First timer, all advice is welcome (includes pictures).

Hi there people, My wife and I just bought a house, we moved in a couple of weeks ago. In our last house I had a little project studio in my bedroom, but now I'd like to take it a bit further and have a dedicated space for recording. I've been reading this forum for a year or so, not posting much, just trying to learn as much as possible. My goal is to be able to record guitars, bass, keyboards and vocals. Since I will not record acoustic drums, do I need tons of isolation? The dream would be to have a control room and a little "room" for vocals. I have some room in my basement, the celing is quite low, that sucks, but it's the best I have. So building floating floar would be out of the question :cry: Do you think it's possible to get a working sound in a small room? I don't really know where to start, I'll attach some pictures :roll: All help is welcome! The height of the room is 211 cm, length 390 cm and it's 347 cm wide.

Since I will not record acoustic drums, do I need tons of isolation? The dream would be to have a control room and a little "room" for vocals

If you have ben reading here for a year, you should have a good idea of how much isolation you need/want. If what you want is a control room and vocal booth, then do it. We do not know your needs in detail. Andre

The room's a bit small if you also take a "bite" out of it for a vocal booth; any chance the booth could go outside that door somewhere? Even though this http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3231 is in the Construction forum, it will still make things easier for us if you complete as many of the highlighted steps as possible - isolation needs are difficult to quantify at best, but without more info on construction techniques, etc, it's impossible... Steve

AVare wrote:

Since I will not record acoustic drums, do I need tons of isolation? The dream would be to have a control room and a little "room" for vocals

If you have ben reading here for a year, you should have a good idea of how much isolation you need/want. If what you want is a control room and vocal booth, then do it. We do not know your needs in detail. Andre

Thanks, Well actually about 9 months to be honest, sorry.

knightfly wrote:

The room's a bit small if you also take a "bite" out of it for a vocal booth; any chance the booth could go outside that door somewhere? Even though this http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3231 is in the Construction forum, it will still make things easier for us if you complete as many of the highlighted steps as possible - isolation needs are difficult to quantify at best, but without more info on construction techniques, etc, it's impossible... Steve

Thanks knightfly, I will check up all those things and complete as many of the highlighted steps as possible. Yes I could make a booth outside this room but not in direct connection with the control room, but with another room in between. I'll post more information tomorrow, budget etc. Thanks for helping out!

Maybe something like this cheers john

Personal information: Ok, I live in Sweden. I’m a 26 year old guitarist and have been playing for about 16 years. I’m mostly into heavier kinds of metal but also blues, rock and jazz. Some years ago I started using Cubase to arrange and write songs. It didn’t take long before I got interested in recording technique and started reading books about the subject. The goals: I’d like to have a fully functional work area where I can try out song arrangements and write music. I would also like to be able to record guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals and mix upcoming albums with my band. When I write music I use a drum machine, but on the real deal the drums will be recorded in a “real” pro studio, after this I would like to be able to import the drums in Cubase and complete the songs. Information: The studio will be located in my cellar but that section is not under ground. It’s about 100 meters to the nearest neighbour and I don’t think that the sound level will be an issue, since I’m not using any acoustic drums. The bass will be recorded direct through a preamp, like the Line6 Bass Pod. But I’ll use a guitar cab, 4x12 that is quite loud but since there’s no low frequencies that should be quite easy to deal with? Walls and floor are concrete and the roof is wood. Budget: This issue isn’t that important. I’m not a rich man and I might not be able to buy everything at once, but I’d rather buy a little every month and get a better result.

John Sayers wrote:

Maybe something like this cheers john

Thanks John! I would never have thought of that design. Knightfly mentioned that I could make the booths in another part of the house, when I think about it, that is possible. Do you think that this would be better, so I could use more space for the control room? And if so, is there something I should keep in mind? Like 3 walls are concrete and one wall is wood (the wall with the door is wood), does this affect how I should design? Thanks man!

You'd have to beef up that wooden wall. I'd suggest you remove the timber slats and drywall that wall. Then use the timber slats as resonator slats in the booth. If you aren't looking at recording drum kits that booth will work fine for guitar and vocal overdubs etc. cheers john

John Sayers wrote:

You'd have to beef up that wooden wall. I'd suggest you remove the timber slats and drywall that wall. Then use the timber slats as resonator slats in the booth. If you aren't looking at recording drum kits that booth will work fine for guitar and vocal overdubs etc. cheers john

Thanks John! May I ask how you would design it if you used the whole space for a control room, without any booth?

like this cheers john

Thanks John, I'll go for that design. I'll start building within two weeks. I don't have a clue where to start though, anyone knows of a similar project on this forum with information and images?

I guess the first thing to start with is the floor? Anyone have any ideas on how to create a working flor without eating up to much space? I only have 211 cm to the roof, so with floating floor I won't be able to stand up.. *lol* and that ain't working.

I just realized that I might have done a big mistake. Regarding the drawing John came up with, that was done for a surround setup? I only use 2 nearfield monitors, should do I need those angle walls? Sorry, I forgot to mention this earlier... totally slipped my mind.

5:1 or not you'll still need the corner traps those angles create. Don't worry about a floating floor etc - you don't have the height. cheers john

John Sayers wrote:

5:1 or not you'll still need the corner traps those angles create. Don't worry about a floating floor etc - you don't have the height. cheers john

Ok, thanks John! I'll go for that design. I've just done the roof and are starting with the walls this weekend. However, Is there any exact angles/degrees I should use? I mean, do you have the angles on that drawing you did? Is there any standards I should follow? Best, Patrik

here you go cheers john

Thanks again John, you saved my day. I've added some pictures to my website, from the studiobuilding. The walls are done, soon. :) Check out the ones at the bottom, the other pics are other building projekts I'm doing, and my dog and shit. http://www.cromonic.com/rydal/