Basement Studio Design for New Construction Home

Hello All, I am in the early phases of designing a studio in a newly constructed house in the Auburn Alabama area and would love some advice. The basement has some rough out completed from the original home design. No new work has been done since we purchased the house. I am trying to accomplish a couple of things: 1) A control room that will be used mostly for mixing sessions that were recorded elsewhere. This is includes local churches and University events. 2) Another room adjacent to the CR that can be used for recording vocalists, musicians and even drums. My son will also use this as his drum practice room when not in use for recording purposes. 3) In a perfect world I would love to be able to convert the CR to a home theater at some point in the future. This will be helpful for resale purposes if and when that ever happens. I am not sure that I can fit in a CR that would be large enough to work as a home theater. As far as equipment, I have a PT HD rig with a Digidesign C24 console. I currently mix on Adam A7 nearfield monitors, but I would like to get some additional mid-field monitors for flush mounting. I have included a diagram of the existing space. The area I would like to use for the studio is in the back of the basement (or front of the house). It is surrounded by poured concrete on two sides with a 2x6 load-bearing wall down the middle which seems to be a logical place to divide the CR and tracking room. The floor joists above are exactly 9' from floor to the underside of the joists. I have also included a very high level diagram of the layout that I was thinking of (while trying to finish out the rest of the basement design) which may help. Please disregard the dimensions on this diagram as they are not all accurate. The dimensions on the existing structure pdf are accurate. The pictures will also help with giving you all an idea of what I have to work with. I am sure I have missed some information so please let me know what else might be helpful. Any and all ideas about the layout and design would be greatly appreciated!!! THANKS!!!

having the open trusses is nice because it gives you flexibility in arranging the HVAC for the rooms. for the CR, maybe the indent on the top side nearest the front could serve as an equipment closet. on the isolation, it may be best to use drywall on isolation clips and hat channel. on the concrete wall side adding the framed wall set off from the concrete will make assembly easier. the usual beef up applies - ceilings and walls to maximize the mass. you should also do some hammer tests - tapping metal and rubber to determine the structural transfer to the rest of the house.

I would disagree with clips and track. You have the potential space for a room in a room and this I would consider rather than the transmission loss that is a by product of clips and track. What you did not say OP, is how much money you have, how much you are going to throw at this project, and if we can get some of that? "In a perfect world I would love to be able to convert the CR to a home theater at some point in the future. " You have to be focused...it is not an either or. If any thing is going to be converted it would be a live room, since this is the bigger of the two rooms, typically.

Thanks Glenn and Brien! If at all possible I would like to stay around $5K for the construction. Do you think that is reasonable for this type and amount of space? I want it done "right" (as right as possible anyway given the structure) so I will do what is necessary on the money side if it would be worth it from a final results standpoint.

I had a structural engineer come look at the basement to identify if and how much of the 2x6 load bearing wall could be removed. He suggested that I could safely remove about 9 feet but no more without some major structural work. I know on my original layout had the CR on the side next to the steps and the live room on the other side of the load bearing wall. That area is a long and skinny (10' wide) area. Does that make the most sense or is there another layout that would work better? Thanks for any of your ideas!!

Fligel wrote:

I had a structural engineer come look at the basement to identify if and how much of the 2x6 load bearing wall could be removed. He suggested that I could safely remove about 9 feet but no more without some major structural work.

I ain't saying nothing, but you can pull out the whole damn 2 X 6 wall with the proper headering, which would come in as an LVL. And I will also say this, pulling out studs and not replacing the "gap with any type of header,,,was this discussed or did he/she say "just take out some studs up to nine feet, no worries:)"?

Here was what he wrote in his report... "As we understand, you would like to remove a portion of the right front bearing wall in the basement in order to create a larger room at the right front corner when finishing the basement. This bearing wall is positioned beneath the right wall of the 1st floor hall. Approximately 9-1/2 feet can easily be removed from the front portion of this wall between the drain plumbing riser and the front foundation wall, provided a 3.5”x12” LVL header and triple jack studs are installed to support the 1st floor joists. We do not recommend removing the portion of this wall containing the plumbing riser without further evaluation and design modifications, since this portion of the wall supports point loads from the dining room door header and a roof framing brace. If this portion of the wall must be removed, we can provide an estimate for this design upon request."

so... are you looking to enlarge the rooms a bit or just isolate and treat?

I was just exploring that as an option. I had the guy there to look at another issue, so I just asked him to take a look. If the rooms will work with that wall as it exists today then that will be the easiest to build I imagine. I was concerned about getting the CR to be large enough to not seem too cramped and as well as large enough that it sounds as good as possible. I am obviously trying to get everything to fit well so that I can handle the buildout of the other rooms in the basement for the rest of the family. I wish I could take more room for the studio, but I need to keep the wife happy. :-) Thanks so much for your help!

so i would stick with the room sizes you have and make them work within that space.

Thanks Glenn! That looks great. Your diagrams are so much prettier that mine! hehe Based on how you drew it, what would you recommend the dimensions be? Specifically, where would the outer walls with the doors be located relative to the back concrete wall? Thanks so much!!

i would shoot for something close to the ratio shown -- but -- you really should worry less about the ratio and more about maximum volume in the room and just avoid even measurements and make it as large as possible... same for the live room. not sure you meaning about the outer wall doors

It's been a while, but we have finally closed on the house so now I can get down to work. So much to do, so little time. :-) Based on some other design requirements for the rest of the basement, the bottom walls of the CR and tracking room are now going to be in line and not be offset as shown in the diagram above. Therefore, the tracking room will now be a longer room. With that in mind, should I still keep the use for the two rooms the same, or is there any benefit in swapping the two rooms? I would think that a long narrow room would be more difficult from a mix perspective. Therefore, I should probably leave things as they are. Just wanting to make sure that I am thinking about this the right way. As always, thanks for the help. Eric