Garage Conversion Design (First Post)

Hello, my name is Taylor Gauge and am a new poster here on the forum but have been lurking for more than a year on and off. I was originally designing my studio for the home that I own now. About a year ago though, I found out I would be getting transferred through my work so I postponed this design/build until I was in a home I knew I would be in for a while. That brings me to now... I am in the process of purchasing my new home in my new location (Dallas, TX) and am closing on December 19th. So naturally a few months back I started re-reading everything here and as soon as I found the home I am purchasing I began designing this garage conversion. I primarily focus on mixing and mastering in my home based studio, but always find myself working on overdubs and recording vocals. This drove me towards having the main focus of this design on the control room with an iso booth to be able to record vocals and amplifiers properly. I have done and will continue to do my primary tracking at a larger studio where I am an assistant engineer. For all intensive purposes while I am mixing, my normal volume is no more than 80-85 decibels, and that is only for a few minutes at a time and the rest of the time my volume is a bit lower (~70-80 depending on the material). The closest neighbor I have is approx. 25' from the west wall, while every other neighbor is more 60' away. The space I am working with is an 18'6" x 19'6" x 9' garage with brick on the east and west walls and 2x4 framing with an unknown thickness drywall all the way around. I will not be in the home until the 19th so I have not torn into the drywall yet to see it's thickness and whether or not there is any insulation in the walls. I am assuming because of the leafing that I will have to remove this drywall, reinforcing the existing leaf and then packing the rest of the framing in with insulation. The south wall is primarily the garage door which I would like to leave in place (minus the runner and motor on the ceiling) while completely sealing off the opening from the inside. The floor is concrete and about 2' lower than the rest of the house so a stairway must be built to step down from the living room inside to the garage. Speaking of which, because of the planned remodeling that we will be doing to the home right off the bat, the door placement will be completely dictated by the studio design so it's kind of up in the air at the moment. Lastly, my one restriction for the build is I promised Mrs. Gauge that I would leave some storage space in the garage for household use. My budget is, as most others on here state, minimal. I have about 5k to start which I hope is mainly the build and then whatever additional costs necessary for the HVAC and what-not. I have done a large amount of construction and remodeling and have many knowledgeable people I can tap into for the labor side. I expect this to be a slower build but would like to get it started pretty much as soon as I close on the home and make sure I am not wasting time or money before hand. I am attaching my rough sketchup design in hopes of help with the layout. I am in no way any kind of expert but tried to follow all of the rules I've read here over my tenure as a lurker. I am also attaching photos of the garage itself for your view of what I'm working with. Questions: 1. While using the #1 MM Louden Ratio for the control room, with the 38-40% mix position rule, I think I am going to have to build my soffits at a 45 degree angle so that the everything lines up. That being said, what's the most important ratio to follow. If one has to be compromised between soffit/speaker angle, mix position percentage, and room ratio, which is the least important. 2. Is my idea of using the excess space on the NW corner of my room for extra bass trapping not a good idea because it would make the room asymmetrical? 3. Is there a rule for minimum iso booth size, or is just a matter of non parallel walls? I can't find a clear definition if there is a real rule here. 4. Should I plan to reinforce my existing ceiling and hang bass traps in the attic or try to incorporate an angled ceiling? 5. Here on this forum there is a large emphasis on the room being deeper than wider. I know my best mixes have come from rooms where this is the case. My question is though, how does WSDG get away with all of their designs being the opposite (wider than deeper)? Is there something I'm missing? I'll leave the questions at that for now... Through the search function I have found the answer to almost every question I've had in this process... Thank you in advance for any help I am offered. I am excited to be an active part of this community. -Taylor Gauge

Reached my maximum attachments... Here are the last few pictures of the space.

Hi Taylor, and welcome!

1. While using the #1 MM Louden Ratio for the control room, with the 38-40% mix position rule, I think I am going to have to build my soffits at a 45 degree angle so that the everything lines up. That being said, what's the most important ratio to follow. If one has to be compromised between soffit/speaker angle, mix position percentage, and room ratio, which is the least important.

The 38% is just a guideline, a starting point. It isn't written in stone. 50% is bad, 0% is bad, some others are OK or questionable, but 38% is just a number to at least give you some place to get started. There has been a fair amount of commentary on this, and if you search the forum I'm sure you'll find it. 45 degree soffit angle (90 degree speaker angle) is just fine. Not as good as 60 degree speaker angle, but still decent. I discovered this when I ran into the same problem as you, where my room geometry wouldn't make sense for 60 degree speakers. John himself says that a 90 degree angle is OK. Try searching for that too. ( I guess you mean 45 degrees horizontally? Right? Not vertically, I hope! A 45 degree tilt angle would be a BAD idea! You don't want more than 20 degrees max downwards tilt, and preferably 10 to 15 - search for that too... interesting discussion, and it took me a lot of research to come up with those figures). So, of the three, I'd say that your room ratio takes top priority, and the other two are relative. - Stuart - EDITED to add: I forget to mention: Symmetry is vital! Do everything you can to keep the room absolutely symmetrical.

Thank you Stuart... I guess I am on the right track as far as a balance between the ratios and suggestions. As far as having extra bass trapping in front of the mix position and against the NW corner... Does that make the room asymmetrical? Or does the symmetry relate primarily to reflective surfaces? I got the idea for the NW corner from a few of John's designs posted here where just one rear corner has a large bass trap. -Taylor