New Basement Studio...I'm SO EXCITED!!

Hi All, I'm a long-time lurker, first time poster. What a great and invaluable resource to the audio professional (and hobbyist) community. I've been waiting, dreaming, and planning for a couple of years for the right time to build a 'real' studio for my audio services business and now is the time! Problem #1: I cannot get a grip on Sketchup. I'm a reasonably intelligent person, but I just can't seem to get good enough to do anything on it. I'll keep trying, but please be patient with me and any help in that department is GREATLY appreciated. Here are the details of my room and goals: The studio will be in the basement of a single family home located in Douglassville, PA (just west of Philadelphia, PA USA). The basement is currently unfinished and has cinderblock walls and a concrete floor. There is an outside exit. The dimensions of the room are: 27 feet by 26.5 feet with a height of 8.5 feet from the floor to the bottom of the joists. The joists are 2"x10"s situated 16" OC There is a stairway in one corner that leads to the main floor of the house. The stairway is 13' long and 37.5" wide. There is a doorway on the same wall as the stairs that leads to another part of the basement that will not be used for the studio (it contains the furnace, water heater, etc). Part of the wall around that door is drywall, the rest is cinder block. There is a support pole in the middle of the room that runs under a steel support beam that runs under the joists. The distance from the floor to the bottom of the support beam is 7' 8". Next to the beam running under the joists are a couple of HVAC ducts and the main water waste line (pvc). The beam and the ducts run the entire length of the room and are about 6' wide total. I am currently working in this space as best I can, although it sounds pretty horrible (but I have to keep working to make money right?!!). My thought is that I'd like to divide it into a control room and a tracking room and then maybe add one or two iso booths. I record MANY different kinds of music from rock to rap, celtic to voice over so versitility is a must. I'm not terribly worried about sound getting out of the studio, just sound getting in. As it is right now, I can hear EVERYTHING that goes on in the main floor of the house and because the main water waste line runs right over my head anytime anyone uses water in the house it's terribly loud. I would like as much isolation as possible between the control room and the live room as well. I ordered Rod's book and plan on working directly from that (based on what everyone has said about it). My budget will ideally be under $10,000 but I'm not closed to getting a loan to get up to $15k. I don't have a lot of construction experience, but if I have directions to follow, I can be pretty handy and have readily available help. I also am planning on hiring out the framing process (I'm near Amish country and no frames like the Amish!) and possibly the muck and tape. I am ready to get moving on this ASAP. Finally, here are three pictures of the space as it is now. One is from one corner, then the opposite and then a detail of the ceiling obstacles. I hope this is enough information to get some thoughts, opinions, and help from this group because I so value the remarks of the people on this forum. Thanks! Ben

Aloha and welcome to the forum! Congrats on your studio build!

I cannot get a grip on Sketchup. I'm a reasonably intelligent person, but I just can't seem to get good enough to do anything on it. I'll keep trying, but please be patient with me and any help in that department is GREATLY appreciated.

Any chance you could do a hand drawn floor plan with your stairs, poles, windows, etc, and measurements? Looking forward to your build, Aloha 8)

Thanks for the reply Kendale Yeah, I'm super excited. Sorry about my lack of skills in Sketchup, but here is a hand-drawn picture of what I'm working with. Scale is about 1':1/4" (roughly). Looking forward to hearing your thoughts Thanks! Ben

Looks like a great space. Very clean. I'm looking forward to watching it progress. - Andy

Aloha,

My thought is that I'd like to divide it into a control room and a tracking room and then maybe add one or two iso booths.

M.M. Louden Height Width Length 1.00 1.40 1.90 = 8’6” x 11’ 9” x 16’1” Perhaps something like this for starters?(with acoustic treatments to follow) Aloha 8)

Thanks Kendale It's so cool to see it 'come alive' like that! Would you be willing to post the sketchup file you created so I could monkey around with it? This is a design I hadn't really thought of. My only question would be if I could 'flip' the control room so that I had a door to it near the stairs. Much of the work I do is post production and it would just make my daily 'commute' that much shorter. :) Also, is there an easy way to make the live room include the door to the outside so that it would be easier to bring outside equipment and drums in? I love the idea though. When I think iso booth, I'm stuck in the idea that it has to be really small, but this design is so much better than a 'standing room only' area. Thanks so much for your help! Any other ideas? Ben ps. I do plan on doing a construction diary with step by step pictures because the ones I've seen on this site are so helpful.

Aloha Ben, Glad it helps! Aloha 8)

you could put the CR in one corner and free up space for larger performance areas. if you put the CR under the hvac ducting you'll need to soffit that in. if you flip it and put the CR near the electrical box, you lose some head room in the live room... but probably not have as much work for soffiting... eitherway access to the live areas would be from the stairs or outside door. since you do a lot of post production, I'd tend to err on the side of a better control room with more head space....

WOW!! That is perfect!! It looks great. Thanks for the post. From a design standpoint it has the most 'pros' and only a couple minor 'cons' that I can deal with. Any thoughts from anyone on the acoustical aspects of this design? Totally exceeded my expectation, thanks gullfo! Ben (I had just spent a few hours in Sketchup and had gotten nowhere...I love this forum!)

Looks great, Glenn. I wish I had Ben's space to work with. One caution: Electrical code usually states that you need 3' clear in front of an electrical panel. Ben, check with the inspector in your town before you build a wall in front of the panel. - Andy

yes, technically its a "closet" but definitely check and keep the box as clear as possible. that said, try to leverage the closet to be a bass trap... of you have to leave it open, just put some moveable absorbers across the corner.

Aloha, Nice job, Glenn! :D Aloha 8)

some things to think about - what space to you really need for the CR. there may be other arrangements to the space that are effective and eliminate some of the last cons to the design... I'll post another idea (tonight) I have that may be useful to consider.

Thanks Glenn Really the 'cons' are only minor inconveniences: 1. No direct access from control room to live room (the only problem that poses is when I'm recording alone and have to run back and forth. But that can be dealt with by getting the Tranzport remote system) 2. The door to the outside goes through the booth. Just might make it a little difficult to get drums and other large items in and out 3. The support pole is right in the middle of the window between CR and live room. The pole has a bit of a ring to it so I'll have to make into a finished 'pillar' or put it in-between walls. Don't think I could put it between walls with the window right there. But like I said, I love the design and none of those issues are big enough that I wouldn't use it. Unless you have a stroke of genius tonight, I'm feeling good about the current design. Thanks! Ben

maybe this works more effectively.

Yeah, Glenn, that solves those issues. Plus it seems like a bigger live room too. Thanks for the new design, they just keep getting better! Ben

I am going to try to build a studio very close to this size from scratch. I love the design, so i dont want to change it much. I had planned on a 30' x 30' building (exterior). Is there any designs on here that could take the stairs out, and have a small entrance in that area? We could move the entrance that is there now. Let me know if anyone would care to modify for the deminsions that i want. Also, doesn any one know what the average cost per square foot is to build a studio like this? I want a concrete floor with concrete block for the outside wall, just like this one. Then build double walls throughout. Thanks Jason I also want to note that i will be doing all of the work myself except for the blocks and concrete floor.

Hi Jason, maybe post your information into a new thread with site plan and/or floor plan for the space. accurate dimensions help...