwriter's demo studio, but it's still too small for tracking full bands, especially with acoustic drums. By the time you add the necessary isolation you'd be left with little room. I guess it could be done if the guitarist and bassist went direct in the control room, but it'd be very tight, uncomfortably so. But it could be done. The problem with that senario is you have no flexibility with recording techniques. So first, clarify exactly what you want to do with the space and how you will go about utilizing it. What will be your work process? As for room ratios, there are endless combinations that will work. Pick one that fits your layout. If you go with a non-rectangular shape, forget room ratios. Did you look through the links at professional designs in small spaces as suggested? Many current designs use a wide, shallow space for mixing. You might consider that. Once you've settled on a layout you really should construct it virtually in sketchup. You'll work through the design and construction problems you'll encounter during the build and prepare solutions. As for the construction details and isolation requirements: if you plan on acoustic drums you'll need maximum isolation - it doesn't get any louder than that and double walls are the way to provide required isolation. To summarize: 1) Refine your concept 2) Finalize the room layout 3) Develop the construction details. Here's my take on your original layout. I did this layout a couple of years back for my garage but never completed the concept. I guess you saw a completed version in my thread.