Basement recording studio. Any suggestions?

Oh Glenn, here's my attempt to give the most accurate measurements I can.... In the top right corner there is a water meter that comes out 1 foot 1 inch. I subtracted that from the room width. Also the room to the left is only able to be 6 foot 8 inches tall because of the furnace air intake vent.and 6 foot 8 inches long due to a 4 inch concrete wall that is bulging out... sorry for the mess, if you look at the top left of this picture you can see the intake vent. (note the 4 inch wall bulge on the right also)The height of the room to the right is actually 6 foot 11 inches where the water pipe runs from across the ceiling from the water meter. You can see the furnace vent that leads to my living room in the pictures. I hope this helps. The box to the bottom middle left is the furnace and the washer and dryer is to the left of this. The area to the top left is for laundry and storage. Hope this helps :lol:

it looks like you have a large intake vent running right through your space... is it possible to draw the line this pipe follows? it might be possible (if my guessing is right) that this could be soffited in along the demarcation between booth and CR... maybe. what are you doing about fresh air and HVAC/heat in the studio?

Hey Glenn. Here's the pictures with the vent. As of right now I have no HVAC or fresh air flow to the studio. I may need to run it from this vent our use space heaters. I was thinking I could do something with the vent... maybe take it straight across than corner it to the left? That's my biggest concern right not to be honest. Let me know what you think and yet again I thank you VERY much!! I attached the sketchup file for you to view also.

the vent is to feed fresh air to your furnace no? so i don't believe it would be possible to use use for space ventilation. that said, it should be simple enough to put in some proper ventilation and cooling/heating. one thought that comes to mind immediately would be to take the space (with your actor) and make that long rectangular area into the CR and make the space under the vent pipe area your isolation room and the vent can be readily encased. this way you can have a nice sized and shaped CR and your isolation room will be bigger as well (albeit with some ceiling variations which are less an issue in the live room versus the CR).

Ok, so could the isolation room be used for both vocals and drums? What would it look like? Do you have any ideas on the design? The vent blows air to my upstairs level of the house. Also the isolation room being by the vent may be a problem because my 55" led tv screen is on the wall behind it. It is a level up but still behind it. So maybe I will have to isolate the sound a bit better?

could you redirect the vent? that is wrap it around the edge of the room to meet up with its current location? plus you might be able to use it for the downstairs and achieve the isolation at the same time.

Something like this... excuse my lack of being able to make a circle vent in sketchup....

sorry, took a few minutes to sketch - see my other response. you could also run a small duct into the isolation booth.

Wow, yet again looks great and thanks, thanks thanks!!!!!! So would the isolation booth be a drum/vocal booth then?

Esco wrote:

So would the isolation booth be a drum/vocal booth then?

yes. within limits but its bigger than the first design and at least as large as you might have expected.

Glenn, Now that the design is pretty much ready I will begin building in feburary (income tax time). I may begin building the walls now not sure. I will keep you posted step by step. Do you mind if I bug you with the construction aspect of the studio when I'm ready to build?

i wouldn't start building out without much more design because you want to make sure that you have the proper mass-spring (air)-mass arrangement - meaning creating the correct double leaf walls (using the existing basement walls as well as new walls) to ensure best isolation and keeping your costs down. i'd suggest start by clearing out the space entirely so you can layout the maximum boundaries using 2" masking/painter tape and sort out the actual walking areas and entry doors, etc. you'll need to have a discussion with your building officer about this as well since you want this constructed to code and avoid any possible legal, insurance, or other issues. once you have it cleared out and taped off, and measured (plus photos so we can see all the details), we can then discuss the design more correctly so it will be right...

Ok I'll work on taping this week and will also speak with my building officer. Yet again thanks for your time and attention to detail!

Glenn, I just wanted to give you a headsup. I will be getting a new furnace installed in 2 weeks. after that furnace is installed I will clear the area and will tape the room up and make a video of the room and post the link here. So hopefully we will talk in about 2 weeks.

Hey Glenn, I am going to document the studio building from the ground up via pictures and youtube videos. I wanted to see if I can attach your company to the design info Running Brook Design? If you'd like to use the design concepts on your website I would be happy to document everything very well to help promote you as a designer. I will even mark my studio as designed by Glenn @ Running Brook Design. Does this sound like something that would benefit you? If not I will just keep things as normal. I know that eveyone needs to build a resume!

thanks! there will likely be many more people helping out as you begin your construction - although i would caution you that your design is not complete so let's get that done before handing out credit to me... the real credit goes to John Sayers and his amazing site that facilitates this type of interaction and deserves your support.

OK, well we will see who contributes and then decide later. My new furnace will be installed this Monday 12/20/10 and then I will immediately clear out the area and tape everything off and start taking pictures / video. The only problem I see is that my ceiling is pretty low in the booth area because of the piping and furnace intake vent.... I will show you what I mean later. if I'm lucky the furnace company will make a much better intake vent and I will not have an issue. I have too confess. I have never built anything in my life... so I'm a bit nervous to make a mistake. I will have to hound you step by step to assure that I am doing things correctly. I'll keep you all posted!

It is a possibility that I may not have the funds to build the studio. I got an unexpected bill in the mail. Chances are that I may need to either make the studio smaller (the original design with just the vocal booth) or postpone the studio until I see what my tax return looks like. Thanks for all of your help and I will let you know what I decide. Any idea what a small recording studio might run me cost wise? I was willing to pay 1,500 or so to build it.....

maybe layout the space. frame / drywall / basic treatments / no window, and a normal solid door the CR so you can do your mix work and record vox in the CR or maybe the basement will be quiet enough to use some gobos to work with. that might squeak into your budget. of course if this depends on your other work for redoing the vent etc. you might just want to wait.

Ok so what about if I just do a vocal booth only. That way i can at least record vocals. And then later I can work on building the CR?

sounds like a plan!

That would more then liekly be in my budget right now. So do you have any advice on a vocal booth that would fit my area? I could even buy a real nice pair of headphones to do the mixing until I can build the CR.

here's one idea to get started: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14147

How do i get the list of things to buy foe this design. I see the design and love it but I'm clueless on what to buy.

Ok so after much thought I have decided to stick with the smaller studio design concept that we were originally working with (see attached image) I may make a drum area later but the focus will be Hip/hop, POP, and solo artists. This will fall into my budget and will leave some extra space in my basement. So would this design be my best bet?