My long, one-car garage studio, construction phase

It's looking pretty good, Mark. Better than I expected. By the way, your "With desk left" measurement is all messed up: no use. something must have happened while that was running: maybe some sort of loud noise hit the room. so you should repeat that test, if you want to have a complete record. However, you seem to have created some type of resonant "thing" with your desk, that is resonating at about 54 Hz: take a look at the waterfalls for the right speaker, with no desk, then with the desk: And the same thing for "Both - no desk" and "both - with desk": Something is ringing loud and long at 54 Hz. There's also some much quieter ringing at 78Hz and 163 Hz. I would suggest that you try to figure out what that is, and fix it. The other issue (which was to be expected) is that you now have a slight dip around 1 kHz. That's typical with speakers placed on meter bridges, which is similar to what you are doing, basically, and is due to comb filtering from the desk surface. There's not much you can do about that, unfortunately, but it isn't all that big. Just be careful if you find yourself boosting 1k - 1.5k a lot in your mixes: it might not be necessary.

2. Would a subwoofer be a good thing to acquire some time down the road, even in such a small room?

Hell yes! :) Well, to my way of thinking, anyway. Some don't agree with that, and say that subs are not a good idea, but when you have small mains in a small room, I think you need the extra extension that the sub will give you. To accompany your A7's, I'd suggest a Sub-10. - Stuart -

Thank you, Stuart! I'll try to figure out what is resonating on the desk and run more tests....

Well, here is a long, long, long, LONG overdue conclusion post. Sorry for the delay if any of you have wondered if I ever finished (Perhaps I've been long forgotten!) Anyway, here are a few sub-par iPhone photos that capture as well as I am able what things look like. First, a few shots of the control room, which, despite its small size, is surprisingly comfortable, with a surprisingly wide stereo imaging: ….And here are a couple live room shots. Again, despite its small size, I'm really happy with how it ended up. With three different wall finishes in there, there is a lot of flexibility to be had by moving around the room. My sax playing friend (shown below) was thrilled with the sound of the room and the resulting tracks we recorded for a job he had. People say it again and again on this forum, but I think it bears repeating: Most of our projects begin with limitations of one kind or another. Mine were all related to the small size of my garage and what I had to work with. I really believe that if I didn't follow the advice of the generous experts on this site, and taken my time with planning the studio, a lot of my time building would have been wasted, with inferior (and expensive) results. So, my humble, unsolicited, advice to those of you thinking about starting a project like this: take you time, do your homework, and be willing to listen and make modifications. You will not regret it! Finally, and most importantly, I owe thanks to many people who have given me advice during this build: Early on, Glenn (Gulfo) and Brien (Xspace) were instrumental in getting me headed in the right direction. Later on, Stuart's tireless and generous input really made the studio into the best space it could possibly be. I can't thank you enough, Stuart! Others, like Simo, chimed in along the way with needed encouragement. Of course, without John, none of this would exist, so a thousand thank you's to you, John. I look back on all the entries in my build and feel nothing but gratitude. This post is starting to sound a bit like some sort of weird award acceptance speech, so I'll stop now. I just want to say THANK YOU! Bigsby

Mark, I'm looking in the dictionary but not finding the right superlatives to cover what you have accomplished! "Amazing" and "Awesome" really don't quite go far enough... Congratulations! That place looks just incredible. The workmanship is top-notch, and the attention to detail all along the way has clearly paid off, big time. There's not much more to say about it, except to put you at the top of the list: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5842&p=40923#p40923 If you'd like to do one more REW test, there's a little trick up the sleeve that MIGHT be applicable in your case, if the phase graphs pan out the way I'm hoping they do. ... :) It could improve the response even more, for your listening position... So if you feel like doing a REW test, then I'd love to look at it and see if this will work in your case. But once again, CONGRATULATIONS on a job really, really well done. - Stuart -

Stuart, I'm humbled by your kind words--thank you. As I said before, this build would have turned out much differently without your advice, and I'm eternally grateful. As far as REW goes, i haven't done one of those for a long time; I'd have to refresh my memory to be sure I do it properly, but perhaps I will! Thank you! Mark

Awesome thread!!! I learned so much from this and it turned out so well. Thanks Mark.

Nice piece of working. Your garage studio is looking good.

Hey dude, Loved reading you're build process and I hope it is still serving you well? I have just started my own and am freaking out as I don't want to mess anything up so thankfully have just found this forum! I have a wooden unit similar to you're garage (5.5m X 4m X 3m) and I am just curious as to how you boarded up you're windows? I have a door and a window that I want to close up and make sound tight before building my interior walls but was worried that If i did this wrong I would unintentionally create a 3-leaf wall? Any tips would be hugely grateful! All the best, Sam

What a wonderful thread it looks amazing! Thank you for being so thorough in your posts here

A really inspiring journey Mark, it's the closest to what I think I am looking at myself and it has connected in many many ways. If only I have some semblance of your focus and patience... (much gloved applause!). AND INDEED: a bump for more stories of how it's working!

AND INDEED: a bump for more stories of how it's working!

Absolutely! I'll second that. Come on, Mark! Time for an update! - Stuart -

Hi folks, I'm compelled to write my first post here in this forum. I've been reading through this excellent forum for the last few months getting ready for my first studio design and build. There is so much information, and helpful advice, and expertise, and encouragement. And then I came across this thread, and read the whole 10 pages (while at work!): and it was enthralling! And, I have to admit (unashamedly) that when I got to the end I got all teary-eyed! What an achievement, and what an inspiration you are, Mark. I will be basing my design on this build, as, I'm sure, many others have, and will do well into the future. So, Mark, as Stuart, and others have said: Come on, Mark! Time for an update! Well done, and we're all looking forward to hearing how its going. Dee Dee