John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

I'm limited to about 6'x19'x6.5'. I'm open to angling walls but obviously space is an issue. I don't really want to spend more then $1000 on the construction. Based on the pictures I drew you can see what already exists. The walls around the room in question are standard 2x4's with 1/2" drywall.

This area will be used mainly by me as an artist and my brother. Making beats and recording vocalists, guitarists, and hopefully in the space we'll be able to fit and record a drum set. I will also probably record my own vocals sometimes in the mixing room but it's more important to get a better "recording" sound in the vocal booth of course. And I will go buy that radio shack meter mentioned by John Sayers in the Read This!!!!! forum.

I am interested in trying to get the best true to life sound from my monitors in the mixing area (hopefully cutting down on all the scientific sound problems I've read about) and the best possible captured sound for the vocals and/or instrument in the booth. I'm not so much worried about neighbors etc. because we've played drums in this basement and guitars with amps and you can barely hear it outside as it is., but if I can keep the noise down that would be good too obviously. Just courtesy.

I realize with this space it would be better to track and mix in the same room but I want a separate area for the control room because people tend to bring people with and they make noise so I can have them with me in one room or vis versa. Plus I hate switching my Monitors off and on all the time between many takes.

The weakest link I think is going to be the ceiling and wood doors. This is a basement area with cinder block along the exterior wall and a concrete painted floor. The ceiling as of now consists of wood floors above with john mansville sound and thermal control batts between the joists and a drop ceiling of normal corrugated tiles not 703 tiles. The batts in the ceiling floor joists were installed as high up as possible so theres actually room to install another layer if I wanted, would that be beneficial?

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-- Joe

Please read the forum rules (the stickies on the front page of this forum).


- Stuart -

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I want this studio to amaze people. "That'll do" doesn't amaze people.

Thanks Stuart! I read through the info and resized my pics to 700px and included more information. I'm not sure if there's more I need to post or am not aware of... if there is please just let me know! I will go read some more stuff now too. Thanks!

Joe

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-- Joe

Ok I looked at a couple of John's sketchup files, specifically the 3d small studio. Im going to use that info and edit my sketchup to be more acoustically friendly and see what we come up with. In the meanwhile if anyone wants to comment. Please do!!! Thanks!

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-- Joe

Using John's Small Studio I kinda flipped it and made it smaller. The biggest concern I have is the ceiling is 6'5". Do you think this would work out well John or anyone else? Or am I chasing a lost cause because the space is just too small?

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-- Joe

Joe - I suspect you picked the wrong studio to mimic as you are way too narrow.

check out this one

http://www.johnlsayers.com/Pages/Flying_Fox.htm

Thanks John! My space is 7'x17' or 18'x6.5' high. Is that enough room to make a control room and live room or should I just try to do it in one big room with lots of bass traps and mid/high freq panels? Or should I scratch it all, and not build walls,etc., and just put some bass traps and panels on stands and use gobos to try and isolate things?

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-- Joe

Also... What about the container studio?

http://www.johnlsayers.com/Pages/Spark_1.htm

I think that is similar size?

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-- Joe

Or instead of the cargo containers... your next challenge will be something like this!

http://gizmodo.com/5449948/cabin-gallery/gallery/1

haha. I'm really likin the cargo container studios though. I wish I knew how to get one locally for cheap... maybe one someone is gonna scrap and doesnt care to try to arrange to get money for the metal! lol

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-- Joe