first post. Need new studio advice. Thanks!

I've visited this forum many times and appreciate very much you guys help. I am a keyboard player, but for the last 9 months have had a small home studio in my study/living room. I'm on my 5th project and continue to get busier. My wife is getting weary of guys and gals trampling through the house, so I need a better space. I have a garage that is detached from the house and a floor plan is attached. None of this is built and right now there is simply the garage and a long 8'x23' storage room. This drawing has been doctored a little by a friend suggesting placement of treatment. He also suggested leaving the long storage room intact for one long rectangular control room and recording drums using gobos in the garage (a problem as I live in Alabama and it is hot). I'll attach another pic tonite, but I was wondering if you guys have other ideas. I still need to park cars in the garage. There is also an attic above with a large opening I'll have to put a door on about 1/2 way across the celing in the storage room, so I have to watch wall placement. Ceilings are about 9ft tall throughout. I'll also have to install HVAC, but the area already has a significant amount of wiring. I'm not sure if I'll have to add another box. Any input/advice is appreciated. Right now I'm just trying to get a good design down and estimate costs. Thanks!

Welcome to the forum, michaeljoe! Could you post a diagram that shows the garage layout as it exists today, along with any permanent fixtures that may exist? Also, it would probably be helpful to highlight/outline the "maximum footprint" of the studio space as it encroaches into the garage -- in other words, how much of the garage space are you willing to give up? I would think that if you could define that "line in the sand" it would open up a lot of possibilities for you. I don't think the shape of the control room you're proposing is especially suitable, for example. (This is not my area of expertise, just an observation from seeing so many other designs here.) --Keith :mrgreen:

Thanks for the reply Keith. I'm still at work, but will post something in a few hours when I get home. I'm anxious to see what you guys might come up with. I really appreciate the help.

OK, here's the current set up. I really still need the ability to park 2 cars in the garage (which does not mean I still couldn't treat it). I can take in about a 5x6 foot space in the right back corner if needed. The ceilings are 9 foot and there is about a 6x4 foot opening to the attic space all the way to the right side of the storage space about 8-10 feet from the back wall. I plan on building some sort of door to cover this, but won't be able to put walls in this area (8-around 14feet from the back wall) unless I close this opening and build another. The HVAC will likely be costly. I'd like to keep total cost below $4K if possible. Thanks.

Aloha and welcome to the forum, In keeping the studio within your space, here are a couple of ideas for you. Also, you may want to fire you speakers down the length of the room

because you don't want rear reflections to interfere it is better to start with a longer front to back dimension than the side to side dimension. http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

Aloha 8)

Aloha, One more view...:wink: Aloha 8)

Kendale, Thanks a bunch. Well, there's good and bad new here. First, the bad - HVAC is just going to be too costly to justify building this out right now. The good news is that I have another option that is less costly and will work. The room is 13x13 and I've drawn a schematic below (sorry, I can't figure out the software you guys are using). What I can't draw in with my software is treatment. The thicker outside walls are existing and the angled inner walls are to be placed. My software won't let me do any less an angle, but I think I could get away with a little less. This room does have AC and heating. The other bad news is that I won't have a drum room, but there is a lot of space just outside the double doors and I could build gobos for drum tracking in that area. My house is a crawl space house, so I'd probably have to build a small riser. I also might build a small riser in the isolation booth as well. Any thoughts or other ideas on this? I'd love to see a rendering with treatments, traps and speakers put in. I just can't do it with my software. Thanks for the help.

Aloha, Okay, how tall are the ceilings in this new location? Aloha 8)

I believe they are 8.5foot ceilings. The double door and the window of course are not really movable. There actually is just an opening right now where the door will be. I'm looking at doors right now. Thanks for any help.

Aloha, Here's an idea based on L.W. Sepmeyer's ratio of 1.00 1.14 1.39 @ 9' ceilings (9’ x 10’3” x 12’5”). Edit: At 8.5' ceilings you would have roughly 8'5" x 9'7" x 11'8" Aloha 8)

Ken, Would it be acceptable based on your drawing to pull the wall in 2feet or so and make a small isolation booth in the corner as in my drawing? I really NEED an isolation booth. Thanks so much.

Aloha, Perhaps something like this? Aloha 8)

That's kind of along the lines of what I was thinking. I'm assuming in addition to soffets at the front corners and cloth bass traps in the back corners and the corner of the iso booth you would put a slot resonator in the front middle of the room. I also failer to mention the walls are currently sheetrock. Would you leave this in the middle of the side walls, put diffusers in that area or something else? Also, is there anything else you might use to cover the door? Lastly, would you build something in the isobooth to isolate guitar amps, etc. from the floor since I have a crawl space? Thanks for the help. I think this design might work. Aloha!

I've gotten some feedback from friends that this may be too small and "acoustically challenged" because of the size. Can anyone give me feedback on this? I'm a keyboard player and beginning engineer with relatively little knowledge of acoustics. From a size standpoint, I can deal with the tight spaces. Thanks for any help.

13x13 is going to be tight esp if you want decent acoustics and depending on your equipment, etc. you could also try to put the CR on its side. either way you're going to need a bunch of slats, traps, etc to get the modes under control because of the size of the room.