Some basic advice for a beginner re: studio layout

Hello! I've been reading this (very valuable!) forum on and off for the past few months and this is my first post. I've recently purchased my first home and I'm hoping to build a budget home studio in the basement. I have about 10 years of recording experience (all self-taught) and I currently focus on recording electronic/dance music. In the past (when I had space) I also recorded local punk bands and I would like to eventually branch back in to that now that I have space again. Here are the rooms I have to work with (see attachment Current.jpg). This is the "finished" side of my basement. There is a long room (11'x33') and a smaller one (11'x10'), connected by a door. In the long room there's also a door to the unifinished side and a door frame (no door) leading to the stairway and the unfinished side. When I moved in, the walls were covered in wood panels. In the long room they remain that way. I stripped the panels off the walls in the smaller room and beneath the panels is plain cinder block with strips to attach the panels. Between the two rooms is a wall made out of 2x4s, also covered in wood panels. No insulation anywhere or anything more massive than paneling. The ceilings throughout are made out of what looks like treated cardboard. Goals: Short-term, I would like to create a space where I can create transportable mixes with an eye towards doing some commercial music (i.e. TV commercials and library music), with the long-term goal of being able to record full bands. Current monitoring setup: Event TR5 monitors + a Krk 10" sub. (all sitting on my Staples office desk) Budget: I have on hand $1500 to start. I can probably dump about $100/month into it starting in September. I'd really like to have something passable by the end of January. At this point I am wondering how best to spend the $1500 I've got. Isolation is kind of an issue but frankly because I'm underground and surrounded by earth (with concrete floors) I have to be *really* loud before you can even hear anything in the yard. Isolation may become a bigger issue next year as my wife and I may be adding to the family soon. I'm mostly concerned with getting accurate mixes and making improvements that I can add upon without backtracking and wasting my budget. I had planned on making the larger room into a control room/multimedia room with the smaller room as the recording room, but considering the budget now I'm thinking it would make more sense to do the small room up with good materials and acoustic treatment and hold off on the bigger room until I have some more cash to throw at it. Thoughts? Your advice is very much appreciated! Warmest regards, Clint

Welcome Clint. You may find that members will be able to offer more information if you fill in the location section of your profile. That and other helpful recommendations / rules can be found here Is the 7'2" the height of the drop ceiling or your total workable height? This may be significant if you wish to stay close to one of the golden ratios. H...W.......L 1 : 1.14 : 1.39 1 : 1.28 : 1.54 1 : 1.60 : 2.33 L.W. SEPMEYER 1 : 1.40 : 1.90 1 : 1.30 : 1.90 1 : 1.50 : 2.10 M.M. LOUDEN I started looking into a basement build several months ago for recording a small synth studio with a build focus on monitoring accuracy within a limited space and sound isolation. I'm very green here and can probably offer little aside my small personal experience thus far. I tore out the drop ceiling and most of the framed walls in my basement to allow a clean boards to lay out a design that would fit my requirements. I don't know if that is a good recommendation right off the bat (as a basement filled with demo was met with a bit of concern when the lady of the house got home :oops: ), but perhaps consider design ideas based off of the basement dimensions rather than the existing rooms. As a side note I'm a few times over your stated budget, but a lot of that is for isolation. BF

Hi BF, thanks for the reply! Sorry about the location thing. I've updated it now. This is in Lansing, Michigan, USA. The 7' 2" ceiling is to the bottom of the cardboard material, but that is stapled directly to the floor joist of the next floor. The only framed wall in the whole basement is the one between the two rooms shown in the diagram - I'm open to the idea of moving it or removing it but I don't really know what size of a space would be ideal or if that would be a prudent way to proceed or not. From those ratios, it looks like an 8'2" width, 10' length would be ideal, and I could build out a wall to make that happen...?

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Thanks for editing your profile. :wink: As BF pointed out above, in Rod Gervais’ book “Build it Like the Pros,” http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5670 he points out both L.W.Sepmeyer’s & M.M. Louden’s formulas most widely used in professional studios worldwide. He also notes that the orders listed are (top to bottom) the first to third best ratios in both cases. L.W. Sepmeyer Height Width Length 1.00 1.14 1.39 7’2” x 8’2” x 9’10” 1.00 1.28 1.54 1.00 1.60 2.33 M.M. Louden Height Width Length 1.00 1.40 1.90 7’2” x 10’ x 13’6” 1.00 1.30 1.90 1.00 1.50 2.10 Eric Desart on Louden’s Ratios 1.00, 1.35, 1.85 7’2” x 9’7” x 13’3” This gives us a good place to start from. Based on Eric's study on Louden's ratios, here's an idea, perhaps? Aloha 8)

Thanks for the reply! I am pretty confused, though. Why did you not start at the end of the basement? That leaves a secret room at the end with no doors*, which would be excellent for hiding a dead body but is kind of a waste since I don't have a need for that. Could we just flip it around and have the door(s) towards the back left of the mix position? Or was that just to show how it fit into the 11' space? *(the long walls are cinder block, holding up the house, so I'd prefer not to mess with those.)

The position of the control room can be moved to taste within the space I would think. If you are intending to do separate control and tracking rooms (you mentioned recording punk bands in addition to your personal electronic production) You will probably want to have the control room face the 'talent' if you include a window.

Aloha,

Why did you not start at the end of the basement?

For the reason that is where your door openings were. Since the "smaller room" is constructed out of cinder block, it didn't appear that repositioning the doorway openings were a viable option. Having the small room behind you could be used several ways: - vocal booth - bass trap - PC iso room - mike/cable locker - misc storage - or not :wink: The room can most certainly be flipped around if that is what you prefer. Perhaps something like this then? Aloha 8)

excuse me kendale, i was studying your design solution... in your layout...how do you determine the lenght of 10' from the front for the splayed angle? which is the calculation?