Advice on Building a Home Studio
Home > Home Recording Forum > Recording Techniques > Advice on Building a Home Studio
Posted on Jan 14, 2005 09:24 pm
petruso
audio snob
Member Since: Jan 02, 2005
First a little background...Me and my wife share a two bedroom house, with one room currently serving as a studio. Now there's a child on the way, and we were about to put the house on the market so we could buy a bigger house. In the last three years house prices have shot through the roof, and I'm not keen on spending 250,000 dollars for a decent house. I bought a decent enough one when they were affordable. I decided (and somehow sold the idea to my wife) that it would be more practical to make the 2nd bedroom the baby room and convert the garage into a studio. I'm not talking about throwing my toys in the garage. I'm talking about getting a contractor to take away the garage door, put a wall in the middle (leaving me with a one car garage) and turn the other side of the wall into a studio.
Now, before I consult a contractor who will surely recommend I spend every last dime on this project, I'd like some unbiased opinions on how to tackle this. I know I want to float the room, and I want the door to open to a little isolation booth, which will open to the control room. I don't need to be able to record a whole band. Just my keyboards and the iso-room will be plenty.
If any of you have took on this project before, let me know appr. how much to expect to spend and what materials to go with. I'm not looking to make it a multimillion dollar studio, just enough to record demos for myself and the occasional kid that can't afford the big studio. I was hoping to spend around 5 grand. Is that realistic? If you have read all the way down to this, wow, you must be a great listener. This was a bit of a ramble.
[ Back to Top ]
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Jan 14, 2005 10:06 pm I've never done it myself (although I have an unfinished, fully underground basement just begging for it), but all I could suggest is think big. It's easier to find something else to do with extra space, than to tack on more space later.
Floating the room is an excellent way to go, so you're on the right track. Someone posted a link just this week that was all about soundproofing, acoustical consideration in room design, and generally things that you're going to want to know. Check out the post by BoysMum titled something like "BoysMum does it herself" or somesuch.
A couple of people have popped up on the boards lately asking about this, so you should get some good direction.
One suggestion: do not, no matter what you may hear, use sand as a sound insulator. :-D
Jan 15, 2005 06:17 am Well, I can't say I have ever done this sort of thing for myself, but Ihave helped build a couple studios. Therefore I am pretty unaware of money spent on the project. However, if you are just recording keyboards and want an iso booth, what do you want to float? Control rooms typically are not what needs floating, as they are not what is loud, or contain sensitive mic, the iso booth is. So, I am not sure if that is what you meant, but just the clarify, you are floating just the iso booth, right?
What will be recorded in said iso booth?
Quote:
One suggestion: do not, no matter what you may hear, use sand as a sound insulator.
hehehe, slight inside joke going on there..
Jan 15, 2005 10:38 am yes, I believe floating the control room would be pointless unless you are monitoring and ungodly loud levels.
petrusoaudio snobMember
Since: Jan 02, 2005
Jan 15, 2005 11:54 am I wouldn't be recording at ungodly levels, but my neigbors are an ungodly short distance away. They've complained before. But if a little soundproofing will take care of that, I wouldn't want to pay the money to float the room. But plans have already changed...My wife decided it would be hard to sell a house with half the garage converted into a room, so I get the whole garage now...I'll try to draw my sketchy idea here: Am I on the right track or way off?
I'm drooling but it's gotta be done right. this won't be a permanent house, so it has to look like a normal room. I'm still working on angling the walls out, but it's a tough sell.
------------------------------ HW: hot water
- HW / - W: washer
- / - D: dryer
- W / - K: keyboards
- / - D: desk
- D / S - S: Speaker
- / [ - O: Organ(broken
- -- / D [ - B3 bought at
- b / K ----[ - thrift shop
- o / O S - for $50)
- o / - looks great
- t / - though!
- h / -
------------------------------
petrusoaudio snobMember
Since: Jan 02, 2005
Jan 15, 2005 11:55 am DAMMIT! I spent all that time making a model of my new home away from home and it got all screwed up when I posted. That's it, I'm taking my ball and going home.
Jan 15, 2005 12:08 pm In hopes your ball and you are still here, I will say that it sounds to me like you would be well served by more simple sound proofing methods, well insulate, double sheetrock, maybe a second wall inside. Rather than floating the floor, if the floor conducting vibration makes you nervous, you could also build a floor and rest it on some good inch thick hard rubber or something of that nature rather than float it.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jan 15, 2005 07:47 pm Hey petruso, start here,www.acoustics101.com/ this as well as a few of the articles on HRC will get ya going in the right direction.
One thing not mentioned is to also make sure you have a completely seperate electrical cirquit out there. You dont want it to be shared with the rest of the house, say a bathroom or outside cirquit with a ground fault outlet that will trip at the most inoportune times.
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Jan 16, 2005 12:58 am Definitely a seperate circuit. Our house's wiring is so bad that every time someone turns on the fan in the back bedroom, it makes every speaker in the house pop. That can ruin a take pretty quickly.
