Interested in your critiques

I am remodeling my basement for use as a cheap and simple recording studio. I am a first year music production and engineering student and I am looking to build a cheap studio I can learn in. As a result, I am using mostly square rooms, with a 6 degree splay in the control room to reduce reflections.The walls will be decoupled from one another except for where they contact the floor. The ceiling will be drywall with resilient channel. I understand square rooms will have serious modal problems, but I'm not building a perfect studio. All three rooms will have significant bass trapping, with the isolation room being as dead as possible (I plan on recording drums in this room and it will be easier to record them in a dead room and add reverb later). I have both the Master Handbook of Acoustics and Home Recording Studio Build it Like the Pros (both great books!) and I will be using most of the construction methods from those books. The basement measures 25 ft by 24 ft and 7 ft high (7.62m x 7.31m x 2.13m). The left side of the drawings below show several things that, for financial reasons, can't be moved. My budget is approximately $3000 USD. Would anyone care to share what they think of the design? Do you have any tips on how I can improve without spending a lot of money? Thank you in advance for your advice. :D EDIT: I'm sorry for the imperial measurements. Here are their metric equivalents: Tracking: 3.7 m x 2.59 m Control: 2.89 m x 3.2 m Iso: 2.89 m x 3.43 m

what are the raw measurements of the space that can be used? i think you could use rectangular rooms with better ratios for the given space and perhaps get a better quality studio out of it. you can then treat the rooms to the desired deadness although you might find having a totally dead drum room is not good in most cases.

Thanks for input. I have attached is the basement's bare design. I have been playing with Bob Gold's room mode calculator and have been able to tweak the room dimensions for a slightly better ratio. The rooms are already very small and I don't want to sacrifice a lot of space. I understand I don't want a completely dead room, I just don't want the lower frequencies stacking up and "muddy-ing" the recording. I'll figure out the room treatment once I have it built and can take a RTA mic around the room.

have you considered egress and other building code considerations?

For now, this is only going to be for personal use. I won't be charging anyone until I am actually talented enough to do so. I will need to apply for a local home business license and I will have to add another door (or large window) at the other end of the basement (the corner of the isolation room). I will probably also need a wheelchair ramp and handicap accessible restroom, but I'm not sure. My goal now is to build a half decent space I can practice in.

if it's a private residence and you have no disability in the household, might not need ADA compliance for a personal space (although it's often nice to have if you can afford it). that said, you very likely have some egress requirements for the basement but you can usually get that info from your town's online building codes and/or talking to the building officer.

gullfo wrote:

if it's a private residence and you have no disability in the household, might not need ADA compliance for a personal space (although it's often nice to have if you can afford it). that said, you very likely have some egress requirements for the basement but you can usually get that info from your town's online building codes and/or talking to the building officer.

+1 - emphasis added. Cheers, John