Still planning to convert my Garage to a studio

Hi Ketchup lovers…..sorry SketchUp lovers! :lol: :oops: My name is Peter Damm and I was born in 1967 and I’m living in the Netherlands where my wife Elise and I bought a house. It’s a drive-in house, so we live on the 1st floor. It belonged to a fysiotherapist who conveniently converted the ground floor to suit her own workspace. On the drawing you can see how. The garden-room is now converted into my workshop, for I’m a guitarmaker. Yes, I also play and teach guitar. And my wife teaches the recorder and has a choir that she teaches. And you can hear and see my duo, wife and little girl at: www.freewebs.com/brooklynbrothers/ --------------------------------------------------------- I have some experience in building a studio. You can view the pictures on: www.freewebs.com/studiobuilding/ The English version will come soon :!: This studio was done for "Steam" a singer and pianist. He toured with Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder & Oleta Adams. But halfway through he got a job offer from one of the biggest record companies in the world and I had to take apart all that I built :!: :?: :cry: :cry: ----------------------------------------------------- I am making plans now for a while to convert my own garage into a studio. The space is not too big, but I’ve seen, and downloaded and played around with, most of the beautiful drawings you all made with the miracle- software sketchup. (I finished tutorial three! And I love it!!!) I found that my garage is not even the smallest space to work with, so I’m not worried…yet! Bought a lot of books about studios and I’ve set myself a sort of a time limit. In between one and three years I have to finish it. So I still have a lot of time to think things through like wires under the floating floor before I even start with flooring. I will do everything myself, because it saves money and I’m a trained …….eh..almost everything to do with building things. Almost everyone in my family is a musician and I would be able to record the whole 64 piece orchestra like Barbra Streisand would have (only in steps of course.) You can see on the plans that the neighbour’s house is off-set, and there I don’t have to worry about sound so much. A double brick wall…twice. And my hall in between as well. And in a space that small I cannot turn the volume up so much (I would hurt my own ears.) But the other neighbours are painting a different picture, for I can hear the girl practice, the lessons I’m giving her, on her nylon string guitar. (she lives even one door further away!) So it travels from her house into my direct neighbour’s house and then into mine. Tricky! These houses are like three concrete match-boxes on top of one another. All the walls inside are not load -bearing and you can place and build them where/as you like. I will do an additional internal brick-wall and a box in a box, floating floor. And then the soffit-mounting of speakers might be best to do on the direct neighbours side?. So an extra space between the only single wall that devide the houses. I’m kind of lucky that my neighbour’s hall is placed next to it. The really difficult part will be the ceiling! If someone is walking around in our livingroom wearing shoes, I can hear that very loud when downstairs. I glued a very nice wooden chestnut floor directly onto the cement toplayer of the concrete floor. And I noticed that a lot of sound travels through this concrete livingroom floor. From neighbour to neighbour and through floors going up or down. Without the internal brick-wall (to build) the dimensions are 6.80m. X 2.80m. The height of the ceiling is 2.40m. I know that I will lose a considerable amount of space, but if I can make it more soundproof than needed?, I will be able to use it as a rehearsal-room for the Brooklyn Brothers as well, and record a drumset. We have hot and cold water in just about every room in the house. But on the ground floor where the studio will be, I can change this. I have to anyway. There is even a little kitchen-block, and I might even do a little toilet. This is because in the Netherlands you can tax-deduct part of your house if you use it for your own busines and it has to be self-contained. So that means an entrance-door and a toilet. They will also look if a big part of your income is coming from that space, but if I have to build all that later it would be difficult. But it is not a big must. I can make an additional entrance where the garage-door is now. (all double of course, box in box) Now, I see on a lot of the sketchup drawings, that most of the time you make the mix-room the biggest. And the live-rooms small. I want to be able to record a drumset as well. So I think I have to compromise somewhere. I’m cutting and pasting (with real scissors) to find the best solution, but I’m not happy with the way that looks, so I’m also drawing with pencils. (Yes I finished tutorial three, but I’m nowhere near creating studios with that.) If someone can convert or resize a couple of drawings to my shape or even make suggestions for my dimensions I would be very happy. :D My setup will consist of a computer and I would like a board like a Behringer MX9000 or something similar. It’s cheap and still nice. (I’m still not a milionair) I have all kinds of effects-processors and rack devices, and a korg SP300 stage piano that will go in the mix-room. I write a lot of songs with the use of the piano. And in the live-room will come the guitar-amps and upright-piano. One could do all things with just the computer, but I like the feel of a board. The fairly cheap-one I mentioned will not be the best, but for that money so many inputs!? I might go for a patch-bay but I don’t know yet. I will also still have to buy a few condenser-mics and other items like speakers. Or even make the speakers myself. How bad would it be to place a book-case in the mix-room, let’s say in a corner in front of a bass-trap? Or should this be totally free. Or the book-case at the back- or side-wall? Summing up my question would be: can anyone give me their advice on how to devide the rooms. Or even make a workable drawing from the ones I posted. And would it be best (soundproof-wise for the neighbour) to have the speakers on the “thin” wall reflecting to my hall? Thank you all, and may 2007 bring a lot of musical joy! To: John Sayers,..if you’re still bearing with me so far? I want to say thank you for your time and effort in creating this wonderful forum and your willingness to share your view and expertise with others, who like me, definitely need some sort of guidance.

