John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

So I have been slowly building my equipment and studio over the years and I am looking for some help on how I should design the interior of my studio

Here is some preliminary info.

Goal
- I recently moved my studio from a room in my basement to my 2 car garage. I use it primarily as a live studio for my band but want to use it for recording as well as live performances. Live is equally as important as recording.

Budget?
As this will be a project I plan on doing in phases the budget is not limited but I also don't plant on spending an exorbitant amount of money either. $10 - $20K is not out of the question.

Existing Building Details
- The garage was built in 1977
- approx 22 feet x 24 feet. 8 ft ceiling.
- Currently has 2 overhead garage doors (9 ft wide) but I am considering changing this out to one 14 ft door.
- Building is 2"x6" construction
- Fully insulated
- 2 windows that are covered from the inside with ship lap shutters.
- there is a pellet stove centered on the 24' wall for heat and will be an air conditioner installed in the next 60 days directly above the stove.
- Foundation is concrete slab
- the walls are 10" ship lap pine (the ceiling will also be done this spring with the same material)

How Loud Am I?
woah momma we are loud when we can be

Environmental Noise?
Minimal


Looking for advice on where I should put my control room with dimensions, bass traps and other sound materials I should be using. Other suggestions, must haves and options.

So I have been slowly building my equipment and studio over the years

I love those metal grille Boogie cabs!

I am looking for some help on how I should design the interior of my studio

Before I answer anything, can you tell us how far your closest neighbor is and what your noise bylaws are? You are obviously REALLY loud and there is no point in addressing any of your other questions until we determine how much isolation you need. Your garage doors and stove are going to be a major issue if you do require isolation.

Environmental Noise?
Minimal

So you're alright with traffic, rain, etc getting into vocal recordings or into room/overhead mics of drums during ring outs at the end of your songs?

Looking for advice on where I should put my control room with dimensions, bass traps and other sound materials I should be using. Other suggestions, must haves and options.

So you want a multi-room facility?

Greg

Sorry I dont know how to do the quote thing so I will answer my best here.

We crank up 1000W of Mesa Boogie and have never had a single complaint in 2 years of doing it. Except that time we tried playing after midnight the night the Patriots lost the Super Bowl to the Eagles. But I was "over served" that night and my memory may not be the sharpest so I try to pretend that never happened.

The traffic noise is minimal and usually gone by 7PM. The only place I am getting any exterior noise from is the garage doors and even that is minimal. I was thinkng of bulding an isolation booth for vocals and to put my guitar cabs in for recording. Seperate from that I have considered making a modular drum room to go on the drum riser (see in the pic)

I am thinking I would need some sort of control / mixing room so I can properly mix. Not sure if the size of this room would be condusive for some concise mixing or if a smaller room would be ideal.

Added pics of the other side of the room

Can you draw up everything in SketchUp Make and share some 2D renders of it how you think you may like it? That way we can give you some more useful feedback

Greg

I hope you use Hearing Protection. I am saddened by trying to converse with two in particular of my long term friends.
Both played with mere 100W amps, but right behind them.
Mixing is a semi technical semi artistic skill. It is very hard to know if one would be any good at it or not.
Rather than build some sort of DIY Mix area and try your hand at this rare skill, perhaps it would be more efficient to focus on your strengths and get to know a Mix Engineer or two. A small amount of money spent now and then supporting their career would almost certainly be more successful than trying to learn to be them.

Mixing in your room? Maybe it's fine as it is. Are you having difficulties with anything specific.
I would guess stereo to be an issue with the speakers that wide. If modes or other room tone in clouding the listening experience, build an absorbent cave around. This will also block. The two biggest surface areas in the room are the floor and ceiling. Both reflective and parallel. Strong modes and Flutter Echo and Early Reflections into the Mics.
Guessing from the pics that's your Elephant in the room. Get her name and number!
There are many books and how to's and reference threads on how to measure and treat a room.
Alton Everest RIP delivers the science and advice at a very practical level without diluting the principles.

DD

To this point I haven't done any real quality mixes. The stuff I have been mixing sounds good to those that don't know better but when I listen I know I can do so much better. I would like to eventually rent out studio time. I spend, according to my wife, too much time learning how to mix and master. I would love to be able to eventually turn this hobby into a way to make money when I retire (got another 8+ years to go before that happens)

Yeah we are loud but not ear bleeding loud. Typically we are in the 100 db range. Our drummer is akin to animal from the muppets and we play just loud enough to keep up with him.

Very difficult to assess viability in the current market, and I suspect it will get worse with more and better virtual instruments. You might do better with AirBnB!
This client of mine does really well, but his costs are minimal. Family farm I reckon and he builds everything. Even built all those preamps, outboard, even the ATC copy speakers. The place is cheap, really well equipped, big, and even has cheap accommodation.
Are drummers sentient? Do they know they are Animals?

DD