It's time to get out of the bedroom!
I have been reading this forum, as well as Rod's book for the past week or so, and have tried to research as many questions as I can before posting, but I have come to a point where I need some direction and advice. I have a carport on the side of my house. It looks like a single car garage from the front, but the exterior side and the rear are open into the yard, except for a small storage shed in the back (blue square). Rough drawings attached. The black rectangle is the garage door, the blue ones are standard doors, and the orange one is a double window. The whole thing is under the main house roof and is on a concrete slab, so all that needs to be built are the side and back walls (and the wall in front of the garage door-see below). The storage shed needs to stay, as it houses a freezer and all my tools. I also want to use it for storage of guitar cases and my small PA speakers.
I record rock music mostly, and use an electronic drum kit to keep the volume down. Typically one instrument at a time. That being said, I wouldn't mind being able to record a real drum kit, or a full band, if it would sound good and work in this space.
There is a neighbor on the other side of the fence, so I do think the walls I build are going to need to isolate the studio some, but I also don't see me going on into the late night with recording. It's only me and the wife in the house, so I'm not too concerned with the wall between the studio and the house or the ceiling (1 story house, attic space above).
The central AC unit for the house is oversized in the first place, I consulted with an AC tech, and he assured me adding a vent or two into the studio was no problem.
This will mostly be for my personal use, but if it comes out good enough, I wouldn't mind trying to mix and/or record other bands and artists in there.
My budget is semi-flexible. I'd love to come in at $10,000. $15,000 is do-able. I can maybe talk my wife into $20,000 if I'm lucky! I'm also not opposed to using a design consultant, although I have no idea what that would cost.
Also, I'm a pretty handy guy who is familiar with standard construction, and I got a carpenter for a brother in law, so we can do a lot ourselves.
I'm assuming my best bet with this setup is a single room for tracking and mixing? I believe trying to carve up the space will result in inferior rooms for both. Maybe use movable treatments depending on the situation?
So, here's what I need advice on:
Shape:
My original idea is to build a 19' wall from the front of the garage to the shed, then build another wall from the front right edge of the shed to the house wall, making a perfect 19' x 12' 5" rectangle (Brown color) (the ceiling is a whole other can of worms I will address in a moment). Also I would add another doorway into the shed from the studio to use it for case storage and the like. I will also need to add an entry door on the side, so myself or other musicians can come and go from the studio without having to enter the main house first (doorway locations open for debate). And finally build a new wall in front of the garage door for sound isolation there as well. We will leave the garage door on the outside for looks (sealed, caulked, cemented, whatever it takes) as the entire house is brick and removing the door and closing it in would look odd in my opinion. See drawing #2. (wall in front of garage door not shown). I'm also thinking no windows, just to make it easy (and quiet). Ceiling:
The garage ceiling is only 7' tall, however I went up and checked in the attic, the ceiling joists on the garage are independent of the roof and the main house, they are literally just holding up the vinyl siding & plywood on the garage roof. There is room to take the whole ceiling up another foot at the front and side edges, and up to 6' more as it slopes to the main house and the rear of the garage. I've attached an aerial view of the roof to try and show the pitch. (Garage is grey rectangle). So the question for the ceiling, should I just make it an even 8' across and flat? Or should I use the space and make it gabled? Cathedral? A triangle from side to side? It's a little strange as it is sloped in two directions. I'm not sure my drawing gets the point across. Basically the roof from the front of the house and from the side pitch upwards. So perhaps a sunken type ceiling, where the perimeter height is 8' and going up as it heads to the center of the room?
I want to do this as good as possible and am open to any ideas, changes, whatever. We can move the shed, we can move doors, I'm thinking the mixing position will be facing the garage door, but I'm open. I still have a ton of questions about the actual construction (double walls, soffit mount speakers, treatment, slats, etc.) but I figure those are questions for the actual construction forum. I figured I'd better get an idea of what I want to do, then move over there for the how.
Thanks in advance for your replies and I hope I followed all the rules!
