Basement/Garage Studio layout help needed please.

Alright, this is my first post. I've been recording for many years now, and have been visiting this site numerous times everyday, using the search, reading posts, etc. I've been recording bands for a few years here at my house, and while I'm getting pretty decent results, I think it's time to actually build a dedicated space. I own the home, and have never had any problems with neighbors, law enforcement, etc. I mainly record loud punk stuff, and I'm also a drummer. Currently I have my control room upstairs, and record drums downstairs where there are also a few closet iso booths for cabs. The new construction will use part of my basement, and include refinishing the one car garage so all the rooms will be on the same level. My goal is to have a control room, drum/live room, and maybe one iso booth if space permits. If I have room for a vocal booth, that would be rad too, but I could always record vox in the live room if need be. The Live Room will just be used for recording drums, so I won't need the room to double for band practice or anything like that. I don't want the live room to be too small though. I only play a 4 piece kit, but I'd like to have a little extra room if someone brings in something larger. I would like the control room to be a decent size. My desk is about 70" wide x 40" deep, and I'll need room for 2 19" racks of gear. I'm having problems coming up with a good layout for the rooms, where to build walls, etc. One reason for that is the two support beams always seem to mess up the configuration. I may just use that area for an iso booth. The other issue I have here, is fairly low ceilings. The ceilings are 7' 6" and there are a few small places that overhead pipes will only give about 6' 8" of headroom. I've put all this in my drawings below. I'm thinking I'll have to go with a drop ceiling because of access to the pipes in case of leaks? The outside walls are cinder block, and I plan to frame the walls and add insulation/drywall also. The garage door will be blocked in too, with probably a single door added there. Had a contractor over here the other day too, to ask about codes and all that good stuff. He said it would be no problem doing the build, so full steam ahead once I'm done the planning stage. I just started using sketchup, so don't laugh too hard :D Sketchup file included now too in zip below. And the wall in front of the washer/dryer and water heater, isn't there yet, so it can be whatever angle needed. Any guidance would be great. Thanks, Matt

Maybe something like this? Still can't decide if I want the vox and iso booths to just be one bigger room. Any ideas, I'm open to any suggestions/feedback. I'm thinking maybe a sliding glass door from control room to drum room? Thanks

Hiya, could you post your sketchup file for us to toy around with? To make sure our suggestions match your expectations: how much space would you need for every room? Way of determining this, quite simply,... how many people and much stuff will every room need to be able to contain? How does that translate into square feet/meters? Sketchup is a whole lotta fun, isn't it? :) Cheers, Sigert

Hey Sigert, Thanks for the response. I've included the things you asked for in my original post now, and also added the Sketchup file in zip. I love this program, it's really cool. Thanks, Matt

Here's other idea. Looks like construction will start the first week of Feb.

Hiya, from what I've heard, it's best (whenever possible) to keep symmetry in your control room for accurate stereo monitoring. You're close, I think, but could be even closer.

Hiya, from what I've heard, it's best (whenever possible) to keep symmetry in your control room for accurate stereo monitoring. You're close, I think, but could be even closer.

Hiya, from what I've heard, it's best (whenever possible) to keep symmetry in your control room for accurate stereo monitoring. You're close, I think, but could be even closer.

Ha, yeah I was wondering about that. It's kinda hard to think of the best layout for this place because of those support beams and low pipes in certain areas. I've been looking through all the other basement design threads and really haven't seen anything similar. Maybe someone will chime in with a great idea. Back to work. Matt

By the way, I'm having trouble getting your skp file. Could you possibly zip it again and repost it? I can't get a clear idea of where the lower obstructions are either. Cheers, Sigert

I just put the file back up. Don't know what happened there. Thanks

I've tried various combinations, and the one you suggested above as pic titled "basement 2d1layout2.jpg" seems like the most sensible solution to me. Only, I'd leave the path of separate vocal booth/drum room and go for the single live room approach, because you'll always maintain poor visual communication due to the supports standing in your way. As compensation, you could make flexible acoustic treatment. The kind where you can choose how live you want the room to be. There's some nice schematics on this forum. I'll post em when I find em. Cheers, Sigert

could you include the ducts, pipes, columns etc that are constraints?

gullfo wrote:

could you include the ducts, pipes, columns etc that are constraints?

Hey Gullfo, Here is a pic and skp file with pipe location. If I put a drop ceiling in to cover these pipes, it will give me a 6'8" height from floor to ceiling in those areas including the one pipe that runs the length of the garage. It's about 6" in diameter. Thanks, Matt

maybe something like this works? add isolation walls all around and beef up the ceiling between joists and use RC on the ceiling w/ new drywall to minimize loss of room height. put a big overhead trap near the pipes in the CR. put in small windows between the CR and booth, and the booth and live room.

Hey Gullfo, Wow, that looks pretty cool. Do you think I would be able to move the top control room wall up to the support beam? That way I would have a little more room to move in the control room. It would make the booth smaller, but the more I think about it, I think I'm mainly going to use that as an iso booth for amps, and record vocals in the live room. And would it be ok to put a sliding glass door between the live and control rooms? You think that would work? Thanks a ton, it looks great. Matt

yes to all your questions :)

Awesome, I'm glad to hear that! What program did you use for that layout? Guess I'll mess around with it in Sketchup. Thanks again

yep sketchup. its basically a 2D line drawing on your model.

Alright. I just changed plans to gain about 3 extra feet by putting the one wall on the other side of the door in the finished basement part (see pic). Gullfo, I really liked your layout idea, but when I checked things out today, I think the control room may be a little crammed. Especially once I get a desk/32 channel console in there. You have any other ideas? Maybe make the control room parallel with the rear wall(the one w/ 2 doors)? Oh, and that one rear door closer to the corner of the house, isn't there yet, so it can be moved wherever, or not exist at all. I guess it mainly depends on where the drum room will go so we can have a door for load in. Those pipes keep screwing up all my ideas!! And Gullfo, thanks for the time and advice so far. Thanks, Matt PS: Looks like the prep work starts late next week. Exciting!!

if you add the extra space, then you could turn the CR to face the live room, get a nice iso booth (complete with shower in case someone is more comfortable singing there...:wink:) , and (if desired) have a airlock/amp room on the side of the CR.

Ha, awesome. Yeah, I think this will be a better use of the space too. I appreciate it. Man, you must never sleep!!