Future Recording Studio Room advice much apprecciated

I am a professional musician and in the course of time I managed to set up very nice rig for recording acoustic music (Schoeps, Neumann, Millennia, Lavry etc.). So far I have my "studio room" in a small room in a rented house. Now there is a possibility to build a new small house for living at a place where already a huge garage in the garden exists -cca 5x 7 x 4 meters. It naturally invites for setting a real recording room there. I know that it would be much better if the space is yet much bigger, but I am not in a position to build something really new and dedicated. Since I have not much theoretical knowledge and experience, I would like to ask - would such a space (after a proper acoustic treatment) help me at least a little bit to get a nice natural rich sound for my instruments (violin, viola, flutes, guitar, ethnic instruments etc.) ? So far my small room 5x3x2,8 m , although acoustically treated, produces rather thin, dry, boxy sound. My instruments do not like this kind of muffled sound and they long for a space where the sound is full and rich (even a bathroom or big living room sounds better and more inspiring than a dry room). My question is whether there is a chance to get that kind of non-boxy and non-dry sound out of such a space (140 m3) or whether it is still too small for any really pleasant sound (of course, I will always use an extra reverb, but I am talking about the starting point - dry sound vs. nice balanced rich sound). ANother question would be about a monitoring. Is there any chance to place the working desk and monitors in the same big recording room (maybe with some mobile acoustic treatment nearby for a pure neutral non-reverberant sound) or it would be strongly advisable to have it somewhere else, like in a attached small accoustically treated room (like 4x3x2,8 m). It would not be easy to get such an extra room, but nothing is impossible Thank you very much for your advice and comments

Maybe you could make your recording rig mobile for recording your acoustic instruments in places that really compliment the sound you might be going for? Like old churches etc? Then you could foccus on a small but decent monitoring control room for mixing? Just a thought. Best, Dave :D

Well, going to record to large acoustic places is a nice idea and can be ocassionally done, but brings a lot of difficulties (packing, carrying and (dis)connecting tons of gear. Travelling far. Being vulnerable to surrounding noise and mayn other disturbances. Not being 100% familiar with the place. Fixed reverb. Very seasonal thing - no heating in the churches. Good for a pure live performance, but not for creating a complex composition, recording solos, playbacks etc.) - all this can be easily done in a familiar, comfortable , decent sounding studio place. To create something like this, is my present vision ... Ivo

That garage will have plenty of space for you. Just treat it right- the trouble with your current space sounds like you've got all the high freqs absorbed and controlled, but the lows are causing trouble. In the new space, control the lows and highs evenly and you'll have a great space. But yeah- that's plenty big. Most of us are making do with studios not much bigger than half that size.

Ivo wrote:

I am a professional musician and in the course of time I managed to set up very nice rig for recording acoustic music (Schoeps, Neumann, Millennia, Lavry etc.). So far I have my "studio room" in a small room in a rented house. Now there is a possibility to build a new small house for living at a place where already a huge garage in the garden exists -cca 5x 7 x 4 meters. It naturally invites for setting a real recording room there. I know that it would be much better if the space is yet much bigger, but I am not in a position to build something really new and dedicated. Since I have not much theoretical knowledge and experience, I would like to ask - would such a space (after a proper acoustic treatment) help me at least a little bit to get a nice natural rich sound for my instruments (violin, viola, flutes, guitar, ethnic instruments etc.) ? So far my small room 5x3x2,8 m , although acoustically treated, produces rather thin, dry, boxy sound. My instruments do not like this kind of muffled sound and they long for a space where the sound is full and rich (even a bathroom or big living room sounds better and more inspiring than a dry room). My question is whether there is a chance to get that kind of non-boxy and non-dry sound out of such a space (140 m3) or whether it is still too small for any really pleasant sound (of course, I will always use an extra reverb, but I am talking about the starting point - dry sound vs. nice balanced rich sound). ANother question would be about a monitoring. Is there any chance to place the working desk and monitors in the same big recording room (maybe with some mobile acoustic treatment nearby for a pure neutral non-reverberant sound) or it would be strongly advisable to have it somewhere else, like in a attached small accoustically treated room (like 4x3x2,8 m). It would not be easy to get such an extra room, but nothing is impossible Thank you very much for your advice and comments

Hello Ivo, That is not a bad space you have there.Not bad dimensions either.7m is pretty good length and 4m height (is it) is wonderful too. With recording the type of instruments you mentioned I wouldn't even try and split your room in two (or more) spaces. I believe you can be set up in the same room and still have good results. I believe Ethan at one stage was set up like that and reported good results recording similar stringed instruments as you mentioned,..with the right room treatment of course. What I thought you could do is set up the front of your room in a sort of "RFZ control room fashion" type of thing (you'd have to create splayed walls and ceiling at the front of the room which would need to extend just past your mix position) and then concentrate on treating the other part (back) of your room to get the best sound possible out of your instruments. A rear wall diffusor comes to mind as, I believe, it would compliment your mixing set up as well as provide some good sound diffusion for when you record your live instruments. As I understood your ceiling is 4m high..that's a beautiful height that can be used for all sorts of acoustical treatment (hangers come to mind first :) ) If you're not familiar with any of those construction and sound treatment methods I mentioned just do a search on them on the site and check out the "stickies". If you still have questions just yell out I'm pretty sure the guys will find time to respond and help you...including my self of course Good luck ... :)