How should I split my garage up in ctrl and rec zone ?

Hi guys I hope I´m allowed to post this, I´m new here. I did read the rules.. I have a garage. It´s an empty box right now. 7.15 m x 2.80 m (that´s 23.5 ft x 9.2 ft) I need to devide it into a control room and a recording booth 1. I want the control room to be on the window side. 2. I want a little space by the door for the computers and the noisy stuff. From there I would enter the booth. (So I would walk through the booth to enter the Control room.) How would be appropriate to do this ? Without having it too square? Thanks, Kalli

This is logical but the booth is kinda silly and the ctrl room is kinda square

maybe something like this ? cheers john

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Kalli :D Congrats on your studio build! Here's a couple of questions for you: - How much isolation do you require? (keeping sound in/keeping sound out) - What will you be recording in the live room? (single person, drums. full band?) - What kind of budget are you working with? Aloha 8)

Thanks John This is brilliant. I never would have come up with that! My only problem is that the heater is under the window but it can´t be that much of a problem to move it. And those sliding doors. Are these special doors (I guess I find it on the site doing a search..I will) Thanks a bunch. Kalli

kendale wrote:

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Kalli :D Congrats on your studio build! Here's a couple of questions for you: - How much isolation do you require? (keeping sound in/keeping sound out) - What will you be recording in the live room? (single person, drums. full band?) - What kind of budget are you working with? Aloha

Hey happy Hawaii The main thing for me is to keep the sounds in the ctrl room and the booth seperated. I live in a pretty quiet neighborhood so I´m not that worried about noise from the outside. I will be recording drums, gtrs, vocals and the usual stuff. But never a full band. Only drums and bass, then overdubs.. The day after tomorrow I have two men coming in to build it for me. They were here today measuring what they would need to build the booth (according to the silly plan that I posted before). They have build a few booths here in Iceland. Their booths are isolated but they leave the accoustics to others. With their work and material it will cost me around 7.500 usd. Then I have yet to treat the rooms. I will do that as cheaply as I can to begin with . Kalli

Aloha Kalli, If you can swing it, I would go with John's plan. There are a multitude of reasons why you would NOT want to have either of your rooms built as squares or rectangles. Also, you may want to either print out or point the builders to both this site (ESPECIALLY the reference sections) and the SAE site BEFORE they begin. It wouldn't hurt for them to brush up on recording studio construction techniques (which is radically different from home construction) and they might find a lot of new and helpful information and techniques for any future projects they may have. It might also be a good idea to post photos of the project in process as well as post questions, comments, asking advice all throughout the studio build, which might help you avoid any wrong turns that may be costly in the end. Here's a couple of links: Reference Area - http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2125 More Useful links: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1168 SAE Website - http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html (click on acoustics, absorbers, construction in left hand column) Wall Units - http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm Looking forward to your studio build! :D Hope this helps, Aloha 8)

Hi guys For several reasons Johns version isn´t quite the thing for me. 1. The control room takes up too much room (as I need to get couple of people in the studio with me from time to time) 2. The heater is beneath the window so it would be sealed off (I know, it´s no big deal to move a heater :oops: 3. It would be nice to face out to the garden But how would this be for a compromise ? I make the wall between the booth and ctrl room like John recommends and add another wall to make the symmetry. The wall has a window so it doesn´t block the window from the booth and it doubles as a locker for the computers. http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/files/studio2nd_175.jpg

The builders have begun building the studio. They have already build the wall between the booth and the ctrl room. And only now I have been informed (on gearslutz.com) that the angle is actually worse than 90 degrees. Because now the rear walls focus the sound right back to me instead of send it to the side walls. :( The only solution for me as I see it is to locate my desk against the recording room. That way the wall focus the sound directly to me. But then I will have to let the door between the rooms open into the recording room instead of ctrl room. (Because the desk will get a little in the walking area. Do you see any other way? Kalli