Basement recording studio. Any suggestions?

Hi all I'm very new to these forums and this is my first posting. First off I want to say that this is by far the best website around and I am trying to be a sponge and soak up all of this knowledge. I finally bought my first house and I live in Columbus Ohio USA. Now I'm ready to get this recording studio going. I have a fairly small area in my block basement of my 4 level split level home. Thanks John Sayer's for posting the sketchup link. I am in the design faze right now. The general idea is to have a vocal booth and a control room. I don't have the room for a drum room at this time. The main area is 7' 1 feet tall 13' 1 feet long 10' 3 feet wide the vocal booth is 4' 3 deep 7' 1 feet tall 5' 5 feet long I have a budget of under $750.00. The door by the couch is actually my sump pump area. And there is a door in the vocal booth that will stay locked that will allow access to my water meter. I addes bass traps to the control room. Does this concept make sense? How does the design concept look? Does anyone see a better way with the amount of space I have? I attached both the .skp file and a .jpeg of the design.

maybe extend the booth across the entire wall on an angle and add an angle to the sump closest if possible and turn the mix desk to face the wall between the two. this would approximate a more consistent and symmetrical space.

Thanks a bunch for the suggestion. Do you mean something like this? Unfortunately the sump pump area has to be the size it's set at to allow access to the hole. If I angled it I would build over the actual hole. Another question. Would it be possible to lengthen my vocal booth a bit more to make it a vocal booth/drum room?

Or do you mean something like this? The only issue I have with this design is I don't know where to put the door. I think this would be big enough to be a drum room also?? The main reason I originally had the vocal booth so small is because I wanted to cut down on costs and get the best vocal sound. Would a larger room be better? Oh yeah, just to let you know. I designed the studio facing this way because if I put the vocal booth on the opposite wall my tv in my finished basement will pick up in the microphone more then across the room.

I'm in an airport at the moment but I'll try to post something tomorrow after my redeye gets in and I can see... :wink:

Awesome! Thanks for your help!

Here's the idea. I'll draft something more correct shortly. http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb211/gullfo_bucket/th_6c450a00.png

Oh I see what you mean! Ok that looks good! I'd love to see a more in depth design. Thanks for your help!

here's some more detail. some options: use slider doors instead of window and discrete door. depending on your isolation needs, a single wall might suffice with a single slider. door for sump (presumably not frequently accessed) could be by the desk. water meter door inside booth as per your plan.

Wow! Thanks for putting the time and effort to help me out. I love the design. I will have to get the exact measurements and start finalizing things. So will I be able to incorporate the couch into the layout?. I know that my area is limited so I was just wondering what your take is on it. I'm not familiar with "Slider doors" due to my lack of experience. What exactly do you mean by this? I didn't realize exactly how much wall room I will need for soundproofing. I'm glad to see your design because I want to make sure I have enough detail put into the design.

quite frankly, if you don't actually need the isolation booth, you'd be better off leaving that out and turning the desk to the left hand wall and making the (now) back wall the sump closet and bass trapping. then you'd be able to fit a couch and have a better overall room. use some gobos to block off the vox mic when needed. put anything noisy into an isolation cabinet. the "slider" would be a good quality exterior grade (for it's heavy construction, glass, and seals) sliding glass door - 6' wide usually works nicely. can you shift the entry door? say to a far side of the room?

Ok, I see what you mean. I have to let you know that the concept you explained is VERY new to me. I love the idea and frankly it will more then likely save me money and allow more space! I will be willing to do whatever i can to make the design just right. So where would you put the door? Also where would I do the vocals at. And as far as materials... where would I get the things you mentioned? I will gladly post pictures once the building gets started!

if you can put the entry door at the far left (below the vox booth) we can put the entry into the room and the vox in the same general location so that space is used for that purpose, then the sofa could sit where the entry door is currently shown. this way you can keep things relatively the same as i originally suggested. all the materials you need except for the rigid insulation (lookup SPI) can be found in a Home Depot or Lowes (or local building supply store). windows can be exterior grade (for the same reason - heavy construction, seals etc). you can import this plan into your sketchup and size based on dimensions. one other thought - flip the overall design and have the indented section part of the vocal booth instead.

Wow I love the design! You obviously are very well versed in designing studios. I will for sure design it around this concept. Quick question. What do you think I should do with the ceiling? How would I soundproof it? Also for the bass trap/equipment/storage area, any suggestions on how to build that? I love where you put that area and I'm glad we have incorporated it into the design. Yeah the couch will fit perfectly if we move the door and I think thats a perfect idea! Also for the flooring, should I keep it concrete floring or should I install carpeting? Also, for the sump door area. What type of soundproofing should I use there? I fear that this area could cause a problem. Also another important question.... Is there a way that I can make the vocal booth large enough to be a drum room also? I'd like to be able to do both in 1 room if possible? We may have to extend the dimensions a little bit? I just want to do this right the first time so I apologize for all of the questions.

i don't think you have enough space for a drum kit in there... booth or not... the sump area will be a weak point so have a heavy and fully sealed door will be your only option. if the door doesn't have to be full height or can sit up off the floor, then you could probably seal it better. another option for it would be a "plug" which is fully sealed and locked into place and you pull when needed. same for the water meter access. make the holes as small as possible. i'd just stain and polish the concrete and use a small rug under the desk and a small one in the booth. not sure what your ceiling it. typically you need to beef up the outer mass (assuming you have a first floor with typically wood joists and wood floor) using layers of drywall between the joists and then a decoupled ceiling (prefer built on the isolation walls, but suspended is second best option).

Ok thanks Glenn! Anything else you might suggest before i begin building?

Ok Glenn I do have a question about the ceiling. From what I'm reading it sounds like the ceiling on the recording studio should not connect with the ceiling of my basement? It makes sence to me to limit sound in and out.. So you said to build the ceiling supported by the isolation walls? My basement walls have concrete so I think Im good with no sound escaping from the walls. What would the design be for the bass traps/ slats area? Also should I have bass trapping on every wall? Why just this paticular area? Keep in mind I'm a newb!!! LOL

the isolation walls i'm speaking of are the stud-frame/drywall walls you build to shape your rooms. these would be built to support the ceiling so your ceiling is decoupled from the floor above. the acoustic treatments - put bass trapping in all the corners you can. even floor-wall and wall-ceiling corners when you have space. lookup super chunks.

Ok perfect. Thanks!

I will take a picture of the area so you can have a better idea on what I have to work with... I do have a delima though. I have a furnace vent running across the top of the ceiling (for my first floor living room) and I have racked my brain to try and figure out how to fix this issue.... I will attach a picture tonight and see if anyone has ideas on what I can do.

Glenn, I do have more space to the left of the door. In the design that you drew up. If you look at the door entery area.. I have a 7 x 7 ish (haven't measured it as of yet) foot area to the left of the studio entery door that I would be able to build a drum room also.... (See attached) or maybe this would be a better place for the control room? Any suggestions? Sould we change the whole design now that I have considered this new space?

maybe something like this?

Is it possible you could take a set of completely accurate measurements (+/- 1/4") of the entire space including beams, windows, pipes, utilities, etc plus some photos of the space so we can see the construction? it will be much easier that trying to guess and in such a small space, we'll have to get creative to squeeze it all in and maximize it's effectiveness as a recording place. the last design (imho) seems to lose a lot to walking paths when we need to maximize the available acoustic space...

Yes! I will do that tonight. Real quick... what does (+/- 1/4") mean?

within a 1/4" (plus or minus 1/4") 1/4" accuracy etc etc