John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi, I'm new to the forum and I love it.

I am in the research phase of building myself a control/production room. I play guitar, bass, drums and keyboards, but I think I'll be doing them in the box exclusively. Just need to get myself an electronic drum set.
The goal is primarily to have a critical listening environment, hopefully with the ability of recording vocals, voiceover and maybe some acoustic instruments.

My wife and I have bought a house last year and I have 4 different rooms as options to put the studio in.
There's a garage which is a separate brick and concrete building. This would be ideal, if it could work. It's basically two rooms, separated by a 30cm wall. I'm thinking I could build a control room in one of them and later on I could do a live room in the other, opening a window in the separating wall. I'm worried about ceiling height, though. I'm actually entertaining the thought of digging up the floor (poured concrete) to get another 50 cm height (anyone ever do something like this?). The floor seems to be a bit slanted with 213cm ceiling height at one side and 223 on the other in the larger room. The other one seems to be more level. The ceiling is level, more or less (it's just a brick and concrete garage with no real finish inside), and the floor is on a slant.
Second is this storage space on ground floor inside the house. The problem here I think is that it's taller than it is wide. I don't know if this could work. It's pretty long, too, but I could make a separating wall there.
Third is a room on the floor above the living room, between two bedrooms, with a hardwood floor. The ceiling is the highest I have available, but it might be a problem with regards to noise levels heard below and next to it. On the other hand, I wouldn't be using it full blast while wife or baby sleep (garage would be better in this regard). What would I doo with those inset spaces to the right? Maybe flush mount speakers into a gypsum wall, making it a straight wall? The middle part of that, that's sticking out is a concrete wall, inside of which is a chimney running from the fireplace below.

I'm quite removed from neighbours, so noise levels outside will not be a problem. I'm just wondering if I can even make any of these work.
I'm not sure about my budget, it would probably be a little by little affair, since there are other things around the house that need remodelling. I'd like to get an idea of what my options are before even thinking about money.

Thanks everyone, I hope I was as thorough as I could be. If I missed anything, please let me know.

Welcome!

Simply because I know how annoying it is to have kids and dog claw noises in the house when you're trying to mix listening to speakers, I would say you should try your best to build in your garage. The ceiling height is very low but your room ratios pass the 3 critical tests. Digging down is doable but it would also cause you to fail 1 of the 3 tests. Luckily you have options but sadly, none of them are great.

I'd like to know what the ceiling in your garage is like. Could you post some pictures? Do you have power run to the garage? Are you okay with having recording sessions stopped/ruined by rain and things like that? Unfortunately, if you wanted isolation, you'd probably have to dig deep and somehow remove the partition wall in your garage. This would allow you to build a room in the room and also give you room for HVAC silencer boxes.

Greg

Thanks Greg for your answer.
As you can see from this picture, the roof is a flat reinforced concrete slab about 10 cm thick with water isolation panels on top.
This is the slightly larger room...
and this is the smaller one.

Currently, I want to make something relatively cheap without large construction. I know it would be ideal to completely remove the separating wall, but I'm pretty sure that I would need to add support (a crossbeam) in place of the wall which would make the ceiling lower, or maybe a pillar in the middle. Digging down will probably involve water isolation for the foundation, as well.
I do have electricity in the garage, but this needs to be checked if it's good enough for what I need. I do have electrician friends, so that shouldn't be a big issue.

You said that digging down would make the room fail one of 3 tests. What exactly are you referring to? Is the height of the ceiling as it is good in relation to modes and would be worse with a higher ceiling? How high should it be then?
Btw, aren't room modes pretty much irrelevant, especially for a small non-rectangular room?

What about the other two rooms?
Could I be able to do something with one of those until I get the money to do all this construction work on the garage?
I'm thinking maybe just treating the room up above the living room. Maybe doing a bit of drywall to close those niches around the chimney.
Or what about the long skinny room on the first floor. I'm thinking if I can lower the ceiling, I might get a better ratio. I can also shorten it as much as needed.
The upper room has a hardwood floor sitting on top of a 30 cm reinforced concrete slab. Below is the living room. Above is also a concrete ceiling and then attic.
The long skinny room has a concrete floor sitting on the ground.

I would be prepared to work with child noises for a while:) Later on transferring to the newly remodelled garage.

Thanks

As you can see from this picture, the roof is a flat reinforced concrete slab about 10 cm thick with water isolation panels on top.

Dang. That's good for isolation, but crappy for other things like HVAC. You will need fresh air at minimum. Ideally, you'd want heat and cooling. This requires silencer boxes unless you're willing to have basically no isolation. The only place to put some silencer boxes would be outside or else through the partition wall.

You said that digging down would make the room fail one of 3 tests. What exactly are you referring to?

Try this website out:

https://www.bobgolds.com/Mode/RoomModes.htm

You'll see on the diagnosis list after you get it to calculate based on your room dimensions, there are 3 tests a decent sounding listening room needs to pass.

What about the other two rooms?

If all you need is a temporary, not great room, just pick whichever one best suits your needs in terms of location. Ideally you want the most symmetrical room with the most cubic area. Also, ideally you want the room to pass the room mode tests. After that, you can use basic room treatment techniques to get your room sounding alright. Not great, sure, but probably usable.

I would be prepared to work with child noises for a while:) Later on transferring to the newly remodelled garage.

Totally. If this is something you're serious about, I would totally investigate what options you have for your garage. Maybe a complete tear down would be the best? Maybe a structural engineer would determine that you don't need the partition wall for structural reasons. Maybe you can dig down without other issues popping up?

Greg