Building low cost Home Studio in Garage

[Soundlurker]

James' diagram definitely seems better to me, as well. Though, I would have probably suggested a bit more space for the live room. Still, just move your stuff in the bigger room if you can and try listening to familiar songs there. You'll almost certainly want a bigger control room.

 

[LSD-Studio]

yes, Lasse.. i was just keeping it light on tech-jargon. i did stress bass traps, absorption, and diffusion. it's hard to put up too much bass trapping...so knock yourself out on that.... don't get too heavy handed on the mid-hi absorption though, the goal is not an anechoic chamber.

I know, I'm a smartass

 

[MetalWorks]

Only problem is......

I am renting this place.

I will probably live here until the owner sells it which will probably be a couple more years.

So I will end up taking down the room I built when I move.

Salvaging any materials possible to use in my next studio when I buy a home.

Here is another picture of what I am considering at the moment.

The area in RED is not buildable because of the Garage Door which I cannot take down.

I am still open for suggestions in using the area I have available to me.

I can still move the live room where I have my console and give my self more room for the control room.

I know neither Room will be ideal for Live or Mixing, but which would be best in the given situation?

Drums in the larger open room, or Mixing?

Keep in mind the smaller room is 7.5 Feet wide by 17.5 long.

The new room can be up to 10-11 feet wide by close to 20 feet long on one half and 16 feet on the other.

 

[MetalWorks]

And I would definately love having the extra space for the control room.

It'd be nice to be able to simply walk behind my desk at any time to modify connections instead of pulling it away from a wall to try and squeeze in there.

Not to mention I would be spending most of my time in there and the more comfortable the better.

But I am more about the best sound results for each environment.

So what ever the intelligent majority feels would work best is what I will do.

 

[James Murphy]

use the larger space as your mix room.... you're not going to get a great... or even good.. room sound in either room... so you won't likely ever be putting up room mics...so close mic the cymbals and don't worry about it. you'll be spending far more time at your console/workstation than drummers will be spending on the drum throne. just put some acoustic treatment on the walls in there... don't cover them in it... just put some in strategic spots.

 

[MetalWorks]

I think I can Live with that!

So should I just cut out the area completely where I had the Vocal booth and square it off or do it just to have the extra space? Or maybe just make a Gobo Wall to put in front of it instead of a closed Vocal Booth?

I just have to decide whats best by tonight since thats the section I am working on and will finish tonight.

 

[James Murphy]

yeah, i'd axe that booth

 

[MetalWorks]

Alighty....

So I am on schedule.

I was aiming to get the first wall up tonight and I did.

Here is a view of the Garage before I started.

Yeah I got lots of shit to clean out of there but I couldnt be bothered to do it yet. I wanted to get started so I just cleared space as needed.

Here is a view of the entrance to the garage from the side window. The door to the right is the entrance to the other recording room that I just did the maple flooring in.

And this is the view from the entrance to the garage facing the window.

I started framing the doorway last night.

Basically I just took the Prehung Door, Removed the Door from the Casing, and layed the casing on the concrete so I could start measuring and cutting the 2x4's as pictured in the standard wall framing diagrams I posted earlier.

As soon as I got the door framed I finished the wall in an 8x8' section. I found the stud in the existing wall and used 3" screws to screw a stud in place. Then I screwed another stud directly over that.

That 2 studs create a corner while at the same time creating a base to screw my 8x8' wall into.

Something like this.

The purpose of the corner studs is because I plan to have another wall built over the existing wall to provide extra isolation between the live room and the control room. The corner studs are needed to screw the new wall to just like the previous diagram.

Finally I stould my 8'x8' Wall/Door section up and clamped it to the 2 studs I had screwed to the wall. Then I used the 3" screws to secure the 8x8 wall to the studs mounted on the wall. Then I tryed to make the top of the 8x8 wall square and located the existing studs in the ceiling which were 24" apart using my trusty and sometimes untrustworthy black and deck stud finder. Once I found one stud I had more luck measuring 24 inches and hammering a nail through the sheetrock to find the next one.

The total wall length is 10.5 feet so I had to make another 2'x8' section. Then I stould that up, clamped and screwed it to the 8x8' section, then screwed it to the ceiling.

Here is the complete framing of the front doorway/wall. To the far right where the wall starts you can see the extra 2 studs I mounted to the wall as I previously mentioned.

You can see in one of the photos that there is a drop down ladder to an attic that required the front door to be in specific placement to enable the ladder to go through the door when pulled down.

The last thing I need to do to complete the framing is to put some screws in the concrete to secure the bottom plate of the wall.

I will probably get some advice from some friends or family on that step.

The nice thing that makes all of this so much easier is that the ceiling is a standard 8'3" high.

