Howdy folks!
I have a 2 car garage that I want convert into a small home recording studio. I have $10,000 and 2 months of free time to get it done:
1) Garage is attached to house
2) Cement Floor
3) Ceilings are 8'4" tall
4) Center joist lowers ceiling to 7'5" and is 7 " thick
5) Gas furnace and water heater are in garage
6) Would like a descent control room and a couple of iso booths
if possible.
Look at my virgin smartdraw diagram and let me know what you think. Be kind, I bruise easily!
Sincerely,
~Wayne
19' X 22' Studio to design!
Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 1883.
Need more input!
That looks like a big enough space to make into a pretty decent studio. From just glancing at it, my first impression is that you could use the larger space on the left of your drawing as the tracking room, the lower right corner as the control room, and what's left between tracking and the door to the rest of the house could hold an iso booth.
Or, if there's enough space there, you could use the lower right corner as a drum booth, and the whole left half of the plan as the control room. *shrug*
But it all depends on what you want to do in there. Are you going to be recording full bands? Just voice-over work? How much sound isolation do you want to have in there- do you need to have a metal band playing full-volume at 3:00am without your wife even hearing a whisper?
A big part of your plan will be the location of that center beam- it doesn't look centered on the plan, so how far from each wall is it? And if your ceiling is only 8'4 (to drywall, I'm assuming) would you be able/willing to pull that drywall down so you could stick new ceiling joists in between the existing floor joists? This would give you a lot more headroom if you decide to build a room within a room...
The more info you give us, the more help we'll be.
Concerned about heating the space. A few strategically spaced oil heaters will adaquately heat the space, but everyones feet will always be cold in the winter becuase of the contrete slab. Maybe radiant floor heat over pergo flooring? Thanks for the dialogue. Keep it coming! Anyone else want to chime in? ~WayneNeed more input! That looks like a big enough space to make into a pretty decent studio. From just glancing at it, my first impression is that you could use the larger space on the left of your drawing as the tracking room, the lower right corner as the control room, and what's left between tracking and the door to the rest of the house could hold an iso booth. [size=18]Interesting thought....[/size] Or, if there's enough space there, you could use the lower right corner as a drum booth, and the whole left half of the plan as the control room. *shrug* Might be better. I have plans to install a door on the lower left corner for entry. Easier load in for gear, less disruption in the house, furthest away from noisy furnace and water heater. But it all depends on what you want to do in there. Are you going to be recording full bands? Yes. Mostlydemo bands, etc. Also, over dubbing sessions are becoming more frequent. Band gets good drum and bass sounds at a larger studio with better reflective sounds, then they come to me for guitar/vox over dubbs. Mix somehwere else. I also do work with software companies lookinf for a cheap place to sample sounds and midi music for video games. Just voice-over work? Yes, I have a number of people already doing voice-overs that could farm work out to me. How much sound isolation do you want to have in there- do you need to have a metal band playing full-volume at 3:00am without your wife even hearing a whisper? Isolation is a big key here. I'm pretty sure I won't be tracking a metal band at 3am, but not disturbing the family is important. A big part of your plan will be the location of that center beam- it doesn't look centered on the plan, so how far from each wall is it? And if your ceiling is only 8'4 (to drywall, I'm assuming) would you be able/willing to pull that drywall down so you could stick new ceiling joists in between the existing floor joists? This would give you a lot more headroom if you decide to build a room within a room... Great thought! I have a limited budget ($10K), so I would be concerned about the cost of moving joists. How about this. How about using the exsisting joist as a wall separating the control room from the playing room? I could even put in a double glass window. Sliding glass doors? The more info you give us, the more help we'll be.
I agree with you regarding that beam. It'd be easy to put doorways under it, but you should probably let that beam-line become one of your walls. I didn't mean you should move any joists- just set new ones between the existing joists.Great thought! I have a limited budget ($10K), so I would be concerned about the cost of moving joists. How about this. How about using the exsisting joist as a wall separating the control room from the playing room? I could even put in a double glass window. Sliding glass doors?
Well, that'll blow your budget right there... Here's some thinking for you... get a good HVAC guy on-board as soon as you can. Ask him if the existing furnace there will be strong enough to add the garage heat system to it. If so, you can do this. If not, my advice would be to build the system so that in the future you can change out the furnace without too much hassle- then when you can afford it you can just connect the new one to the ducts. I'm trying to come up with a design for you, but everything I come up with is pretty obvious, so it doesn't bear drawing out for you. If that changes, I'll post it.Maybe radiant floor heat over pergo flooring?