Basement Studio for live recording

Hey guys, I'm new here. Read several topics but haven't really found out what I need. I have some experince in recording but not in studio layout and design. Been in a couple of studios but don't really know how they were contstucted. My family has a gospel group which consist of: keyboards,drums,bass, 2 rythms/banjo/mandalin. We are wanting to do our own recordings. I will be using Cakewalk Sonar 4 to record and master with, Alesis studio 24 sound board, Layla 3G audio card running to a Pentium P4 3.0gz,80gig hard drive,1gig ram computer. So, I'll tell you what I have and hopefully you can give me a layout that will work for me. I'm on a pretty strict budget so be easy on me. I want to build it to sound good, but as least expensive as I can get by with. The studio is going to be in my basement. It measures 30' x 50' with the entrance at one end. There are no windows in it and I used floor trusses so there are no support beams to deal with. I don't want to use the whole basement, maybe just half. I want the studio to be on the opposite end of the basement entrance. The basement is almost completely underground. One side has about 3' above ground. It is laid out of 12" block. Built the house 7 yrs ago and no water problems in basement. The basement has nothing done to it, it is completely unfinished and bare. I would like to have 3 soundproof recording rooms. 2 for vocals and 1 for drums/vocals. And of course the Mastering/Engineer room. I need to know the dimensions and the materials needed to build this studio. Will probably have to start with the Mastering/Engineer room and drum room, and then add the other two rooms later, but need the total layout so I can plan for everthing. Can take pics of the basement if needed. Oh.........I live in the southern part of the United States....Tennessee. Thanks, Ronnie

That's possible in your space Ronnie. I would look at 3 recording rooms as I'd prefer the mando and banjo be in their own room - i.e. not with the drums. check out the SAE site http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html and see if you can come up with your preferred layout - then we can work from there. cheers john

Thanks for the reply John, Kinda changed ideal from first post. Decided to use: 2 vocal rooms - 1 drum room - 1 open practice area. Music will be recorded first and then vocal will be added. All acoustic instruments will recorded in seperate rooms. Keyboards and bass can be recorded at same in practice area as they will have direct lines to board. Maybe a little missleadting first post. All music will not be recorded at same time. Good thing about digital recording software.

Meant to tell you, the basement ceiling height is 10'.

Ronnie - with a space that size it would be a shame not to have a decent sized control room as that's where you'll spend most of your time. Perhaps you could look at a something like this?? cheers john

Thanks John, I knew I need a bigger sound room, but really coudn't figure it out. Give me your ideal on a layout if the I use deminsions 30 x 25. I know I mentioned early a concern about cost. But like you said, I have the room, why not use it. If I go with larger layout design, I know the cost will go up, but, I can do the sound room, drum booth and one vocal booth to start with and then finish the rest as I can. Again, I want to thank you for all your help. This is a great site. Still reading, still learning, got a long ways to go. One more thing. Since I don't have a great concern about disturbing neighbors. Should I go to extra lengths about soundproofing or just use absorbers and diffusers where necessary. I definately want to sound proof the drum booth. 15 yr old son plays drums for us and can get really loud when he is practicing.

Given a larger space (25 x 30) i'd lay it out in a similar way - the conrol room doesn't need to be bigger so I'd use the extra space for a larger drum room and maybe add a new booth in front of the control room with a window access. For soundproofing I'd still build a room with in a room isolation but not go to heavy isolation walls - i.e. only one layer of drywall. cheers john

Thanks John, I really appreciate your advice and this website, it's great. Will post some pics when I get started on project.

John, Would it be possible for you to give me the room dimensions and wall angles on the 30 x 16 layout you gave me? thanks, Ronnie