garage studio design advice

I've got a 24x22 garage that I'm building from scratch to accomodate a small studio. I've got a design in mind, with a rectangular tracking room on one side, about 13.5'x20' next to a mix room of about 14'x9' and a sound lock of about 6'x9' which the outside door would open into. I'm getting mixed messages on alot of forums and books regarding some things like wall angles, etc. My understanding is that when dealing with spaces that are small like this, there are lots of inherent problems no matter what, but that many of them can be dealt with using available treatments. Would I be better off offsetting certain walls and utilizing angles to get rid of completely rectangular rooms, or will products such as Auralex take care of the problems I will encounter? Any advice on layout for such a room would be much appreciated. It has not been built yet, so at this point, it's pretty much a blank slate. Thanks!

BH, welcome - you came at the right time; BEFORE building. Now, if you could follow as many of the guidelines http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4063 as possible, including the part about editing your profile to include a location, we can get started. Thanks... Steve

Hi there, the info in my profile is updated. I'll elaborate on my plans a bit as well... I'm a very active musician and producer and record between 4-10 albums a year. I do alot of acoustic music, but also full bands. However, I have a very good deal worked out with an excellent live room here in Vancouver, so most of my live tracking gets done there. I then want to have a place to come back to where I'm not watching the clock, and can do overdubs, experimental stuff, some vocals, etc. Maybe the odd drum kit track. I also have a large collection of guitars, pump organs and weird old gear that I want to have set up at all times, so I can just grab it and use it, without having to go through setup. To suit my purposes, I think one large tracking room and one mix room is best - it will accomodate any overdubs I want to do, and will allow me to leave things set up as well. I think small iso rooms will eat up a lot of space and will cramp my style a bit, considering what I have to work with. So I'm hoping to get any pointers on wall angles, floor materials (I'm aware of construction techniques, just pointers for finishing materials), layout, etc that might be beneficial to such a setup. Many thanks for any input, and if there's any more info I can supply, please let me know. Steve Dawson www.blackhenmusic.com

Steve - any chance of posting a drawing showing where the door is and any windows you may have etc with the appropriate measurements? cheers john

Here is roughly what I have in mind. Nothing is built yet, but I have a permit for a 20'x24' structure. These dimensions are roughly made after putting double walls on the outside. Sorry it's so low-tech. steve

Aloha Steve, Congrats on your project! Say, any chance you could resize your pic down to about 700 pixels wide, though? It would help not having to scroll side to side just to view posts. Thanks! :wink: Aloha 8)

Sorry about that - here it is, smaller... steve

Now go delete your original drawing. For future reference, you can update your drawing files.

done. Thanks for the tips. steve

Perfect-o! 8) (Sorry for my rather impolite post. Was in a hurry. In retrospect I came off like a jerk! :roll:)

Perhaps some specific questions would help here.... - Does anyone with some knowhow see any flaws or issues that would arise from a plan like this? - What are the logistics of sloped roof vs flat roof - particularily in the tracking room? - are there any good resources for air conditioning/heating that would be useful to me, preferably a canadian company, or one with a canadian dealer? - How do bass traps and diffusers outlined in some of these forums differ from the ones commercially availabel by auralex, etc? Are they just the same, but cheaper to make yourself than to buy them from companies like this? - Would having a partly wood floor, partly covered in carpet assist in giving some variations in sound? Any pointers for coverage area/materials? - Would slanting any of the tracking rooom walls dramtically improve the sound, or would it be a nominal difference, with a substantial loss to availabel area? Thanks anyone... steve

Right off the bat, you'll want to do away with your parallel walls. Check out some of John's designs -- particularly, the ones in this thread where someone proposes a drawing with parallel walls and then John posts a different version with his "magic."

can you recommend any threads like that? There's so many posts here I wouldn't know where to start looking. Thanks, steve

Aloha Steve, Here's a good place to start: http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html click on the "studio plans" tab on the left. Aloha 8)

Yes, I've seen those. They are helpful, although it brings me back to me question of slanted vs staright walls, as in the garage studio design, where the walls are all straight. The last example is the slanted-wall control room. I'm just unclear as to how much benefit I would get out of doing those things in the space I have. Would a straight-walled control room with treatment yield the same results? Same question for the tracking room. Thanks, steve

Aloha Steve, Here's a couple of links that discussed the aspect of splayed walls: http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic ... ding+waves http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic ... ding+waves and/or you might try a search on splayed walls. I thought it best to read the info in context rather than excerpts. Hope these help. Aloha 8)

Just wondering if anyone had any advice... my garage is built and is a blank slate. I've looked at John's plans for a garage-type space, but I'm not really interested in having a few small iso roooms. I'm more interested in having a control room/tracking room layout with the space maximized as much as possible. My original concept of having a soundlock seems to have too much wasted space. I would rather just have double walls everywhere and cancel the soundlock idea. Any pointers on making the most of a 20'x22' space? The door is in the same space as the original drawing, and there are no windows at all.

Aloha Steve, Here's a couple of plans by John that I've collected off the site that are close to the size you have. With a few modifications (add/subtract/move doors) you may find something that might work for you as a start. Hope these help. Aloha 8)

Aloha Steve, Here's that 20' x 22' minus the extra doors. Hope this gives a few ideas. Aloha 8)