New build Garden Studio Scotland

Hi John, Moderators and fellow builders! I have been an avid reader/ stalker since finding this forum in Christmas 2011. I must have been a good boy last year or just lucky as had I not found this forum I would have spent a lot of the little money I have building a space that was not workable. By workable I mean big enough to function as a mixing and very occasional recording room. The Type of music I love to make is electronica anything in style from Vangelis thru to LAMFAO. The Main problems I have encountered over the years since leaving the farm where I had an amiga computer an old pair of turntables and a diy mixer and so much space it now makes me cry, has been the neighbours or more accurately Isolation of my banging beats on their side and their lawnmower on mine. I have recently moved to a new house which was chosen to a large degree by its location to a local live music venue and even more so by the large garage detached from the house with the plan being to finally build somewhere I can work when the inspiration strikes, or as seems the case now after the kids go to bed. Speaking of which it is going to be both a studio for me and the rest of the family if they desire or just a play room for them if they don’t want to play music. Music is my passion though my job is something else and I will be endeavouring to build on a tight budget, perhaps staged with the outer leave this year and the inner leaf next. I have also purchased Robs book and must admit the information on this site and the book as a whole is overwhelming and I have to break it down into smaller pieces to get anywhere. My music work flow is taking the song inspirations from my notepad, head, birds or just free-styling basically anything that I like the melody/ hook of and jamming with it in Logic or Live until it hits me by grooving or in the heart, then I move onto the next musical section. At this point I am changing levels quite frequently, quite low when auditioning sounds then increasing to a loud level when I want to feel the groove and compare sections. At this point in time I am working in the bedroom and working on headphones just does not do it for me. Sucks the life out of the tunes or hurts my ears. When I am mixing I listen at low levels and can quite happily work in my bedroom at normal radio levels with out disturbing the rest of the family. Here is my plan so far. Restrictions: I would like to keep it arround the £5K figure. Just when I thought the rules were fixed they have changed in Scotland on the 6th Febuary 2012, the changes are designed to make things easier for developing homes ans sheds/studios :) Previous Rules: It looks like the maximum external dimensions in the UK are 30m2 for an external building before planing permission and architect fees start to bump up the price of the build. This equates to an external dimension of 6x5 metres (19.68 x 16.5 16.4 Feet) You can construct all sorts of outbuildings for the use and enjoyment of the home so long as they do not cover more than 50% of the garden space. In Scotland this is reduced to 30%. In Wales and Northern Ireland any outbuildings closer to the house than 5m count as extensions. In Scotland any outbuildings larger than 4m2 and closer to the dwelling than 5m count as extensions. Outbuildings must be single storey with a maximum ridge height of 4m for a pitched roof The eaves height must be no more than 2.5 metres. 2011 No. 357 TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2011 Class 3A.—(1) The provision within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse of a building for any purpose incidental to the enjoyment of that dwellinghouse or the alteration, maintenance or improvement of such a building. (2) Development is not permitted by this class if— (a) it consists of a dwelling; (b) any part of the development would be forward of a wall forming part of the principal elevation or side elevation where that elevation fronts a road; (c) the height of the eaves would exceed 3 metres; (d) any part of the development would exceed 4 metres in height; (e) any part of the development within 1 metre of the boundary of the curtilage of the dwellinghouse would exceed 2.5 metres in height; (f) as a result of the development the area of ground covered by development within the front or rear curtilage of the dwellinghouse (excluding the original dwellinghouse and any hard surface or deck) would exceed 50% of the area of the front or rear curtilage respectively (excluding the ground area of the original dwellinghouse and any hard surface or deck); or (g) in the case of land in a conservation area or within the curtilage of a listed building, the resulting building would have a footprint exceeding 4 square metres. Climate: The climate of Scotland is temperate and tends to be very changeable, but rarely extreme. It is warmed by the Gulf Stream from the Atlantic, and given its northerly latitude it is much warmer than areas on similar latitudes, for example Labrador in Canada—where the sea freezes over in winter and icebergs are a common feature in spring and early summer, or Fort McMurray, Canada—where −35 °C (−31 °F) is not uncommon during winter. Normal temperature here is from +20 to -5 deg C ( 68 to 23 Deg F) It does tend to rain here at least once or twice a week, and we can have gale force winds a couple of times a year. So good weatherproofing is a must. The designs that I think may work as a starting place are taken from Johns studio examples, there are great designs on the forum too a few of which are closer to my dimensions but if I go look for them now I will end up being side tracked and loose a couple more hours to education. I like the “ Somewhere” studio single room idea as much of my music is ITB (in the box) and I may have a solution for recording vocals etc in the garage if required down the line. http://johnlsayers.com/Studio/Pages/Somewhere.htm http://johnlsayers.com/Studio/Mainpage/MP-Funky.htm 1. Convert the house boundary plans to a sketchup file including dimensions. 2. Find out exactly how the new building regulations apply to this build 3. Purchase a dB meter and record the levels I listen at. Ok got a meter and put some music on in the current shed which will be replaced by the new studio. Rather than striping out my studiomonitors I have used an old pair of computer speakers and Subwoofer. In the shed about a meter freom the speakers at max before blowing them up/ undistorted I am reading the following: i) inside shed 1m from speakers 98dB C weighted ii) oppostite side of wall outside shed 94dB iii) Neighbor boundry 1 7m 64 dB iv) Neighbor Boundry 2 7m 64 dB Next normal mixing levels levels reading the following: i) inside shed 1m from speakers 84dB C weighted ii) oppostite side of wall outside shed 74 dB iii) Neighbor boundry 1 7m 60 dB iv) Neighbor Boundry 2 7m 60 dB Just to be sure I am going to rerun the tests with my monitors Adam A7. i) inside shed 1m from speakers 104 dB C weighted ii) oppostite side of wall outside shed 92 dB iii) Neighbor boundry 1 7m 76 dB iv) Neighbor Boundry 2 7m 76 dB 4. Measure distance from Studio to nearest neighbour. 5. Build up my initial sketchup files of the studio Please bear with me a s I complete these four tasks and do some more research on the forum for studios that have a similar footprint and use. IF I have missed out anything that I should do before asking questions (excepting this one of course) please let me know. Thanks Johnny