design for escape pod!

[zenlizard]

The dotted line in the attached picture represents the maximum amount of room I have to work with.

What I'd like to do is divide that space into a live room/ control room setup for home recording. Most of the time I'll be going the electronic route for drums, with live instuments and vocals, but I'd really like to keep the option open for recording an accoustic drummer with a four or five member rock band (for example).

I'm willing to angle walls, construct double thick walls, and add whatever sound absorbsion and/or diffusion that is necessary. obviously I need to isolate the room for sound as much as possible.

Is it even reasonable to do this given the amount of space I have. I know someone who built a home studio with less space, but he gets less than satisfactory results and there's no way to fit more than a guitar player, bass player, and a drummer in his live room at one time.

All advice welcome!

[Lt. Bob]

Ya know it doesn't matter if it's possible......that's how much space you have so you have no choice. And that's a hell of a lot more space than I've got. I would put the priority on the control room and let the live room get whats left because you'll be doing the crucial mixing there and it has to sound good. Then whatever's left for the live room and do the best you can with that. Just my opinion.

[knightfly]

The entire space you show would make a pretty good sounding control room, or a reasonably good sounding tracking room, but not both. If those are the dimensions BEFORE any double walls, etc, then the room gets even smaller as finished. Small room acoustics tend to suck for the most part, because it gets harder to achieve proper modal spacing to minimise glaring room resonances. I would use the whole room for a control/tracking room, and use the corner outside, next to the door into the house, for a machine room (computer, ADATs, anything that makes noise) - a non-symmetrical room makes it hard to get a balanced listening position, but a smaller room doesn't pass the Bonello test using your other dimensions. Check out my post in this forum on parallel walls for links to spreadsheets that will help you work out optimum room dimensions. F. Alton Everest's book, Sound Studio Construction on a Budget, $20 from Amazon.com, has some good usable design info for walls/doors/floors, etc - you might be able to use part of that jog extension on the right side of the drawing to make a sound lock door setup.

With some good closed-ear phones for tracking, a single-room studio is doable, and it would be a lot less cramped than the same space with a soundwall between two "closets" - speaking of which, while you're at it if the house has a large closet in the master bedroom, now would be a good time to run a couple of cables under the house to the closet so you can use it for a vocal booth later (if this would be an option) If that space were what I had to work with, I wouldn't chop it up. Just some thoughts... Steve

[zenlizard]

Funny you should mention that... I've been using the master closet for vocals already, and my den for a control room.

The point of moving to the garage was to be able to work at odd hours when the family is sleeping. I guess I could still do the composing/aranging/recording using the big room at night, and record vocals in the closet during the day.

What you say about using the whole room makes a lot of sense to me, and it has the bonus of costing less. I will check out the link you posted. Thanks.

[Lt. Bob]

Originally posted by knightfly
With some good closed-ear phones for tracking, a single-room studio is doable, and it would be a lot less cramped than the same space with a soundwall between two "closets"

I think knightfly raises some valid points and it will depend on what kind of stuff you'll do in there but I think a sound proof booth large enough for the drums is a must if you're gonna be recording drums. I don't care what kind of cans you have, you can't really get away from the drum sounds if you're in the same room. At least not without turning the headphones up so loud you damage your hearing. And, of course, you can use the booth for other things, like vocals or a guitar amp you want to crank late at night.

[John Sayers]

Zenlizard - you can get a good result for drums in a small booth if you treat the area correctly acoustically. Check out the drum room at LEFT BANK at the studios under construction site. This room is getting a great response from engineers and drummers alike.

Have you looked at the SAE site, there are garage studio layouts there:
http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

cheers
john

[Eric Best]

John, what do you think makes a good sounding drum room?

From looking at the drum room on the Left Bank site I wasn't able to see any treatment . Is it all hangers in the ceiling?

What sort of absorption am I looking for?

By the way I absolutely love the way that control room looks. The varied slat resonators are very cool. How do you determine the frequency that they are tuned at since you are varying the spacing?

Thanks
Eric

[Badger]

I have a similar room, only a bit bigger. I have the console in the main room, with a vocal booth just big enough for someone to stand with a gtr in. I try to record as much direct as I can, one of the reasons I own a pod pro, when I dont even play gtr. Now if I could only afford a set of electronic drums...

[John Sayers]

Eric - it works because of the even response.
Consider:
two of the walls are 1/2" glass (doors).
one wall is high frequency absorption (the coloured cloth has rigid fibreglass behind it)
the other wall is a low-mid absorber (slots)
the ceiling is a low frequency absorber (hangers)

The glass keeps the highs happening which are then diffused off the slots.

cheers
john

[Eric Best]

Thanks John. I may be 40 years old, but that 10 year old kid who always says, "why?" is still lurking within!!

[frederic]

Originally posted by Bdgr
I have a similar room, only a bit bigger. I have the console in the main room, with a vocal booth just big enough for someone to stand with a gtr in. I try to record as much direct as I can, one of the reasons I own a pod pro, when I dont even play gtr. Now if I could only afford a set of electronic drums...

Pod pro is awesome, I have one for the same reasons you do.

I also have an electronic drumset, which I put together myself. Two used e-bay purchased simmons kits (which gives me double bass) attached to my alesis D4 which I purchased a while back as a drum machine. Works well, and the simmons, though cheap and ugly, work very well with the alesis D4. I eventually bought a used Roland PM-16 controller (16 pads in, midi codes out) to use instead of the D4, because I got tired of moving the D4 closer to the drummer

[Badger]

Originally posted by frederic


Pod pro is awesome, I have one for the same reasons you do.

I also have an electronic drumset, which I put together myself. Two used e-bay purchased simmons kits (which gives me double bass) attached to my alesis D4 which I purchased a while back as a drum machine. Works well, and the simmons, though cheap and ugly, work very well with the alesis D4. I eventually bought a used Roland PM-16 controller (16 pads in, midi codes out) to use instead of the D4, because I got tired of moving the D4 closer to the drummer

I would love to have a simmons set, just because thier so 80's looking.