What to do with a 13x21 room?

[miketgraff]

Hi all! I'm new to the boards and am THRILLED to be here.

I'm a producer/session musician and our family just bought a home with an unfinished basement. I'll be able to use a portion of it for my home studio.

Current dimensions are 13x21 with 8-9 foot ceilings (didn't get the full measurement before purchasing).

I'm thinking this size of space could either be a SUPER SMALL control room and a small tracking room... or a really-nice control room. Which is absolutely fine by me - I use a lot of sounds in-the-box, and really only have need to track a single mic (or pair of mics) at a time.

I'd love to know what YOU would do with a room this size and anything you think I should be aware of.

Other random notes:

- I might build a small closet (5 x 4) attached to the room without it affecting the sq ft. of the room itself.

- I will certainly treat it acoustically, but I'm not looking to turn this into a post-production studio where the frequencies are scarily accurate. I want it to sound great and to get a great idea of where the mix is, but I don't want to go overboard.

- As far as iso-booth/etc., I was thinking about a standalone iso-booth, but was also thinking it might be cool to treat a corner with special acoustic panels and just sing/play into the mics which would be situated into the corner. It might make the room feel bigger (since installing an iso booth would chew up a decent percentage of my overall sq ft).

I've attached a sample image of something along the lines of what I'm envisioning. Standard production desk (I use an Output Platform), separate monitor stands, a handful of instruments nearby, great lighting & seating, and definitely a cool vibe to hang out in for hours and hours (since this is what I do for a living).

Let me know your thoughts! Thanks!

[Paulus87]

Hi all! I'm new to the boards and am THRILLED to be here.

I'm a producer/session musician and our family just bought a home with an unfinished basement. I'll be able to use a portion of it for my home studio.

Current dimensions are 13x21 with 8-9 foot ceilings (didn't get the full measurement before purchasing).

I'm thinking this size of space could either be a SUPER SMALL control room and a small tracking room... or a really-nice control room. Which is absolutely fine by me - I use a lot of sounds in-the-box, and really only have need to track a single mic (or pair of mics) at a time.

I'd love to know what YOU would do with a room this size and anything you think I should be aware of.

Other random notes:

- I might build a small closet (5 x 4) attached to the room without it affecting the sq ft. of the room itself.

- I will certainly treat it acoustically, but I'm not looking to turn this into a post-production studio where the frequencies are scarily accurate. I want it to sound great and to get a great idea of where the mix is, but I don't want to go overboard.

- As far as iso-booth/etc., I was thinking about a standalone iso-booth, but was also thinking it might be cool to treat a corner with special acoustic panels and just sing/play into the mics which would be situated into the corner. It might make the room feel bigger (since installing an iso booth would chew up a decent percentage of my overall sq ft).

I've attached a sample image of something along the lines of what I'm envisioning. Standard production desk (I use an Output Platform), separate monitor stands, a handful of instruments nearby, great lighting & seating, and definitely a cool vibe to hang out in for hours and hours (since this is what I do for a living).

Let me know your thoughts! Thanks!

Hi,

I would definitely just make the whole space a control room, those room dimensions are actually very very good, acoustically speaking. If I were you I would not use up any of that room volume with any booths or closets - both of those things don't sound good and end up being wasted space. Instead just record in the control room using headphones. You can have some variable acoustic devices which will liven things up or deaden things down a bit if really needed.

As it stands with your current room dimensions you're in good shape; you pass all 3 critical listening environment tests, you have a very smooth bonello curve and a room volume of about 2500 cubic feet. You don't have any major modal problems and once treated you can end up with a really accurate mixing environment.

Paul