Studio Space and Layout?

I will be building a studio in my garage from ground up. The problem is part of my garage ceiling height is 7' and the rest is 10’ high. The problem is I’m having hard time coming up with an initial layout plan. Basically I need a spacious Control Room and a small Voc/Acc Guitar booth. I have gone through the SAE website and aware of the basics, plus have been reading this great forum last couple of weeks. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

A gives you more CR space, and a large enough space for a booth; still not large, but bigger than your other alternative... Steve

Thanx Steve, Can you guys help me on how I should layout the whole CR and the booth (considering the problem with the ceiling height)? Cheers, Alex

Alex, first can you edit your profile to include a location? Makes it easier to give useful advice based on your geography, etc - Second, it would help to know how much isolation you need; what's around you, how loud are you/they, do you need to use your studio 24/7, etc - It would also help to know your approximate budget, your building abilities, and anything else that may be pertinent to how/what you do... Steve

Hey Steve, just edited my profile. My house is in a suburban California style residential zone; neighbors on both sides of the house. The studio is being used mostly for the projects I produce (Electronica/World type stuff). This won’t be a 24/7 commercial studio but I usually work late hours 1-2AM. A well-rounded isolation might be the way to go mainly to not bug my neighbors. I have not yet calculated the cost of such a construction; this is an area I need help with as well. I am better at planning then building, so I’ll hire two guys and work close with them. My biggest concern is the size of the space. Would it get real small after double walls and sound treatment is applied? I could cancel the Automatic garage door opener to gain more space but then I would have to find another means to access the other half of the garage. Thanks for all the help Here is a broad layout of the whole garage I'm trying to built the studio in. I am open to alternate design and layout ideas.

Anyone out there? Steve? Is everyone at the AES SF? :)

That gives a better indication of where you are coming from - what exactly do you mean by garage door rail?? as I see it you are dealing with a 20' x 20' double garage - correct? whynot use the whole space? cheers john

Thanks John, "Garage Door Rail" is the metal rail bar that the door runs up and down through (I don't know what it is really called). Here is another attachment with dimensions looking at the space from the side. The problem is that the rail is 7'.5" high from the floor. I was initially planning on keeping the garage door. How can I work around this? Should I call the Garage Door installers to see if I have other options of installing the existing door without loosing from the height of the space? It would be nice to use the whole space but need some storage space in the garage. I can use 13’x 20’. Would this work?

ah - it's more a matter of where the door is - usually a garage door is on the outside of a building but this one appears to be inside on an internal wall.?? If you don't intend using it as a garage why not remove it. cheers john

Here is my final dimensions 20x13 The area shaded darker has low ceiling (7' high) What do you guys think? Can I fit a good size control room and a small voc/tracking booth? Any layout ideas?

Alex, your drawings still aren't very clear on where things are; is this garage door on the lower right side, opening to the right? Size-wise, you'll have enough room for a decent mix area if you use the low ceilinged space for your vox booth - while that low ceilings aren't ideal, you can help modal issues somewhat by making a larger footprint than normal to compensate for the lower ceiling. If you can give an idea of the loudest you will get inside, we can come a lot closer to estimating the amount of lost floor space for isolation - also need to know construction details or we could be steering you into trouble, both safety and isolation-wise... Steve

Thanks Steve, Here is a better drawing to make things clear. I am planning on building a floating floor and double walls within this space. My main monitoring system is ADAM S3As and I do get loud at times. I live in a residential zone so a well-rounded isolation is important. Construction wise I have been going through this site and the SAE website and aware of the basics. As far as the actual construction goes I will hire two construction guys after all the planning and the details are worked out. PS:The area with darker shade has low ceiling (7' high) the rest is 10' in hight Thanks in advance John, Steve and others and I will definitely be donating. :)

bump :arrow:

Alex - now that Steve has managed to squeeze out of you what your actual area is it looks like you can have a control room and studio facing top to bottom or the other way around so the control room is side on to the studio. It's pretty basic - try and draw your idea instead of offering two rectangles and saying ?? cheers john