Planning small attic recording / mixing studio

[Djes]

Hello all,

It's my first post so I'm very glad to say hi to you all. I've heard nothing but best about this forum
Let me introduce myself. I'm a guitarist from Poland wanting to get into serious recording... Eventually. Right now I'm a newbie with some theory in head, basic gear and little practice. Usually I saw recording process from instrumentalist's side and I want to switch places. Of course, I've had a little bit of fun with mixing and recording in really basic bedroom setups, but I know that to actually hear and learn I need a dedicated space, so it's time to step up the game a bit. Now, to back to the business.

What I want to have is a place for recording, mixing (and maybe even mastering?) my and other local bands.

I have found a place in a big house, that is only partially finished. I can choose between a few rooms, but for various reasons I am leaning towards a "double" room at the attic. Right now it's full of unused stuff so I was not able to make precise measurements but it looks roughly as I tried to show in the paint picture below (I'll try to add something more serious later). It consists of one main space (6.10 m long, 3.4 m wide and 2.2 m high) and a smaller space (2 x 2 x 2.20) behind a 9 cm wall. The smaller space also has a kind of a corridor (1 x 2).

As it is normal for attic there is a skew because of the roof (please see drawings).

What I was thinking about was to put drums and amplifiers in the main room for recording, and to have mixing / listening space in the small room. I know already that it would probably require a tonne of treatment, but my main question for now is:
Should I even bother?
I don't have anything else at the moment besides two other rooms in other part of the same house. However, they are not finished at all (no lights, bare walls and ground) and someone might want to live there in a few years. So, I basically have a choice between very small and stable or not-so-small and much more work.

If it is a place that could be worked on, could you help me in designing the space? I thought about putting layer of Rockwool or other fiber all over the place with additional foam triangles on main walls. However, I know that both door between the rooms and the entrance door will need to be insulated when recording loud sources, and I'm not sure how to tackle this one.

To summarize my questions:
1. The most urgent one: is this place too terrible to do anything? I'm planning to clean the place in few days, I would change this plan if I shouldn't even touch it
2. If (hopefully) it is not, how should I prepare it to record and mix a full band? (I already have a pair of near-field monitors: Presonus Eris E5).

Cheers and best luck from Warsaw

[Gregwor]

Welcome!

What I was thinking about was to put drums and amplifiers in the main room for recording, and to have mixing / listening space in the small room. I know already that it would probably require a tonne of treatment, but my main question for now is:
Should I even bother?

Any space is better than no space! If you're unable to do intense construction, then you have to work with the spaces as they exist. You didn't mention isolation at all so I assume you don't have any neighbors to annoying with loud band recording? You don't have anything outside that could make noise that could be picked up by microphones during recording?

Typically you want your live rooms to be larger than your control rooms. However, in my opinion you need to decide what is more important to you -- capturing really really nice source sound or having a killer monitoring environment that will allow you to make easy mix decisions and have your mix translate.

If it is a place that could be worked on, could you help me in designing the space? I thought about putting layer of Rockwool or other fiber all over the place with additional foam triangles on main walls. However, I know that both door between the rooms and the entrance door will need to be insulated when recording loud sources, and I'm not sure how to tackle this one.

Of course people are on the forum to help! We won't design it for you as this is a self help type forum where you are here to learn and design your own studio. Stay away from foam treatment products unless for some odd reason you need it (I can't think of a reason you'd ever really need it).

You're indicating that you desire isolation between the control room and tracking room. If this is the case, you're going to need to do a lot more than having an insulated door. Read more on the forum to see what isolation requires (no void of mass, a fully decoupled mass spring mass construction, and of course, crazy HVAC design!)

1. The most urgent one: is this place too terrible to do anything? I'm planning to clean the place in few days, I would change this plan if I shouldn't even touch it

Again, any space is better than no space (well, almost any space).

2. If (hopefully) it is not, how should I prepare it to record and mix a full band? (I already have a pair of near-field monitors: Presonus Eris E5).

Proper acoustic treatment. Control room designs have pretty clearly laid out specifications to meet. Through these specifications, there are pretty easy to understand design concepts implemented by studio designers. Follow these specifications to design your control room. Regarding the live room, you can figure out basic treatment based off of your target decay times and room dimensions. There are Sabin calculators you can use to get a head start on that if you don't want to do it long hand.

Greg

[Djes]

Thanks Greg for good questions. I'll try to answer to my best knowledge at the moment:

Any space is better than no space! If you're unable to do intense construction, then you have to work with the spaces as they exist. You didn't mention isolation at all so I assume you don't have any neighbors to annoying with loud band recording? You don't have anything outside that could make noise that could be picked up by microphones during recording?

This is something I was about to mention, and I'm not really sure why I didn't do in the end I will have neighbours, the house belongs to a family close to me. It is a three-storey house: noone lives at the ground floor, as it is not finished, the family takes the first floor and the attic with my to-be-studio is above them. In current configuration, there will be directly a ceiling, and through staircase and corridor - one or two doors between them and sound source. They know what I am up to, but I wanted to insulate them as much as I can.

I don't expect much background noise to be frank. No airports or busy roads, maybe only a not loud TV one floor down.

Of course people are on the forum to help! We won't design it for you as this is a self help type forum where you are here to learn and design your own studio. Stay away from foam treatment products unless for some odd reason you need it (I can't think of a reason you'd ever really need it).

That's exactly what I need an advice, maybe direction for good knowledge sources. I didn't mean to load you too much guys

You're indicating that you desire isolation between the control room and tracking room. If this is the case, you're going to need to do a lot more than having an insulated door. Read more on the forum to see what isolation requires (no void of mass, a fully decoupled mass spring mass construction, and of course, crazy HVAC design!)

Indeed it seemed important to me to get as much isolation between tracking and control rooms to really hear what's captured during the process. I might be mistaken though, as I'm new to the craft and I might overstate that factor.
HVAC as in High Voltage Alternating Current?

Control room designs have pretty clearly laid out specifications to meet. Through these specifications, there are pretty easy to understand design concepts implemented by studio designers. Follow these specifications to design your control room. Regarding the live room, you can figure out basic treatment based off of your target decay times and room dimensions. There are Sabin calculators you can use to get a head start on that if you don't want to do it long hand.
Greg

Thank you! I don't want to seem lazy, I'll look for it, but perhaps do you have any links to good sources on hand?

[DanDan]

Isolation/money are the biggest factors in the viability of a location as a studio.
Get some solid information on how much sound is getting in and out. Measure it.
Including Rain!
DD

[Gregwor]

HVAC as in High Voltage Alternating Current?

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning

Thank you! I don't want to seem lazy, I'll look for it, but perhaps do you have any links to good sources on hand?
www.roletech.net/books/HandbookAcoustics.pdf

Greg