Control room in a narrow garage

Hi guys, Firstly, thanks for all the great information on this board! I looked at all the suggested studio designs, but a have a long narrow space, so I'm not exactly sure what to do. Most of the designs are for wider rooms. Attached is a Sketchup jpg of what it looks like now. I'd like to separate this garage into two sections. Keep the front as a garage and make a control/mix room from the rear section. The garage is 2.7m wide ( 8' 10") and 2.52m high (8'3") Total length is 11.2m, so I wanted to put a dividing wall, somewhere in the middle. Of course, this wouldn't give me a good ratio, so the wall doesn't have to be exactly in the middle. There is a skylight 5.10 m from the back wall, which I'd like to have in the control room, but that would make the length of the room > 5.6m (18'4") The walls are brick, concrete floor. Ceiling is plaster/drywall. The roof is metal and the ceiling drops about 20 cm from the roof. I think there is insulation in the roof. Back wall has a large glass sliding door, so basically 95% of the back wall is glass, which adds to the problem. The side entrance door (actually entrance from the house) is 1.8m from the back wall (glass door) I don't need sound isolation, just need the room to sound reasonably accurate for mixing/mastering. I realise that it is too small to sound really good. I'd prefer to put monitors on stands, as I'm not sure that I'd be able to flush mount them myself, but I've done bass traps, clouds etc., so maybe I can. But I don't really like to do anything with the ceiling as it's already there, so I'm thinking of just putting a a cloud thanks, David

welcome! have you checked out John's container studio designs? it may be a good starting point for your design. also, consider the soffit mounting because in a small space it can be advantageous.

gullfo wrote:

welcome! have you checked out John's container studio designs? it may be a good starting point for your design. also, consider the soffit mounting because in a small space it can be advantageous.

Thanks Glenn. Yes, I had a look at them, but they have control & recording space, while I need only a control room. Would a long control room say 5m x 2.7m work, or would I definitly need to make it much shorter for better ratio? My understanding is that ratios work, but not really for such a small room.

in this case i would use all the space because room volume will be more helpful than trying to create a ratio - that said - it's always good to do actual acoustic measurements to see how the space is behaving in case shortening it could help.

gullfo wrote:

in this case i would use all the space because room volume will be more helpful than trying to create a ratio - that said - it's always good to do actual acoustic measurements to see how the space is behaving in case shortening it could help.

the problem is, that I first need to put in the front wall, before I can take any measurements. So I need to make an educated guess. I was thinking about a stud wall, with some rigid fiberglass, covered by drywall/plaster, but maybe it would be better not to have any insulation and let the bass travel through the from wall? If all four walls were the same, maybe it would be easier to decide, but I have solid brick side walls and glass at the back. Also can I leave exposed brick walls or would I definitely need to put a frame with insulation around the walls? thanks, David

to start - i'd put up a wall over the garage door - 2x4 stud frame with 2x 5/8" type X drywall. seal the garage door per your environmental needs- heat/cool/humidity/moisture etc - plastic sheeting tacked onto it may do it - check with a local builder and then lightly fill the space with pink (15mg/m3) insulation to damp the drywall, door, and air cavity. on the slider doors - put on very heavy drapes bunched. the lightness of the construction and the slider doors will allow some LF energy out. then do your acoustic tests. this way you'll know what else needs to be done. obviously first reflections - side, ceiling, floor will all be necessary as well as scatter absorption through out to get the balance. there is likely some problem frequencies due to the squareness of the wall height - room width which may require some panels, porous or slat absorption to shape up.

gullfo wrote:

to start - i'd put up a wall over the garage door - 2x4 stud frame with 2x 5/8" type X drywall. seal the garage door per your environmental needs- heat/cool/humidity/moisture etc - plastic sheeting tacked onto it may do it - check with a local builder and then lightly fill the space with pink (15mg/m3) insulation to damp the drywall, door, and air cavity. on the slider doors - put on very heavy drapes bunched. the lightness of the construction and the slider doors will allow some LF energy out. then do your acoustic tests. this way you'll know what else needs to be done. obviously first reflections - side, ceiling, floor will all be necessary as well as scatter absorption through out to get the balance. there is likely some problem frequencies due to the squareness of the wall height - room width which may require some panels, porous or slat absorption to shape up.

Many thanks Glenn, I'll try it