Big project, Medium budget, Medium space HELP!

Hello fellow artists, professionals, engineers, and recording enthusiasts! As many other new members have stated in their introductions, I have been browsing this forum for quite a while now and the time has come where I can post regarding a new project. I've been recording/mixing (both my own projects and others') for about 7 years now, alongside 16 years of musical training, and I finally have the means to do something on a larger scale. The area I'm in is rich with indie bands and I want to take advantage of the situation I have found myself in. A building went up for lease in my neighborhood and I am considering leasing out the space to build a small commercial studio. Its my ultimate wish for the design/materials/construction to be around $35,000CDN if that's possible. 90% of the gear I need for the studio I already own but I would need to buy MANY more cables and a few extra mics. But this isn't about the gear. I wanted to have a CLEAR understanding of the costs for building and materials before I even consider signing a lease agreement. I'm currently working on attaining the building codes and necessary permits for my city to see if this is even feasible at this location. My biggest problem is that I am by no means an architectural designer, nor do I possess skills in any kind of construction methods. So its safe to say I need some assistance from all you fine members. Goals: 2 mixing rooms (I intend to rent out the second mix room to other engineer friends already willing) 1 live room 1 iso booth Bathroom Kitchen area Foyer with a front desk Here are the specifications: Width: 31' - Length: 28'4'' - Height: 12' (drop ceiling currently installed) --- 880.4 square feet -The floors are currently ceramic tiling throughout the whole interior (formerly a hair salon) -Exterior walls are all brick, with what looks like simple framing and drywall on the interior. I haven't gotten the blueprints from the landlord yet so I can't tell for sure. -Dividing wall is, what they tell me, a firewall that separates this unit from the one next door. To better the isolation from the neighboring unit, I'd rather not build against that wall, but if it can be done, then by all means I'll do it to maximize space. -There are three large windows at the front of the store that I CANNOT move Notes/wish list: -As John Sayers says, I'd like to include glass windows/sliding doors in some spots but I realize that these aren't cheap and could run my budget into the ground. -Angled ceilings and pot-lights would be nice -Monitors built into the walls would also be ideal to save desk/room space The included attachments are my attempt at producing a semi-legible floor plan. The first is an empty layout of the space as it is now, and the second is a completely amateur design by yours truly. I didn't exactly accommodate for wall thicknesses and insulation measurements/angles ect. I just drew in possible room shapes for an estimation of the space available inside them. The positions of the doors will most likely change so I didn't include them in my design, other than the front and back doors (which I cannot move). Also, I feel rather silly showing you all this in the first place because I'm so new at studio design and I look at it and feel like such a newbie. I tried making sketchup for you all, but very quickly gave up on it haha. Anyways, I'd rather keep the toilet where it is to save myself some money in the construction while at the same time I also cannot move the back or front doors/windows. Any further information that you guys may need I can provide for you, hopefully I didn't miss too much.. Basically I just NEED TO KNOW if I can do this with my budget, or if there's a way to configure it so it'll still fit my needs even if I have to compromise a few things. I need something that works and has enough space to produce great quality recordings/mixes. I hope I followed the forum rules enough to get a response, and thank you in advance for reading my topic!

Hi dbertrand and welcome to the forum! Although I am not a moderator on the forum (FYI they stay VERY busy), I noticed you had no replies yet so I wanted to give my two cents. I am currently very deep into the process of my own studio design/build project (which has some very useful info that might help you since it is very similar) and I can say one thing for sure...there is a LOT more to it than I ever imagined. It is still overwhelming to me how much I have yet to factor in on my own design even though I've already spent several months of steady devoted work. Acoustics/studio design is endless to say the least! :shock: :) Anyways...if I were you, I would order Rod Gervais's book, Home Recording Studio: Build It Like the Pros, and read it cover to cover ASAP...if you have not already done so. Another great resource is the Master Handbook of Acoustics (often shortened to MHoA around the forum) by F. Alton Everest. It's kind of a religious text around these parts and has tons of valuable information regarding professional studios and acoustics. To be honest, I still have not made it all the way through as it is a pretty hefty read...but I'm working on it! :P Regarding your design, I would really consider getting accustomed to using Sketchup sooner than later because in the end that's where your plans will really take shape. It took me awhile to make the transition but once I did I really started to look at things more realistically (wall thickness, air gaps, windows, doors, drywall, etc) and things began to make more sense. Simple line drawings are definitely good for rough sketches, but I have found they can be very misleading in terms of square footage estimations (proper double walls eat up a lot more space than you'd think).

I need something that works and has enough space to produce great quality recordings/mixes.

The first thing I would question then is why are you not using all that gray space? Is that what you are saving for the foyer? IMHO I don't think that is a good idea considering those small control room sizes are going to have all kinds of issues, acoustically speaking. The room labeled "mix room C" would be very difficult to achieve decent mixes in and is using up space that would be put to better use for either a booth or additional space in the live room. Just my opinion...others might think differently, and you might not care about the acoustics in there if you really need three mix rooms. Those Iso booths are also extremely tiny from what I can tell...definitely not in the category of a good sounding room (they can "work" if drenched with absorption but that is definitely not the ideal scenario). I guess what I'm trying to say is that you need to list your priorities so we know what you HAVE to have and what you think you WANT to have. You have a good sized space to work with, but at the same time, decoupled double walls and proper air gaps for isolation (which you WILL need if you want this to be a quality studio as you stated) all take up a lot of real-estate...rooms with good acoustics also tend to be on the larger side compared to what you have provided. Even those other two mix rooms are pretty small compared to a high end facility. If I were you, I would shoot for every room being as good as possible instead of having a bunch of "not-so-good" smaller spaces to rent out (because they probably won't get rented out!! unless you are planning to keep the rates very cheap). I would bet you could make more money with a well designed studio that has one great control room, one great live room, maybe one or two decent sized booths, plus some storage, foyer, etc...however, again, that is just my opinion considering the amount of space you have to work with and not knowing why you need three mix rooms. Think of it like this...if you were needing to mix something and you found a place that rented out "mix rooms" but when you went to see the space it was smaller than your own bedroom, you probably wouldn't want to pay for that space when you could achieve much better results by mixing in your own "acoustically treated" room at home...I would imagine. Well, I hope some of this information was helpful and not too redundant... I definitely recommend reading through my thread as I think you will find a lot of answers regarding aspects of your own build. Like I said, I am nowhere near finished but have received tons of insight from very experienced members/moderators like Stuart (Soundman2020) and Glenn (gullfo). I'm sure they will chime in on your thread as well! Sometimes things get overlooked...hopefully this post will give it a nice bump in line. :) Looking forward to watching your design progress...remember, as Andre says, a great studio is 90% design, 10% construction. That's the best advice I can dish out. Good luck! Trevor