Thinking about Stickhouse Studio #2

Hi guys, I'm back after a number of years working in The Stickhouse designed and built with a ton of help from everyone. It's a great place to make music. However, our family is considering a move down the hill from here, to be closer to where my boys will go to high school. (Anybody wanna buy a cool house with a great recording studio near Auburn, CA?) We're seriously looking at building a house and studio from the ground up. So, I need some rough design ideas for the studio. Let's say I've got about 500 sq feet to play with. The shape should be basically rectangular, but it's dimensions are flexible. One end of the building (say the "west" end) will likely be dug into a hillside, with the "east" end out in the light. The tracking room will have a murphy bed in/on the wall so it can double as a guest room, which also means we need a bathroom with a shower in the studio building. At the moment, I'm really only looking for layout ideas. Control room doesn't need to be huge. Me and a couch behind with room for a guitar player to sit near me. I'm leaning toward sliders between CR at TR. I'd like a window to outside on one side of the control room, the other side to the TR. Tracking room needs to be big enough to keep a drum kit set up at all times, as well as space for a vocal and or acoustic guitar set up. I'd a machine room/storage area near the "front" of the control room so I can keep the CPU and drives away from the CR. I think that's the basic idea. I'm just struggling coming up with a solid plan for entry (should happen on the South side) and of course isolation between CR and TR. Any input is appreciated. Nice to be back! -Stick :mrgreen:

Here's a quickie first thought. I think the whole building will need to be a little wider so I can make the CR a little deeper.

Hi Stick, and welcome back! :)

We're seriously looking at building a house and studio from the ground up. So, I need some rough design ideas for the studio. Let's say I've got about 500 sq feet to play with.

500 ft2 is a good size for a home studio, and if you are building from the ground up then you have excellent control over all aspects. Your studio could work out really, really well!

Here's a quickie first thought.

Have you considered turning the control room so it faces the live room, then putting a nice window or glass door up front, for good visibility? Another option might be a "corner control room" design. - Stuart -

Hi Stuart, Thanks for replying... Since this drawing, I've actually flipped the control room so it faces "up" instead of "down" the way it's drawn now. I didn't want to make it face the live room... I've never liked having to look up and over my monitors to try and see what's going on. Especially for seated guitar players. And I'll end up sticking the TV up on that front wall... right now, I've got a nice big window out to the trees between my speakers, but since I'll have nice windows to the side, the light will be good, and it would be nice to not have to crane my neck to see the TV that's now on the wall above my right speaker. I'll be posting up the new version pretty soon. I need to redraw it in Sketchup.

I've never liked having to look up and over my monitors to try and see what's going on.

You are talking about video monitors there, right? If your room is set up correctly, you shouldn't have a problem with speakers (monitors) being in the way. And if you do your video monitor design carefully too, they don't have to be in the way either... :) I'm looking forward seeing the new version. - Stuart -

Just for those who don't want to bother going back through my old threads, here's a few recent shots of The Stickhouse. Terrible lighting, but you'll get the idea at least.