Garage Conversion, design advice/criticism desired

Hi, First off, let me say, this forum is great - I've been lurking here for a month or so and have found a lot of great information. Now I guess it's time to see if I pulled it all together properly. :) Project Details: I recently purchased a house in a standard residential area with a partially finished detached garage I'd like to convert to a studio space. Currently, I'm in the planning stage and have a ballpark construction budget of $10k. I have an experienced carpenter who's willing to swap his skills on the build for recording time when it's done (yay!), plus a crew of bandmates who all are experienced in basic renovation so I'm able to put it all into materials. I'd be using the space for editing and scoring (my main income), and would also like to have my band rehearse there as well as record other bands. The garage is suituated so it's on the furthest part of the lot from all the neighbors, but due to the types of bands I work with (loud, angry, metal and industrial), I'd like to ensure maximum isolation. If I can make so I can record drums at 3am without a noise complaint, I'll be in heaven. Isolation Details: City ordinances require 70dBA, so I'm shooting for 65dBA to have a safety margin. My band is peak 116dBA, average 110dBA (measured during rehearsal 3ft. from kick drum, 3 ft. from ground). This means I need a minimum of 51dB reduction, but more is better. Currently, there is a garage door, but I've decided to pretend it's not there, remove the opener and opener's mounting hardware, and wall right over it. Same for the two exterior windows. I plan on using cameras instead of putting in windows, to help interior isolation. Building Details: The building has a useable interior space of 23'4"x23'4"x9'7". The floor is a cement slab, with a sloping lip. The walls (as near as I can tell) are siding->sheathing->plywood-> 3"insulation->1/4" drywall using 2x4 studs 12"oc. The roof is standard sloped shingle/plywood roof. Celing joists are 2x4. I'll add some pictures to the thread tomorrow, when my wife shows me how to work the camera. I'd like to have the following areas: control room, drum booth, gtr/piano room, vocal booth. See the attached design. Since my focus is on editing I need to have a good sounding control room and made that the focus of my design. I used the ratio 1:1.28:1.54 from Rod's book, and the geometry for a quad room (since I'll be doing 5.1 eventually) from "Building a Recording Studio" - Jeff Cooper. I plan on making the ceiling peaks 9ft, 7ft at the walls, and based my calculations on that instead of the actual height. My questions are: 1) Am I trying to fit ten pounds of crap into a 5 pound bag with all these rooms? 2) Am I correct in assuming I should use Rod's wall construction #5 (STC57 pg.55) given what's already in place on the wall? I'd be removing the existing drywall and then adding another single leaf wall with an 8" air gap, correct? 3) I'm open to suggestions as far as what to do with the floors and ceiling. In the drum booth I'm planning on lifting the floor to 1', following the design available in Cooper's book. For the live room, control room, etc. I'm unsure what to put over the cement - or should I just leave it cement for a touch of liveness? I appreciate any insights and advice you guys might have for me. Thanks again for running such a great place. Peace and Groove, The Thump - owner Recluse Studios

the drum booth looks pretty cramped. I think I'd rather combine the drum booth and the live room to have one big area. Or you could go with the plan below... which is from here Concrete floors are pretty good for recording... better than carpet. If that's a floating floor you are talking about for your drum room, maybe you should check out this

It took longer than a day - but I've got the pictures, finally. Thanks for your input, britune. Originally I did have one large live room, as you suggest, but decided for iso purposes a seperate room for the drums would be nice, if I had the space. My drummer thought 8'x8'9" would be large enough for a standard metal kit, when I asked what he thought, while I was on the fence about it. More study and consideration is required, methinks. The first thing I looked at was the 2-car plan presented, but rejected it due to the control room seemingly being designed for stereo, instead of 5.1. Was I wrong, and 5.1 would work well in that room? If so, I'll switch and use that plan, since everything else about it meets my needs. If I leave the floor bare cement, should I expect leakage throught it from the drums to the other rooms? Thanks again for the input. Peace and Groove, Thump

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Thump Congrats on your studio build! Looking over your proposed plan... In the meantime, perhaps you may want to review the layout for a 5.1 CR here - http://www.grammy.com/pe_wing/5_1_Rec.pdf Aloha 8)

According to the Rod Gervais book, you should be OK with isolation using the same concrete floor. You can gain a little more by ripping up your concrete and pouring seperate slabs, but that's a lot of work and money. If you don't have Rod's book, you really should get it before you build any further. I wish I had read it before I had my house built. At least I have it now beofre I start my studio build.

I've got two pieces of good news to report. 1. I just went out and did the hammer test in the garage - transmission wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be through the slab. If I need to I can put some pads under the mic bases. That's probably a much more economical solution. :lol: 2. I consulted with a friend last night who has a 5.1 room, and after looking at this thread he said CornerPlan 101 should work fine for 5.1. He's going to check with some other knowledgable people for me, and let me know next week what they think. I'll be spending my free time this weekend re-scaling CornerPlan 101 to my dimensions and then post the results. I'm taking my time in the design phase (been at it 1 1/2 months already before I posted my inital plan) so that everything's right before I even buy a single nail. Aloha, Kendale, and mahalo for taking a look at my project (and the link). Peace and Groove, Thump

Thump - make sure you check out the SideShow studio construction - a stickey in this forum. cheers john

Thanks for pointing me to the sticky John, I don't know how I missed that one! At least I managed to find the one about how to post <g>. I've spent my time in the last couple weeks working with Corner Plan 101 and have hit an interesting challenge. CornerPlan 101 is designed around a rectilinear building, while mine is a perfect square. After rescaling the SAE design I found I had 5'9"x23'4" of free space. What to do, what to do? I'm going to need someplace for the HVAC equip to go, so I decided to dedicate at least a portion of the space to that. Is it better to keep the entire space for storage, or use part of it to expand the drum room? I'm attaching the original plan in my building, and the three variations I've come up with. None of the drawings are precise (other than rough scale) - I did them to see how the rooms would work in my building. When I settle on one, I'll be reposting the design with everything to scale. Today my questions are: 1. Which of the three options seems like the best use of the "extra" space? 2. I kind of like OptionB, as it allows me to expand the drum room (never can have a big enough drum room), while maintaining adequate space for HVAC. By merely extending the side walls, have I destroyed the acoustics? It doesn't seem so, since the angles are maintained, but I'd like verification. 3. Since OptionC has a large room (~6'x16') and a natural soundlock at the entry, would it be worthwhile to stick a wall plate in there and have it available as a fourth room, even though it's full of parallel walls? I'm not really willing to change the room geometry to make it a true tracking room, since I think I would lose too much storage and HVAC space to make it worthwhile having. I'm perfectly willing to leave it as is on the plan, and just use it for gear/ machine storage. Thanks for the help and insights! Peace and Groove, Thump

I'd flip option B horizontally to enable load-in to the main live room and add an air lock on the exterior door.

Thump, Looks good and like you are on track, Gut feel - remember you need "air" between your mics and kit and space for the stands etc so make sure you factor this in - measure up your mates kit in garage, him sitting there and place mic stands.....chalk it out - exactly with all angles perfect. Factor in the drums facing different walls too - mine has different treatment for each wall section so you have 4 x different combo's. ;) This will tell you a lot re what you need to do. YOu also need space for the couch and moving mix chair back into stereo field without bumping into someone strumming away behind you too. My larger booth covers this beautifully - BUT I would NOT want any less room in there for drums and "ambient" mics...... My 2c Out of time gotta run - will check back L8r Take Care Cheers Eliot