John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello all! I've been lurking here on this forum for a couple of months now and I have to say what a tremendous resource I've found it to be! I'm in the final planning stages of a garage studio I'll be building in a home I've purchased. I would greatly appreciate any feedback anyone would be willing to give...as I am not a rich man and I can't afford to screw this up! Here is a drawing of the raw space and the plan I've worked out based on the Bryan Giles plan. I've scaled it to my needs the best I could.

The three biggest problems I'm having are...
1. There is a 4" step up in the foundation (the garage is under an addition added to an existing home. The step up is where the old foundation meets the new).
2. The low celing height. The celing is 8'2" with the flooring support beams extending down 6" from that.
3. There is a steel girder running through the space below the flooring support.

I'd like to try and keep some natural light from the two window well windows (up high near the celing). The three walls are all poured cement block surrounded by earth on two sides..a garage on one side...and the old stone basement on the other side. The door opening into the old basement is just a raw opening. The only noise reduction I need to worry about is sound transmission through the celing into the living space above. This room will be used for stereo mixing and music production.

Thanks for any help/advice you can give!!

Greg

Here's the plan I'm working on.

Kax, firstly could you go back and edit your posts - either cut off the garage if it's not part of the actual studio, or re-size your pix to no more than about 700 pixels wide? All that scrolling side to side is a pain. Thanks...

You might want to check the Construction forum before you decide on how to build your walls - With the heavy masonry, you should be able to keep shell paneling light and gain some "free" bass trapping.

there's some threads on ceiling isolation there too, check 'em out. Be sure and read the "complete section" thread, a lot of that applies to ceilings too... Steve

Here are a couple more "drawings" that show what I've got in mind for the ceiling and wall treatments. Knightfly...by "keeping the shell light" do you mean leave the back wall construction thinner to allow the masonry and earth to act as bass traps? Also...do you think I'll need hangers in this room at all?

Another question...how can I attach the false ceiling covering the girder to the ceiling hanging on the RC?