John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hey y'all,
Hopefully moving into a new space in the near future, and I was able to get in there earlier today and take some measurements of the room. I have some MS paint drawings (not to scale, forgive my simplistic skill level with that program) of my measurements, as well as some pictures of the space. Since I don't own the building yet, I can't get in there and take any sound measurements just yet.
In the meantime, I'm just hoping I might be able to get some guidance on how I might treat the room to make it a nice, flat (or as flat as reasonable) mixing room. Maybe also make it a good space to record vocals/acoustics/etc. (NOT looking to record drums or super loud amps; don't want to spend that kind of money/time to completely isolate the room, and I've got access to other locations for that anyways).
To my knowledge (again, don't own the place yet, so can't go poking holes in the wall to check) all four walls are drywall > furrings (sp?) > concrete block. Floor is thick carpet > pad > concrete. Don't know about the ceiling, but my best guess is that it's a standard wood beam construction with drywall over top.
Budget initially is a few thousand dollars. More than willing to go DIY to cut initial cost of panels and whatnot. If it's feasible to cut that cost way down and hit only a few key essentials first, with plans on how to expand later, that would be preferable.
Summary:
Looking for guidance on room treatment, as well as desk/monitor placement
Goal of making this a "mixing room," bonus if it also works out for vocal/acoustic/etc. recording
Isolation not a major goal (since I'm planning to record quieter sources/mix at low volume)

Thanks for any help y'all can give me.

Welcome!

That is a very broad question. The space looks great and should be totally usable! I would recommend getting a grasp on acoustics by reading this awesome easy to read book. Then, after you get a basic plan made up yourself, post your ideas on here and contributing members can give you opinions on the design.

http://www.roletech.net/books/HandbookAcoustics.pdf

Also, I would say these things:

- rip out the carpet.
- consider ripping out the sheathing on the ceiling and stuffing the ceiling joists with insulation (this will give you more height and for the most part you're going to want insulation on your ceiling anyway).
- read a bunch on this forum to see how people are creating great listening rooms that double as tracking rooms.

Greg