Single recording room/mixing or two rooms to small cellar.

Hi to all. I'm posting first time to this forum. And don't have much experience building studios. But I've been using 7 years now, some mid-sized profesional studios and smaller budget studios for recording and mixing. Now I would like to have a room or two. Mainly for mixing. But also for recording drums(underheads), acoustic guitars and stuff like that. So I would like to have little bit life in a sound. So to the place i'm starting to build. It's a cellar. Everything is concrete. I'm not worried about the sound going out. But theres a winter here in finland. So have to isolate little bit. So to the space, its height 1.9m, widht 3,7m and lenght 13m. I know it isn't very high, but i think that the lowering the floor isn't option. I know Its not high enough. But if there is even a chance :) Also I was planning to put a wall with a door 3.5 meters from a big door (which is drawn as a wall in sketch up file, where the lady stands). Just to isolate space warm. Because big door leaks air. And and I want that my car fits there :) Also when looking from "big door" (wall in scetch up) there's pilar in left. There's a picture from it. Its 110cm deep and widht is 44cm. And 1.9m high. Also you can see metal pilar in one picture in a roof. Its 17cm high and 20cm wide. And its not removable. I mean concrete pilar and metal pilar. So the main questions would be: 1. Where do I put the mixing position? 2. How much I have to treat the rooms to get mediocre results? My budget is 2200eur (2800dollars) sharp. 3. How would you make this room to work. Board is to me quite cheap. So I was planning to make floor from board. I would prefer one big room so I can have more room to drums as the place isn't very high :) 4. As I myself cannot build, but many of my friends who can build will help me, so the work is "free". There's Sketch up Drawing also from a room. I'm not very good with that but I tried my best. :) Thanks a lot beforehand, Joksu Sauna Major Finland

Hi Joksu and welcome, I am also designing a small studio and I am quite worried about the height ( 2,75 m ) BEFORE isolation. I think I'll loose at least 35 or 40 cm once the floor and ceiling are built. I can't imagine that on a 1,90 m room height. Is there a chance to build your studio somewhere else? Marc

Hi! You're right it's way too low. But I can still make a mixroom from it? I'm thinking to make wall 3.5 m from big door and use that as a backwall for mixing room. How you would make it? And then im leaving rest of the cellar for drum chamber :) Just putting something to the roof that sucks higher frequencies.

Hi Joksu, and welcome to the forum! :) Marc is right: Low ceilings are not good for acoustics. However, there's also a saying by a well-respected studio designer: If that's all you have, then that's what it will have to be! As long as you are aware that it won't be a world-class studio, then it can be turned into something usable. After all, if your choice is a not-so-good place or no place at all, then I reckon "not so good" wins! Having said that, please do realize that this is only going to be a "reasonable" studio, not a "great" one. It can probably be treated so that it is usable, and you'll probably be able to turn out pretty good work there, so if that is all you want, then it can be done. I would say that you can, indeed, build a control room in there, and probably even an iso booth, but I don't think you'll be able to record drums in there, due to the low ceiling. Drums need high ceilings to sound good, so if you do plan to record drums, you would have to make that room as dead as possible, record with close mics on everything, then add ambiance electronically, but even then I suspect that the drums will sound "thin" and "muddy". That would probably be the best you could hope for.

But I can still make a mixroom from it?

I think so, yes.

How you would make it?

First, the room ratio is terrible! I would build false side walls such that the new boundary is 20 cm on each side, so the room becomes 3.35 m wide. I then would set up the mix position against the far end of the room, symmetrically, with the speakers spaced about 80 cm form the side walls, and therefore about 175 cm from each other, 120cm above the floor (acoustic axis), and angled inwards at 30°. I would then set your chair so that your ears are about 160 cm from the front wall. That means the rear wall should be about 440 cm from the front wall. You would then need to install the usual treatment: large superchunks in the vertical corners, thick absorption panels between the speakers and the front wall, as well as at the first reflection points (including the ceiling), thick absorption across the entire rear wall, spaced a bit away from it, and some absorption on the side walls, as needed to control the reverb time. The measure with REW, and see what else needs doing. That would be my approach. Maybe someone else can come up with a better plan. - Stuart -