Small home recording studio (14'x9.5') questions

I presently have a room in the basement that I used for my personal studio for years. My bedroom was located above the studio, so soundproofing wasn't really a problem as I couldn't be in the studio and in the bedroom at the same time. I relocated myself to a new bedroom and my young daughter just moved in the bedroom above my studio 5 years ago. I used to play and mix with headphones but I am now tired of this and want to rebuilt the studio from scratch. I play and record mainly with DI boxes (guitar, bass, keyboard) and my drum is a Roland V-Drum. I don't need to crank a Marshall or an Ampeg, as I practice guitar with a small Roland Micro Cube (2Watts) and play bass thru a bass tube preamp thru my studio monitors. I mix at a decent sound level and want to be able to have a conversation without waking up my daughter when she sleeps. My budget is around $2,000, excluding labor cost as I will do it myself. I want to have a control room plus a small ISO boot for vocal recording and will also serve as a closet to put my guitars, guitar cabinet and bass cabinet that I rarely use. The V-Drum will be in the ISO boot just to save space in the control room. I don't need the ISO boot to be 100% separated from the control room as I can put headphones on when recording someone else. Keep in mind that it is a home non-commercial studio. The existing room dimension is 14'x9.5' with concrete floor and walls and a ceiling of 7.5' which is now the floor of the bedroom above (5/8" plywood). I want to build a room into that room starting by soundproofing the existing ceiling. I'm also planning to wast the window (see the plan). Now it's time for the questions... 1- How to soundproof the existing ceiling? Above floor is sitting on 10"x2" spaced every 12". 2- Will the ISO boot sounds good even if it is so small? 3- Will the room sounds goog with this design? 4- Will the room sounds better if I get rid of the ISO boot? 5- Will I need acoustic foam to improve the sound? 6- Feel free to improve the design Thanks a lot.

Hi Donald and welcome. I have a somewhat similar situation to yours.My Thread I'm actually planning to use Vdrums in my studio as well. My space is a little bigger than yours but I'm also looking at doing a small iso booth as well. Also I live in Canada so we probably have similar prices to look at for building supplies. I however don't have the experience neccesary to answer all your questions. Have you read this link? http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2125 I have a question for you. How much square footage do you need to comfortably set up your Vdrums including your drum throne? It looks like you have 3 1/2 ft by 4 1/2 ft. Is that enough? It seems like it might be too small to me but I don't own any VDrums yet. Good luck with the project. Frank

Thanks Frank for the reply. I will follow your post as you said, we have similar setup. Regarding the V-Drum, I have a Roland TD5. It is a bit smaller than current V-Drums but it is effectively taking 3.5' x 4' and that's the space I use right now. My drummer doesn't seem to be cramped in the corner, so I figure it is enough. With new V-Drums you may add a foot all around to be confortable and, having the drummer in a small corner is not a bad thing. :lol: I will ask you questions latter regarding the building of the studio when I will be done with the design. My father and my father in law are retired contractors and I built part of my house myself, so I have enough experience to built it properly. I will have more "studio" questions. Thanks again.

Thanks for the answer to the VDrum question Don. Since no-one has answered you yet I'll take a crack at these questions. "Discalimer- all the answers I give are based on what have I gleaned from this site. If I didn't understand it when I read it I'm sorry and please correct me. IOW take this with a grain of salt."

1- How to soundproof the existing ceiling? Above floor is sitting on 10"x2" spaced every 12".

I'm using two layers of Gyproc sealed with backer rod and accoustic sealant between the joists. I will put insulation between the joists below that. I will then build a second ceiling below that on resiliant channel consisting of two layers of 5/8 gyproc.

2- Will the ISO boot sounds good even if it is so small?

I think the idea with a small iso booth is to treat as much of the walls and ceiling with treaments so as to take the sound of the room out of the equation. If you do this it should sound fine.

3- Will the room sounds goog with this design? 4- Will the room sounds better if I get rid of the ISO boot?

I don't know enough about this. You can take a look for the room mode calculator to get some idea on this. Here's one http://www.marktaw.com/recording/Acoust ... Calcu.html

5- Will I need acoustic foam to improve the sound?

Yes, and placed properly. Do a search for this info. There's lots of data here on that. Frank