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Peter Nice playing and woodworking! :wink: Just wondering if & where you are on your project? Aloha 8)

Thank you!! I'm still "designing" and planning, so I did not lift my hammer for that one yet. I want to do a proper job and not like others just go in there and break some walls down and then ask for help! I need to make it work right from the start, and the goal is to finish in about two or three years. You know there is a huge amount of planning everything from cable to carpet. At least I cannot do it as quick as some do it. I'm drawing on paper and I made some paper cut-outs on scale and moving them around on the drawing to see if there is enough space. But at the moment I'm reading a book that says it is not worthwhile to do a studio under 1500 cubic feet, so therefore I need the help most of all in the "deviding the space area" because I also want to record a drumset. So in fact I'm still a white sheet of paper with some outer wall-dimensions on it. I think it is the best approach! Just fill in the blancks! Thank you for your reply, Peter Damm I gather you saw my websites, I'm still adding some more, and will do the guitar-building stuff next! 8-feb-2007 made some extra sites and filled in some blanks! Best regards, Peter Damm Magic & Music productions The Netherlands

Aloha Peter, Would something like this be a place to start? Aloha 8)

Aloha Hawaii, It looks lovely, but what is that door doing there? I'm still a bit confused. But the setup is actually getting me somewhere on the right track!!! I have to study this a little bit further and will get back to you. Thank you! Talk to you real soon!!!! Best regards, Peter Damm The picture is taken "in front" of our house and Hannah is having a great time in the snow on her 6-month birthday! (Feb. 8th) (on a improvise sledge (maxi cosi) with old telephone-wires as ropes)

Peter Damm wrote:

You can see on the plans that the neighbour’s house is off-set, and there I don’t have to worry about sound so much. A double brick wall…twice. And my hall in between as well. And in a space that small I cannot turn the volume up so much (I would hurt my own ears.) But the other neighbours are painting a different picture, for I can hear the girl practice, the lessons I’m giving her, on her nylon string guitar. (she lives even one door further away!) So it travels from her house into my direct neighbour’s house and then into mine. Tricky!

if I'm reading this correctly: you have a neighbor 2 doors down, where you can hear the girl living there, practice on a nylon acoustic guitar? :shock: I may be jumping the gun to say this sounds like much more than a "tricky" sound isolation problem. what other sounds can you hear from within the garage space? are the houses/garages sharing air vents or other open paths that traverse them? maybe an under-house drain?