Which means, to make a wall, you standard 96" 2x4's (actual measuremeant= 1.5"x3.5"x96) and lay one flat on the bottom, stand one vertically and lay one flat on the top. It goes perfectly from floor to ceiling. The only thing you have to cut is the stringers for support.

Next I will begin the straight wall that will seal off the new room.

To be continued....

 

[MetalWorks]

Got most of the longest wall done. 2 feet left to go. Plus I had to frame a little box around the Garage Door opener. Gained amost an extra 2 feet of room width by doing that.

I will hopefully get started on insulation and sheet rock tomorrow.

I'll have more pics tomorrow.

 

[nwright]

man, I wish I could do this with my detached garage...jealous.

 

[Soundlurker]

I wish I had one

 

[MetalWorks]

Last night I finished up to the Garage Door Motor and Framed Around that.

Finished the Long Wall this afternoon.

And here is a Poor obructed view from Outside looking at the whole room.

Now I need to shoot some nails into the concrete to hold the walls in place

I have one last 10 foot wall section to build that separates the 2 rooms and then I can begin sheet rock and insulation!

 

[MetalWorks]

Just Finished Framing the last wall.

This wall is the only shared wall between the 2 rooms so I wanted to make sure I added more insulation and 2 more layers of sheet rock between them.

And a dark but full view of all framing finished.

It's raining now so I will have to wait until tomorrow to pull out the mineral wool insulation and pickup the sheet rock.

 

[ScottCash]

That is gonna be sweet man. I didn't read the whole thread but wondered if you live in an area with swelling soils? You know, the whole floating walls thing...

Anyway, looks like a blast.

 

[aramism]

this thread is the reason why (AFIK) there is no other place like this where everyone is so cool with each other.


it's a shame that garage door hindered your plans because james's looked really good.


but it still is going to be awesome so i'm pretty anxious to see the final product. keep up the goos work!

 

[Eduardo Apolonia]

As James suggested it would have been better to have a bigger control room.

I already read that it wasn't possible.
I'm right now in a small control room and it sucks!!! I have a lot of holes and bumps (some +/- 10dbs) in frequencies, that makes me hear things the wrong way. Although I have a lot of RPG Basstraps, skylines and Abflectors, the room dimensions dictate the sound inside.


I can't see the day that I'll move to my new room

If you need any help, just ask, I'm passing through the same as you but I'm getting near the end.
I learned a lot on how to NOT do things

 

[James Murphy]

i think about 1500 cubic feet is the smallest space that's really useful as anything more than a booth. do what ya gotta do though.

 

[Waterboy]

I am sick. I have taken some medication. With that said: James, are you saying that if your studio is less than 1500 cubic feet, then there is no point in a control room?
Forgive my stupidity .... just confused.

Scott

 

[James Murphy]

I am sick. I have taken some medication. With that said: James, are you saying that if your studio is less than 1500 cubic feet, then there is no point in a control room?
Forgive my stupidity .... just confused.

Scott

no, not exactly. the following goes to explain the 1500 cubic feet room volume suggestion as well as my suggestion earlier in the thread for MetalWorks to choose his largest room as his control room..... i started to write this myself but got lazy and googled the keywords, "1500 cubic feet recording studio acoustic bbc"... and found this link which put my thoughts into words for me nicely....

"The smaller your room, the more likely its frequency response will be uneven in the critical bass region below 300Hz. For this reason, try to choose the largest room available to you for music production. The BBC concluded years ago that a room under 1,500 cubic feet in volume (for home warriors, that's roughly a 15-by-12-foot room with eight-foot ceilings) is not practical for critical work, as it will present so many problems as to make an acoustical overhaul too costly and potentially unsuccessful.

But a variety of acoustical materials and techniques have emerged in the past few years that allow smaller rooms to become amazingly accurate, and at a significantly lower cost than was possible before. Size does matter, but don't take 1,500 cubic feet as an absolute cutoff in choosing your room(s). As we'll see shortly, the shape and dimensions of a room are equally important. To calculate the volume of a room, multiply the width times the length times the height in feet. Be sure to include all alcoves and open closets.

If all the rooms available to you are small, try to pick the largest one for your control room. If you record bands of any size, you may need the largest room to track in. However, the control room is where you make all of your final decisions for both mic placement and mixing. If you can't hear the truth, you're just guessing at what to do. Therefore, ergonomic considerations aside, the control room should be the room with the best acoustics. You can always use close miking to minimize room tone in your tracking room."


that's the immediately relevant text, but the whole article is worth reading. That BBC "rule of thumb" is widely accepted by acousticians worldwide and has become a standard for the industry that has stood for many years.

 

[Waterboy]

Excellent. Thanks a lot for the reply, James.
I plan on reading that article this evening. Take care.

Scott