Cordoba Argentina - Basement Project

Hello! I'm Roberto Richard, from Cordoba, Argentina. My age is 37. Originally a guitar player, developed drums, bass and keyboards skills in order to record myself on the fourtrack, back in the day. Now an aspiring music producer, took an online Producing Master certificate at Berkleemusic. Still play and record myself, my kids and their school bands are regular customers, so are other local rock bands. I must be able to do live (loud amps and drums) tracking, overdubs, mix and master. I do some sound design, foley and post, on occasions (Did I leave anything out, haha). I live in a pretty relaxed country style neighborhood, big gardens, trees and birds, pools and kids. Not a noisy environment, yet I'd have to keep noises outside, and sounds inside. And it's beneath my home, and I'm keeping my wife. I've been reading around the forum, checking and studying the studio designs, (and learning to use SketchUp) for some years, now. I wish I'd learned certain facts before I built the rooms that are going to become my studio... :( starting with the wrong foot here. My great plans, 4 years ago, when it all begun (a 10m x 10m x 3m basement), kept getting trimmed here and there, a column placed here, another there, etc, etc, it had to hold the two stories above it, fit a bathroom, a spare bedroom, two car garage, and the house shouldn't exceed the neighborhood's height limits. Anyway..., I ended up with pretty small rooms, and the worse part, very low ceilings. The room measurements are: ----------------------- Length - - Width - - - Height R1 - control: ------- 4.75 m - - 2.75 m - - 2.65 m R2 - live (*): ------- 8.05 m - - 5.35 m - - 2.55 m R3 - extra: --------- 4.13 m - - 1.51 m - - 2.40 m (*) Architect says its not a very good idea, but I could bring the floor on R2, down another 0.30 m to a total 2.85 m (demolishing, digging and doing it again), but not on R1. So, I'll end up with one or two steps down from one room to the other. My question here is: Is it really worth it? I know every little bit helps and all, but is it absolutely necessary? Can't I deal with the room as is? make it sound properly, somehow, by other means. The far-from-ideal control room must be made to sound correctly, as it is, anyway. I'm trying to convince myself here, to spend my resources on "treating" the rooms as they are. Is this possible? I've been to many studios in the area, and none seem to follow any of the known common rules, it's like everything is valid! I've had specialist check the rooms, and got the usual "rooms are too small, too low, you need to bring down this wall, etc, etc", even made me some drawings..., sorry, can't do it. So, I've tweaked, going round and round, turning things one way and the other. I've gone through: - control in burried half of R2, and 2 smaller live rooms, on the windowed half of R2 and on R1 - Control in the windowed half of R2, and live room in R1 and the burried half of R2 - big control in R2 and small live in R1 - the original control layout in R1 had the monitors placed along the long wall, but, room is too thin, impossible to have listeners spot at 38%. Now, the latest ideas on a layout came from the Small Studio in 3D SketchUp file shared in this forum. My attached SketchUp file, is on scale, you can see all actual measurements. I scaled down the "components.skp" control layout, and had it fit my R1. Adjusted some, and left a few centimeters around it, if something must be done to the walls. The R1 is made shorter, 3.75m long, having the entrance in front, into the live room, and from there to the control room via glass-doors (some of the "Don't do's" here..., I'm all ears on suggestions). Some re-movable panels are necessary. For the live room, I "threw in" some panels, absorb and reflect, and bass-traps on corners, wild guessing..., but: Is something of the sort viable at all? As you can see, doors are still missing, I was thinking probably on glass doors. All windows are double-glass. I'm using PVC doors and windows on the rest of the house. All walls are 0.22 m / 0.24 m thick, except the wall on the left of R1 that is 0.17 m, with a bathroom on the other side. Half of the building is burried, underground. Please, I'd love to read any comments and suggestions. I'm very thankful for all the info found around here. Besides the non-favorable-starting-points, I'm determined to make things work. I've been taking my time, preparing, planning, spending and saving up plenty for this, and for a long time, to get it right. The time has come to get things done. Thanks for your time! Regards, Roberto PS: Other pics attached. SketchUp file is too big, couldn't upload it. Sorry about this, I'll work on it and post it on a reply

I stripped the SketchUp file a bit, and here it is. Best! Roberto

welcome! i like the overall layout - you could also build in the treatments - since it's all concrete - it may be more effective to use some of the ceiling space over the desk and full out to each wall and on the back wall to really add the amount of treatment needed. in the live room - scattered absorption and small angled slats would keep it alive, diffusive and multi-purpose to preserve the peace :-)

Thanks on your reply! I really appreciate it. It's probably up my nose, but I promise I've read it like 37 times, and still wonder what is it exactly that you're telling me :oops:

gullfo wrote:

you could also build in the treatments - since it's all concrete - it may be more effective to use some of the ceiling space over the desk and full out to each wall and on the back wall to really add the amount of treatment needed

Is it to "dock" the treatments directly to the concrete walls (not adding anything in between the wall and the treatment)? About the ceiling space, as it is in the original SketchUp design, it gets lowered towards the front. From the back wall to the wood strut it's 2,65 m tall, and towards the front, it goes down, reaching 2,08 m, having that empty space on top of the console to fill in (with something) and add to the treatment. Do you mean like adding bass traps, or something, between the concrete and the ceiling? Again, thanks for your time and patience! Cheers, Roberto