Beginning Design of my Dream Studio!

Hi Everyone, This is my first post here on the forum, and let me say I am so glad I found it and I am very grateful for all the obvious hard work that has been put into the information here. After reading the references section, I have learnt so much, but I still have questions. I'll give some background information on the situation. I am currently designing the floor-plans for my house's future construction and will be putting a studio in the basement. The basement will be rectangular with 12 foot ceilings, a length of 60 feet and a width of 40 feet. Given this blank slate, my intentions are to make over half of the basement into the studio with the following dimensions: Live Room: 40 Long 25 Wide 12 High Control Room: 20 Long 25 Wide 12 High What are Everyone's thoughts on those dimensions? The remainder of the basement will be general use, maybe someday a small home theater will be added in a corner. But the main concern of the basement is the studio. I am currently in the process of learning AutoCAD Architecture and will be able to upload photos of the design in it's current form, if all goes to plan, by this coming week. The use of the studio would be recording small groups of blues/jazz and rock musicians playing mostly live to tape stuff. My Hammond B3 would finally have a fitting home in the live room. Now I'm gonna break a rule, but I don't have any actual sound level data to give, and no practical way to get it. But, the groups that I play with are usually more on the subdued/quite side. My intentions wouldn't be to hire out studio time, but would do so for friends. I have NO neighbors anywhere close, the closest is about 500 yards away. My hope would be to build and finish the two rooms for $5000 - $7000 USD. If a little more would be necessary I would spend it. It's important to note that we have our own sawmill here on our farm and we will be sawing/planing and drying all the lumber for the building. This saves a lot of money! I'm completely open for suggestions on materials, flooring, absolutely anything that you want to suggest! Please don't think any info is to trivial. This is my first attempt at designing a studio and want to get it absolutely 100% correct, and I will feel a lot better with everyone's input. I do have extensive wood working experience and a very well equipped wood shop at my disposal. If there is a post that I missed that answers my questions, my apologies!

Hi there "TheFinalSet", and welcome to the forum! :)

Control Room: 20 Long 25 Wide 12 High What are Everyone's thoughts on those dimensions?

That's actually not a very good ratio. The width and height are very closely related. Is there any reason why you chose that as your ratio? Also, don't forget that you will be losing some height to your inner-leaf, so the final ceiling won't really be at 12 feet, but somewhat lower than that.

I am currently in the process of learning AutoCAD Architecture

I would sya that your time would be far better spend on learning SketchUp! :)

It's important to note that we have our own sawmill here on our farm and we will be sawing/planing and drying all the lumber for the building.

Nice! It also means you can make practically any strange size piece of wood that you want! Lucky you...

Now I'm gonna break a rule, but I don't have any actual sound level data to give, and no practical way to get it.

You could buy a sound level meter! :wink: E-Bay, Amazon, etc. They cost just a tiny fraction of what the studio will cost you to build, and you WILL need one anyway, when the time comes to test and treat the room, so you might as well get it now...

I have NO neighbors anywhere close, the closest is about 500 yards away.

What about rain? Hail? Thunder? Aircraft flying over? Vehicles passing by? Loud machinery, such as maybe a sawmill,. or some such? :) Radio, TV, people talking, phone ringing, animals, ... there are many things that can make enough noise to mess up your recording sessions...

I'm completely open for suggestions on materials, flooring,

Ordinary common building materials are all that you need: Studs, 5/8" drywall, and insulation are the basic things you need. The floor can just be plain old concrete: hard to beat that for a good acoustic floor.

If there is a post that I missed that answers my questions, my apologies!

I would suggest that you could read through a couple of the big build threads here, and follow all the links, to get an idea of what is in store for you. I'd also suggest two books for you to reas: "Master Handbook of Acoustics" by F. Alton Everest (that's sort of the Bible for acoustics), and "Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros", by Rod Gervais. And also read John Sayers own work @ http://johnlsayers.com/Recmanual/index.htm. Between them, they should give you a pretty good basis for getting started on your design. - Stuart -

Soundman, Thank you so much for your reply. I did find a good deal on a decent SPL meter and ordered it. My main reason for not being able to get a reliable SPL reading is because of the diverse nature of the groups that I play with. Is it best practice to measure the loudest and use that data? I will dig into the reading materials that you listed as well. As for size of the control room, I did realize the uneasily close relation of the width and height, I chose that size because it was what was left after I decided on the live room size. I know that's a terrible reason but, I figured it was just a starting point as of now. As for the height, the 12 foot is fixed due to the depth of the basement. Do you feel that the dimensions are workable, or should I change up the live room in accommodation for better control room dimensions? In a very preliminary site survey, it appears that the basement will be almost completely underground. A small portion towards the front will be above ground a few feet, but the studio will be in the back half, completely underground. From what I've read, that's a huge advantage for sound proofing from external sources. I like Sketch-Up a lot, I'm learning AutoCAD for continuing education credits at work, so I'm killing two birds with one stone so to speak. It's great having a sawmill here on the farm, I've been "hording" lumber since I was a kid for a house someday. Mostly Wild Cherry and Red Oak for furniture and stuff of the like. I recently got my hands on a few large truck loads of pine logs that will be sawed and dried for the framing of the structure. As for the floor, concrete is just so cold, so I was planing to go with hardwood, like walnut or black maple on the floor, but I guess that all depends on what my research turns up. Again, thanks for all the info!

I'll be watching this post closely, as I too am looking at constructing a home studio, in a basement from scratch... might also need some lumber :) I've been playing around with ratio's for a bit and came up with a google doc (excel table) that gives you the correct ratio's... at least, if i programmed it correctly. guess i should also note that these ratio's are better for live rooms, not specifically control rooms... but certainly not bad... just remember that control rooms should be symetrical, live rooms not so much... PS... if you haven't already, you should seriously consider purchasing and reading Rod Gervais book "Home Recording Studio - build it like the pros"... proven to be invaluable. i'm just a bit south of you, here in WV. cheers kevin