John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

i just finished the construction phase of a two story two car garage . the building is 28' x 28'. the whole upstairs is dedicated for a recording studio.is there a program i can use for layout and design?i would like to show you guy's some of what i have in mind so far.

Here's what most people here use (except me, I'm the mod so I get to be wierd, strange, different, unique, demented, etc) -

http://www.smartdraw.com/index.htm

If you;re on a Mac, good luck... Steve

here is a realy lame drawing ,of what im looking to do

what file extension should i be using so that i can send you my lame ass drawing?

gif's are fine, but all files need to be less than 150k - just click on the browse button, find the file on your drive, double-click it, and submit. Should work, that's all I do... Steve

not to good but i guess it will do , if not let me know.....

Have you looked around the Design forum at all, or perhaps here?

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_mate ... /Plans.htm

Your control room isn't symmetrical, which is not a good thing - you may want to check out a few other designs and see which ones you might be able to adapt to your circumstances... Steve

i looked at the link you posted , thank you very much.none of my walls are actually there yet, these are just ideas.i made a few changes ,see what you think , ........... thanks for your kindness in helping me out

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of a modified version of the "corner control room" layout. Parallel walls require more acoustic treatment in order to get a workable sound field for mixing -

But first it would help to know your intentions, as well as to confirm/deny my suspicions that the side with the "dormer storage" doesn't have full headroom - am I right on that? I'm thinking sloped ceilings with dormers sticking out of the roofline in 3 places, forming little "alcoves" there??!?

Info like how many people doing what, sound proofing requirements, etc, all would help figure out what's best in your particular case... Steve

yes the storage areas are indeed the dormers.there are two 6' dormers in the front of the garage and 1 20' dormer in the back ( right now it is drawn as the control room)the greyed in areas are actually roof.also in the front walls that are used for storage are approx. 4' tall . the whole back dormer is eight feet on the outside wall (could slopeit up to 10', collar ties/ceiling joist's. im a builder by trade , so there arent too many aspects of the trade i dont have experience with. thanx again for your help steve.......

Cool, I get tired of having to start with "this is a hammer"...

Now, if you could fill me in on the rest of the deal - how many people, how much sound proofing necessary, and to/from where - hobby or pro, anything that will give more of an idea of how the space will be used. Things like if it will be computer-based or analog, etc, all enter into the design... Steve

well the studio will be based around the roland vs 2480cd. but there will also be a pc in the works.the studio is roughly 30' x 30' . the garage is detached from the house , and sits 30' away.i live on five acres of land so i dont think that neighbors will be a problem, if we treat the drum booth,and guitar booth right?i will need an iso booth for vocals.all i have now is the framing of the basic roof , including the 10' ceiling joist's, and the dormers. there is basicaly 4' of roof on each corner of the upstairs as well as in the center of the front wall.oh yeah the roof is a 12/12 pitch. i nwas planning on using the drum /live room as a seating area as well but if tthats not a good idea then oh well. ........let me know what you think . thanx ..p.s i wont be back to work until monday , so if i dont respond thats why ...its 1:06 thursday afternoon here in atlantic city, New
Jersey.

hi steve , im back to work , its monday morning @ 5:30 .i looked at some of the other design's and came to the conclusion that the corner controlroom is (like others have suggested ) the best starting point for my layout . from there i will have to figure out whether or not to isolate the drums or not. maybe you could lend me your thoughts on this subjectas well . i will be doing live recording's as well as multitrack recordings, so iwas thinking of putting an 8' french door in the center of the drum room wall so that it could open up for live rehearsal space or even for tracking . what do you think ? thanx again for your time and patience............

Funk,

You have a challenge ahead of you with the control room layout you have - odds are that you will want to mix facing the live room - however with that room layout you really want your mixing position facing in the long direction of the room. If you face the right side (as viewed in your sketch - that might not be a bad layout in general.

If you want to face the live room - perhaps you would be better suited to create the control room kiddie-corner beginning at the lower right hand corner of the space - and then develope the remaining spaces around that.

Rod

thats exactly what im working on now(as we speak) ill post as soon as i can get it to the pc,....thanx for the input