Walkout Basement Studio: Looking for suggestions

Warning: I've read the introductory material, but I'm still a newbie. I gladly accept contructive criticism, though! Background: I'm a hobby-level recorder who does minimal recording for others on the side. I've learned some, but have a ways to go. I'm currently recording in a huge basement, 8' ceilings, no walls. What do you know, bass is hard to nail down. Anyway, I'm scheduled to move into a new-construction house in Sept. and before going ahead with the move, am giving some consideration to how studio-friendly the new basement is. I would love to actually have a room or two dedicated (purpose-built) for music recording and mixing! More relevant background: I have a V-Drum set that I will steer clients toward when possible. I also have a Bass Pod XT Live and may get a guitar version at some point. The point is that I will be trying to minimize drum set and amp recording. I have a casual band that I practice with in current space. I basically have a large "control room" with no walls that the drum set and PA are in as well. You might be able to get an idea of my current setup from http://www.doctorobvious.com. Well, at least the "keys and recording" focus, not necessarily the current room setup, but that's not too relevant. Goals: 1. To have a control room that allows better monitoring/mixing. It won't be hard to improve on the current situation. 2. To have at least one dedicated isolation room. If it's only a vocal booth, that's fine. If I can have a large vocal booth / small room for other uses, that's good. If I can get room for a vocal booth and a recording room, that's great. 3. I would like to maintain a way to be part of the band (on keys) and also be the recording engineer, etc. Not sure if I'll have to put the keys (and a remote transport) in the main room and then only a controller keyboard by the console or what. I'm open to suggestions. 4. As those with wives and home studios are familar, I have one other probably constraint. It would be nice to maintain a play room in the basement. Whether this is for ping pong or home theater remains to be seen, but a general purpose room for family play would be good. It may need to double as my general purpose recording room as well. :? Okay, on to the probable new basement: I just got Google's "version" of SketchUp. Very cool. You'll see that I'm not a power user yet, but hopefully it's sufficient (notice the hacked stairway). 1. It's a walkout basement. Slab-on-grade concrete. The stairs exit into the basement in the upper right. 2. General ceiling height to bottom of joists is 9' (~2.7m). There will be a support beam at a lower height running through the basement (notice support poles in drawing). 3. The lower right-hand side will have a rough-in. The builder thought the bath should go there. Since I'd like the dedicated studio rooms on the lower portion of the drawing, I might see if I could "add" the appropriate piping up by the furnace and water heater. This might make this a good iso-booth area. Maybe mics and such stored under the stairs? Don't know if 2 doors in a small iso-room is a good idea, though. 4. I've drawn in a suggested storage room. I've got to maintain some storage in the basement (> 100 sq. ft.) and that seems like the logical place given the location of the mechanicals. If you have a better idea, I'm all ears. 5. The area by the sliding doors would probably be best for the general purpose play room and, if possible, the biggest recording area. If this doubles as a recording area (and band practice area), though, I worry about sound isolation from the rest of the house. Still, my wife puts up with it now, so as long as I have a vocal/acoustic guitar booth for recording and a control room for mixing, I can make it. Budget: 10-15k I think? Since I'm early in the design thinking, I'm just looking for suggestions toward the big decisions. I don't want to trouble people for the small stuff at this point. Hopefully I'll keep learning enough to do a lot of that myself. So, any great ideas? Any warning signs? I'm already concerned I'll be "wasting" the lower window with the control room. I've included a couple ROUGH possibilities below. Feedback? Better suggestions? Thanks for your time and this great resource! Mark.

John and others, Is it okay to pull objects (doors, desks, drums, etc.) from SketchUps that have been posted? Is there a convention? Let me know if this is a problem and I'll remove the objects if so. I grabbed a few things from the Sketchup of a small studio. Thanks, Mark.

No problem Mark - any components I post are usually designed by me - like the recording desk. I avoid posting any .skp files that may contain FormFonts. http://www.formfonts.com I subscribe to formfonts and only use them in my client work - so go for it - anything I post you may use. With regard to your design - either would work - you could use the space under the stairs as a trap in the second version. cheers john

Here's my current basement floorplan. It's much larger overall (~1900 sq. ft), but has a foot shorter ceiling at 8 ft. It has metal support beams that run across 10" lower, so let's say 7 ft. If I tried to put a control room where the box in the lower right is, the first support beam is only 11' from the wall. Is there a way to deal with the ceiling there so that I can make the control room more than 11' wide/long? Can the ceiling slope down in the front to 7' and then up to 8'? There are other configurations that may work in this basement, I'm just trying to understand what choices I have. Picking between these basements is actually one of the deciding factors on whether we move! If we stay (with the larger basement), it needs to support two bedrooms. If we move, the two bedrooms would be taken care of upstairs. Which would you rather have? Thanks for your time, Mark.

Here are some additional questions to help me understand what is possible. 1. Is it okay to put a door between the front speakers? Or is there not usually enough room between the console the the speakers to walk to that door? Serious acoustic issues? 2. Are vocal booths small because it is strongly desirable for acoustic reasons, or just because "that's all you need"? If it's okay for it to be bigger, could I use one room for both a "live" room and for recording vocals? 3. Can a small bathroom be used for a vocal booth in a pinch? (With shower, of course!) Thanks. Also, still would love to hear feedback on which basement you'd prefer and why. Cheers, Mark.