Hi Gullfo, I think that the walls in between the adjoining houses are a bit too thin and there is a lot of contact sound that carries through the concrete floors of the livingrooms. groundfloor: hall, studio and guitarbuilding workshop, 1st floor: livingroom kitchen and toilet, 2nd floor: bedrooms, bathroom and centralheatingdevice closet. You can hear people moving up and down the stairs, as the neighbour and us for that matter, havent got carpet on the wooden stairs. And we can hear crying children in the weekend (devorced male) But conversations are not noticable, strangly enough. And the other neighbours equals silence. (the off-set house) In the snow-picture you can see that. I will ask the girl where in the house she is practising, she is coming tomorrow (friday) for her lesson. That may shed some light on the subject. As for drains and airvents/ducts I will check that too, thanks for the tip!!! Of course there is running water in every room now, I will check that too. And possibly remove that later, including the pipes underneath the house. But with an additional stone-wall before I do the wooden box in box studwalls, I think it can be allright. Don't you think so? It will cost but I don't have to pay it overnight. I have the luxery to do it in as many stages as I like. (but a proper job!) Thank you for your help, Best regards, Peter Damm

if you have the time, it is best to do a thorough investigation. talk to neighbors about the sounds they hear in their places and consider involving them in some testing. Steve (kightfly) had a great idea in using a metal and rubber hammer to tap around places (gently) to identify where you have the flanking noises and it will help you map out how the sounds gets out of your place and into your neighbors, and vice versa. also it may make sense to get a sound level meter and do some checks on ambient noise levels. and to use it with a "drum kit test". Since a drum kit is generally the hardest thing to isolate for most small studios, having a drummer (just need a kick, snare and cymbal) bang it out while you take measurements in and around your place. once you have the map of how sound is going in and getting out of your space, you can then work out what it will take to isolate it.

Hi Gullfo, That's a wonderful idea, I will certainly try these. Thank you so much. My guitarstudent is practicing mostly in the livingroom and in the smallest room on the 2nd floor. (that is top left on the picture.) It is so great to talk to people who can give good advice and share the same interest!!!!!!! Peter

Hi Gulffo, I found that the two neighbours have stone-tile-floors in the livingroom and they haven't got a lot of furniture. And no curtains or carpets. So in fact their houses sound like Bath-rooms. And this sound travels through the living-room floor. The girl's guitar sounds three times as loud in their livingroom than in mine. So I think the ceiling will be the biggest problem, but the wall to my neighbour will be allright with the STC-63 studd-wall. And then the design that Kendale made. So I will loose a considerable amount of space, but I will gain a lot of silence. p.s. I have a CD made by Tappan Zee records, anywhere near your place? Just found out is it Bob James who started that. Peter Hi Kendale, Your design is very nice, but I think the door in the middle can be placed like the door to the mix-room. So you enter the separate rooms from the hall. I think that this gives me a more soundproof box in a box type. The visual aspect can be accomplished later with a camera & monitor. You gave me the step in the right direction!! Now I have to figure out how to devide the space in reasonable amounts. Peter

hhhmmmmm... sounds like the ceilings spaces may be joined... maybe there is a way to open up the ceiling along the joining walls and add something to block it... This way you can get a little more isolation (in and out). yes, Tappan Zee is near by. The Dutch settled this area originally inhabited by the Tappan Indians (part of the Delaware Nation - most things around the US seem to be named after the people we stole the land from...) and the Zee (Dutch for "sea") is a large section of the Hudson River. I live in Old Tappan - an old farm community next door to Tappan NY (George Washington - Revolutionary War fame). http://www.answers.com/topic/tappan-zee

Hi Gullfo, That ceiling problem will be the main target now. Nice to hear about The Dutch & Tappan Zee. Not so nice that in fact almost all of America was stolen, but that was a long time ago. My placename Breukelen was used for Brooklyn. And of course Harlem was named after Haarlem (that is a half hour away from Breukelen) And many many more from Holland. It's been a while now that I last reacted, but I had a lot of work. Anyway great to hear from you! Best regards, Peter